The gospel, according to MEND

Days before MEND’s commendable statement, His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, had made a similar call during the closing ceremony of the Muslim Student’s Society’s 60th anniversary celebrations in Abuja. Advocating the need to sit and talk with Boko Haram as a step towards ending the insurgency, the Sultan had observed: ‘For […]

Days before MEND’s commendable statement, His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, had made a similar call during the closing ceremony of the Muslim Student’s Society’s 60th anniversary celebrations in Abuja. Advocating the need to sit and talk with Boko Haram as a step towards ending the insurgency, the Sultan had observed: ‘For some time people have been saying ‘no dialogue with terrorists’ and I asked why? There is nowhere in the world where force brought peace to any country. I have been around the world and I have seen it.’
And a few days before the Sultan’s timely advice, his co-chair in the Nigerian Inter-religious Council, NIREC, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, had called for a dialogue with the sect members as a means of securing the freedom of the 200-plus abducted school girls, while presenting a paper. Other clerics, both of the Muslim and the Christian faith have since been reported as echoing the same sentiments as these eminent representatives of the two sides.  What was surprising was how the government seemed adamant that there will be no dialogue to consider the prisoner exchange option. Until last Thursday that is.
During the Democracy Day activities of May 29th, President Jonathan suddenly said that he will consider dialogue with the sect but only under certain conditions. Surprisingly these are the same conditions that should be laid down before the so-called insurgents, in the course of a dialogue, not as a pre-condition for it. As if to belie the apparent good intentions of this conditional peace offer, the president went ahead to declare a ‘total war’ on terrorism and to instruct our armed forces to launch a full-scale operation against the terrorists. Can we afford such a step if we are interested in rescuing those girls alive?
But if we are confused by The President’s conflicting body language, that of his security chiefs isn’t any better. The chief of Defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh told journalists after addressing members of a new protest group in Abuja that they knew where Chibok girls were located. In his own words ‘The good news for the parents of the girls is that we know where they are but we cannot tell you.’ Explaining why they couldn’t rescue them immediately, the Air Force Chief said: ‘We want our girls back, our military can do it but where they are held can we go with force? Nobody should say Nigerian military does not know what it is doing. We can’t kill our girls in the name of getting them back.’
The General’s statement certainly offered a ray of hope for distressed parents and all concerned Nigerians that the girls had been located and efforts are being made to rescue them all safely. But two days later we heard that an all-out war has been declared in the same area with no regard for the fact these girls can get caught up in it and end up as collateral damage. Of course this destroyed the hopes that were raised in all of us. It is almost as if those shouting themselves hoarse over no prisoner swap have won the government’s ear, as such no other voice of reason will be heard or considered. If indeed the same Boko Haram which has been claiming credit for bombings and targeted assassinations in the country, is the one that conducted this recent abduction, do we think they will buckle under superior fire power (assuming our military has it) and release our Chibok girls? No, the one thing likely to happen is that they will put these girls in the line of fire and get them killed.
 So while we agonize endlessly over why government isn’t listening to eminent voices that are pushing the dialogue/prisoner swap option or why it is saying one thing and doing another, MEND came to our rescue with the reason our government seems more war-hungry than ready to negotiate peace. In the same statement quoted above, the movement said ‘From our experience, it is impossible for any forceful, commando-type rescue in forests or creeks to be successful. The Israelis encouraging such a move should understand that Sambisa forest is a different kettle of fish from Entebbe International airport.’
There, it’s been said. We have always known that Israelis are in charge of The President’s personal security, since the government had made no secret of it. What some of us didn’t know was that they are entirely in charge of security nationwide, including combating the insurgency. I mean the faces we see as protectors of our national sovereignty and the brains behind the country’s anti-terrorism efforts are those of our armed forces chiefs, General Aliyu Gusau Rtd and Colonel Sambo Dasuki Rtd. But after MEND’s declaration, which we must consider as the gospel-truth since no one has come forward to deny it, we now understand why our government is talking peace but waging war; refusing helpful hints and pursuing shadows and generally acting in contradictory ways since the abduction saga and even before it.
This is typical Israeli strategy – deceiving the populace in pursuit of a never-ending war.  Finally we know why despite all extra-ordinary measures, the insurgency is only escalating. We now know why the worst massacres happened under a security-tight emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. We are finally able to understand why the so-called insurgents move around in convoys of 20 or more cars, are always in army uniform and are able to operate for hours without anyone intercepting them. We also understand why otherwise peaceful areas of the country are all getting engulfed in crisis; how are a simple farmers/herdsmen clash now involves fighters dropping down from helicopters.
 When you put Israelis in charge of your security apparatus, they do things their way, not yours. They consider the gains to their security consultancy outfits, they consider the gains to their military industries and to their secret service agents, then they make sure the conflict drags on and on. The motto of their secret service is ‘By way of deception, you shall do war.’ And they always live up to it. So like MEND said, if we want this particular conflict to end we have to say ‘no’ to the Israelis. We have to fall back on our local content. Our government has to listen to voices of reason, otherwise the tears we have shed already are only the beginning, we will have reason to shed more in future.