The Many HARAMS in Nigeria

By

Ahmad Sajoh

aisajo@yahoo.com

 

Suddenly Boko Haram has woken some of us to the many Harams in the country. Yes, there are indeed many Harams in Nigeria. Yet, its patrons want us to believe it is a “Great Nation of Good People”. I think that is a very good starting point. I believe creating an ordinary slogan to hoodwink the people is itself Haram. How can people charged with making the nation great fail to do so and yet coin a slogan and impose it on the rest of us. Do they believe that a simple slogan will make the nation great? What is so great about Nigeria anyway? Is it because we are spared the nasty experiences of natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanoes? This is just a product of divine intervention and not because of our actions or inactions. In the absence of natural disasters we have decided to foment ethnic clashes, religious fights, inter and intra-community wars, armed robbery, kidnappings, vandalizing pipelines, crushing innocent people on the highways and other heinous crimes such as ritual killings. Are these not really Harams?

 

Now back to the Boko Haram phenomenon. I am at lost as to what really the sect intends to achieve by the nature of their struggle. But I am beginning to be highly suspicious of some of the claims attributed to the group. More so, the shallow way supposed claims by its assumed spokespersons are rehashed by people in Government and even the Media. Oftentimes such claims are not even subjected to simple reasoning let alone an in-depth analysis. Let me use two of such recent occurrences to actually illustrate my point.

 

Being an Adamawa indigene and resident in Mubi, I became interested in the supposed Boko Haram attack on Gombi Town which is less than 80 kilometres from where I leave. And because my cousin Ahmed Isa Hassan is the acting Chairman of the Local Government, I was deeply concerned. So I went to Gombi to find out what really happened. This was days before the arrest of some of the perpetrators of the attack by Security agents and the Governor’s declaration that they were not Boko Haram.

 

What happened in Gombi was simply an Armed Robbery attack organized and coordinated by an ex-youth corper who served in UBA Gombi. The Bank happened to be one of the places attacked. The Robbers ate bananas, snacks and drank water in broad daylight in the month of Ramadan when Muslims were fasting.  Yet we were led to believe that it was a Boko Haram attack. More laughable was the supposed admission by a spokesperson of the group. How could that be possible? Non-Muslims involved in executing the jihadist agenda of Boko Haram? No way. Something is definitely amiss.

 

The second incidence was the Alkaleri Robbery attack. I was on my way back to Mubi from Abuja when I ran into the incident. I nearly became a victim. Right in front of me a Honda Accord was intercepted by soldiers at a road block a few minutes after the incident. The boot was full of bullets. Three persons were in the car. All of them were arrested by the soldiers. I stopped and had a brief interaction with both the soldiers and arrested persons. What was apparent from my understanding of the situation was that they were part of the robbery gang that raided the Unity Bank in Alkaleri. Perhaps they lost their way and took the main highway instead of the detour taken by the rest of the gang. Those three were all non-Muslims.

 

 The robbers were said have shouted “Allahu Akbar”. Was it really so? Even some of the Gombi hoodlums shouted Allahu Akbar. Are these incidences choreographed by some other interest groups? And to what end is the whole thing? These are critical questions begging for answers from both the Media and the Security agencies. It is too shallow to just attribute every happening to Boko Haram without in-depth investigation.

 

Having looked at the incidences more closely, is there something in all these beyond the ordinary? Who really is behind some of these occurrences? It is beyond just Boko Haram. Now we have MASSOB claiming intelligence information about Boko Haram and some groups in the Niger Delta are accusing Northern elders of attempts to destabilize the Jonathan Presidency; we need to look beyond Boko Haram for solutions to the current insecurity in Nigeria. Before the late Yar’adua took the bold step to grant Amnesty to Niger Delta militants no one accused Southern leaders of distabilising a Northern Presidency. Somehow, someone is trying to take the nation for a ride. The Boko Haram is a menace quite alright, but there are many other Harams now masked by the Boko Haram. We need to tear their “corporate” veil apart.

 

If our concern is the “Haram” in Boko Haram, what of the several other Harams in the Nation? There is governance Haram in Nigeria. There is Judicial Haram, There is Law enforcement Haram, there is Corruption Haram and many, many Harams in the Country. Is there anything we are doing to address them beyond simple sloganeering? Is anyone willing to take the bull by the horn? Is anyone bold enough to step on highly sensitive toes in order to tackle the many glaring Harams bedevilling the Nation? 

 

Take the Jos crisis as an instance. Is it not a shame, 10 years since the crisis started no one has been prosecuted for perpetrating any of the open crimes we witness on daily basis? Are our security agencies so weak that they have been unable or unwilling to apprehend anyone for the serial killings witnessed? What of the Government of Plateau State, have they ever made an effort to bring perpetrators to book? Worst still, the Government, the Media and the Human Rights Groups all end up being biased in reporting occurrences on the plateau. When one group is killed, all government and media apparatus are deployed to the scene, but when some other group is killed the matter is quickly hushed up.

 

What about the abject poverty and despondency pervading the nation. Is it not Haram that we are one of the richest nations in Africa yet we have one of the highest poverty incidences on the continent? The Boko Haram phenomenon has thrown several challenges for all of us to consider and ponder about. Who is the real Boko Haram? Why is every crime attributed to them? What are the real causes of our current insecurity situation in the country? How many other Harams do we need to address if we are really serious about governance in Nigeria?  These are posers to ponder about.

 

Ahmad Sajoh wrote from Adamawa State University, Mubi. aisajo@yahoo.com