National Issues
Killing of Boko Haram kingpin, Nigerian army is playing with the truth.
It is only in an unserious game that a player will lose and be happy about it. A serious game requires one’s full attention or concentration as the case maybe, with a maximum care as regards the handling. It worries me as to what the military as well as the federal government think of us that they can just wake one morning and decide to present not just to Nigerians, but also the international community, with the news of killing Imam Abubakar Shekau, the notorious Boko Haram kingpin, on the grounds of assumption and maybe.
On June 30th this year, the military allegedly claimed to have shot and wounded the said kingpin. They made a press release and announced his death to the general public. But on the 12th of August, a video of the man they claimed to have killed went viral on the internet (YouTube), refuting the military’s claim, rejecting the government program of dialogue and promising more fierce attack on Nigeria. The military has yet again, through their recent message, come out to state the certainty of his death with an argument that the video was made by another member of the dreaded group in a guise to keep having the general public in fear of their safety.
Let’s assume, or rather let’s agree just for one second that the said leader of the group is dead as claimed by the military, what does that help us achieve? The first leader of this group who was killed by the Nigerian police sometime in 2009 was replaced with another leader, if that’s so, then what makes the military, who keep blowing the fluke-sound to think that if truly Abubakar Shekau is dead, the group won’t find someone else to replace him and continue their raid on innocent Nigerian lives? The first time they claimed to have killed Shekau, an attack was launched on the people. When Mohammed, their former leader was killed, an even more fierce attack was leashed out, so what made them, the military in particular and the government in general, to think that if truly they succeeded in killing Shekau, that an even more fierce attack won’t be carried out by the remaining member under another leadership?
No one is saying that they should be left alone to strike and keep striking Nigerians, and making life even more difficult for the people than it already is today. No one is saying they shouldn’t surfer the same faith for which many whom they have so far killed, suffered. But they should find a better way of uprooting the tree right from its root to avoid re-germination whatsoever. We have read reports upon reports, on how some of these people, members of Boko Haram were caught in the homes of some politicians in the country, in the homes of certain Senators and House of Rep. members, even more recently, in the house of Mohammed Abacha, son of Late Sani Abacha. What have the government done about it? Are they saying that they can’t interrogate these people to get all the information they need to put an end to this mayhem? The accommodation and sparing of sacred cows is making the entire process and pursuit a cumbersome one and therefore, endangering the lives of the citizenry.
Nigerians are not interested in the killing of just one man; they are interested in rooting out all members of Boko Haram and ending this domestic terrorism in Nigeria. Until this is done, the security level in the country will still be at a 0%.
