Why Boko Haram crisis is unending
From President Goodluck Jonathan to the Minister of Defense, Dr Bello Halliru Mohammed; from the National Security Adviser, General Andrew Owoeye-Azazi to the former Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim, and from the Chief of Army Staff, General Azubuike Ihijerika to Vice President Namadi Sambo, there has been a common refrain about the insecurity in […]
From President Goodluck Jonathan to the Minister of Defense, Dr Bello Halliru Mohammed; from the National Security Adviser, General Andrew Owoeye-Azazi to the former Inspector General of Police Hafiz Ringim, and from the Chief of Army Staff, General Azubuike Ihijerika to Vice President Namadi Sambo, there has been a common refrain about the insecurity in the country. It is: Boko Haram will soon be a thing of the past. In spite of this constant promise, the Boko Haram crisis would not go away, three years after the controversial sect took a violent path in its battle against government. Why does the violence erupt in new dimensions every time there are indications that it has subsided? From street protests and attacks on government facilities; from attacks on security personnel to bomb attacks; from targeted killings to suicide bombings; from destruction of public schools and now to attack of the media. Under this atmosphere the face of terrorism in Nigeria has been difficult to unmask and the terrorists intractable in spite of reported arrests of their ring leaders and members in their hundreds. Why is it so?
A former Inspector General of Police, Mr Mike Okiro, whose wife, the late Mrs Hera, surprisingly died in shock after last Thursday’s bomb attack on ThisDay newspaper in Abuja, told Sunday Trust that the crisis persists, partly because of the lack of co-operation among security forces. He said, “If we don’t cooperate, we cannot achieve anything. We always want to prove superiority, saying ‘It’s I who has succeeded and others failed. We’re not doing anything good to the nation.”
Okiro said, “If State Security Service (SSS) operatives in a place like Mubi, get information about crime instead of telling it to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), write a report to the Director of SSS in the state, who writes a report to the Director-General of SSS in Abuja, the SSS passes it to the National Security Adviser (NSA). The NSA passes it to the Inspector General of Police, and the IGP passes it to the Commissioner of Police, Commissioner of police passes it to the DPO. By this time one or two weeks have gone and information has lost its value. What I’m advocating is, if an SSS operative in Mubi didn’t send information to SSS, but passed it to the DPO, and the DPO now does the administrative work professionally, there will be changes. The SSS operatives and the DPO should work together and they can take action within one hour, instead of waiting for two weeks.” The former IGP called on President Jonathan to call the security agencies to order and insist that they work together in order to tackle the crisis.
Responding to an allegation by the Boko Haram sect that they took the path of violence as a result of the extrajudicial killings of some of their leaders and members by security agencies, the former IGP said, “If you read the Criminal Code which operates in the South or the Criminal Code that operates in any part of Nigeria; if you read the constitution, the Police Force Order, and all the Statute books, they give reasons when and when not to apply fire arms. So, if the people who apply fire arms read these four books, and they still did what they are accused of doing, then they should explain why they didn’t abide by the statute.”
He described as unfortunate, the situation in which the ordinary Nigerian does not have confidence in the police, and therefore, is hesitant in giving vital intelligence information to the security agency. Former IGP Okiro explained this by sharing his experience thus: “When I was Commissioner of Police in Lagos, I got information boxes which were distributed to police stations, banks, bus stops and I got tremendous assistance from the information boxes. I told people to give information without putting their names and addresses, by just dropping it in the boxes and that assisted me very much.” He explained that without information from the public, it would be difficult for the police to trace mischief makers and make the kind of arrest that would halt violence, adding that “any state that wants peace should equip the police and everything that is done in their name remains in the state.”
On his part, an elder statesman from Borno State, Dr Shettima Ali Munguno, a former minister in several capacities insisted that without dialogue with the Boko Haram elements, it would be difficult to find a lasting solution to the spate of violence in many parts of Northern Nigeria. In an interview with Sunday Trust, Shettima Munguno reiterated his previous arguments about dialogue, saying: “I have already publicly said it that government should not run away from dialoguing. Government, first of all, came out and said they would not dialogue with terrorists. Well, if those (in the Niger Delta) were described as militants why should the northerners creating these problems be termed as terrorists?”
According to him the impossible demands by the Boko Haram group, including the imposition of Shariah in many states of the North ought not to deter government from negotiating with the group. He argued thus: “Demands, of course! Every single Nigerian has a right to demand whatever it is of his or her choice. (Nigerian) constitution, I don’t believe, forbids him or forbids her from doing that. Whether or not his demand is acceptable to the generality of the people through democratic process would be a different matter. Our constitutional lawyers should look into that. And that is why I insisted, by begging government, not to run away from dialoguing.”
Dr Shettima Monguno would not accept the perspective that the group is faceless: “it is not the question of Boko Haram coming out. Ask the same government which at first refused to talk to Boko Haram whom they described as terrorists. We begged them (government) individually and collectively, publicly and many people spoke in favour of dialoguing. The government at last agreed to dialogue. I am sure you know, just as I know that they have started, they showed up to talk but there was a breakup! The judge (Dr Datti Ahmed) said the federal government, to their (Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria) mind wasn’t serious. I heard the judge used the word ‘serious’. So, government would have to look at it again. In fact, I spoke again that they (government and Boko Haram) must come back and resume dialoguing because the road to peace should not be felt too long.”
