Re: Boko Haram violence is depressing – Jonathan
On the other hand, one cannot help but wonder why the president appeared up the creek. Of course the JTF is at work, killing whoever it labels a member of Boko Haram, but since apparently it cannot solve the problem, should it be the only feasible solution? (It’s not even a solution anyway, because it […]
On the other hand, one cannot help but wonder why the president appeared up the creek. Of course the JTF is at work, killing whoever it labels a member of Boko Haram, but since apparently it cannot solve the problem, should it be the only feasible solution? (It’s not even a solution anyway, because it has failed to solve the problem – killing has never solved any problem anywhere unless when something else, like genocide, is intended).
Happily, the president had assured that “no Boko Haram or any group can frustrate the nation”. Relieving as the statement should be, the assurance seemed belated because the nation is already frustrated. What can be more frustrating than seeing multitudes of people dying every day of causes that are anything but natural? What can be more frustrating, at least for a patriotic leader than having his country’s universities closed for over three months at a time some unknown persons are fighting against western education? Is Boko Haram winning? Are the president’s advisers really telling him the truth? Are they not part of a plan (if there’s any) to frustrate his 2015 project (if he has any)? I believe they will do better finding a civilised solution to the strike than dissipating their energy looking for imaginary reasons for the strike. Their untenable hypotheses will only mislead the government in taking decisions that may not do either party any good.
The president is reported to have said during his recent media chat that the ASUU strike had become ‘politicised’. It will no doubt sound impolitic to say he was wrong, but certainly he wasn’t right. There’s hardly a government in Nigeria that hadn’t gone through ASUU strike, including military governments. Only if the demands of the union were met and it remained adamant to the calls to go back to work would it then be charged with ‘politicising’ the strike. But from what we are hearing from both sides, it is the government that seems interested in prolonging the strike.
If the menace of Boko Haram is depressing, and indeed it is, the government, by its stance on the ASUU strike, is impliedly supporting Boko Haram (that is, if the literal meaning of Boko Haram is “western education is forbidden”). The group’s war is now being fought for it by the government because as Nigerian students remain at home for over three months and likely for much longer, Boko remains Haram for them. And if the strike continues, the Boko Haram may recruit more followers from the frustrated ones among them while some may take to political thuggery.
My advice is that the president meets with ASUU leadership, because his personal intervention will make a lot of difference.
Abubakar Atiku Alkali, Lokoja Road, Sokoto, <[email protected]>;