14th July The Making Of Another But Avoidable Boko Haram In Edo State

14^th July The Making Of Another But Avoidable Boko Haram In Edo State

Sani Aliyu

Nothing can be more instructive like experience, and so when General Azazi, erstwhile national defense chief, and present national security adviser, borne out of experience, identified and traced the root course of the current spate of bloodletting madness in parts of the country, as an offshoot of a default political arrangement that sparked aggression, which emanated from Borno State. And he consequently heaped the bulk blame on PDP; this however, cannot be unconnected to the injustices done to our electoral processes by the PDP. Indeed the security boss statement wasn’t out of naivety but rather as a result of painstaking analysis very well articulated.

Accordingly, do not expect illegality to give birth to legality, not at all, a system compromised is a system retrogressed. Unless you do the right thing, you can never advocate right doing; thus, a thief has no moral standing to fight corruption except and only when he discontinue, confesses and returned those loots back, then of course, he can now lunch anticorruption crusade, sighting himself as a clear example: of you can do it. It therefore, follows that we must be courageous enough to tell ourselves the truth and make certain painful but positive denials of long time cultivated negative attitudes and posit necessary positive adjustments in the polity, if we must get it right.

Literally meaning, DEMOCRACY is a system of government that is based on the principles of transparency, fairplay, justice and majority decision-making, represented through free and equal right of every adult person to participate in an election by voting-in their representatives through majority vote cast. In this respect therefore, it will not be out of place to declare that sovereignty belongs to the PEOPLE. From a logical perspective, democracy is all about giving back to the people what they have given out, that is the “POWER”, which was with the people that is entrusted into the hands of the LEADERSHIP in order to enable the leadership to function uninterruptedly, evidently as the nation drivers; thus ,they are onus to secure and guarantee peoples welfare as well as their lives and properties, while they formulate policies that would empower the people economically and also provide them quality infrastructures and social amenities that will make their lives more meaningful.

If this be the benefit of democracy, then, what influences the decision of the people to popularly cast their votes for an individual? Allow me to say, the antecedents and character of that individual plays a key and major role, coupled with the people’s needs and wants, which stand as a prelude that informed their choice in that person, who has been identified to have the pedigree to make good service delivery in line with their aspirations. Yet, the beauty of democracy also rest on the individual ability to persuade, and canvas for votes, using the same breath to reposition and project him or herself through reaching out to the people by campaigning. In some rare cases, people can pressure an individual against his or her own wish to lead them, thus, with little or no campaign at all, that individual is unanimously voted in. But where someone who is known to be of questionable character, and detest by the majority of the population, for which an individual who sees himself as a godfather, because of his strategic position with power that be, saw a window of opportunity to cow that unpopular candidate in order to defraud the State treasury, by imposing monthly loyalty fees on that unpopular individual if he succeeded in making him the governor, thereby retarding and stagnating the progressive State once again, because of his selfish vested interest. Overtaken by self-centeredness and avarice, damn the consequences and began to recruit thugs, share to them police uniform and arms, aimed at criminally prevaricate and hijack the electoral process just for the unpopular individual to emerge as the winner. To worsen the whole scenario, aside of being very unpopular, he never campaigned across the State, but the PDP being the miracle makers, and from the Villa, they are set to win Edo State at all cost, with outer disregard to the prevailing peace presently enjoyed in the State. Is this not capable of generating aggression and epoch new Boko Haram in the State? With this kind of attitude widely in display, would you not justify Generals Azazi and Buhari’s claims respectively?

Trampling with due process usually brew aggression that eventually leads to violent agitations as experienced in the last so called freest election. Crisis usually has the capacity to lie low but that is not to say, you have dealt with the problem. It all started in Borno State like a child’s play, I said so because it was an organized political thugs in the pay role of former Governor SAS, called ECOMOG, from my findings who felled out with their Boss for breach of agreement which led the ECOMOG members to lament by insinuating that “PEOPLE WITH WESTERN EDUCATION FIND PLEASURE IN THE ACTS OF HARAM” which epoch the new page of attack on the system that brought them to be. However, the same system nicknamed them BOKO HARAM, to create a diversionary ambiance of what they had instituted. Worrisome as it is, today another BOKO HARAM is obviously in the making in EDO State. Information has it that the PDP are bent on hijacking the electoral process come JULY 14, in the State as the popular MR. FIX IT has liaised with the Presidency and the national PDP to steal back the State at all cost from the people, the Edo State police department has already decries massive recruitment of thugs and feared police uniforms are being distributed to them, all geared towards 14^th July. The question is what is the predictable end of such callous attitude?

So you see when General Azazi spoke on the state of insecurity in the nation and heaped the blame on PDP, he was not after all wrong, how could he even be wrong? As a defense and security expert on his own right. It wasn’t by accident that he was made an NSA but he merited it. You see, until we start appreciating what democracy represents we will continue to miss the point, ones the people’s choice is in place and he is credibly performing, it is best practice of democracy for opposition to appreciate and encourage him, because it is not about the person but the people, where you think you have been succeeding in imposing the unpopular candidates on the people, definitely not in a situation of a performing leadership like that of Edo State.

We already have enough security challenges in Nigeria to want to warrant another new page open in Edo State, a State we all know that is heavily pregnant with crime, but because of the popular choice of the governor, for some time now, criminality has to a very large extent lied low and a wonderful bliss of new lease of life have engulfed the ones upon a time, crime ridden State. You see Mr. PDP and Mr. President, Mr. Fix IT has had it all, do not because of an old man troubled the new peace in Edo State, because there are a lot of young Nigerians there that are committed and ready to serve the nation that stand the risk of annihilation when the trouble epoch.

It is true that the Adams Oshiomhole’s achievement in three and half years has put PDP ten years of leadership in the State to shame, but this is true not politics, allow him his remaining four years because anything short of this will throw Edo State into restiveness, the Edo people are very happy with this man, he has touched their lives positively the way nobody has ever done before in just three and half years. One thing that kept reoccurring to me is which road would the PDP gubernatorial candidate drive on to campaign? Is it the comfort of the same roads that Adams constructed? Remember these communities have been begging successive governments in the last sixty (60) years for these roads to no avail, until the advent of their Messiah? Truly speaking before the emergence of Adams, one has thought that Benin City as an ancient city is forbidden modernization! Look, joke apart Mr. President, forget Edo State for now, after all Adams cooperated in the (S) election process that brought you in as President.