THERE seems to be a traceable method to the Boko Haram madness. It looks like a sheer destruction mission. It was such a bloody holiday terrorism last weekend that took so many lives with figures ranging from 63-150 (depending on who is doing the counting). In a society where human life is sacred, that kind of number would have caused the country to shake to its foundations. When a gunman attacked a resort in Norway recently killing about 100 youths, the country never remained the same. It would have caused a national mourning with people standing on the forces of state to demand retributive justice. But it seems that in Nigeria, 63 citizens killed by terrorists might as well have been another 63 killed in auto crashes or by ritualistsmere statistics!And this is the shame of the fight Boko Haram is propagating: it is a fight of obscure principles that masquerade as religious. If it is about religious faith, I do not think it will relentlessly destroy that which it seeks to impose on us; because, in the past one year at least, the sect has done more against Islam than it has done in its favour. It is now a battle between those who are reasonable and value life and those who are unreasonable and do not value life. As things are going now, Boko Haram is no longer those who throw bombs but everyone, including agents of state, who allow this to go on and on unchecked.Prominent in this charge of accessory after the fact is the regions elite, comprising religious leaders, political leaders and their opinion makers who are shockingly not vociferous enough about the genocide. Their silence reverberates so much that anybody from outside the region who wants to make some serious noise would be deemed as crying louder than the bereaved. The blame can be put on the religious and cultural fatalism that has aided resignation to similar forces over the years. The only person whose voice seems loud is the Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu, who upbraided the northern elite for their complicity in the menace by not supporting the state enough on the Boko Haram menace. Other than that, there is not much evidence that the Northern elders want the problem solved. In one sad incident months back, some elders of Borno State protested the deployment of soldiers to the state to deal with the rising violence and destruction.One can blame it on multiple factors: perhaps the emirs who supported the Jonathan Presidency that caused a riot earlier this year and whose palaces had been burnt have learnt their lessons and have decided to stay as far away from the President and his administration as much as possible; perhaps they too are afraid of Boko Haram retaliating if they speak out and so they would rather be quiet and hope the sect doesnt look in their direction. Perhaps again, they are enjoying the whole scenario: it makes the President look bad further and since he is not from their region they can at least get the privilege of saying, Well, you see what we have been saying' It is not only the northern presidents who couldnt fix Nigeria.The second person to blame is the President who seems to be able to do a little more than visit scenes of the disasters, make vague promises about fishing out the killers until another happens and then repeats the cycle. In a perverse manner, this whole Boko Haram menace looks good for him: it helps to further a sense of victimhood for him. He can at least use this as an excuse why he didnt deliver on those lofty promises he made in February and March when campaigning. Boko Haram provides a veritable excuse as distraction for us and him. Then, other sympathetic Nigerians can say, If the President had been a northerner, all these would not have happened. In the myopic blame process, we will forget to ask if the carnage would have gone on ceaselessly if it had involved the Presidents folks. We might even unwittingly build a sympathy case for him and forget to ask him what the executive power in his hand is all about. This kind of approach can even win him a second term -if the single six year term bid fails- because it puts the blame at the footstep of his enemies or perceived enemies.But, caught in the middle of the Northern Elite and the President are Nigerians who are the unfortunate victims of the power play and ineptitude. Nigerians are the victims because they are the ones who will die through the genocidal attacks of Boko Haram; they are the ones who will lose loved ones and their means of livelihood destroyed; they are the ones who will watch their Nigerian lives daily discounted, devalued, decimated and degenerated before their eyes. They are the victims, almost in the mould of Isidore Okpewhos classic work, The Victims. And will remain victims unless we stop this menace at a point.And if the stories are true that the suicide bombers are being paid money worth millions of naira to act as human weapons, where does religion come in' Why would anybody pay anybody to be a martyr except to use the consequences to create an atmosphere of fear he (or maybe a she) would exploit' That way, they become omniscient, control and manipulate our moral panic for selfish gains' People who died in a revolution or are crucified for their faiths did so out of a sense of conviction. Once anyone pays for them to throw away their life, it is no longer a conviction of ones faith but a trade: exit a useless existence for a fee, plus, maybe the life of eternal bliss with all the sensual pleasures it promises. The way and manner these people taunt the law enforcement agencies now show a kind of masochism which is dangerous and, in the times to come, will make them more daring.Up till now, the quest for solution to the Boko Haram challenge has been focused on the Presidency (since the Nigerian state is one in which all powers devolve to the centre) and nothing tangible has been achieved. Never mind what the security agencies say, the issue overwhelms them and I think it is time we hung a substantial share of the responsibility on the states in the region as well. The northern leaders of thought need to be pressured to fish out and expose the terrorists in their midst. Beginning from the governors to the federal and state legislators to the local government chairmen and religious/political leaders who collect a percentage of the local government funds monthly, there should be an allocation of responsibility of solving the Boko Haram challenge put on their necks.It is not just for them to condemn the act publicly (for a condemnation has failed them), as has become the ritual, but to use their local network to fish out the extremists among them. While they are at it, their monthly allocations can be suspended to ensure they work at it and faster too. I am of the school of thought that most of our problems can be solved if we apply some drastic measures that take the people who are in direct position to solve them, out of their comfort zone.
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