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Is Federal Government playing politics with BokoHaram? -by Mustapha Saddiq

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Is Federal Government Working With BokoHaram

Is Federal Government Working With BokoHaram

 

First of all let me start by saying that I am not a pessimist, I am an optimist. I don’t normally easily believe with conspiracy theories, I argue a lot with many of my friends about so many issues when they try linking them to many of those unpropound, baseless and unproved assumptions. Yes, in most cases I falsified conspiracy theories right away before they even got to explain what they mean. I believe they are the easiest way a coward can hide behind and blame almost every failure that befalls on him or her.

In Nigeria, one will find so many of those conspiracy theories circulating at any point in time and in this era, that of BokoHaram is at its peak. Talk to any person in the street on his/her thought on BokoHaram and you will be surprise of what they will say. In most cases, Muslims and Christians have contrasting views so also northerners and southerners alike. Unfortunately, it has even been politicized to the extend that pro-PDP and pro-APC have in most cases contrasting views on it, also.

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One will be hearing that Goodluck -the President- is behind it all. That the Northerners especially the North east haven’t voted for him and so he is now punishing them while some will be saying no, it is poverty and unemployment due to the persistent government neglect especially to the Northeast that accumulated and give birth to what we now called BokoHaram. Many says that there is nothing like this ‘violent version of BokoHaram’ in the first place and that Shekau is just a caricature who never exist. To them BokoHaram is only the handiwork of Federal Government.

Some says that BokoHaram is nothing but the creation of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) since there was a link between Muhammad Yusuf (BokoHaram late leader) and Jeremiah Useni (a member of CAN) and that there were many instances in which Christians where caught trying to burn and bomb churches themselves.

While many others says BokoHaram is mainly the handiwork of some of the prominent opposition figures that lost out the 2011 presidential elections to Goodluck Jonathan and whom were allegedly reported to have promised to make Nigeria ungovernable for the president. Some funny people even says that Bokoharam is the creation of the western world whom to their speculations predicted the disintegration of Nigeria in 2015. Their source? I don’t know.

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Surprisingly, I never believe with any of the above speculative theories but there is this one that made me have a second thought; that the PDP led federal government is playing politics with the BokoHaram insurgency in the northeast. The believers of this theory are saying that the federal government is trying to capitalize on the insecurity in the zone to further extend the state of emergency and later on exclude the affected States from the 2015 general elections or at least conduct it on a rescheduled day in order for the PDP to have enough personnel on ground to recapture the States.

Their reasons are that PDP is quite sure that it don’t stand any chance of winning elections in those state of emergency states especially now that they are both under the control of the APC. They further argued that the federal government is not only not sincere in their fight against the insurgents but are just deliberately not ready. This is so because the president body language of i-don’t-care attitude that he is showing to the affected region and also lack or no commitment from the side of the federal government.

Even if not all of them, majority of the Bokoharam members are living in a world of their own, in the well known Sambisa forest of Borno State. One has to wonder, why can’t our securities go their and defeat them? Where are our land armies and air forces? Or is BokoHaram stronger than the Federal Republic of Nigeria? No, no, no!

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Now I ask again, is Federal Government playing politics with BokoHaram? Your answer is as good as mine.

Jeff Okoroafor is a leading member of a new generation of civic advocates for government accountability and democratic change in Nigeria. The Citizen Affairs Initiative is a citizen-driven governance initiative that enhances public awareness on critical issues of service quality in Nigeria. It encourages citizens to proactively seek higher standards from governments and service providers and further establishes new discussions in communities about the standards that citizens should expect and deserve from those they have given their mandates. Jeff is the Managing Director of SetFron Limited, a multimedia development company that is focused on creative and results-driven web, mobile app, and ERP software solutions. He is the co-founder of the African Youths Advancement and Support Initiative (AfriYasi), a non-governmental not-for-profit organisation that provides tertiary education scholarship for young people from low-income homes in Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Young African Leaders Initiative and the United Nations World Summit Awards. A Strategic Team member of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, and a member of the National Technical Committee on the Establishment and Management of Missing Persons Database in Nigeria. Jeff holds a Bachelor and Postgraduate diploma degrees in Computer Science, and a Certificate in Public Administration from Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, GIMPA.

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