Insecurity: After the retreat, who will surrender?
The retreat, held during the week at Le-Meridian Ibom Hotels and Golf Resort, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, was attended by President Goodluck Jonathan, who declared it open on Monday; House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal; Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima and his counterpart from Bayelsa State Henry Dickson Seriake as well as Sultan of Sokoto […]
The retreat, held during the week at Le-Meridian Ibom Hotels and Golf Resort, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, was attended by President Goodluck Jonathan, who declared it open on Monday; House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal; Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima and his counterpart from Bayelsa State Henry Dickson Seriake as well as Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, among others.
The retreat kicked-off with a fresh air of lamentation by President Jonathan, who said: “It is unfortunate that politics has become a major source of insecurity as evidenced in the do-or-die politics of some practitioners. Bitter and inflammatory statements, emanating from some politicians have, at different times in the history of this country, consumed thousands of innocent lives and threatened the foundations of our nation. Terrorism, which has become a global phenomenon, is now unfortunately a direct experience in this country. A faceless group of enemies of our democracy and prosperity have continued to carry out terrorist attacks on innocent people in our nation”.
The president, however, described the nation’s unity as a will of God and called for the cooperation of the three arms of government and a strong union of all Nigerians against terrorists.
Earlier, the host governor Akpabio, with a biblical allusion, lightened the mood of the audience by describing the retreat as divinely designed and likening it to a journey by troubled Israelites to a place called Gilgal where Prophet Samuel encamped in order to find solutions to their challenges. Akpabio ‘prophesied’: “After this retreat, the nation’s insecurity will become a thing of the past. So, you are all to welcome to Gilgal.”
Speaker Aminu Tambuwal said the havoc wrecked on the north by the insurgency is unacceptable. He burst: “The damage to the Nigerian economy, especially the dwindling fortunes of the North where most of this terrorism occur, is incalculable. This is even more worrisome against the backdrop of the vaunting poverty in the region, its industrial and infrastructural deficit. At a period when the region should be playing catch-up, its future is further being circumscribed by a ruthless orgy of violence that has continued despite all efforts. Ironically, the majority of the perpetrators of this unwarranted violence are northern elements and their immigrant collaborators.
“We need to re- examine our laws again to see if there are loopholes we can plug, and if there are more creative ways we can liaise with the other arms of government to bring synergy into the efforts to stop the unending state of violence. There appears to be a consensus that among many other causes, poverty and unemployment are some of the principal reasons for youth vulnerability to violence. We must safeguard the fundamental principles of our democracy against groups bent on anarchy, by all means. This nation is bigger than any group and cannot succumb to blackmail by any cabal operating under whatever guise.”
In Senate President David Mark’s view, poverty and unemployment are not justifiable factors for violence because “If every poor man in this country decides to be a suicide bomber, Nigeria strictly will not exist and if everybody who is unemployed turns out to be a suicide bomber, who is going to remain? I don’t think there is any country in the world where everybody is employed, but the government must create a conducive environment where most people would be employed. I think the issue is ideological and religious fundamentalism. I am not in any way a religious scholar, but just out of curiosity, I read a book the other day on the stand of Islam on suicide bombing and it is the same as the Christian stand. If you commit suicide, for the Christians, you are destined to hell and Islam has the same position. So, who are these preachers telling them that as a suicide bomber, you will go to heaven and meet 77 virgins; it is an uphill task to go and sleep with 77 virgins at the same time. I think there is something fundamentally wrong with all these teachings”.
Mark continued: “Already the hue and cry is that the north is not developed. Will the activities of Boko Haram solve this problem of development? The answer is no. So, we are shooting ourselves in the feet. The same people crying that under-development is in the north are, at the same moment, responsible for the subsequent under-development that is occurring there. The northern states have to think properly before the insurgency brings the north on her knees; a few selected cabals want to bring the north on her knees. If things are allowed to go on like this, it would encourage disunity and religious war because there is a limit to patience. Christian preachers have been appealing, and I have been almost at the forefront of appealing to Christians not to go for vengeance. But how long will they continue to listen to us? On the other hand, if Christians go out for vengeance, then the terrorists will have succeeded in what they want to do because they want to cause religious war. Again, we must continue to preach to people to leave vengeance to God, however hard it might appear.
“We must review the laws of terrorism to give more powers to the security agencies. Desperate times require desperate measures. At the moment, we cannot go by a mere rule of law. We must not be ashamed to seek external support and cooperation if we cannot handle the situation. The elders in the north, I ask: can they really stop this menace? If they cannot, let them say so because the impression at the moment is that there are some groups of northern elders who can stop it and who know what is happening. My candid opinion is that they cannot stop it and they don’t know what is happening. If they were involved at all at some time, they are now completely out of control, but if they are, I think it is proper they come out frankly to assist because Nigeria has to be one for northern Nigeria to exist. The way the exercise is going at the moment, if Boko Haram is not halted, it may result to the break-up of this country, God forbid”.
Borno State Governor Kashim, at a closed door session of the retreat, appealed for religious tolerance, saying “Nigeria cannot break up along religious lines. We must learn to live together. God who created us did not make a mistake. If he had wanted, he would have made it in such a way that we all practise one religion”.
The national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, in his own goodwill message, urged Nigerians to appreciate their differences and rise up against terrorists; while his Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) counterpart, Chief Bisi Akande, who linked the current insurgency to lack equity and social justice, urged the creation of a security advisory board to tackle what he called local crimes.
Rounding off the retreat on Wednesday, the Senate, in its 15-point resolutions, advocated the creation of special courts for terrorism crimes, the enactment of a law to monitor and regulate preaching, an intensified war against corruption, the entrenchment of good governance, the creation of employment opportunities and reduction of poverty and inequality as well as the strengthening of laws relating to insecurity and terrorism, among others.
Be that as it may, the questions on the lips of many are: Won’t the resolutions be cascaded into another trashcan of history? How soon will they be implemented? And most importantly, will the resolutions, if implemented, end the insurgency? Who will surrender after this retreat, Nigerians are eagerly waiting for the answer to this poser