FFK accuses some 'key individuals' of sponsoring Boko Haram in new article
"My worst fears have been confirmed and sadly the Haramites of Boko have struck again. Another terrible bomb blast has taken place in Abuja and many innocent people have been butchered, slaughtered and maimed. At the last count the number of those killed is no less than 39 despite attempts by the international and local media to play the number of casualties down. This damning display of primordial and pure savagery by Boko Haram comes barely two weeks after over 100 innocent people, including women and children, were killed by another bomb, on the same spot and by the same people. This is surely too much for us to bear.
Worst
still the country, and indeed the international community, is still
grappling with the Chibok affair in which no less than 234 young school
girls were abducted from their schools and turned into sex slaves by
Boko Haram.
At
this juncture one is compelled to ask the following question: how much
more can we take before the centre fails to hold and everything falls
apart? How much more can we take before some madman in uniform gets up,
takes advantage of the situation, does the unacceptable and unthinkable,
seizes the broadcasting stations and subjects us to a familiar yet
unwelcome early morning speech which is preceded by ''fellow
Nigerians'' and which ends with the announcement of a ''dawn to dusk
curfew''?
May
God forbid that this should ever happen in our country again as it
would be a tragedy of monuemental proportions and it would set us back
by at least 50 years. Worst still Nigeria may not even survive it and it
may well result in another civil war. I have no doubt that despite our
monuemental security challenges, the preservation of our fast-evolving
democratic culture and structures remains the only way forward and that
we must do all that we can to protect this dispensation.
The
best that we can do is to continue to speak out, to protest, to write,
to demonstrate, to create awareness, to march, to pray and to demand
that our Government and security forces do a better job by fighting Boko
Haram with an equal and commiserate amount of viciousness and savagery
that the islamist terrorists are fighting us.
I
feel a deep sense of outrage and shame and I utterly deplore the fact
that the Federal Government has once again failed to protect the lives
of the Nigerian people. Yet it is not just the Federal Government that
has failed but all the the governments at all levels, including our
State Governors and Local Government Area Chairmen.
As
a matter of fact every single one of us that is in the ruling class of
this country or that is a member of it's political elite has failed
woefully. We must all carry a share of the blame in varying degrees.
Every single one of us has a little blood on our hands as a consequence
of our sheer indifference to the collective plight of our people and our
inability to act at the appropiate time when we saw all this coming.
I
hereby join millions of Nigerians in condemning this latest beastly
attack on Nyanya and I have nothing but contempt and disgust for the
Haramites and those that secretly support them.
May
God deliver our country from the grip of these Boko demons that feed
fat on human flesh and blood and that seek to terrorise us into
submission and may the souls of those that have been killed rest in
peace.
Yet
let us get past the rather obvious and simplistic statements and
submissions and let us look at this whole matter from a deeper
perspective and in a more refreshing, meaningful and holistic manner.
Let us stop merely scratching at the surface and let us get to the root
of the problem. It is time for us to get real and to speak some hard
truths. Consider the following.
When
some people are so hell bent on taking power that they begin to bomb
their citizens in order to achieve it one has to begin to question the
continued viability of our much flaunted unity.
When
some people believe that it is their right to rule in perpetuity and
that if they do not get their way they must make the country
ungovernable and kill as many people as possible, one must decide
whether or not we are really one nation.
When
some people are prepared to use religion as a political tool, shed as
much innocent blood as possible and pervert the very tenets of the faith
that they claim to espouse, one must decide whether those of us that do
not share their world view are prepared to remain in the same cage as
those that are clearly nothing but ravenous beasts.
There
is far more to the Boko Haram phenomenon than meets the eye and
Nigerians just don't get it yet. They are not prepared to hear the truth
let alone accept it and, sadly, perhaps they never will. This is a
nation that has an identity crisis and that still does not want to
accept the fact that it is at war with itself.
They
do not want to accept the ugly fact that there are some key
individuals, who some of them still literally worship and rever, that
are the ones actually encouraging, fuelling and funding Boko Haram and
that are waging war against our people.
They
do not want to accept that there is an international dimension to this
matter which is beyond their knowledge, understanding or comprehension.
May God open their eyes and help them to recognise what they are up
against before it is too late.
Until
that happens and each and every Nigerian is prepared to take up arms
against Boko Haram and those that are secretly behind it our people will
continue to be terrorised, slaughtered, abducted and enslaved.
And
whether anyone likes to accept it or not there are quite a number of
people who fall into the category of Boko Haram sympathisers even though
they remain in the shadows. For example there is a very combative,
visible and vocal individual from the north-western part of our country
who has been accused of covertly funding and supporting the islamist
cause and terrorism for many years.