The elder statesman expressed further misgiving on the activities of soldiers in the state. According to him, “I was among those people who first came out and asked the government to withdraw the soldiers who were brought here (Maiduguri) to create peace but went and worsened the situation by not actually doing what their leaders told them to do. In other words, the soldiers were not supposed to come and just walk into peoples’ houses at night and during the day confiscating jewelleries, creating havoc, breaking shops and looting. We raised alarm here. We said that we are no longer in war. And government at first wasn’t really quite sure what the soldiers were doing was wrong. But then government itself set up a committee which went into the northern states and produced a report.
Then here again, government decided to bring them (Boko Haram) to the table and started talking. Dialogue started but dialogue broke down.
We appealed again as I am appealing now to the government that the road to peace should be followed, no matter how long it will take…peace should be the end and this country needs peace today more than ever before and the federal government should accept the responsibility squarely that there is a federal system of government that is democratic and there is a government which we inherited as indivisible Republic of Nigeria.”
Justice Mamman Nasir, in his postulation of the way out of the crisis, went down memory lane. “Initially we made a mistake in how to deal with that particular sector,” he told Sunday Trust. “There were many sects before that (Boko Haram). When Europeans were coming into this country newly, there was this man called Mallam Isa Usatiru. He rebelled, but he was conquered. We have made the (Boko Haram) situation a relevant problem. If we had dealt with the problem early enough, it would not have taken us so long to address it squarely.”
He added that, “Many people have recommended that there should have been full inquiry into what happened in Maiduguri, Yobe, Jos and so on. Even in the Niger Delta, the crisis was seen as a political problem. This crisis is more political than religious. So what we have to do even now is to sit and discuss with whomsoever we can and see what we can get out of that particular situation. Government has to look at all those places where there is crisis and ask why there is trouble. Why are the people not obeying government? It is only then that we can find a solution to the problem. But the ordinary man must have confidence in the leadership of the country before he can give government the best advice. At the moment, our problem is fear. Everybody is afraid of saying what he knows because he would be the first person to be arrested, so why do you offer yourself for arrest?”
The first step to ending the crisis, according to Justice Nasir, is dialogue. “We have to do our best by going for dialogue. You have to do it publicly. Tell the people what they ought to do, but be honest with them. Even if a person has committed a crime, the best solution is not just to arrest him. No. You could use him to get to the bottom of the matter, and in finding solution to the problem. That’s what we have refused to do. Until we do that, this thing will continue to happen”
Making reference to how the Niger Delta violence was brought to an end, Justice Nasir said, “The Niger Delta militants are still saying they are on their own after the billions of naira which have been spent to resettle them. But in the North, we have bullets worth billions of naira to settle a similar problem. We have to be careful about what we are doing; we have to respect the ordinary man.”
The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Dr AbdulLateef Adegbite said that as long as the Boko Haram sect continues to have access to weapons, it would be difficult to quell the kind of violence that has created confusion in the country.
Dr Adegbite expressed his fears thus: “What worries me is how they continue to have access to weapons, bombs, guns and so on. This surprises me and I felt security agents must work hard and cut them off from having access to those lethal weapons. In other words, they feel they will not give up until their members are released and unfortunately they continue to have access to weapons. These I think are what have been helping to prolong the very unfortunate security threat and challenge.”
He said the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs remains helpless in dealing with the violence because the sect is faceless. “We don’t know the Boko Haram people, they remained faceless. We can only appeal to both parties, we don’t have the executive capacity to deal with the situation. We can only appeal to federal authorities to be compassionate and magnanimous. No matter what happened, they are Nigerians so, they should dialogue with them and we will continue to also appeal to the Boko Haram members that in the interest of the of the nation they should give up arm rebellion and cooperate with the federal government. Whatever their demands are, the ones that government can deal with now they will deal with them and maybe later they will look into other demands. I know government can as well deal with this issue the way the Niger-Delta crisis was dealt with. That is our position.”
He emphasised that the Islamic organisation has repeatedly condemned the ongoing violence and disassociated the group from Boko Haram activities: “We can never tolerate violence. We said it clearly that we disowned them. Islam is not a religion of violence, our religion is a religion of peace and in any way we cannot compromise that. We are not sympathetic to their methods but we are ready to look at their grievances and we believe government must be ready to dialogue with them. We understand the genesis of Boko Haram, a group of people came together they said they want to change the society, they feel they did not gain anything from the western civilization which we embraced therefore, they want a return to Islamic way of life which was in existence when the British came but when they colonized us they imposed the western way of life which was heavily Christian. So, they felt the western education has not benefited them. Of course, they are wrong. Western and Islamic education can go hand in hand. I have western education and Islamic education. I have benefited from both so they are wrong to say western education is forbidden or is a sin because even the prophet of Allah said we should seek knowledge anywhere in the world even as far as to China.
If our prophet [SAW] said we should seek knowledge from other people who are not Muslims, I don’t see anything wrong with western education. In any case, if they said they have not benefited from western ways of life and the dividend of western democracy well, I think they are entitled to their opinion and in a democratic Nigeria they can package such opinion and make it a political issue and if people support them by way of voting them good.”