Right On The Mark

Right On The Mark, Senator Mark

Jonathan Ishaku

The recent furore over the address by Senator David Mark at the opening of the National Assembly summit on national security in Akwa Ibom State by some Northern leaders was completely needless. It smacks of a deepening hypocrisy that seems to have overtaken the Northern elite since the beginning of the terrorist campaign being unleashed in northern cities by the Boko Haram religious sect.

In recent times these attacks appear to be well coordinated targeting security agents, police stations as well as Christians and their churches, in what the Boko Haram sect has termed a jihad to rid the North of Christians. The attack on churches in Zaria and Kaduna on Sunday, June 17, 2012 set off a chain of reprisal attacks between Christian and Muslim youths that completely shut down Kaduna State for almost one week.

This spreading violence occasioned by the terror campaigns of the Boko Haram was not unexpected. Right from the day the Islamic sect proclaimed its mission to annihilate Christians from the North through the church bombings, it didn’t require any prophet to predict the scenario that was enacted in Kaduna State following the June 17 bomb blasts. Many of such would be witnessed across the country unless these bombings stopped.

Perhaps, it was only so-called leaders like Alhaji Tanko Yakassai and Prof. Ango Abdullahi, who ensconced in their comfort zones, did not comprehend the grave consequences of these attacks on the continuing unity of the nation. Senator David Mark spoke the minds of millions of Nigerians who know exactly where all this violence is leading to. It was courageous of him to use the platform at Uyo to sound the national alert; to draw attention to the fact that the nation was at great peril and it needed rescuing!

And again, he was right on the mark by indicting the Northern elite for allowing the situation to deteriorate to the present state of affairs where fear and terror reign in the North, which is further deepening its endemic economic backwardness. For Alhaji Tanko and Prof. Abdullahi, as well as other Northern leaders, to rise in condemnation of this self-evident truth, once again demonstrate their abject moral and political bankruptcy of this clueless elite. In fact, it raises the urgent question of whether we can actually use the word “leaders” in relation to them.

Leadership connotes responsibility in giving direction to a followership. If things have gotten out of hand as they have done in the North, how can the leadership of the region be described? It can only mean two things; either there is a complete absence of leadership or there is a connivance of the leadership. Now, which of these is true of the Northern situation?

This is not the first time Senator Mark would rock the Northern elders’ comfort zone. On December 5, 2011, a peace conference was organized at Arewa House, Kaduna, by the Arewa Consultative Forum ostensibly to discuss the deteriorating security situation in the North. In attendance were the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar, Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and many other personages from the North. And, of course, Senate President Senator David Mark, was there.

Trust your typical Northern leaders, the conference soon turned into another spectacle for grandstanding by speakers after speaker, in spite of the admonition by the conference chairman, General Yakubu Gowon, to “tell ourselves the bitter truth.”

Trust, also, Senator David Mark for his candour. He just couldn’t take the circus any longer; when he rose to speak he castigated his fellow Northern leaders for their hypocrisy.

“Are you afraid to openly condemn Boko Haram either for political reasons or out of fear of the possible attack by the sect?” he asked the audience.

He went on: “Have we forgotten that evil thrives when good men are silent. A Northerner killing a Northerner, a Northerner maiming a Northerner, a Northerner disrupting business activities in the North, a Northerner destroying properties in the North and so on and so forth, cannot be helping the North by any stretch of imagination. Can this help the Northern cause?”

He couldn’t believe that the leaders of the North could afford to be so complacent while the North burned; could they not hear the cry or feel the pains of the innocent victims of the Boko Haram violence? Or did they not consider these victims as Northerners?

“When is the North truly North?” he asked. “Is it when the interest of a few but vocal group is met. Is it when the interest of a select religious group is met? Is it when a section of the North is satisfied? Or is it when the common good of the North is addressed?”

Shockingly, despite of the frontal and open challenge by both Gowon and Mark to be forthright, the meeting ended with the conference condemning violence but without mentioning Boko Haram by name in the final communiqué. Why was this so? Was it an act of cowardice? Or was it, as alleged in some quarters, an act of deference to an organization which calls itself Islamic?

The failure to condemn the violence by identifying Boko Haram, its chief promoter, by name was a huge let down. It showed that Boko Haram had more “integrity” and courage than the motley that gathered at Arewa House for the simple reason that they never shied away from taking responsibility for their crime. The failure to mention Boko Haram by name raised concerns about the credibility of the northern elite in tackling the menace. Why the reticence when Boko Haram has never played shy of claiming responsibility for the atrocities it committed across the nation?

