Don’t reward impunity

And suddenly there was peace in place of perpetual disquiet; and from the general reaction of people, it was clear that people in the North, especially in the North East, had forgotten the meaning of peace and had gone on to doubt whether and how it could ever return to this tortured and tormented society-a […]

And suddenly there was peace in place of perpetual disquiet; and from the general reaction of people, it was clear that people in the North, especially in the North East, had forgotten the meaning of peace and had gone on to doubt whether and how it could ever return to this tortured and tormented society-a society that was being slowly but surely killed by its own government, by the resignation and fear sowed in the hearts and minds of otherwise brave people, by the seeming indifference of unaffected countrymen.
But nothing brings a matter like the Boko Haram insurgency to conclusion faster than decisiveness and the political will to end-and especially the fact of non-complicity, and the independence conferred by it on a new administration. A few weeks of decisive action has already brought the insurgency to its knees apparently.
It has been reported that Abubakar Shekau, head of the Boko Haram terror group has been replaced as its leader but it is unclear whether the replacement was necessitated by his death or by an internal ouster. According to Chadian President Idriss Deby, Shekau has been replaced by another Boko Haram deputy who is ready to begin peace talks with the Nigerian government. Deby said the group could be finished within the year and he counseled that Nigeria should not take up the offer of negotiations.
“For my part,” he said, “I would advise not to negotiate with a terrorist.” And Deby is right: nobody commits deliberate willful murder-not to talk of wholesale massacres-and be saved by any kind of negotiation.
And it is a phenomenon that is still ill-understood, though the time may come when the nation will know the truth. At his inauguration, the president has spoken of the need to conduct a thorough sociological analysis into the phenomenon-its origin, its remote and immediate causes, its foreign and domestic connections, its sources of sustenance, reasons behind its resilience and how to end it for good. But punishment must come before understanding.
Boko Haram is terror specie of unknown, or, more correctly, befuddled pedigree, with foreign inspiration, foreign infiltration, domestic foot soldiers, official complicity and even outright sponsorship that has grown beyond the imagination or control of its Western, Middle Eastern and local sponsors. It is a phenomenon ill-understood by Christians and misunderstood by an even greater percentage of Muslims. And that fact that it is known as an Islamist insurgency gives its non-Muslim sponsors a natural cover.
The spate of church-bombings with which it announced its birth was clearly meant to trigger a Muslim-Christian war that will have broken up the North and ultimately Nigeria. According to Australian negotiator Dr. Stephen Davis, ‘it’s no longer a case of Muslims purifying by killing off Christians. [If it ever was] They are just killing indiscriminately, beheading, disembowelling people-men, women and children and whole villages.’
It has been suspicion galore since it reared its head; but with a complicit officialdom, the truth can never be known. Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, a former governor of Borno State, who is a close ally of Deny, had been accused of sponsoring Boko Haram, an allegation he had always denied. When President Jonathan visited Chad last year, Sheriff was one of those in Deby’s entourage that welcomed the Nigerian president.
So thick indeed was the suspicion against the government of the day and many associated with it that at one point, President Goodluck Jonathan found it necessary to declare that he was not a sponsor of Boko Haram. On campaign tour in Adamawa State, he replied those who have accused him of being behind the insurgency in the state. “Only mad people will accuse me of executing such dastardly act against his people,” Jonathan said; and added that he had no reason to sponsor or benefit to derive from the killing of children, women and the aged.
Who can forgive all this? Who is there to wipe the tears of orphans, or ameliorate the pain of widows thrown into the destitution of living friendless and alone? Who will compensate for all this destruction? Who will compensate Borno of this enforced backwardness or the loss of its Quránic madrasahs, or the toll on its scholars, or the loss of its illustrious sons and daughters, or the decline of its commerce? Who will condole and soothe the Christians who braved and lost kin in the terrible carnage? Who will compensate the bad name given to Islam?
This nation must punish the guilty. And, accordingly, the Borno Elders Forum has urged the Federal Government to constitute a high-powered judicial commission of inquiry into the equipment and supply of arms and ammunition to the military to fight Boko Haram insurgency in the North East sub-region of the country, in order to unravel the remote and immediate causes of the six-year superiority of the Boko Haram over the Nigerian Army end insurgency in the North East. The forum ought to have also called for an inquiry into its creation and sustenance.
Chairman of forum, Ambassador Gaji Galtimari said it demands for a full judicial commission of inquiry to ask the President Goodluck Jonathan “questions on why his administration refused to provide the military with the required functional and superior equipment; while our sons and daughters were exposed to mass murder, severe injuries and grave destructions of our communities.”
Unfortunately, while punishing the guilty will give this nation its deserved catharsis, it will not necessarily end Boko Haram permanently; because even if the inquiry points out foreign sponsors, the potential remains within an Islamic corpus that can be abused by another ignoramus.
Obviously, Boko Haram will rise again so long as no criterion is developed for qualification to work as an Islamic preacher. This criterion should only be drawn up by a Council of Ulama, composed of the true scholars of the faith. In this the ulama must learn to live in this modern world of organization, of information technology and methods; and drop the terrible image they have given Islam of dishevelled backwardness, dirt, begging, obscurantism, or unkempt shabbiness. They must enforce the requirements of scholarship and allow only those with a certain level of unhurried erudition to be the spokesmen of Islam. How odd indeed that a religion founded on knowledge and spread by its light is today led and misled at will by men of unimpeachable ignorance!
Only in Nigeria can every Tanko, Tukur, Madu and Nda wake up in the morning and buy a loudspeaker-and he is in business as a preacher and a Sheikh! But before this nation stops him-and it should do this as quickly as possible-he should be made to taste the consequences of his actions in a way that is painful and exemplary.
 
[A Stranger in the World -To celebrate your birthday or be happy with your life is to befriend the world anew, but while you are at it, it is good to remember to live in this world as if you don’t matter, though you do; and leave the world as if it doesn’t matter, and, indeed, it doesn’t; but always make sure you live in it and leave it as a stranger, because that is exactly what you are.]