By Igbotako Nowinta
Some people have been allegedly creating and sponsoring the nefarious activities of Boko Haram, like the Ahmadu Sheriff Modu of this world (former Governor of Borno State).What is the Federal Government doing about such weighty allegations? It is pathetic that countless Nigerian soldiers have died in combats; many have been court-martialed and sent home empty for alleged cowardly behaviors on the battle fields; many are in detentions serving various jail terms; countless innocent Nigerians have been made widows, widowers, orphans across the country; now those that are supposed to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity are being considered to be treated as our beautiful brides. At this most auspicious time, when President Donald Trump and the good people of United States of America, have made a chunk of their tax payers money ($7 million bounty) available for the head of the leader of the Boko Haram savages, a twisted school of thought is canvassing that known first class bandits, professional killers and accursed scoundrels of humanity should be given red carpets like beautiful brides in our time.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, the Russian literary giant, who wrote ‘Crime and Punishment’ in 1886, made it clear in his epic documentation that any mortal who committed crime must be made to suffer the punishment.
Rodio Raskolnikiv, the fictional ‘super man’ in Dostoyevsky’s book was made to succumb to this timeless fact: ‘when a man scorns the sacredness of human life, he has done the unforgivable.’
Therefore, it is most absurd to state that Senator Ibrahim Geidam, representing Yobe East Senatorial District in Yobe State, and his co-travelers have been making spirited efforts recently, on and outside, the floor of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to provide a soft landing terrain for terrorists, who have consciously made human lives as cheap and worthless, as chickens within our country.
Ibrahim Geidam, a former Governor of Yobe State, using his proposed pet project known as the ‘National Agency for Education, Rehabilitation, De-Radicalization and Integration of Repentant Insurgents in Nigeria, has slapped us all in our faces with the most brazen effrontery in recent memory.
His initiative is not new, we have seen a semblance of it before in United Kingdom, and elsewhere, the bad news is that it has never yielded any positive lasting outcomes; it has been most counterproductive.
In Zamfara and Katsina States where the authorities had tried to pacify the terrorists via dialogue and monetary packages, the bandits have proved themselves to be most unreliable. Once they exhausted the juicy stuff they went back to their professional stock in trade – banditry and criminality.
Is it in Kaduna State, where Governor Nasiru El-Rufai having tried everything to pacify them, has recently promised the bandits ‘hell and brimstones’, saying he will never negotiate with proverbial pigs that can never be washed clean?
The specie of unbridled violence that the adherents of Boko Haram have unleashed on our collective psyche in Nigeria is mind boggling. No savages are crueler than the men and women who have been participating in the most horrible episodes before our very naked eyes; in no other country even pretending to be civilized could innocent men be beheaded and the process filmed, while the gory graphic details are being made available to us via the instrumentality of social media.
We are being subjected to nightmares and psychological trauma of barbaric practices of cold blooded murders of peaceful citizens because of their religious inclinations, in the hands of apostles of Boko Haram.
Daily we see spectacles of premeditated violent bloodshed and vicious attacks, by people who said ‘western education’ is a taboo, yet one overfed, unrealistic Senator Ibrahim Geidam and his likes are trying to rub salt on our already established pains.
Today, most of the North Eastern part of Nigeria is in ruins because some of the political elite from the zone have subconsciously created, furnished and funded the most gratuitous cruelty in the history of Nigeria.
The atrocities so far committed by Boko Haram radicals are sometimes too heavy on our hearts to let go; many of us have wondered why fellow human beings could treat fellow humans the way we have seen the activities of Boko Haram become a tragic reality in our clime?
It is glad to note that some concerned Northern elite and intellectuals like the former Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwa, recently deposed Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi; Sultan of Sokoto etc., have been speaking sincerely and truthfully about the stark state of the North, blaming the North as the sole architect and mastermind of its present precarious situation.
They have collectively argued that the problem being encountered by the Northern Nigeria is purely caused by the political elite who have consciously and parochially held on to power to aggregate their financial empire, to the utter detriment of the mass of the people
Today, the mass of the people in the North are fatally trapped in unimaginable backwardness, abysmal decay and chaos, as a result of boundless corruption and gross mismanagement on the part of
Visionless, characterless and clearly ungodly leaders.
That is why we must salute the astuteness and courage of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Senator Ali Ndume, who has genuinely called for the hiring of foreign mercenaries to help flush out the demonic activities of Boko Haram from our system, instead of providing safe havens like foreign scholarships for these accursed enemies of humanity.
Some people have been allegedly creating and sponsoring the nefarious activities of Boko Haram, like the Ahmadu Sheriff Modu of this world (former Governor of Borno State).What is the Federal Government doing about such weighty allegations?
It is pathetic that countless Nigerian soldiers have died in combats; many have been court-martialed and sent home empty for alleged cowardly behaviors on the battle fields; many are in detentions serving various jail terms; countless innocent Nigerians have been made widows, widowers, orphans across the country; now those that are supposed to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity are being considered to be treated as our beautiful brides.
At this most auspicious time, when President Donald Trump and the good people of United States of America, have made a chunk of their tax payers money ($7 million bounty) available for the head of the leader of the Boko Haram savages; then a twisted school of thought is canvassing that known first class bandits, professional killers and accursed scoundrels of humanity should be given red carpets like beautiful brides in our time.
This is a most unwarranted insult, insensitive and brazen attempts by anyone or group of people, ever, since the egg of our concocted country was hatched in January 1900.
Why did ex-President Harry Truman order the dropping of the first and second Atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945? Of course, it stopped the Japanese madness! Why were Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler’s deputy, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, his Minister of Information and Propaganda, and other first class murderers, sentenced to various long terms in prison during the International Nuremberg War Trials in 1945? Because they conspired with Hitler to unleash the Second World War between 1933-1945 on humanity.
Because General Aguyi-Ironsi treated Major Kaduna Nzeogwu and company, who led the first bloody military coup in Nigeria in 1966, with kid gloves, was one of the main reasons, that Generals Murtala Muhammed and Theophilous Danjuma spearheaded the bloody counter coup of July 1966, which led to the brutal elimination of Ironsi and others.
Those looking for or dreaming up a soft landing for mass murderers must go back quickly and peruse the pages of history. Come to think about those trying to compare Senator Geidam’s initiative with the amnesty carrots being enjoyed by militants in the Niger Delta.
For me it is absolutely incomparable; there is nothing about ‘what is good for the goose is good for the gander’ in this matter, because militancy in the Niger Delta is world apart from the reckless deviousness and bloodthirstiness being distributed around the country in the name of Boko Haram.
Until we tell ourselves the truth, nothing but the truth without sentiments, without tribal, ethnic, religious or political colorations, our country will continue to be stagnated or stunted in all ramifications.
Extreme poverty, widespread illiteracy in the North East, wicked political leadership and endemic corruption must be tackled head on, as some of the root causes of the bloody human harvests being done by Boko Haram, Fulani Herdsmen etc.
We must never forget that the Nuremberg International War Trials of criminals in 1945 had meted adequate justice to those concerned before the United States initiated the rebuilding of Europe using the famous Marshall Plan.
Therefore, those who encouraged the late Mohammed Yusuf, the first Boko Haram’s leader to start his bloody business, sponsored and still sponsoring the unspeakable horrors being slashed on our faces daily must be flushed or fished out and punished accordingly.
Our security architecture vigorously need urgent restructuring nationwide, to meet the current demand of securing lives and property, the onus of which perfectly rest on the present Federal Government to do the needful without delay.
Nowinta Igbotako wrote: Where we are – A call for democratic revolution in Nigeria.
