2017: Time for new beginings in our politics

On behalf of all Nigerians, this column wishes President Muhamadu Buhari, all members of the country’s gallant armed forces, the Police and all other security agencies a happy new year and the best of the season for their selfless efforts which led to the successful sack of the murderous Boko Haram sect from their Camp […]

On behalf of all Nigerians, this column wishes President Muhamadu Buhari, all members of the country’s gallant armed forces, the Police and all other security agencies a happy new year and the best of the season for their selfless efforts which led to the successful sack of the murderous Boko Haram sect from their Camp Zero den in the Sambisa forest. Even if the feat does not yet translate into a total defeat of the sect, it still remains a most significant step in the campaign to rid the country of the menace of these insurgents, who are fighting this country in a war without a valid cause, and at the bidding of Satan himself.

It is easily recalled that just before the turn of last year, the President had thrilled Nigerians with the welcome news that the dreaded Boko Haram sect had been technically defeated following the capture of their main stronghold – Camp Zero in the Sambisa forest by the gallant Nigeria military. Seen in context, hardly could the President and the security forces have given a better new year gift to Nigerians than that singular development which implies in concrete terms a definitive depletion of the capacity of the sect. The follow-up recovery of the personal Quran and flag of Abubakar Shekau, the sect’s definitive leader and later head of a faction, tells volumes on the state of affairs with the sect. 

 As the cliché goes, the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. The routing of Camp Zero is more than a single step in the fight against Boko Haram. It is indeed a major leap forward as it means the destruction of the command and control structure as well as the nerve centre of the sect. With that victory the way forward cannot be as difficult as it was in the beginning. No matter how hydra-headed the sect may be and no matter how deceptively it may likely parade some potency in propaganda salvoes, its backbone is broken leaving its tentacles flaying in the final throes of technical death as an organisation. 

Given the intense virulence of the operations of the sect within the past seven years during which the country lost over 200,000 souls and millions of others either injured and or displaced, hardly was any part of the country immune from the fear as well as ravages of the sect. Indeed, the fear of Boko Haram was and is still so palpable to be the beginning of wisdom for many Nigerians no matter their location – from Lagos to Maiduguri and Sokoto to Calabar. Even errant children are routinely hushed into comportment at the mere mention of the name Boko Haram. 

Meanwhile, the government and the citizenry still need to anticipate and respond to sporadic attacks by the insurgents on soft targets they may pick at random. As typical terrorists with a mission that is driven by spreading terror, it is expected that elements of Boko Haram will try to infiltrate unwary sections of the general society in order to wreak havoc on unsuspecting soft targets, mostly civilians who may be massed up in places of social activities – markets, churches, mosques, schools, beer parlours and entertainment gardens, etc.  This dispensation moves the battle against the Boko Haram sect from the main theatres of war, to the door steps of the ordinary Nigerian.

However, with the fall of Sambisa to the country’s armed forces, the fight against the sect has opened a new vista for governance, as the government no more has a gun to its head as it were, which was the case when the sect was in its elements. The present situation demands a return by the administration to more pronounced civility, specifically the reconciliation with the imperative of adopting a new strategy, which will focus more on reinventing the country into a condition where political extremism and attendant run-away insurgency like the Boko Haram menace will not be required to move things forward. Wanted, is a reinvented Nigeria where the tendencies of extremism are contained to the barest minimum. 

It is on record that as the country is celebrating the victory over Boko Haram, there are still other flashpoints of tension that qualify for attention. While the situation in these areas – like the Boko Haram crisis also qualify as outcomes of extremist tendencies from both the government and the governed, the temptation to see them as also amenable to the treatment and outcome of the Boko Haram situation, should not come up as that may be a sure-fire approach to unmitigated national disaster.

Typical flashpoints in the country today include the Niger Delta region where the militants are agitating for legitimate and equitable representation in the sharing of the oil wealth that comes from their land. Also in the same vein are the South-East zone where the agitation for separation from the country has refused to abate, the North Central Zone – in particular Kaduna State where ethno-religious passions are fuelling sporadic mayhem.  

It is significant that in all of these areas the common grouse has been cited as mis-governance which manifests in the distorted pattern of distribution of the nation’s common patrimony among its constituent parts. The consequence of this syndrome of mis-governance has varying effects in these restive areas, depending on the uniqueness of the social antecedents of any area. For instance, in the Niger Delta, the ravages of unethical practices in the production of oil and gas have rendered the terrain unsuitable for traditional occupations such as fishing and farming by the indigenes, hence their clamour for freedom from economic strangulation. In the South-East the clamour is for actualisation of the Biafra dream – based on a historical and growing feeling of marginalisation of the Ibos since the end of the Nigerian civil war; which ironically was prosecuted to kill the same dream.

Aa for the North East, even before the advent of the Boko Haram it was common knowledge that the zone had the highest poverty level in the country. As a result of this condition most of the impressionable recruits into the sect were lured with the promise of a better deal through the establishment of an Islamic state by Boko Haram; even when the sect’s allegiance to Islam is questioned by the mainstream Muslims. 

It is therefore plausible to finger the syndrome of poor governance in the country as the main culprit for seeding groundswells of resentment and eventual militancy as well as insurgency. Lamentably this poor state of affairs pervades all tiers of governance in the country. To move the country forward demands a new paradigm in governance. 

As the new year opens up, Nigerians will expect a new deal as shall usher new beginnings that coalesce in a new political order whereby governance shall be different from the traditional play up of promises that end up as mere wishful thinking, for so indeed are many unfulfilled promises by the government.

 For instance, President Buhari has promised several goodies for 2017 including the deployment of dialogue in handling flashpoints like Niger Delta and the South-East regions. If that comes to pass, Buhari the serial military hero, would have scored a political victory that offers even more profound dividends for his administration and the entire country, than sacking Boko Haram from their Sambisa enclave.