BURNING POT BY PRINCE CHARLES DICKSON

BURNING POT BY PRINCE CHARLES DICKSON

Jos, Bauchi, BH, Sanusi, Asari Dokubo And Salient Musing

We scoop water from the water pot and see a masquerader; what will the person who goes to draw water at the river find?

A week ago, the COCIN church in Jos, Plateau state capital was hit by a bomb, whether suicide bomber or soldier-assisted bomber still and will as everything or all most things related to the entire Boko Haram phenomena remain unsolved.

We gathered that one of those killed was a member of the church; the story remains all but fuzzy. The Commissioner For Information was one of the casualty of an angry mob that later regrettably spread into the city though quickly contained.

Salient musing: The COCIN church shares fences with the Central Bank, which is divided by a less than five meter street to First Bank, that shares boundaries with Union Bank and a road across UBA, it’s on the busy Bank road axis that has Zenith Bank, WEMA, Bank Of the North, and from the next turn is residence of former PDP Chairman and state governor Solomon Lar.

For those that know, behind the COCIN Church lies expanse of land that borders the Jos Zoo and Museum. Some few meters is the High court, the SSS state Headquarters, the Jos Prisons which looks directly at the Police Headquarters. If one throws a Javelin with full strength you can get close to the STF Command, and you then have the Hill station Hotel and off course the Governor's Gishe office.

In Jos, it's a small community, a small inter-linked metropolitan city...despite all the strife and hatred; it remains a town where everyone knows somebody who knows the other person irrespective of creed, faith and religion.

In Bauchi, it was the story of how some persons allegedly were on a bombing mission of their own church.

Salient musing: There are several issues but let me highlight just a few, one it is true that these 'so-called Christians’ like 'so-called Muslims' are just criminals bent on inflaming an already hot situation. That they were rival gangs is a cock and bull story. That the COCIN president denied them also makes no sense because the truth is that today's Boko Haram is simply extending its tentacles and I am one of those with the belief that the government in the North and center are behind the group irrespective of faith or to some extent culpable.

With each passing week, the Boko Haram stratagem keeps changing or evolving. The recent burning of schools in Borno, the fact that statistics quoted say more Muslims have been killed makes it the more we look the less we understand. In Kano, its BH vs the Police, in Borno, its vs. the Police, STF, schools, markets, in Gombe, its Churches, In Yobe, vs. the SSS and security apparatus, in Adamawa its bank, and other ethnic groups, In Kaduna, it’s been bombs galore.

Salient musing: All the arrests made by the SSS, all those James Bond sounding like stories by various media credited to inside sources, still no significant progress. The recent capture and continued implication of security personnel and persons of other faith and deportations of foreign nationals, to what effect but ‘shakara and gragra’--We were told that top politicians were behind them and phone logs and all that tales by moonlight, yet we are now loosing count of the death toll just this year alone.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Central Bank Governor, fiery and, an intellectually controversial character. He stirred the hornet's nest with his postulation on the North and Derivation, by extension deprivation and the causes for Boko Haram, he fanned the wind of Islamic banking, his Kano donation, told us at the Fuel Subsidy town-hall meeting that it’s been a while he bought fuel. He means different things to different persons.

Salient musing: Sanusi like Soludo before him, is intelligent, I do not think he means any harm, by way of reflection, I am amused that he seems to have won the similar awards, accolades and attacked same way Charles Soludo was--in other words in a few years time, when we look at his scorecard would it not be same difference. Are we not at the same ball dance because we are yet to fashion a way past our struggle to attain nationhood.

"Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari is the former President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) and leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF). He is better known for his struggles for the liberation of the Niger Delta region. To some people, he is freedom fighter while to others, he is a controversial personality". This is how he was introduced in a recent interview in a national daily.

In that encounter, he called the fuel subsidy protests 1."…A conspiracy amongst the Lagos people and the people of the North to have a regime changes because they are losing power".

He added "They are losing economic and political power and they are afraid that if President Jonathan is allowed to continue for 8 years, the consequences will be devastating …

On the unity of Nigeria, he quips "Who cares about the unity? Which country is it that anybody cares about the unity? I will be the happiest person if this contraption collapses. I will be the happiest person. I have not hidden my feelings about this contraption…”

Salient musing: He may have made some very debatable points in the course of that interview, but then how did we get to this point, the Dokubo-Asari point, the Gani Adams point, and the Tompolo point, the Boko Haram point, the point where former warlords and thugs set agenda.

If a person exposed to minimal risk cries disaster, what would the person exposed to much greater risk do, the dove recites incantations, thinking that the pigeon cannot hear; the pigeon hears; it is only pretending to sleep. (Never mistake a person's easygoing demeanor for cowardice or folly). We are running, how far, only time will tell. Let us embrace peace, we still can, but do we want to, the blame game won’t help us.

1. http://www.burningpot.com/component/content/article/315-frontpage/1883-jonathan-will-occupy-aso-rock-for-8-years-asari-dokubo