Be silent that peace may reign
The personalities are – President Goodluck Jonathan; the CAN president, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and the lameduck service chiefs. Unfortunately, in the past week, all the three personalities had something to say about Boko Haram and all I can say is – I smell death. One of the service chiefs has been doing a national tour. […]
The personalities are – President Goodluck Jonathan; the CAN president, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and the lameduck service chiefs. Unfortunately, in the past week, all the three personalities had something to say about Boko Haram and all I can say is – I smell death. One of the service chiefs has been doing a national tour. President Goodluck Jonathan set a dateline for the elimination of Boko Haram, as ludicrous as that is. If he was in the opposition, people would have said he is using the issue to destabilise government. Terrorism (if that is what Boko Haram is) is a global boil that has formed on the private parts of the global anatomy. Not even America, with all its technology has been able to set a specific dateline for its elimination. Our President somehow thinks that it would go away by pure wishful thinking. It is time to tell the President the home truth – that in instances such as we are in, not only is silence golden, it is considered wisdom. Those invested with the capacity to secure our peace should talk less and work more assiduously in private to solve this serious problem.
This is not politics where cheap talk aligns simple minds behind soap box rhetorics. If Mr President knows the hornet’s nest of the Boko Haram group, why wait till July to exterminate it? Painful as it is, one is beginning to think that those who say that government has its own fifth columnists masquerading as Boko Haram have a painful point. Each time talks like this happens, the group strikes in the unwary side and people die.
Another personality is the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) the televangelist, Ayo Oritsejafor. Religious leaders, like traditional leaders are known as peace makers. It is unfortunate that Pastor Oritsejafor’s pronouncements on national security issues are antithetical to his duties as a pastor except CAN has become an arm of the ruling region. Even in the face of painfully damning evidence that Boko Haram has killed more Muslims than others, Pastor Oritsejafor is persuaded that his faith is under threat of annihilation. He would rather that Nigeria is unwittingly led into an inter-religious plunder.
Pastor Oritsejafor has increased the national hype by asking the government not to dialogue with the Boko Haram and blatantly called on his supporters to arm themselves. This Warri-based pastor is used to hearing the echo of his own sermon and the ululation of his congregation. The worst thing that could happen to any religious group is to be led by someone with a closed mind. Our elders liken the mind to a parachute – a needed accoutrement for anyone jumping off a flying plane – but it only works when open. This pastor’s supporters live in the relative spatial safety and security of the south-south . Whenever he makes these unguarded statements, some innocent persons in the less secured part of the country die. The death of such people may give him media headlines but their effect will cause ever-flowing tears in some family homes. Maybe it is high time that this Pastor spent a sabbatical with his Bible and leave the political trash-talking to civilians who make their money out of such babblings.
The last group that should talk less and let their traditional roles work more behind the scenes are the service chiefs. Their positions are both political and military. The President holds the position of commander in chief which goes beyond the right to wear the uniform and the highest rank of any service that pleases him. His statements reflect the depth of the intelligence of his service chiefs. When the President goofs, as he serially does, it is evidence that he has invested the wrong people as service chiefs. When the President goofs and his service chiefs reecho it, it reflects the sound of incongruous absurdity that brought us to this state and explains the deadly cluelessness that pervades the security sphere.
The request from suffering Nigerians appears to be very simple – if these people have nothing to say, they should please not say it.