Of Boko Haram, Ali Sheriff and the pen judges

Security operatives claim to be getting to the roots of the matter. There is no doubt that the security agencies have at their disposals many details about the situation, more than anybody else. They are in the best position to determine who is involved or not. While analysts, some of them highly respected for their […]

Security operatives claim to be getting to the roots of the matter. There is no doubt that the security agencies have at their disposals many details about the situation, more than anybody else. They are in the best position to determine who is involved or not. While analysts, some of them highly respected for their views appear judgmental and tend to target specific individuals; others seem to jettison basic principles of truth, fairness and justice in drawing erroneous conclusions. Many of our comments, especially from people outside security circles are often shallow and lack any investigative profundity. It is disturbing that some people are trying to divert attention from the real issues at stake.

I am particularly disturbed about the orchestrated calls by some people, especially in the media, for the arrest and prosecution of former Governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, for alleged complicity in the Boko Haram saga. The irony is that, Sheriff is perhaps the number one enemy of Boko Haram, being the one that curtailed their activities as governor of Borno state, when he outlawed the group. Available security reports indicate that Boko Haram started about fourteen years ago, six clear years before sheriff became Governor. It is also on record that the initial grouse of the group was Sheriff’s insistence for them to shed their militant approach to issues. It sounds unrealistic for the same person whom the world knows as tenaciously hated by Boko Haram to be fingered as the brain behind it.

Any attempts by people, especially those who influence media comments and analysis to sway public opinion, nay the attention of security operatives from the real issues and culprits, will be tantamount to a great disservice to Nigerians who are desirous of an end to the imbroglio, and the prosecution of actual offenders. Sheriff may have his many political enemies, but even his enemies can testify to the fact that, he was resistant to the Boko Haram sect, consequent upon which the whole crisis snowballed into violence. These political enemies have their friends in the media, and in the security circles, hence the recent attempt to portray Sheriff as a villain.

Recent events indicate that the worst of the situation, especially in Borno State may be over. There seems to be some level of reasoning even amongst adherents of the philosophy of Boko Haram to the effect that there is no justification in taking up arms against fellow citizens under the guise of vengeance against a perceived unjust system. That there are limited cases of targeted killings is somehow a positive development. What Nigerians are no longer in doubt about, is the fact that so many people have tended to use Boko Haram as an alibi to commit other forms of crime or even settle political scores.

I am aware that, in 2009, in the heat of the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno, Bauchi, Yobe and Gombe States, security reports had absolved the government and then governor of Borno State from any blames whatsoever in the Boko Haram palaver. A committee mandated to trace the origin of the sect, its manifestations, involvement of groups or individuals and to recommend ways of containing it and curtailing its spread, had given Sheriff a clean bill of health. Where some of the analysts and commentators got their facts to the effect that Sheriff had a hand in it is amusing. Far beyond that, there is the need to allow security operatives who seem to be on top of the matter to do their jobs without any attempt to cajole them into implicating people who may not have anything to do with Boko Haram.

In a very delicate matter like the Boko Haram insurgency, it is very dangerous for media men to allow their pens be used to pull down people for perceived reasons, or engage their hands in a vendetta war. The whole noise about Ali Modu Sheriff smacks of vain political battle that will not tend to do anybody any good. Since he left office, many tactics have been employed to rope him into one form of scandal or the other, just to possibly diminish his political profile. Security operatives have remained resolute not to play to the whims and caprices of people who want to undo others in order to gain political ascendency. The public has also remained reluctant to be dragged along in the seeming war of blames. Gone are the days it seems, when analysts and columnists form opinions and sale same to the hapless public without questions. The court of public opinion is growing in sophistication, and getting out of the vile control by a few people who enjoy access to airtimes or newspaper columns to vilify people for no just causes. The pens that liberate must not judge.

Bashir Kana wrote from Kakuri, Kaduna