Insecurity

Insecurity: We Are The Victims…

Abdullah Musa

When Muslims are faced with a tragedy of such magnitude as to confound them, they are ordered by their faith to say: it is from Allah we came, and to him is our return. Friday, the 20^th of January, 2012 became the turn of Kano State to experience terror; the death toll as at the recent count being over one hundred and sixty.

Kano is not new to crises. It had the Maitatsine crisis, which was also the work of a sect of Islam. It had also its share whenever the political class decided it was time to push the wrong buttons in order to start ethnic/religious conflicts. The current tragedy however has a different color. The targeted areas were predominantly police outposts, even though there must have been those who were caught up as victims, other than police men and women, may be.

There was nothing amiss when we went for Friday prayers. I was at home when I heard the first explosion, and series of others continued. From my safe position I could only wonder what was happening. By six o’clock I had to tune in to the BBC radio; and they narrated that series of explosions had rocked Kano, with the police being prominently the target. We commiserate with the police, and fellow citizens of Nigeria who are living in Kano, over this tragedy.

Unsurprisingly, I tried all local stations when the explosions started, but many of them were simply playing music! A city was being bombed and its radio stations were either unaware, or were not yet ready with explanation to the public. By seven o’clock, the time for news for some of them, there was still no news about the tragedy from them: there was no guidance to the people, on what to do, how to react. What of if it was an invasion? There is definitely need for change in orientation.

What we intend by the phrase ‘we are the victims’, is to go further to say ‘we do not know the actors’. This might sound ridiculous because already we have been told who the actors were: Boko Haram. But that is only just that: we were told. I do not know who Boko Haram members are. More tragic, I do not know what they want. But you may retort that we have also been told what they want; even from their name: Boko Haram. If I am to believe it, then it means existence for me has been forbidden, for I am already a product of the system; plus millions of other Nigerians in different walks of life.

An armed robber may decide to rob someone of his property. A civilized society trains some of its members to be able to thwart the activities of such enemies of society. If Boko Haram exists as it is said that it does; and if it intends to annihilate all those who passed through the Western system of education, then automatically those targeted must fear for their safety. But society is not structured in such a manner that all citizens will carry guns around in order to defend themselves.

By targeting the security forces then, the intent is on the destabilization of the political structure. If the current security forces are defeated by Boko Haram, then it means that victors will inherit the society; to do with it as they desire. We are therefore a herd of sheep and goats; we are not equipped to aid our shepherd if attacked by predators: we await the outcome, and submit to the fate of our indolence.

But the permutations are more intricate than we have explained through our metaphor. Our shepherds are also a type of predator class. They keep us for slaughter purposes, rather than for our well-being. For that reason they never trained us to repel any form of attack: physical or otherwise. When they divert resources meant for us and them, exclusively to the upkeep of their families, we can only watch as their bellies and cheeks get swollen: it might be for that reason why they are unable to respond effectively to the current challenge.

But where is the bond between the leaders and the led? I could remember that the soldiers sent to Maiduguri complained the indigenes were not cooperating with them. But why was that? It might have been the fear of the sect members. That is one of the disadvantages of letting people to grow as they wish. Many of the residents of that area are really Boko Haram; not necessarily as active sect members, but as those who did not attend western-type educational institutions. Now how will Israeli, American, or even Zimbabwean citizens react to such threats? Will a retired Marine develop rubbery legs when faced with danger? Will he or she not even be willing to report to the nearest military installation to offer his or her services?

Nigerian leaders do not need us to subscribe to this nation. To them, the less we know about it the better for them. Consider even the divergent reactions we had been getting from different parts of the country with regards to this common threat. While everybody knows that mainstream Muslim societies accept western education, yet, the response from some was to malign Muslims, to threaten as is usual, the break-up of the country, into imaginary Muslim North and Christian South.

Politicians the world over can be unscrupulous when it comes to the quest for power. They can engage in any form of mudslinging in order to tarnish an opponent; but the nation, the bedrock of the political system can never be challenged; not so with Nigeria. Nearly all the players will show that Nigeria is negotiable. They may not necessarily actualize it, but they are always weakening its foundations. We are yet to reap any dividends from the second term (some may want to say he completed Yar’Adua’s term, and now starting his own) of Dr Goodluck, but the macabre road to 2015 is already being trodden

But Nigerian elites refuse to be educated. Their education is jaundiced. They refuse to accept certain values which make for enlightened people, capable of building a respectable nation. How can someone go to a university only to answer the name thief? How can someone be a President of a nation and still allow himself to be swayed by hoodlums from his own locality? Will Barack Obama claim to serve Chicago rather than the whole of United States? For whatever their failings while serving as Head of State and President respectively, Dr Gowon and Alhaji Shehu Shagari have been most exemplary in giving advice on how this nation is to stabilize.

Nigeria might be the most challenging nation to lead on earth. But you come to its leadership with a very serious handicap when you think you are still leading only eight local governments or there about; your local supporters; your national religious leader; your local elders’ forum; all these must give way, in order for you to really project yourself as leader of the nation. Nobody may at this time have the golden wand on how to solve the Boko Haram saga. Many have advocated dialogue. We pray it comes to that. We also pray that members of Boko Haram, if they are what is being said about them, be able to see how untenable their preposition is; and for them to accept any olive branch being offered to them.

Is it not most ironic that Arab nations, from whom we got the religion of Islam, have no distinction between Islamic knowledge and western knowledge? Is it because they learn both in Arabic, their mother tongue? Nigerian Muslims learn Boko in English language; but many of us also learn Islam using English. The Arabs, who have the most profound impact on Northern Muslims, unfortunately were not the ones who introduced the Industrial Revolution. It is the Western world which did so. But Northern Muslims hold on to practices which are peculiar to them; and which no Arab nation of today accepts: the squalor of Alamajiri for instance.

Northern Muslim traditional leaders might have done their best in selling the modern educational system to their subjects. But they need to do more. Nigerian political class has not discharged its obligations honorably. By turning governance into a looting race, they give room for disgruntled elements to be recruited by the selfish or misguided in order o make life unbearable for all. There is one single organization that holds the key to Nigeria’s future and political stability: that is the PDP. As long as PDP does not believe it can lose election, then nobody can save Nigeria. And the first person to believe should be Dr Goodluck; who should proclaim loud and clear that he would go in 2015; and Niger Delta remains in Nigeria.

A pipedream?