Boko Haram has struck once again, after not so long when it had struck again. In this latest strike, over 100 villagers in a Christian predominant Izghe farming village were slaughtered, their homes were burnt and stores looted. Re-inspired by the violence in the Central African Republic, the death vampire cult hopes to trigger such in Nigeria and pit Nigeria’s religious groups against each other to spill the blood it thirsts for. God forbid. The terror bandits reportedly drove in, in seven Hilux vehicles, according to eyewitnesses. This was not the first time terrorists drove freely in convoys within unprotected parts of our nation, operated for hours, killing, raping and burning, and then left, unscathed. They even dared to do so and shoot videos while doing it to our air force base in Maiduguri last December. For this to occur, something is seriously wrong… our civilian and military populations are ridiculously unsafe.
The two questions to ask are, why do we have such a brazen terror situation which continues to not only take innocent lives, but also destroy our economy and status, and why can we not combat it?
The answers to both are the same—money (greed) leads to this terror state and money (greed) ensures Nigeria is unable to reasonably abate the crisis and protect its citizens.
It was our politicians who invented and armed these terrorists as political thugs, to get in power and loot the commonwealth. The same thing happened in Borno State as well as in Rivers State. These politicians, the likes of a former Borno State governor, are still free men, thus validating that crime pays and terrorism is government policy. A former Peoples Democratic Party chairman who praised Boko Haram terrorists for being “freedom fighters,” is not only free, but also rewarded as chairman of a parastatal. The President has said he knows many other supporters and sponsors of Boko Haram terror.
Nigeria is officially under a terrorist government so long as the Goodluck Jonathan administration protects these terror sponsors; and there will be more deaths, there will be the creation of many more similar, new terrorist operations across Nigeria, especially leading up to the next round of elections.
How many innocent civilians and military men, women and children must be slaughtered before the Jonathan administration stops partying with the terror masterminds and arrests them? This government is dangerously incompetent and has woefully, painfully failed its people. We all know how ruthlessly the late Yar’Adua dealt decisively with the Boko Haram scourge, that the Obasanjo administration, with interests and greed much like the Jonathan administration was prior playing with. The other week, nine soldiers were killed. Just last week, over 100 civilians were killed. When will enough blood have been spilled for the Jonathan administration to get the balls to do the duty it swore to do—to protect the Nigerian people or to admit and quit in the interest of life? When will our treacherous lawmakers of all parties move forward with a democratic option to compel the President to execute the laws of the land and protect the people from economic and its derived violent terror? There is a White paper report chaired by Interior Minister Abba Moro, on the President’s table and the NSA’s table which listed those who established ECOMOG and now Boko Haram. The President had said he gave the go-ahead to act. When shall the NSA act on these evil men? What is the value of our lives to this administration?
Would Boko Haram still be as it is today, able to invade in convoys and burn and destroy for hours, un-accosted, if the NSA or the President was made to live in Bama or Baga? Fortified in Abuja and transported in bulletproof vehicles and with a dozen private presidential jets, these people do not even empathise with Nigerians any more when massacres occur.
The second money related aspect that has led to the entrenchment of terrorism in Nigeria is the poverty and oppression levels. Where there is wealth in the hands of the wrong and the reckless and there is poverty among the masses, there will be terror. Nigeria has 100 million destitute. Parts of the north have destitute levels between 75 and 85 per cent who live under a dollar a day and really have no shoes. Had these regions been autonomous, the people would have been in sync with their governments who would have understood, related with and served to maintain cohesion. However, being fed fat by Nigeria’s oil wealth, the so-called leaders in these parts as a part of the national political reckless cabal, used the nation’s wealth to create imbalance and rather than alleviating poverty, they colluded with those at the centre to further exploit the poor. The poor are exposed to the elements, stripped naked, exploited and armed by the cabal and ruinous political class.
The massive looting of Nigeria’s resources is directly responsible for the state of embedded terror today. Why does the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation under Diezani Alison-Madueke have kerosene sold to the people at N150 per liter, while claiming and keeping a subsidy on the 10 million litres sold per day at N40.9/litre, that enables the stealing of N100+/litre from the poor and desperate, through her handful of cabal portfolio middlemen marketers? With the subsidy scam that several political cabal have shares in, the Jonathan administration scams Nigerian masses of $10 million every day! This $10 million stolen daily would go a long way to curing terror in the North-East once and for all.
The looting of $10 million per day in the subsidy scam has continued and so has terror. $10 million looted everyday can buy 10 Armoured Personnel Carriers every day. In a recent barracks that was sacked in Borno State, complaints were made of there being only a single APC to defend the barracks. Most of the equipment Nigeria’s military still uses were purchased since the Shehu Shagari regime. The looting governments do not give a damn about equipping the military; rather they arm and equip terrorists to defend their political interests. This topsy-turvy running and ruining of the state is the reason why we are in the current predicament and our people are dying like chickens.
The $10 million the government steals everyday through the illegal subsidy scam could buy 500 drones everyday to ensure that the terrorists are spotted as they dare to drive their convoys into town, and the APCs can block their route and send them to the great beyond. But rather than stop stealing and protect the masses, these greedy officials will keep dipping their hands into the people’s pockets to steal N100 per litre of kerosene so their kids can fly around the world in private jets and flaunt money in public. Sadly, the Minister of Petroleum Resources has insolently insisted that she will continue the subsidy scam, regardless of presidential directive, which she says she can disobey.
$10 million stolen everyday in this scam can provide social security and welfare for the people in each state of Nigeria, starting from Borno, through the entire states, investing just one year, 12 days at a time, state-by-state. The people will be happy, victims of terror, kidnapping and armed robbery will be compensated; there will be security measures including police helicopters and drones to provide additional security and trace and track down terrorists and bandits, and Nigeria would be a happy land. But rather than do so, a handful of the ruining class, decide to steal this wealth which ultimately sponsors terror in Nigeria. The government is even so desperate; it steals from Almajiri’s (beggars) as has been exposed in the budget which includes Almajiri education projects with grossly inflated rates. (See: “Federal Ministry of Education has planned in its 2014 budget to spend N950 million on the construction of a single block of three classrooms” in an article: “Why steal in the name of Almajiris?” by M.U. Ndagi in Weekly Trust of February 8, 2014). And these are the Almajiris we are trying to support to dissuade their recruitment in terrorism.
The kerosene subsidy scam must stop yesterday! Those at the root of terror in Nigeria and all the middlemen marketers who aided and abetted the stealing of N100/litre from Nigerians for 10 million litres per day in this fourth kleptocratic republic must be arrested along with the above-the law minister. It is time to put an end to economic terror and the political environment of terror in Nigeria! It is enough. #NoToChancing
Dr. Brimah is National Coordinator, Every Nigerian Do Something, [email protected] Twitter: @EveryNigerian