By Temidayo Akinsuyi / Senior Correspondent, Lagos
In view of recent developments, some observers have questioned the
debt of the concern so far shown by the Northern Elders Forum. Reference
has been made to the
Shettima and Atikudemand
by the elders that the Federal Government should refrain from using
foreign troops to free the abducted schoolgirls who have been going
through untold agony in Boko Haram’s enclave for over three weeks.
The Northern Elders Forum in a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan
last Wednesday reportedly claimed to have established contacts with the
Boko Haram leadership to negotiate the release of the female students
kidnapped by Boko Haram. The leaders of the Forum, at the meeting,
expressed their displeasure over the involvement of foreign military
personnel freeing the kidnapped girls and also help rid the country
especially the northeast region of these insurgents. They proposed also
proposed the payment of ransom and unconditional release of terrorists
currently in detention.
In the beginning
That the Northern Elders have suddenly found their voices now that the
federal government has agreed to the use of foreign troops to liberate
the over 200 girls is surprising to many Nigerians. Ever since the
insurgency, which has left thousands dead, started the Northern elders
have not proffered any cogent solutions on how the activities of the
sect can be rein in. Of course, one can be tempted to believe they are
overtly or covertly in support of the terrorists given their violent
opposition to the ascendancy of President Jonathan to the highest office
in the land.
Following the untimely death of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua in May
2010, Acting President Goodluck Jonathan took the oath of office as
President and made his intention known to contest the 2011 presidential
election upon the completion of the first term of the Yaradua/ Jonathan
administration. This did not go down well with many Northerners
especially the elders and the elites in the region. Some Northerners
said that there was zoning policy in the PDP Constitution and that the
North had not completed its eight years tenure and should be allowed to
produce the next president in 2011 to complete the 8 years period
allocated to the North.
When the debate was on whether President Goodluck Jonathan should
contest the 2011 presidential election or not, former President Olusegun
Obasanjo on the Voice of America said, “There is no arrangement that
precludes any Nigerian from contesting or becoming the president of
Nigeria”. Reacting to this, Adamu Ciroma, a member of Northern
Political Leaders’ Forum (NPLF) said, “The time allocated to the North
is eight years, which is equivalent to the time allocated to the South
for which Obasanjo served. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua died unfortunately. His
death has not killed the policy of zoning and rotation”.
Also speaking, Shehu Sani, a Kaduna based civil rights activists said,
“President Goodluck Jonathan should not contemplate contesting the 2011
presidential election. Any attempt by him to contest amounts to
incitement and a recipe for political instability. Even though
rotational presidency is unconstitutional, it has been able to address
problems of regional, ethnic, sectional domination and marginalization”.
The most resonate of the of the antagonists whose phrase Nigerians
still vividly remember today was that of Lawal Kaita, a close associate
of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. According to him, “The North is
determined, if it happens, to make the country ungovernable for
President Jonathan or any other Southerner who finds his way to the seat
of power on the platform of the PDP against the principle of the
party’s zoning policy. Anything short of a Northerner president is
tantamount to stealing our presidency. Jonathan has to go and he will
go. Even if he uses incumbency power to get his nomination on the
platform of the PDP, he would be frustrated out”.
Doubts on Northern elders
While it can be said that Boko Haram insurgency did not begin under the
Jonathan administration, the attitude of the of the Northern elders
towards the activities of the sect shows that they are not bothered as
long as the Jonathan’s administration does not know peace and is made
ungovernable. Boko Haram has sent countless innocent Nigerians to their
early graves. Property worth billions of naira has been destroyed in the
attacks that have been carried out. At present, there is insecurity in
the north and people can no longer move freely to transact their normal
businesses.
The economy of the North has been made comatose as many investors,
especially the business-oriented Igbo traders have fled the region. Many
innocent Nigerians are lying in hospitals while many others have been
incapacitated for life owing to bomb blasts by the sect. As we write,
over 200 innocent female students are being incarcerated the gulag of
the sect and the leader has vowed not release them until his men who are
being detained on terrorism charges are released. The parents of these
young girls are going through untold trauma on the fate that has
befallen their children, while information has it that the girls are
being mercilessly raped on a daily basis while some have died from snake
bites.
Once upon a time, the federal government once said it will not seek
foreign assistance in crushing the activities of the sect, but thank
God, it has swallowed its pride and has agreed to partner with the
Western powers in securing the release of the girls and bringing the
activities of the sect under control. Many Nigerians who are appalled by
the cruelty of the sect have supported the government’s decision and
the general feeling is that seeking foreign assistance now is long
overdue. Yet, these Northern elders are opposed to it. Obviously, they
want the violence being perpetrated by the sect to continue unabated.
Fani- Kayode’s incisive analysis
No one said it better than former Minister of Aviation, Femi
Fani-Kayode. In his statement titled Boko Haram, Jonathan and the
Northern Elders, he has this to say: “It is self-evident that the
young man Shekau is not only a dangerous, sadistic, homicidal,
misogynistic, paedophilic, psychopath and sociopath all rolled into one
but his words adequately reflect the sheer ruthlessness, callousness and
depravity that the Haramite mind has degenerated to. Even Al Qaeda, in
all its cruelty and wickedness, has apparently condemned the latest
atrocity committed by Shekau and his merry group of Islamist terrorists
in Chibok.
“Yet despite their utter depravity they appear to have a few powerful
friends at home who are speaking for them, albeit in a very subtle and
covert manner. Permit me to give just one example of such a group in the
distinguished persons of the so-called ‘’northern elders’’ in this
contribution. Instead of joining the rest of the civilised world and
insisting that the scum called Boko Haram must be utterly crushed and
their leaders eliminated, The northern elders have said that the Federal
Government ‘’should pay billions as ransom to Shekau and release all
detained Boko Haram members’’ and that there must be ‘’no foreign forces
in Nigeria”. They have also demanded that ‘’force should not be used’’
in securing the freedom of the abducted girls.
