By Tamuno Dagogo
It is quite heartening that most stakeholders in the polity, the government and the ruling party leadership inclusive have come to the realisation that it is dangerous for the nation to play politics with terrorism or threats to national security. This realisation emergedrecently following an enlarged national security meeting between the President and governors of the 36 states of the federation.
One hopes that those concerned will learn the lesson and ensure that all and sundry join hands to ensure that the menace of terrorism is nipped in the bud and peace and stability restored to the country.
It should be noted, however, that the failure of major stakeholders in the polity to unite against Boko Haram which resulted in the group consolidating their violent acts and perhaps popularising violence which attracted recruits and followers to their cause was due to the attitude of the government of the day and the ruling party. At the outset of Boko Haram, the attitude from PDP federal government was that it served them right, let them sort it out or let them stew in their own juice. This was because the affected state was not a PDP state. Borno State before the advent of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was an ANPP state.
Then Boko Haram inspired violence was on a small scale, and localised to Borno. The Police which then was ill-equipped and poorly-motivated was employed to deal with the problem. This continued for a long time until it was discovered that the matter had gone beyond the training and competence of the Police. It was at this stage that the army was seen as perhaps the answer to the problem.
Unfortunately, by the time the military option was considered, Boko Haram had tasted blood and perhaps liked it so much that they became so daring that the initial effort of the army to deal with the group, floundered. To the surprise of the army, itself; poorly-equipped and motivated no thanks to pervasive corruption and growing laxity of the officer corps who had copied the laxity and irresponsibility of leading members of the political elite, notably of the ruling party, the Boko Haram were not after all a rag-tag group as portrayed in the media.
Even when it was discovered by the federal government that the insurgents meant evil for the nation and that they were a determined bunch of killers, political grudge and bitterness prevented the government from taking decisive action to uproot the evil. There were essentially two issues that agitated the mind of the government and its advisers. First, was the misconception that the rebellion was directed at undermining the government of President Goodluck Jonathan because he is a Christian and that second, that former Head of State, General Mohammadu Buhari, now a national leader of APC, had incited the insurgency.
Both viewpoints, of course, are not true and are as irresponsible as they are stupid. On the first, why would rebels bred in the north east state of Borno and not Katsina from where General Buhari come from seek to undermine the administration of President Jonathan? President Jonathan got a national mandate and for several reasons his administration was welcomed by most Nigerians for which purpose the zoning principle in our political rules of engagement was bent for him. Again, it smacks of absolute stupidity to say that he insurgents opposed the President because of his Christian faith!
The insurgents never said they were against Christianity per se. Their grouse is against the western education which they saw as having a huge corruptive influence on the society and their desire to replace this with Islamic society and way of life in the mostly Muslim part of the core north of the country. This ambition is on its own an affront on national sovereignty as it amounts to separatism. And on the issue of President Jonathan being a Christian, Nigeria has had a number of Christians as President or Head of State before Jonathan.
The aspect that retired General Buhari fuelled the insurgency when he said before the 2011 national election that the country would be made ungovernable if the election was rigged has been used as reference point by mischief makers mostly from the ruling party. Pray, what is good in any party or group denying the voters their right to free selection of their leaders through election rigging? One thinks that General Buhari in that statement said the obvious. In the natural order of things that rigged or manipulated elections cannot yield peace or legitimacy. He did not mean that he would ensure that the country was in chaos. Self-serving characters latched on to it to confuse the President who unfortunately could not see beyond the politics at play and move on to secure the nation against terrorism.
One would like President Jonathan to go into the archives and review the way previous governments in the country dealt with insurgencies of the Maitatsine and Nigerian Taliban varieties years ago. The then leaders, military or civilian were quick, sharp and decisive and did not allow rumours and political calculations to militate against them.
Dagogo wrote from Jabi, Abuja. Email: [email protected]
