Permit me to begin this contribution
with a mild criticism of those senior citizens and distinguished personalities
that are making passionate appeals to the family members of Boko Haram. I am
not one of those that supports the making of such appeals simply because I do
not believe that they will or can possibly succeed.
Furthermore I do not trust those that
approached President Olusegun Obasanjo and initiated those moves and I do not
think that an appeal to the families of Boko Haram members is in any way
helpful. As a matter of fact it could make matters worse because it shows
desperation and weakness.
To make matters worse such appeals
give immense pleasure to Boko Haram themselves and feeds their deep-seated and
insatiable appetite for sadism and cruelty. They do not have the milk of human
kindness in them and neither do such creatures react to gentle appeals. I say
this because they are hardline islamist terrorists that are totally committed
to destroying everything that we stand for and hold dear in this country.
Simply put they have gone beyond the realms of reason and rationality.
They are ruthless jihadists and they
are committed to the destruction of the secular state, to the abrogation of our
most basic civil liberties and human rights, to the waging of a global jihad
and to the creation of a new islamic caliphate where full sharia law holds sway
and where christianity and all other forms of religion, except for their own
perverse understanding and interpretation of islam, are banned. They also wish
to change our way of life and impose their will on us through violent and
barbaric means.
People that are so debased and that
have such little regard for human life and values are hardly likely to listen
to appeals from their so-called family members and former Heads of State whom
they probably secretly despise. I have nothing but the greatest respect and
affection for President Olusegun Obasanjo but frankly I think that he has
misunderstood the nature of the problem and the nature of those behind Boko
Haram.
You do not offer carrots to beasts.
His efforts to intervene in the Boko Haram issue have failed before with tragic
consequences for those he met with in Maiduguri a couple of years ago and they
are bound to fail again. Another group of people that are not helping matters
are the so-called ”northern elders”. Their suggestion of amnesty for and
negotiation with Boko Haram is simply despicable. I have nothing but contempt
for those that have made such suggestions and, as I alluded to in an earlier
essay, I see them as being part of the problem.
A leading Pakistani politician made
an interesting and relevant contribution on CNN the other day when he spoke
about the horrific stoning to death of a young lady outside the High Court in
Islamabad by her own father and fifty other relatives simply because she
married the man of her choice. He said, ”Pakistan is a country in which some
people are fighting to keep us in the 21st century whilst others are trying to
take us back into the 8th century”. This is the bitter truth and we have the
same problem in Nigeria.
Some people in this country believe
that we ought to be dragged back to the 8th century and they also find it
difficult to accept the fact that under our constitution religion has no place
and no relevance in matters of governance. If this were not the case how can sharia
be practised in a secular state? If this were not the case how can even one
inch of Nigeria be declared an islamic fundamentalist state where women are
treated like chattel, where young girls are subjected to rape and married off
at the age of nine and where western education is banned?
If this were not the case how can
some misguided individuals want to turn Nigeria into a Taliban- style Afghan
country in which no-one is allowed to watch television and women are not
entitled to go to the doctor, to drive cars, to go out without their husbands
or to practice medicine.
Yet there is still hope. I say this
because for the first time since he came to power four years ago I was
genuinely impressed with President Goodluck Jonathan’s Democracy Day speech. He
declared total war on Boko Haram and directed that our security agencies and
Armed Forces should utterly crush them. Now that is a real President talking.
For the last three years this is what
some of us have been asking for. I am proud to be a Nigerian again. Let us hope
that he puts his money where his mouth is and follows through with hard action.
When we really want to fight no one fights better than a Nigerian. May God
grant us victory in this war against the unbelievers and the servants of satan.
The Haramites should bring back our girls and stop killing our people or utter
face destruction.
Hardly had the hope and inspiration
that the President’s speech and new found valour set in when, the very next
day, we heard some very bad news: Boko Haram had struck again. This time their
targets were not defenceless and innocent little girls and boys but first class
traditional rulers. The killing of the Emir of Gwoza and the abduction of two
other Emirs by the terrorists on friday morning is an indication of the fact
that the activities of the islamist terrorists in Nigeria has reached a new
level of barbarity.
It is time for the whole nation,
whether they be christians, muslims or traditional worshippers, or whether they
be northerners or southerners, to come together, close ranks, join hands and
cleanse our land of the Haramites and their secret sponsors once and for all.
They should be cleansed from the land
and eliminated in the same way that cockroaches and rats are cleansed and
eliminated from a filthy house or a dirty kitchen. This is because they are
nothing but vermin and vampires from hell sent to our nation by satan to
torment us, to shame us, to humiliate us, to pillage our people and to lay
waste to our land.
They have killed, raped and abducted
our women and children, they have butchered and sodomised our men, they have
burnt our homes and bombed and desecrated our places of worship, they have
slaughtered our religious leaders and our men of God, they have taken over our
communities and flown their filthy flag in parts of our land and now they are
killing and kidnapping our elders and revered royal fathers.
What more do they have to do to us
before we cultivate the courage and the firm resolve to rise up and resist them
with everything that we have got, with or without the help of the government?
Are there no John Brown’s in this country? Are we not meant to be our brother’s
keepers? Are we not called by God to fight against evil and injustice?
Those that do not know who John Brown
was and what he did for the emancipation of the black man and the abolitionist
cause when faced with the evil of slavery in the southern states of America
should go and find out. We need our very own John Browns in Nigeria and now is
the time. This is a call to arms. I call on every Nigerian to rise up, to fight
the evil and to protect the integrity of our land and our people.
I call on our President to stand
firm, not to allow himself to be distracted, discouraged or intimidated and to
lead with courage and strength, knowing that in a time of war the whole nation
must and will rally behind him. I call on the military to be professional,
thorough, brutal and ruthless, to show no mercy and to hold no quarter. I call
on our people to have no dealings or interaction with ANYONE or any group of
people that suggest that we should have dialogue with or that we should grant
amnesty to Boko Haram and their secret sponsors.
I call on them to view such people
with the utmost suspicion because they may well be collaborating with the enemy
and they may well be secret associates of the terrorists. I say this because
you do not reward mass murderers, sociopaths, psychopaths, homicidal maniacs,
child abductors, king-slayers, child rapists and criminally insane terrorists
with amnesty or dialogue.
Instead you despatch them to hell
where they belong and where they originally came from. When a dog loses it’s
mind and starts biting everyone, including it’s owner and those that feed it,
you best put a bullet in it’s head rather than allow it to continue to live.
This is the kindest thing that you
can do for it because the dog has gone mad and is no longer useful to anyone,
including itself. It is the same for Boko Haram and all those that secretly
collaborate with them, support them and fund them. They are an ever present
danger and a nauseating pest. I say kill them all and put them out of their
misery.
View them not as human beings but as
savage beasts and demons: savage beasts and demons that eat human flesh and
drink human blood. That is what they are: the spoilers and abductors of little
girls. They are not worthy of life. They are not worthy of God’s mercy.
They are not worthy of our people or
of our nation. To destroy them is our holy duty before the Living God: it is
God’s will that they should be wiped off the face of the earth and that Nigeria
and the Nigerian people should be rid of them forever.
Let us rise up to the occasion: let
us fight the good fight with all our might. Let us free our people. Let us
deliver our land. Let us prove to the world that we are not incompetent and
bumbling cowards. Let us show the world that we are a nation of righteous men
and women and that we are not a nation of savages and barbarians.
Let us confirm to the world that we
are a resilient, strong and courageous people who can stand up and fight when
compelled to do so and when our cause is just and righteous. It is time to
fight the good fight. May God deliver Nigeria and may He grant us victory.