That
same individual was described to the FBI as a ‘’trusted mentor’’ by
Umar Faruk Mutallab, the Nigerian ‘’underwear bomber’’, who attempted to
blow up a plane filled with passengers as it was about to land in the
United States of America a few years ago.
Again
that same individual has been accused of having a hand in one of the
most heinous and brutal sectarian murders in the history of our country
when a young man by the name of Gideon Akaluka, from Benue state, was
cold-bloodedly beheaded by a rampaging mob in Kano for supposedly
‘’desecrating the koran’’. Akaluka’s severed head was paraded on a long
pole all over the streets of the city before a cheering and roaring
crowd for many hours and the whole gory event was actually video-taped
by the perpetrators themselves. Such barbarity has rarely been seen in
the history of our country.
Yet
this individual has not been brought to justice or even questioned
about these matters. Is it any wonder that Boko Haram appears to be
going from strength to strength? The truth is that they have many
friends in high places and President Goodluck Jonathan himself once
alluded to this. Another individual, who was a former Head of State, was
quoted as saying the following in 2001-
''I
will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the
sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria. God-willing, we will
not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the sharia in the
country. Muslims should vote at the next Presidential election only for
someone who will defend their faith''.
This
former Head of State may not have any link with today's terrorism or
Boko Haram but has the words that he uttered on sharia in 2001 not made
matters worse? Were the seeds of Boko Haram not planted at that time by
such comments and such contributions? Yet another former Head of State
did not help matters when he treated what he described as ''political
sharia'' with kid gloves when he was in power. He failed to deal
decisively with it at the time and he said that it would eventually
''fizzle out''.
This
did not happen and today we are witnessing the results of his
complacence and his inability to crush the beast at an early stage
before it grew fangs. Now that vampiric beast is biting us with those
fangs day and night and it is eating our flesh and drinkng our blood.
For
those that fail to see the nexus between political sharia and Boko
Haram and that fail to appreciate the connection between the two permit
me to put the following questions. Was the movement for political sharia
not the precursor to Boko Haram? When you tolerate a monster and give
room for extreme philosophies to take root are you not asking for
trouble? When you give an inch will the beast not take a mile? When you
compromise on fundamental issues such as the secularity of the state and
allow islamist ideology to flourish in the name of political expediency
and compromise are you not asking for trouble?
When
you run away from fighting a righteous war that must be fought sooner
or later are you not postponing it for another day? Over ten years later
we are reaping the consequences and rewards of our cowardice,
indifference and indolence when faced with political sharia. The truth
is that all our leaders have failed to solve this problem over the years
and their lack of firm resolve to do so has simply caused it to spread
and to become more virulent.
Worst
still some have completely capitulated and bowed in shame and
helplessness before the evil scourge. As a glaring example of this, just
a few months ago, an elder statesman that was at the time no less a
personality than the National Chairman of the ruling party described the
Haramites of Boko as ''freedom fighters''. Is there anything more
shameful than that?
I
really do wonder whose freedom they seek to secure and who they are
fighting for? Is it the freedom to kill our people and to abduct and
enslave our children? Such sentiments and expressions of sympathy for
the enemies of our people are a national disgrace and those that express
them ought to be called out and held to account.
Sadly
the next few months and years are very bleak for our nation. As a
matter of fact we may not even have a nation left in the next few months
and years if things continue this way. I just hope and pray that we all
appreciate the fact that we are in for the long haul and that whether
we like it or not Boko Haram is here to stay.
It
is either that we succumb to them, accept their demands, bow to them
and allow them to change our way of life or we fight them into the
ground, eliminate every single one of them, flush them out, burn the
Sambisi forest to the ground, avenge our people, preserve our way of
life and restore our self-respect and dignity.
It
is either that we accept their evil, conceede to the establishment of a
Taliban-style islamic fundamentalist state in the whole of our country
and espouse it wholeheartedly or we fight a brutal, bloody, long and
righteous war to preserve the unity of our nation, to protect the
secularity of our state and to enthrone righteousness and justice. The
choice is ours.
The
Haramites of Boko have already made their choice and they made it long
ago. And that choice is to subject the Nigerian people to terror,
murder, humiliation, carnage and bondage and bring us to servitude and
to our knees. They will continue to effect this satanic agenda unless
and until we get off our knees, stand up like men and say ''enough is
enough''. They will continue to do so unless and until we are ready to
say that Nigeria is worth dying for and that we are ready to fight back .
May God deliver Nigeria.
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