If these so-called leaders of the North couldn’t do a simple thing as insist that Boko Haram be condemned by name in their communiqué to publicly deny the sect members of any form of moral and religious legitimacy in the eyes of the people of the North, then what actually have they been doing back home in their private capacities?

Religious leaders and opinion leaders in the North ought to assume certain level of responsibility for how the public interprets their utterances. Their condemnation of the violence must be categorical, unambiguous and clear; what we have been hearing so far is incoherent babblings. This has a tendency of misleading the terrorists into interpreting these as giving support to their activities. For example, back in 2010, Nigerians were dumbfounded by the apology offered by Governor Isa Yaguda of Bauchi State, former Governor Danjuma Goje of Gombe State and former Governor Modu Sherriff of Born State to Boko Haram for their actions against them while in office. Members of the public interpreted these apologies to mean that these governors were ready to legitimize or condone the criminal activities of the group. To the organization, it was the greatest public acknowledgment of its unassailability.

The feelings in many quarters are that Muslim leaders are not forthcoming with condemnation of the sect. Prof. Yakubu, a Muslim scholar and former Vice Chancellor of University of Abuja lamented this recently. He reportedly told a gathering at the 2nd international book launch organized by De Minaret International at Abuja in May 2012 (Daily Trust, May 7, 2012) that “the country was under attack by bad elements within the Muslim community and that Muslim leaders were not doing enough to fish out the suspects.”

If these leaders pledge helplessness in the face of the Boko Haram menace because of concern for personal safety, the least they could do was to use their prestige among the common people who may be following their body language, at any given opportunity, in order to discredit the agenda of the self-confessed jihadist terrorists thereby eroding public support for their cause. Their deafening silence is being taken (or manipulated by mischief-makers to look) as evidence of complicity, thus spreading general anger against the Muslim population, many of who are victims themselves.

I have listened attentively to all the delegations that visited Aso Villa over the security situation in their various parts of the North have had to say. I usually shed a tear or two seeing how these old men who ordinarily should have been enjoying their retirements in peace have been forced by the killings and destruction that surrounded them to undertake the long and difficult journey to Abuja to cry out. But I couldn’t also keep wondering how the situation got out of hand without their knowledge, if indeed they played their leadership roles well.

The delegation from Borno State pleaded with Aso Villa to reduce the number of soldiers on the streets, which are causing collateral damage and extra-judicial killings, and they would, in turn, “talk to our sons to lay down arms and come to the negotiating table” and I wondered, “Since when have you regained control over these sons of yours?”

My take is that if these leaders are doing half what they say in public, the situation would have been brought under control long ago. Borno State is a special example. To my knowledge, and I stand to be corrected, no government has demonstrated clear focus and diligence under an enlightened leadership since the administration of the late Governor Musa Usman as the present government under Alhaji Kashim Shettima. Even in the light of the present predicament Governor Shettima has refused to be cowed or overwhelmed; he has been up and doing in providing intervention in critical areas of the socio-economic life of the state more than many other states with lesser security disruptions.

After a recent visit to Maiduguri, I started to wonder how the state of insecurity has persisted in Maiduguri in spite of such developmental accomplishments of the young administration in the state. My take is that politics, bad politics, contributes to the persistence of this state of affairs. If these elders of Borno undertake fewer trips to Abuja and more to Government House and their various local communities, in joint collaboration with the state government, more would be achieved in tackling the security threats.

This is true of all leaders in the North. They should walk their talk. Let them get out there to meet their people and form a consensus as a bulwark against terrorism in the North rather than the present tendency to grandstand at public platforms in Abuja or at during press interviews in the cozy and secured ambiance of their hotel rooms.

I don’t buy into the nonsense that the Boko Haram is a Northern conspiracy to make the country ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan because General Muhammadu Buhari did not win the 2011 elections. Neither do I buy into the one that it is a Jonathan-cum-Christian conspiracy to destroy the North and probably scuttle the North’s bid for the Presidency come 2015. The President has probably not done much to curtail this menace but it seems illogical that he would threaten his own tenure with such elaborate and devious blackmail tactics.

I believe, however, like Senator Mark, that Northern leaders have a lot more to do in preventing the escalating violence in the North which threatens our national unity.