Boko Haram, Thisday Bombings and More

Terror group, Boko Haram struck yesterday in Abuja and Kaduna leaving as many as 7 persons dead and some others wounded from coordinated bomb attacks. Influential daily, Thisday the target of both attacks had their Abuja and Kaduna offices rocked by explosions in the morning of yesterday.  The group went ahead to release a video in which it defended its attack on the newspaper house.

The Islamist sect which forbids western education is intent on sending a clear message to us in the media urging us not to misrepresent them. According to the groups’ hitherto thought to be captured spokesman Abu Qaka, Boko Haram is not happy about the level of misrepresentation from the media whom he accused of taking sides with the government. According to an interview granted to the organization from another news site http://premiumtimesng.com/news/4843-boko_haram_speaks_why_we_attacked_thisday.html the spokesman insisted that he is alive and free contrary to the reports making rounds in the media that he is in detention. The spokesman is also unhappy that their imam was misquoted as claiming to destroy the government of Goodluck Jonathan. On why Thisday was chosen for the attack, the group’s spokesman said, “Their sins are many.” Abu Qaka also warned of more attacks on the media in the immediate future.

You will recall that when Boko Haram released their last video, we had urged them to provide English subtitles to prevent such misinformation that might become a reason to get attacked by this very powerful organization. If indeed the group has sworn enmity with the federal government, then it must also give the Nigerian people information needed to ensure their safety or is it wise to catch neutrals in cross fire? The presidential spokesman Dr. Abati reacting for his boss described the bombing as:” ignoble, misguided, horrendous and wicked.”

It is worrisome that one group has continued to match words with action and our federal government has refused on its own part to rise to the challenge. Our security operative on the other hand is equally asleep as this news of Abu Qaka speaking himself when the SSS and Police have claimed that the spokesman is in detention. There is a possibility that these attacks are not in their own acts of terror but someone powerful using the group as a means to an end.

It will be necessary to introduce a concept, of forced alternative demand. When a commodity or service has little or no demand and the supplier wishes to create demand for that product, he might take one or two desperate measures to create demand for his product. In peace time, rumour from a credible source of impending war might lead the government of a country to procure arms in readiness for the said war. That government had no intent for such large scale ammunition but was forced to use scarce resources for an alternative end. Also, where a certain product enjoys good patronage, the supplier of its alternative may through one act or the other cause that product to lose such patronage so that its own alternative becomes the sought after.

Boko Haram with this latest video where it urges the media not to take sides and is keen on avoiding misrepresentation points slightly to the fact that this group exists for other purposes beyond prohibiting western education and asking southern Nigerians living in the north to return from whence they came. It is necessary therefore for two things to happen: the government to find out what this group truly wants.  This is not a call for negotiation but a pre war truce feature known as “talking terms of engagement.” The second thing that must happen is for the Government to begin immediately to act seriously on its promises of securing Nigerians.

Politicians have forever used this tactic of forced alternative demand. So also do marketers on the street. They do not show you how great their product is, but point out how small and inefficient someone else’ product is thus creating a demand for theirs. No terror group in the world is careful about misrepresentations. Nor do they ask the media not to take sides. They generally do not care. There is more to Boko Haram than is presently known. Perhaps the president though clueless might not have been without clue when he averred that the Boko Haram is within his government. Someone powerful is using terror as a means to creating a demand for something. That thing, whatever it is, political power, contracts, etc is the motivation behind Boko Haram.

With Nigerians paying taxes and getting nothing whatsoever in return from their federal government, it becomes necessary to ask Nigerians to start creating neighbourhood watches as our various security agencies have continued to demonstrate a lack of readiness to rise to the occasion posed by Boko Haram.