If I came back this way again (II)

First, the bombs boomed again in Kaduna and Zaria. Many churches were bombed, leaving hundreds dead and many hundreds more in critical conditions of injury. There was an instant reprisal attack, leaving many more deaths strewn on the streets of Kaduna, compelling Government to impose a dawn to dusk, dusk to dawn curfew. Similarly, gun […]

First, the bombs boomed again in Kaduna and Zaria. Many churches were bombed, leaving hundreds dead and many hundreds more in critical conditions of injury. There was an instant reprisal attack, leaving many more deaths strewn on the streets of Kaduna, compelling Government to impose a dawn to dusk, dusk to dawn curfew. Similarly, gun attacks and bomb explosions left Damaturu in disarray—as residents flee the town in droves to take refuge in other States. Over fifty people were killed. The Damaturu prison was attacked, leading to more loss of lives and the release of many inmates. Again, the temporary measure adopted is a 24-hour curfew imposed by the State Government of Yobe. To all of this mortal violence, raising the mounting scale of national insecurity, there is yet to be a focused and well-articulated national response, besides appeal for national unity and concerted effort against Boko Haram.  Various theories have been canvassed in determining the causative factor(s) of this protracted upsurge of insurgency in the northern part of the country, with it reverberations in the southern part of the country.

The most intensively orchestrated of these theories are the geo-political and religious perspectives. One, that politicians groaning under the yoke of electioneering defeat began the violent dimension of insurgency, through the agency of Boko Haram. In other words, politicians are sponsoring the Boko Haram insurgency. A second leg of this political reading of insurgency is that it is a manifestation of the north’s political elite’s displeasure with the power ascendancy of Goodluck Jonathan, especially with the disregard of the so-called zoning ‘agreement’. The argument goes on to state that if the country becomes ungovernable, with particular reference to the north; if there is violence and insecurity, how will good governance happen and what will be the rationale for Jonathan seeking a second term come 2015? All these political explanations for the gradual destruction of our nation cannot hold water. There can be no reason good enough for throwing the Nigerian baby away with the birth-water.  If the region is completely pulverized, what will be available to govern or reclaim when the election game is open again?

An equally canvassed theory is the religious one. In spite of valiant effort to play down  the religious motivations of Boko Haram, it has been made more difficult by the incessant attacks on churches in the northern parts of the country, with massive mortal implications; from Bauchi to Jos, Kano to Abuja, the bomb attacks on churches has been unrelenting.  Genuine Islamic faithfulls have, of recent, denounced the Boko Haram onslaughts on churches, dissociating Islam from the motivation of the sect, contrary to the sects own claims that it was/is  trying to purify Islam from the pollution that it considers Western education, thoughts, including Christianity, to constitute. The protracted nature of these attacks on Christian worship spaces makes the denunciations unpersuasive. This is even more problematic when the occasional attempt by the Christian sector of the north to retaliate ( which must be commended for having thus far resisted the temptation of retaliation, an action which could have compelled or ignited a religious war, which a nation can hardly survive), was met by governments order of shoot on sight. After that, government back goes to  sleep, waiting for the next attack on another set of churches. Certainly, there is urgent need to arrest these rampant attacks on churches, so that it could be feasible to summon a united Nigerian front against Boko Haram, as the appeal by the President and the northern elite have begun to canvass. A situation in which universities have become vulnerable targets of Boko Haram attacks, with worship places in them being assailed with numerous deaths recorded, cannot help quell the religio-genic theory of the insurgency.

Nigeria cannot afford another war, talk less of a religious one. When a solution is being found to the Boko Haram insurgency, there is an urgent need to demystify the growing religious fanaticism in our country, which is essentially a multi-religious nation and whose secularity must be amplified. The situation in which known thieves hide under religion to perpetrate their roguery, without reprisal, must stop. All these surface shows of religiosity, without any manifestation  of the true tenets of  religion of love,  compassion and humane virtues are unhelpful. Noise pollution on the road and in the middle of the night does not equate piety. Religious intolerance and hypocritical fawning on religion, while secretly engaging in unwholesome and inhuman dealings, have become the bane of religion in our country. A small country like Guinea leaves a shining example for us to follow. With 85% Muslim population with less than ten per cent Christian, there is no emphasis of religious dominance in the lives and attitudes of   the citizens. In fact, I was shell-shocked to find most of the shops in the city of Conakry shut on Sunday, while they were all open on Fridays, except for hours of prayer.

Now, another grave obstacle to  our nation’s development is the endemic and hydra-headed nature of corruption. The way things stand, the pervasiveness of corruption in our national life wreck the dream of our nationhood. Any time there is a ray of hope that some exemplary characters are about to show us the way out of the woods, then something snaps and we are back in the miasma. Just imagine the recent experience from the Lower House of our Legislature. You find palpable effort to attack corruption by House Committees. Then you find its very leaders wrecking the chance. The ironic twists here are so spirit-dampening. First, Hembe, then, most sadly, Farouk Lawan. Everybody that I have met and spoken to about the miracle happening in the House of Representatives, with the investigations of the fuel subsidy palaver hero-worships Lawan. He has almost become a folk- hero with his findings and revelations of the rot and his courageous action. The whole country was at his feet, and everyone is calling on government to implement his findings.  Lawal has been elevated to the status of an icon on integrity—not just because he chaired the ad-hoc movement on integrity, but because of the way he has defied all corruption beckoning of culprits of the Petroleum subsidy scam. Then, all of a sudden, came the collision of the twain—the clash of the titans—the diesel giant, Femi Otedola and the icon of integrity, Farouk Lawan. Otedola  came out with the jolting news that 3 million dollar bribe has been demanded to help exclude his company’s name from the list of those involved in the subsidy reimbursement fraud. And then, backed by video show ((I did not watch the video), Otedola reported the police and secret service. Armed with marked $620,000 notes, scenes of bizarre payment to Lawan emerged. Now that Lawan admitted collecting the money, ostensibly to serve as evidence of Otedola’s attempt to bribe him, without informing his Committee or the house, he had left the initiative of reportage to Otedola. As has been argued, why did Lawan not hand over his ‘exhibit’ or ‘alibi’ to the EFCC, the way Nuhu Ribadu took the $15m he collected from James Ibori to the CBN? Both men, Otedola and Lawan, no matter how the matter is resolved, have lost the popular acclamation of heroism that they may have briefly enjoyed-especially Lawan, for Otedola could hardly  ever have been described as a people’s hero.

In the end, insecurity and corruption are two key obstacles to the realization of the Nigeria of our dreams. So is the crass absence of visionary and committed leadership. But, in spite of these debacles, Nigeria is still my choice of nationhood—if I came this way in the next world.

(Concluded)