Re: Boko Haram: Making Sheriff a scapegoat

It is really unfortunate that any observer, no matter how deeply compromised, would attempt justifying the senseless and brutal manner the sect leader, Muhammed Yusuf was extra judicially killed, on the altar that doing so would ‘morally weaken his followers who were determined to overrun the government of Borno state’. This is a very irresponsible, […]

It is really unfortunate that any observer, no matter how deeply compromised, would attempt justifying the senseless and brutal manner the sect leader, Muhammed Yusuf was extra judicially killed, on the altar that doing so would ‘morally weaken his followers who were determined to overrun the government of Borno state’. This is a very irresponsible, laughable and motor park reasoning because those of us that had seen this war unfolded before our very eyes did not have the faintest inkling that the sect had the wherewithal to overrun even a local government headquarters, not to contemplate a whole state. They had carried a few guns alright, but the armour of the rag-tag sect members was just full of knives and arrows and I wonder how the Nigerian state, with about the best fighting army in Africa, would have been overwhelmed or overrun by these boy scouts.

Bwala also got it wrong when he said that those searching for scapegoats “have been shifting blames to the state governors where there were records of Boko Haram activities. How come then one of such governors, Bauchi’s Isa Yuguda openly aimed an arrow at the direction of his Borno state counterpart for dithering and irresponsible leadership? To our knowledge, no other governor, apart from Sheriff, got the stick for his inability to respond appropriately to nip it in the bud. Ali Sheriff has, by his conduct before and after the carnage, demonstrated his culpability in the way and manner the sect came into being, his open romance with the leaders of the sect as was manifest with the involvement of one of his top commissioners and the haste with which Yusuf, his 75-year-old father- in- law, Baba Fugu and the ex-commissioner, Buji Fai were summarily executed allegedly on the orders of the governor ostensibly to silence them from spilling the beans.

The army has, mercifully exonerated itself from the criminal killings, but the police, who could be working in tandem with the governor, have continued to bear the brunt of criticisms of men and women of goodwill and conscience the world over for their poor handing of the crisis. Is it surprising that Bwala is about the only person who sees things differently? When Bwala said that Ali Sheriff “may not be my hero’’; that may well be in the past.

It is also preposterous to suggest that the fault of containing the crisis was more with the higher authority than they were with the state government. This is neither here nor there. The whole problem started in Bauchi and it took Isa Yuguda few hours to get across to the presidency with an update of the situation, got the go ahead to use troops and within a further 12 hours, all the Boko Haram elements were rounded up and dealt with. The truth is that Ali Sheriff is perhaps incapable of appreciating problems and coming up with measures required to deal with them. And if the excuse to Sheriff’s inaction is to be based on ‘whether as governor and supposed chief security officer Sheriff has powers to order the police and the army to move against the late Yusuf and his followers’ as Bwala argued, then we truly have a very big problems in our hands. We‘ve had a number of flashpoints in the country and each of them was crushed by a joint operation of the army and the police. How did other governors manage to get the soldiers to intervene? Why didn’t Ali Sheriff resort to the same route to save over a thousand lives that perished needlessly? And why did Ali Sheriff toy with the overtures of Isa Yuguda who called Sheriff severally in order to coordinate and harmonise action? The capacity and ability to rise beyond the ordinary, source for solutions under tight operating situations and still manage to look unruffled is what makes a leader. These traits are the very virtues that make people like Isa Yuguda different from the Sheriff’s of this world.

The case of Buji Fai is a different kettle of fish altogether. Fai has always been a recluse and Ali Sheriff knew before hand his involvement with the sect. He tolerated him on end because, at first, he was playing the Sheriff political card of romancing with Muhammed Yusuf to make some political capital out of his group’s rumoured numerical strength.  When Buji was arrested in his forest abode in Damboa by security men, they first took him to the government house where he was made to sit at the back of a pick- up van with hands tied at the back. He appeared unkempt, bruised and dusty and when he gestured to say something to on lookers including top government functionaries who watched from a safe distance, he was told to either keep mute or risk being shot. I have it on good authority that Buji was trying to divulge the fact that he acted on the prodding of the governor.

 Again, the 75-year-old father- in- law to the late Yusuf, Baba Fugu was also killed under controversial circumstances. It has been confirmed by the presidential committee set up to investigate the circumstances leading o the extra-judicial killings that Baba Fugu reported himself to the police and pleaded not guilty of any association with the sect leader. But he was killed!

Of course, the Boko Haram leader wished Sheriff dead and his angst could be deduced from his daily sermons of hate against the governor. But the hate wish started only when Sheriff realised the violent tendencies of the group and decided to keep an arm’s length. Those who have kept records of Yusuf’s riles against the governor can testify that even Buji Fai became a risk to the governor only when it dawned that the sect will one day clash with the authorities and thus constituted a nuisance to the government. Even a toddler in Borno can tell you that if you appear to be a man of the people with a large followership, then you are a potential millionaire because Sheriff will come rushing at you with bags full of cash. He noticed that the late Yusuf had the kind of following any politician will envy and that was the butter that got Sheriff glued o the idea of courting them. So, the governor and the sect parted ways only when the governor distanced himself on the impulse that the sect will land him into trouble. But that was after he had funded them and romanced with their leadership through Fai.  Ali Sheriff deserves our pity.

Ahmed writes from Maiduguri and can be reached on [email protected]