Hell hath no fury like it has
in the past few days in Northern Nigeria. The Islamic Sect, Boko Haram picked
off where they left off from the coordinated bombings of the Thisday Newspaper.
This time, it was the universities that got hit with two professors among 16 other
deaths and many wounded. More attacks on another university as well as another
attack in Jalingo, capital of Taraba. These are indeed sad times for Nigeria
and Nigerians. We pray the good God grant the families of the dead the
fortitude to bear the loss. We also wish the dead a peaceful repose. It was an abattoir
of humans guilty only of innocence.
When there is chaos, one thing
is certain, a breakdown of order. The security agencies and operatives have
lost it completely. The president is even more distraught and appears
frustrated. The national security adviser though knows what is wrong: the PDP!
But the president disagrees. Azazi has challenged the president obviously. But their
debate will not contribute whatsoever to the solution. Their disagreement points to one thing only: failed leadership at party and the presidency.
Boko Haram will slay more
people and bomb some more buildings. Police stations, places of worship,
government buildings, media houses and now universities have been targets of
this dare devil group. What exactly their motivation is remains a mystery. It is
publicly held that the group has no recognizable chain of command and that
their sponsors are presently unknown. In
the war against terror made in Nigeria, it is a sad tale of failure like with
all other aspects of national life, systemic failure. The state called Nigeria
is a terminally ill and at the helm is a man who is yet to grapple with the
realities nor does he have a clue as to what best action he and his advisers
should take.
The national security adviser’s
claim that the ruling party's division is responsible can only be considered myopic and
buck passing. It is merely a dismissive conclusion that says we are stuck
gentlemen and we will stay here till the weather passes. The same conclusion or
suggestion the president came up with a few months ago when he insisted that we
should accept with living with the evil for the time being.
Whether or not it is the PDP’s
failure as a party to cause the president to respect a party policy or the
inability for the security agencies to trail the terror group to its hole and
smoke it out, Nigerians are the ultimate recipients of these failures. It is
feared that these acts have gotten to an incontrollable limit where reprisal
attacks would spark off from the south and possibly begin a civil war. Nigerians
living in the north are an endangered species and have been reduced to chicken
status, to be picked on and snuffed out of life at will by the Boko Haram. It is
not only sad that the government is clueless; it is irresponsible that the
government is lacking order and direction or a seemingly working strategy to bring
the group’s effort to a halt.
The failure of this republic
called Nigeria is imminent. The country painfully hangs on a thin thread. There is
fear and unmanageable tension in parts of the north as no one knows when the
next attack will commence and where. Boko Haram like previously speculated is
someone’s machinery to bring his agenda to the front burner. This person or
persons have cashed in on a group’s susceptibility to manipulation and have
also ensured their pawns work assiduously to protect their images. How much
longer before we fail break on order and take on ourselves? How much longer
before someone at the helm take responsibility to bring justice swiftly? The economy of the north is slowly grinding lower than can possibly be coped with. But do the governors there care? The bulk of their revenue does not come from their domain.
An eminent Nigerian Nasiru El
Rufai a former minister, has thrown his weight behind the National Security
Adviser Gen. Owoye Azazi Rtd. who laid the blame at the doorstep of the PDP. With
more of these distractions coming from the place from whence order and
direction is expected, the question is how much longer before we recede to a
state of albatross? Will our leaders wake up? Hotels up north are enjoying a patronage of desertion and so are markets. The implications are far too numerous to ponder but sadly, there is obviously little the leadership at the centre or anywhere else is doing. We are now hoping against all evidence and reality that it will get better. Some of us though are doing what Nigerians do best: pray.
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