State of the nation

NIYI ODEBODE who examines the spate of bombings by the militant Islamic sect, Boko Haram, notes that the Federal Government  is finding it difficult to arrest  the country’s drift to anarchy

When on January 17, the Minister of Defence, Dr. Haliru Mohammed, said  security agencies had been able to restrict the Boko Haram activities to the North-East, many Nigerians must have heaved a sigh of relief. Mohammed, during a press conference in Abuja,  had said, “It is a great achievement to our security services for them to restrict Boko Haram to the North-East. The agenda of the sect is not for the North-East alone. All the states of the North were to be Islamised and all the states around the area would have been affected. The killings have been reduced by the strong presence of security forces and what is left is the root causes of the crisis.”  Members of the militant Islamic sect must have chuckled, when Mohammed spoke. Three days after the minister raised the hope of Nigerians, the group,  also known as Jama’atu Ahlus Sunnah Lidda Awati Wal Jihad  struck in Kano, North-West, where it killed 186  people.

The blasts  in Kano heightened the tension in the country as the Federal Government has repeatedly shown that it cannot  be relied upon in securing lives and property of Nigerians. The  coordinated blasts in Kano were targeted at Zone 1 Police headquarters,  Farm Centre,  Naibawa  and Jedijedi police stations. The sect accompanied the bombings with gun shots, one of which killed a reporter with a Lagos-based Channels Television, Enenche Akogwu. The casualty figure from the blasts is the highest so far.

After the attacks, the sect’s spokesman, Abdul Qaqa,  explained   to  journalists on the telephone   why  they targeted   Kano.   He said the state government should be blamed for the continued incarceration of its members and innocent citizens. According to him, the group gave the government ample time to free its members.  “You all saw on Al-Jazeera TV, how unarmed men, youths, women and even under-aged were asked to lie on the ground and were shot on the head and chest by security agents. You all saw our leader, Mallam Muhammad Yusuf, in handcuffs as he was shot severally. You all saw how both Masjid and holy Quran were being destroyed,” Abdul Qaqa said.

The FG’s reactions to the blasts in Kano were predictable.   A statement by President Goodluck Jonathan’s  Special Adviser on Media, Dr. Reuben Abati, was almost similar  to the  ones released  after past bomb blasts. Condemning the Kano blasts, Jonathan said that those involved in the dastardly act would be made to face the “full wrath of the law.” When he visited Kano on Sunday, the President assured Nigerians that Boko Haram would be wiped out. In the past, the President had given similar assurances. 

On December 30, 2011, when he visited Saint Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State, where 44 people were killed by a Boko Haram suicide bomber, Jonathan assured Nigerians that the group would not be allowed to kill the country. Jonathan described Boko Haram as  “cancerous,” adding that,  “Nigeria, being the body, they want to kill it. But nobody will allow them to do that.”   That was not the first assurance by the President.  After the Boko Haram bombing  of the United Nations office on August 26, 2011,  Jonathan told journalists during his  visit to the building, that, “Boko Haram is a local group linked up with terrorist activities. As a government, we are working on this and we will bring it under control. One thing is very clear, terrorist attack on any individual or any group is a terrorist attack on the rest of the world. It is not just about the UN office in Nigeria. We will work with the UN and all the world leaders, of course, many of them have contacted me between yesterday and today.”

Since August, casualty figures from Boko Haram bomb blasts have been on the increase. Twenty-five people were killed in the UN building bomb blasts; Madalla bombing claimed 44. On Friday, the sect’s attacks left 186 people dead. Nigerians now take government’s assurances with a pinch of salt. Their pessimism has been reinforced by the escape of a Boko Haram suspect, Kabiru Sokoto, from police custody. It has further justified the claim of the Christian Association of Nigeria’s President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, that Christians  had lost confidence in the ability of government to protect  them. Sokoto was accused of masterminding the bomb blast at Madalla. He escaped while being taken to his residence in Abaji for search. Although, the Commissioner of Police, Zakiri Biu, who was handling his case had been suspended, efforts to re-arrest him, yielded no result.

Many had thought that  the Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, would be immediately sacked for negligence.  On January 18, 2011, the President issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the police boss to  produce Sokoto. The Police Affairs Minister,  Navy Capt Caleb Olubolade (retd.), who signed the query, told journalists after a Federal Executive Council meeting, that, “He (IG)  is the field officer; he has the responsibility to ensure all operations regarding arrest and all that are conducted in the usual manner. If he is found to have had complicity in that, he himself will have to account for his mistake.” But days after the ultimatum,  the suspect has not been  re-arrested.

Early this month, the militant sect ordered southerners and Christians to leave the North and northerners to come  back to the region. The security agencies issued a counter-statement, urging Nigerians to ignore the sect. But since Boko Haram gave the order, it had stepped up its attacks on Christians in the North. Many Southerners have been fleeing the North, just like the Hausas/Fulani have been leaving some southern states for fear of reprisal. Rather than address this, the Goodluck Jonathan administration deployed troops to quell protests against fuel subsidy removal.

From all indications, the Federal Government cannot single-handedly tackle the problem of Boko Haram. The President, during his visit to Kano on Sunday sought the cooperation of Nigerians in solving the problem.  “The Federal Government will not rest until the perpetrators are brought to book. The people doing this are not spirits, they are among us. I seek the cooperation of all towards getting those involved in the havoc arrested. I can assure you that we will intensify security in Kano and all over the nation to look at our neighbours to know what they do, to enable us fish out these miscreants,” Jonathan said.

While many Nigerians are desirous of seeing the Boko Haram problem solved, they expect government to discharge its responsibility by protecting them. A few months ago, the FG set up a committee on  security challenges in the North-East, where the sect’s activities were initially restricted.  The committee headed by  Ambassador Usman Gaji Galtimari, among others,  recommended that “the Federal Government should fundamentally, consider the option of dialogue and negotiation which should be contingent upon the renunciation of all forms of violence and surrender of arms to be followed by rehabilitation.”

During a visit to Jonathan, after the Christmas Day bombing, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar, said “The government will look at all the reports of some committees set up to examine the crises in the land. They, according to the Sultan, “include the one set up by the President on the North-East crisis,  the Solomon Lar report on the Plateau and other reports. Mr. President and his team will look through all those reports and then call a meeting of a larger body for consultations with religious and traditional leaders.”

Besides  various committees’ reports, many Nigerians have also called for a  national conference, where various ethnic and religious groups will bare their minds on the state of the nation.  Although  the buck stops at Jonathan’s table, Nigerians must come to his rescue because he seems to be at his  wits’ end. The Boko Haram problem  is not a creation of the Jonathan administration, but it must call for assistance, if it needs it. The warning of Niger State Governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, on Sunday should be heeded. “We cannot only depend on prayers without work. Most countries at peace today did not achieve it through prayers or else, we will gradually work ourselves towards the projection that Nigeria will disintegrate by 2015. People don’t want to tell the truth. If we are all able to come out and handle things the way they should be handled, we would have nipped everything in the bud,” the governor said.