"Nigerian's don't 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, fueling and
funding Boko Haram and that are waging war against our
people" Femi Fani Kayode writes in a new article titled 'The
Haramites of Boko' . Quite an interesting read. Find it below...
"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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