Boko Haram, amnesty and expensive joke from the creeks (II)

Aliyu Musa

A major source of worry today is that the country is in a state of complete chaos. Those whose job it is to steer the country out of the troubled waters have either chosen not to do so or do not have the slightest clue of what to do. Otherwise, why should a handful of miscreants threaten the peace of the entire country and get away with it?

If Boko Haram is, as it is alleged, throwing bombs in Churches and killing Christians how will attacks on Mosques or targeting Muslim interests stop the attacks on Churches? Besides, there are several proofs that some of those bomb and arson attacks on Churches were actually carried out by disgruntled Church members or rival groups.

But because the most convenient thing is to always blame every Muslim for the crimes of a few deviants such evidence is quietly binned as if it never existed.

It remains to be seen whether they will, indeed, carry out the threat on Muslims and Mosques or not. But even if they attack Mosques and kill Muslims in droves it won’t solve the problem. It will only aggravate it, which is perhaps what those behind the threat are hoping to achieve. And rather than call them to order their mentors at the corridor of power will only be too happy to handsomely reward them with huge contracts.

In normal societies threats like those, irrespective of where they come from, are seriously treated. But in ours the leaders smile over them and dip their kleptomaniac fingers into public coffers to pay off thugs. It is the same abnormality that allows people that have indefatigably strove to undermine the peace to not rot away in jail but to keep coming back to threaten innocent people with violence if their preferred candidate does not win in the elections of 2015. It is this very idiosyncrasy that makes the president, who swore to defend the unity of country, to remain mute even when people close to him make treasonable comments.

If he pretends to hear or see nothing and allows just anyone to do as they like why should we blame those that ran berserk and bulldozed their way into Baga to mow down civilians simply because they suspect sympathy for Boko Haram insurgents among the people?

Long before Baga residents of Maiduguri, Damaturu and several other flashpoints have complained of military excesses that often led to innocent civilians’ killings. Fathers have told of how their homes were invaded and young men taken out and shot while they watched. Women have recounted the gory tales of armed, uniformed men shooting their husbands and sometimes raping them. I recently had a very traumatizing experience of watching a short documentary in which a little girl talked about her family’s ordeal in the hands of intruders who killed her father.

But nobody gets penalized for these crimes and so nobody gets justice for what they have been callously subjected to. Nonetheless, not all soldiers are as unruly as those responsible for some of the Human Rights abuses highlighted. Understandably, they are trying to tackle a very vicious but deceptive enemy who will not mind using civilians as shields, although such excesses are no excuse at all.

If this conflict is ever to be surmounted in the soonest future it will depend a lot on how much the president is able to sincerely assert his authority and heavily pass on the message to the military that their job is to tackle the problem and not magnify it. It also will be contingent on whether those at the leadership of the military are able to put a stop to this business of denial even when there is glaring evidence of their infamousinhumaneness in Baga and elsewhere or not. And most importantly it will be down to how much and how soon justice is given to all victims irrespective of whom they are. This will lay the foundation for peace talks, forgiveness, the healing process and peace building.

In the meantime no insurgents anywhere in the world with the sort of notorious sophistication the Boko Haram sect has attained will accept an invite to a dialogue they know is suicidal. They feel much safer staying out of reach and will continue bank on that until the government comes up with a strategy to turn the table. It is only then the government will be in a position to dictate when or how a dialogue can be had.

Postscript:

This article was published in the Blueprint newspaper of Friday May 10, 2013.