Borno PDP’s false theory on Boko-Haram sponsorship

In his confession, Al-Zawahiri pointed accusing fingers at no other person but the late Ambassador Saidu Pindar and Senator Muhammed Ali Ndume, both from Borno State, whom he unequivocally said were the big hands behind the scene, pulling the marionette strings for them. Arrests were made to that effect and the matter was immediately taken […]

In his confession, Al-Zawahiri pointed accusing fingers at no other person but the late Ambassador Saidu Pindar and Senator Muhammed Ali Ndume, both from Borno State, whom he unequivocally said were the big hands behind the scene, pulling the marionette strings for them.

Arrests were made to that effect and the matter was immediately taken to court, where Al-Zawahiri pleaded guilty to all that he professed and that entire he was being accused; while Senator Ali Ndume, whom he implicated, over the nefarious activities of the Boko-Haram in Borno State, denied all the charges.

But most amazingly, instead of allowing the law to take its fullest course, some officials of the Borno State PDP led by the state chairman, Alhaji Baba Basharu, had rushed to some selected media houses in Abuja where they launched diversionary and misleading stories on how Boko-Haram started in Borno State. They succeeded in even painting some skewed ‘expose’ on how Boko-Haram had some failed ‘political’ agreements with former Governor Ali Sheriff, which eventually gave birth to the present insurgence in Borno State.

It was upon these deliberate misrepresentations and awkward attempts to paint those indicted as victims of political witch-hunt and possibly earn them the sympathy of saints or heroes in persecution that the PDP leadership in Borno State, wanted to go crashing with ex-governor Ali Modu Sheriff. But for those of us who have keenly followed development as regards the so- called Yusufiya movement, aka, Boko-Haram, will not fold our arms and watch injustice made just to save some asses whom the law of the land have cause to doubt the content of their acclaimed nobility.

Governor Sheriff may not be everybody’s hero; so is every Nigerian politician; and this piece does not intend to paint him as a saint, but the fact must be told of what transpired in Borno State as it occurred.

THE UNTOLD FACTS ABOUT BOKO-HARAM

The PDP state chairman, Baba Basharu, mentioned that the so-called Yusufiya movement had in 2003, hatched an agreement to assist Sheriff become governor if he would establish Shari’a in the state, and when he later failed to live out that agreement, they fell apart and asked their representative, the late Buji Foi, to resign as Commissioner for Religious Affairs, a ministry they claimed was created for the purpose of accommodating the interest of the sect.

But the fact was that everyone knew that the late Buji Foi, who was killed by security agents during the 2009 sectarian crisis in Borno State, was, all his life, a core grassroots politician of repute. He was once an elected chairman of Kaga local government council between 1999 and 2002, during the reign of late Governor Mala Kachalla. So how could it have been that it was Sheriff that brought him into office as a representative of the Boko-Haram? Moreover, when Governor Sheriff came to office via a very popular mandate in 2003, Buji Foi was nominated by the ANPP stakeholders in Kaga local government to represent their local government as a cabinet member. That has always been the tradition in every local government area.

Those who followed the campaigns that led to the emergence of Governor Sheriff in 2003, will testify that there was no way he could have gone round persuading people that he would establish Sharia system if voted as governor, because at that point in time, the then incumbent government of Mala Kachalla had already set up a committee for the establishment of Shari’a in Borno; and a former VC of the University of Maiduguri was appointed chairman of the committee. So it could have been a dunce political stratagem to say Sheriff flaunted Shari’a as a political promise to be elected governor.

Similarly, the coinage of the name, Yusufiya, was more a creation of the media rather than what the late Boko-Haram leader gave his group. In fact, the name came up in 2009 and there was no point that Buji Foi was recognised as national secretary of the group as claimed by Baba Basharu. In the same vein, everyone knew that Buji Fai was not appointed as commissioner for religious affairs in the first place; he was in the ministry of land and survey before he was later taken to that of religious affairs. And he did not resign since then until early 2009 when the Boko-Haram insurgence was coming to its peak that he had to resign from being a commissioner. And against the claims of the PDP chairman, no single staff of the ministry left with him because all the staff that formed the ministry were core civil servants drawn from various ministries in the state; and by the Grace of God, all the staff members of the ministry are still there up till date.

It might also spice the curiosity of logical minds to be reminded, the late Boko-Haram leader, Muhammed Yusuf, was in the past severally arrested and taken to Abuja over his incisive preaching and anti-government posture, and it was not news to many, that some eminent PDP personalities in Abuja were said to have granted him bail. So, the big question is in whose interest was Muhammed Yusuf being protected for that long?

THE POLITICAL KILLING;

Former Governor Ali Sheriff had in February, 2011, lamented that the Boko-Haram killings in Borno State had some political angles because most members of his party, including the former state chairman of the ANPP, Awagana Au Ngala was killed in early October, 2010, the party’s governorship candidate, Engineer Modu Fannami Gubio and some others were serially killed by unknown gunmen during the heat of the 2011 campaigns. But neither the PDP, nor any other person came up to dispute his claims as the selective killing continued unabated.  The killers had repeatedly stated that the insurgence in Borno would only come to an end if the ANPP government is toppled and another party’s candidate is installed. What else does one need to begin to doubt the fact that the insurgence in Borno does not have political influence? And even when the elections were over and a new government was put in place, the serial selective killing of ANPP members continued with the same tempo.

And surprisingly, even the state PDP chairman, Baba Basahru, couldn’t give a better explanation as to why only ANPP politicians were being killed when he admitted that “Boko Haram’s grudge was against Ali Sheriff. They were against Sheriff, his government, his party and his people, including the Bulamas, as well as warders and policemen whom they said killed their leaders.”

Gaji wrote from Bama road, new GRA, Maiduguri