Why an attack on Boko Haram is an attack on the North -By Ozuomba Egwuonwu

The surprise advance and invasion of the midwest by the Biafran ‘liberation army’ necessitated the formation of the 2nd Division of the Nigerian Army.

This 2nd Division was hastility formed by Murtala Muhammed drawing from even local riffraffs and misfits both in and out of prison all over the North (gbodogodo) and the rest of Nigeria: all is fair in love and war. This composition would be the same societal group that would otherwise make up Boko Haram recruits of today. 

Another set of elements that made up Murtala’s Second division that retook the midwest, is given in the account of Dr. Ifih Uraih a survivor of the Asaba Massacre in his narration in one of the recent events commemorating the Asaba Massacre which happened  on October 7, 1967. 

According to Dr Ifih, on being rounded up by elements of the Murtala 2nd Division, they- the local men and young boys, were matched further hinterland during which movement they and their “Nigerian” army captors were having frank, even friendly discussions, some in Hausa, some in English,some in pidgin some in Yoruba (this scenario seems a halting metaphor of what has been going on in Nigeria ever since –  interactive, even “friendly” exchanges in the midst of very sinister foreground).  

The leader of the army group that held them, a second lieutenant, on commencing the supervision of  mounting the machine guns that began what became known as the Asaba Massacre,  turned to him and told him matter-of factly -in his own words “  Me I come from Chad. You be Ibo, I hate all Ibos therefore you must die..”  

Me, I come from Chad…   But aside from Chad they were actually from  all over the African Sahel.

These elements constitute the bulk of what we have as the Fulani herdsmen of today. 

Though the constitution of above elements was credited to have been supervised by Murtala, Buhari also was a big participant in that melee,  being the Brigade major  in the   First Infantry Division and one of the Military officers that defended Nigeria, leading military operations from Enugu, Afikpo, Ogoja, Awka through to Abakaliki. 

In his online article on Biafra and wars Nnoruka Udechukwu rightly postulates that war is an all comers affair and all kinds of demonically vicious players come to the slimy field to play the hellish game of blood and death.  And no one, not even superior powers  can predict its unfolding dynamics. 

The systematic and geographic porosity of the Northern borders (Sokoto, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe, Taraba, Adamawa), The admission by top  APC officials of continued mobilization  of armed and arming of above referred foreign elements and aloofness of the government on dynamics of insecurity in Nigeria (reminds one of Major General Ibrahim Haruna’s aloof submission on the civil war at  the Oputa panel :  “As the commanding officer and leader of the troops that massacred 500 men in Asaba, I have no apology for those massacred in Asaba, Owerri and Ameke-Item. I acted as a soldier maintaining the peace and unity of Nigeria. ” ), all points to the same salient fact on the Nigerian (elitist) civil war . 

From the aforementioned narratives on Nigeria’s Murtala  Second division as Juxtaposed on recent security dynamics in Nigeria I want the reader to draw his own conclusion on why an attack on Boko Haram and miscreant Herdsmen  would be an attack on the north.

 A full blooded  attack on Boko Haram/ Herdsmen would be an attack on the North simply because these elements and their unfortunate activities are collaterals in maneuvers of the real war.

If one is forced to remain in a soothy environment, one would necessarily keep antitussive concoctions at hand no matter how bitter such concoctions taste, even though the sensible thing would have been to stay away from the soothy environment.

The unfairness of the Northern Elites to ordinary citizens of the North in treating BokoHaram and Herdsmen with kids glove is more or less based on the same justification of Murtala’s assemblage of elements of his 2nd Division:  all is fair in love and war.

An attack on Boko Haram/ Herdsmen is an attack on the North simply because the  real war, the Nigerian civil war, has not ended.  

But things are getting to a stage one has to wonder if the cost of whatever compromise The North and the rest of us may bear  in  setting the stage to conclusively end  the Nigerian civil war is not far less than these collateral damages emanating from  sustaining that  war. 

An Igbo adage says one who holds another to the ground is also holding himself. Unfortunately, intrinsic contradiction in the North has collaterally made it more costly than just remaining in that adage scenario. 

I do not intend to go into details on claims and counterclaims on abandoned property, Marginalization, “mediocracy”, Corruption, terrorist brandings, world poverty capital, worst maternal health ratings, growing insecurity etc in this write up. Those are ongoing discussions  for other days.  

I hope, amongst many hopes,  for a North that would be free to do a sober self reflection, while giving others the opportunity to genuinely do the same, and so puts all on  better loci to face, help each other, including the North,  to face its Demons squarely and set its house in order.

Unfortunately , this may remain a mirage  so long  as Nigeria is consumed with not only the wary trammeling of the ghost of the Nigerian civil war, but the continued sustenance, by other means, of that war.