Kashim Shettima, The APC And The Pledge To Fight Terrorism -By Hajia Hadiza Mohammed

Everything about the All Progressives Congress (APC) seems to be false and phoney.  The statement credited to Kashim Shettima Mustapha the running mate to the party’s presidential flag bearer that they would end Boko Haram insurgency in six months is the most spurious claim I have heard in recent times. This was the same way Mohammadu Buhari boasted about ending insurgency in the North-East but seven years after, insurgency, terrorism and armed banditry has metastasized to every nook and cranny of our beleaguered country. Nigeria not only has the Boko Haram but other deadly terrorists’ gangs that have made the country the most terrorized part of the globe. The questions that have continued to agitate the minds of the concerned members of the public are: what did Kashim Shettima do when he held sway as the governor of Bornu State and the state chief security officer to curtail the Boko Haram insurgency and safeguard the lives of the citizens of the state? And if Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima have this great idea about fighting insecurity and ending terrorism in Nigeria, why have they not sold it to the present government that they are part of?

The answer is simple: they are making fraudulent political statement to beguile members of the public and the electorates. They neither have the capacity nor the willingness to combat insurgency for Kashim Shettima has been fingered as one of the brains behind the emergence of insurgency in the Northeast and Tinubu has always maintained sealed lips on the issue of insecurity in the country since the emergence of the APC regime. Under Shettima, Bornu State was the most insecure place in the country. Thousands were killed, maimed and many more rendered homeless by terrorist but Shettima never cared. All he was interested in was blackmailing the government in power then. He never visited the various IDP camps that sprang up as a result of the insurgency. So, if Shettima could not secure Bornu, his own people how can he secure the nation made up of 36 states.

Another pertinent question at this juncture is: how can Shettima, a notorious Boko Haram apologist fight Boko Haram? We can still remember the Kashim Shettima’s role in the Chibok Girls kidnap saga. On the 12^th of March, 2014, the then Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike wrote him intimating him on the imminent security alert informing him on the need to take the students from Chibok Federal Government College to a safe zone and advised him to close all schools. But he bluntly refused to heed the advice just to spite the government of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Northern Christians. And on the night of 14^th April, 2014 the members of the Boko Haram insurgents dressed in Nigerian military uniform struck and abducted about 276 girls mostly Christians where they were assembled in the dormitory instead of the exam hall. Thereafter, it is alleged that the kidnapped girls were taken to a house in Gwoza instead of Sambisa Forest the Boko Haram stronghold to make it difficult for government to locate their whereabouts. And curiously, the school principal who was inexplicably absent during the encounter and who should have been reprimanded was appointed a commissioner by Governor Kashim Shettima’s of Bornu State.

In addition to this, is the fact that Shettima is an ally to Kabiru Sokoto who bombed and killed worshippers at Saint Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madala, Abuja on December 25, 2011 when at least four bomb blasts killed 39 people and injuring scores of others. The master mind of this heinous act was found hidden in Bornu State official government lodge in Abuja.

Given the above scenario, Kashim Shettima could be seen an extremist who is not fit to occupy any public office in a plural society like Nigeria. He does not care if human life is lost just to spite the Christians. He is a fundamentalist and a purveyor of hate and religious and ethnic prejudice. Voting Tinubu and Shettima is equivalent to promoting politics of terrorism and intolerance at the national level. The APC government is an Apartheid regime that does not care about welfare and security of the citizens. Voting them to power will polarize the country and worsen our precarious security situation. In truth, the APC cannot rescue Nigeria from the stranglehold of the APC. Nigeria needs the services of a true statesman, a detribalized Nigeria and a nationalist that will rescue the country from the APC regime, unify and reposition the country on the path of peace, prosperity and progress.

The opposition APC then had used the kidnap of the Chibok Girls as propaganda issue to intimidate and vilify the then President Goodluck Jonathan. And now eight years after, the innocent school lass that they masterminded their kidnap are still in captivity, raped, ravished and forcefully married off to the terrorists against their will and the man complicit in this heinous crime is jostling to come and rule over us as vice-president. It is indeed ironical! In saner environment, people like Shettima should be facing trial for terrorism and crime against humanity. But in Nigeria, he is being rewarded with appointment as a running mate to a presidential candidate. That is the height of insensitivity and irresponsibility; rewarding crime. Tinubu did it deliberately; hoping to cajole the Muslim North into voting for him. It is a reflection of how Tinubu sees the North as a territory inhabited by religious bigots and terrorists. Tinubu’s choice of Shettima as running mate is an insult not just on the Christian North but on the entire North.

Nigeria has a choice to make between the continuance of the present evil or unity, peace and progress. Nigeria must not repeat the mistake of 2015 if it hopes to remain one indivisible entity beyond 2023.

Hajia Hadiza Mohammed

hajiahadizamohammed@gmail.com

An actress, social activist, politician

London, UK