“These demands and conditions are sickening and instructive. The bitter
truth about this whole matter is getting clearer by the day. It is the
same people that did not want troops to be deployed to the area in the
first place. It is the same group that did not want a state of emergency
to be declared in some parts of the north. It is the same group of
people that have been urging the government to negotiate with Boko Haram
for the last three years. It is the same group of people who have
consistently asked that Boko Haram should be treated with kid gloves and
that they should be offered amnesty even when the islamist group have
slaughtered no less than 10,000 innocent people in the last three
years”.
“It is the same people that are suggesting that Boko Haram is actually
an agent of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). It is the same
group of people that secretly rejoice when churches are burnt, when
bombs are detonated, when innocent people are killed, when our soldiers
are routed, when children have their throats slit, when the country is
being made ‘’ungovernable’’ and when girls are abducted, sold into
slavery and buried alive. It is one of these so-called northern elders
that referred to Boko Haram as ‘’freedom fighters’’ who are ‘’fighting
for justice’’ only last year. It is another that said that members of
Boko Haram ought to be treated ‘’in the same way as the Niger Delta
militants’’ and that they should be rehabilitated, resettled and paid
large sums of money only last year.
“It is another that said that ‘’muslims should only vote for those that
would protect their interests’’ and that he would see to it that
‘’sharia law is implemented and applied throughout the whole country’’
in 2003. It is another that led our country into joining the OIC in the
late 1980’s and that annulled the June 12th election in 1993. It is
another that said that ‘’Nigeria was granted independence by the British
in 1960 on the basis and clear understanding that a northern muslim
would always lead the country’’ in 1994. It is another that led our
country into joining the D8 in 1997. It is another that said that if the
north does not have it’s way on the voting formula at the
constitutional conference he would ‘’lead his people out of Nigeria and
into the Camerouns’’ just over a month ago. It is another that said that
they would make our country ‘’ungovernable’’ if a southerner was
elected into power in 2011.
“It is another that told us only a few weeks ago that our country
‘’would burn’’ if Jonathan or any other southerner contests for and wins
the Presidential election in 2015. It is another that told us just last
year that poverty was the root and only cause of Boko Haram and that
the south was receiving too much money whilst the north was not
receiving enough. How much more of these provocative words, actions,
rationalisations, threats and rhetoric can we be expected to take? Yet
those of us that are not northern muslims are expected to say nothing
and are constantly told not to respond and to simply ignore them”.
“Today, just three weeks after the Haramites have abducted almost 300
young school girls at Chibok, burnt down their school and kept them as
sex slaves, just two weeks after two bombs have gone off in Nyanya,
Abuja killing a total of 150 people between them and just three days
after no less than 350 innocent people were slaughtered by the same
islamist group in Gamborou Ngala, a border town with the Camerouns,
these so-called northern elders are saying that force must not be used
against them. This is absurd, insensitive and unacceptable and their
suggestion must be treated with the contempt that it deserves. I just do
not know what it will take for the Nigerian people to accept the fact
that Boko Haram is the greatest evil that our country has ever had to
contend with and that there can be no negotiation or dialogue with such
demons in human flesh.
“I just do not know what it will take for these so-called northern
elders to accept the fact that evil is evil, that you must never
negotiate with terrorists and that their ‘’gentle way’’ way simply does
not and cannot work. The truth is that until every single one of the
Haramites is hunted down, brought to justice and despatched to hell
where they belong there will be no peace in our country. We must also
eliminate their closet supporters who secretly encourage, fund and
protect them because there can be no fellowship between light and
darkness. I have always viewed all those that have suggested that Boko
Haram should be treated with kid gloves with the utmost suspicion. It is
either that we live in a civilised country where the rule of law
prevails, where beasts have no place and where murderous animals are
treated like the murderous animals that they are or we shall have no
country at all.
“All this talk about ‘’not using force’’ must stop because it is
nonsensical, it is counter-productive and it presents a very real threat
to our desire to continue to live as one nation. Those that abduct,
rape, kill, enslave and terrorise little girls deserve no mercy and they
do not deserve to live.
Those that believe that the Haramites are rational or reasonable and
that ‘’force should not be used against them’’ should please give them
their own daughters in exchange for our missing girls. After they have
done that they can be as gentle with Boko Haram as they like.
In all this President Goodluck Jonathan has much to learn and I would be
the last person to condone or endorse what I consider to be his utter
weakness and incompetence in the fight against Boko Haram. Mr. President
has failed woefully to protect the lives and property of the Nigerian
people and no responsible, self-respecting and rational human being
should shy away from telling him this. We expect far better from him and
if he fails to deliver on this he would not only have betrayed his
mandate, violated his oath of office and let down the Nigerian people
but he will play right into the hands of his sworn and collective
enemies.
In this respect Mr. Opeyemi Agbaje’s words are instructive. On 9th May
2014 he wrote: “We warned Jonathan. We called for action against Boko
Haram and we screamed until our voices went hoarse. Now the people who
advised him against taking strong action and called for dialogue, the
very people that said it was caused by poverty, the very people that
promised that traditional rulers would resolve the matter, the very
people that encouraged him to vacillate and do nothing or little, are
the ones mocking him. Well that is why leaders must exercise leadership.
The buck stops at his table. The credit or the failure goes to him. I
hope he learns!’’
How true Agbaje’s words have become
