Boko Haram: Giving voice to the voiceless

Regrettably, those at the epicentre – policemen, prison wardens, soldiers, relatives of those massacred by Mohammed Yusuf’s group, and the ordinary inhabitants of the city holed up in their homes without food for one week, seemed voiceless. These are voices and perspectives that have hardly been considered in analyses and commentaries that have essentially revolved […]

Regrettably, those at the epicentre – policemen, prison wardens, soldiers, relatives of those massacred by Mohammed Yusuf’s group, and the ordinary inhabitants of the city holed up in their homes without food for one week, seemed voiceless. These are voices and perspectives that have hardly been considered in analyses and commentaries that have essentially revolved around the role of the Borno State Government, the extra-judicial nature of some killings, security report, foreign origin of the sect’s commanders, and so on. As each day passes by, we hear about arguments over the issues of human rights and their civil liberties, perhaps, believed to have been violated during and after the unfortunate incident. But there are also human rights of countless number of innocent people that Mohammed Yusuf and his followers brutally murdered in cold blood, which those who are sympathetic to the manner of the death of Mohammed  completely ignored. Double standards you may say!

Policemen, perhaps apart from ex-cop Alozie Ogugbuaja, are not known to join issues with public commentators. They constitute one voiceless group whose perspective needs to be considered. In the five days during which the Boko Haram madness climaxed, dozens of policemen were hacked down. An even higher number of their relatives were brutally killed by the Boko Haram faithful when they attacked the Police College in Maiduguri. As I write, there are about 30 policemen in hospital and many of them cannot still be accounted for. Five police stations in the city of Maiduguri were set ablaze, the official residence of the Deputy Commandant of the Mobile Police (MOPOL) was burnt down, several vehicles used by the Force were burnt, arms and ammunition carted away, and so on.

Public commentary has hardly considered how a force, which all agree is poorly trained, armed and funded, should react on sighting or having custody of an individual who has caused so much pain in personal as well as in professional realm? This is a force that has on more than one occasion been involved in the arraignment in court of Mohammed Yusuf or his followers, only for them to be released on some warped judicial logic. The Police Force is not known to openly criticise judicial officers, but we would be mistaken to think they do not know the degree of corruption in that arm of government. In the same city of Maiduguri a few years ago, the Police actually caught an individual who had been severing off heads of his victims for ritual purposes. The courts, possessed of extra-planetary logic, did not convict the individual. Do we need the services of a psychologist to tell us the mindset of men and women in police uniform and how this affects their take on what human rights groups are calling extra-judicial killing?

The Nigeria Prisons has regrettably not had its own Alozie to articulate their concerns over working conditions. Driving past any of our prisons though is enough to get a sense of the conditions of prison wardens. Mohammed Yusuf personally led the group that attacked the Maiduguri Prisons, killing at least six wardens, burning down the entire facility and releasing all inmates, including hardened criminals. Some of these wardens probably live in fear right now as their former inmates now roam the streets of Maiduguri as free men, hardly having been rehabilitated for civic life. Again, it is unlikely that prison officials in Maiduguri empathise with the brouhaha over the extra-judicial nature of some killings. In their mind, there was nothing judicial about the killing of their colleagues when Mohammed Yusuf struck.

The Nigerian Army is a celebrated force on the African continent and beyond. Mohammed Yusuf dented the image of the Army. Last year, Borno State Governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff provided logistic support to the Army and the Police to set up vigilante-type and rapid response units which were positioned at several strategic points in the city of Maiduguri: those were, locations that were particularly vulnerable to attacks by miscreants of whatever ideological persuasion. The outfit, Operation Flush, was considerably flushed out by the Boko Haram group. Scores of soldiers were killed, maimed, and operational vehicles of the outfit were burnt. Casualties were also recorded among soldiers brought in from neighbouring States and even from far away Makurdi in Benue State. All these did not make headlines in both local and foreign media that celebrated the manner of the death of the sect’s leader.

 Such was the fierceness of the battle (and of course the attendant psychological stress) that the General Officer Commanding (GOC) from Jos had to personally come down to lead the assault on the sect. The talk about the extra-judicial killing of Mohammed Yusuf sounds irritating to the ears of bereaved military families, including this writer. There has been so much debate about whether it was the Police or the Army that killed Mohammed Yusuf. For the rank and file of the Army, presumably more so for the latter than for the former, who did the killing and how it was done is immaterial.

How about the Muslims killed by Boko Haram criminals because they refused to adhere to Mohammed Yusuf’s irrational doctrine or were unable to recite certain verses of the Qur’an? How about the Christians who were beheaded for choosing to maintain their faith or who had their churches burnt? Obviously, neither religion advocates violent response to violent acts. One ‘sin’ they are presumably happy to live with is not regretting the death of Mohammed Yusuf under whatever circumstances. Arm-chair analysts, far removed from ground-zero, sitting in the comfort of their chairs, are busy pontificating human rights, in complete disregard for the lost rights of most inhabitants of the city. Who has done a survey to find out what the demise of Mohammed Yusuf means to inhabitants of the city and environs?

Malam Musa Ibn Talib writes this piece from 29, Sir Kashim Ibrahim Road, Maiduguri. muita2002@yahoo,com