Lessons from Boko Haram terror

The testimony however was that the good Lord was on hand to deliver me from what would have been sure death. I set out from Abuja with my immediate younger brother, Mike, on our way to our village, Gakem, in north Cross River State to cast our vote the next day in the presidential election […]

The testimony however was that the good Lord was on hand to deliver me from what would have been sure death. I set out from Abuja with my immediate younger brother, Mike, on our way to our village, Gakem, in north Cross River State to cast our vote the next day in the presidential election scheduled for that weekend and to enjoy Easter with our folks and thereafter return to our base in Abuja.  Somewhere in Adikpo, Benue State, less than 20 kilometres to our destination, we ran into a crude road block of assorted tree trunks, tyres and stones mounted by thugs who said they were protesting against the rigging of the Benue governorship election held a few days earlier which they alleged had denied their man Paul Unongo of the then All Peoples Party (APP) of sure victory.
Once they saw us in a car bearing a federal government number plate, they rejoiced that the devil had so graciously delivered their enemies into their hands. Being in a car with such a plate number, they concluded that we must be members of, or were sympathetic to, the ruling PDP which they held responsible for robbing Unongo of victory. I was driving. They dragged me out of the car and started slapping and kicking me; raining blows, clubs and stones on me as if they were practicing the sport of kick-boxing on me. Their intention was to kill me and set the car ablaze.
I witnessed a sure miracle that day because an angel in the form of a tall, beefy and heavily bearded man emerged from the crowd, approached and took hold of me with his left hand and was shielding me from some of the blows with his right. He dragged me to enter the car, stood guard and was continually fending off the fiery darts of blows targeted at me. I succeeded even in that state of mind to start the car and sped away to safety. As soon as I was out of harm’s way I had the presence of mind to ask God in an accusatory manner why he allowed me to face such a situation of near death. Eleven years later, I can still recall vividly hearing the voice of God tell me, ‘’if I did not allow this to happen to you, how would you know that I indeed save those I want to save?’’.
Since that experience, each time something that in human eyes looks like a tragedy befalls me or a group or someone close I know, I always ask God, ‘’Lord, what lessons am I or are we or is he or she to learn from this seeming misfortune?’’ Either at that instance of my inquiry or a few days later or sometimes many weeks later, God will reveal the lessons to me. The trouble with many people is that they are usually too carried away by pain, panic or self-pity to remember to ask if there is a higher purpose or some good in the tragedy that so troubles their soul. For me, however, it has become my tradition not to react to seeming tragedies with a feeling of self -pity or to develop a victimhood complex or want to trade blames or even accuse God of being uncaring. My mind is usually set on unveiling the hidden useful lessons because I believe that God sometime uses tragic situations to wake us from our stupor. Otherwise, we will not be willing to wake up.
Given this my philosophical belief, what then do I think are some of the lessons Nigerian must learn from BH campaign of terror? From our responses so far my fear is that we are likely to miss the many lessons we ought to learn from the dastardly activities of this group which in the past five years have bought us a harvest of tears and pains.
BH war has caught us flat footed. It has glaringly exposed the fact that as a country with some pretension for greatness, we do not realize that those who are destined for greatness must contend with challenges and be proved before they can wear the crown of greatness.
Some of the measures so far taken such as ineffectual checkpoints, partial paralysis of government through the ordered shut- down of the Federal Capital city some days ago for the World Economic Forum, the porosity of our borders and the lack of any tangible or meaningful efforts to address that fact over fifty years after independence, our inability to work out a policy that will guarantee that our neighbouring countries will be ready to co-operate with us to ensure our stability and many more, all prove that we never expected that we will face foreign enemies not to talk of domestic ones. We have been very naïve. We just b existed solely by the grace of God. We have not been living consciously, aware that we need to do something to guarantee our national safety and security. The BH affliction is telling us that we enjoy God’s grace quite alright but the time has come for us to take concrete human action to safeguard our nationhood. This BH threat is just a test. More trials are coming to build us up to be champions of Africa and the Black race.
As I can see clearly, the number one useful lesson we must learn from the BH insurgency is that we must go back to the drawing board and evolve a coherent security policy that will guarantee our safety and security. So far, there is no coherent national policy in which the people are mobilised to contribute to national and security.
The government itself is unprepared for any security challenge of some magnitude. See how easily we panic and crumble when a little security threat stares us in the face. The other day when there was a problem on the Lokoja Bridge linking the north and south, Nigeria was effectively divided for the days that the problem lasted, an indication that no ones in the intelligence services are building scenarios about possible threats and how to contain them. Any time a threat issues forth, the government of Nigeria appears as confused and as bewildered and helpless as its citizens.
There is also the issue of the training of our law enforcement agents. It looks like they are not trained to see the people as allies in the fight against crimes but as enemies who must be harassed and humiliated. This explains why they behave like an occupation army. Give them an excuse to be anywhere in the name of securing peace and they will take it as an opportunity to molest, humiliate and inconvenience innocent citizens. At many checkpoints, you see them asking citizens to frog jump or to dismount from their motorcycles or bicycles, carry their loads on their heads and to walk pass their checkpoints as if such citizens have become prisoners of war. They do not seem to realize that no security force no matter how powerful can win any war without the active and enthusiastic co-operation of the ordinary people. Boko Haram menace has taught us a big lesson that our men in uniform or without need urgent retraining on how to cultivate the goodwill of the citizenry in order to more ably engage them in the task of national security.