AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN

IF I WERE YOU IN THIS BOKO HARAM CRISIS

I will bypass all show of courtesy so I can head straight for the cogent facts that I intend to establish in this short piece. This piece will be short enough to afford you the time and strength to read every last word of it, but it will be long enough to pressure your mind until you see the reason why this letter is coming from me at this time.

I should probably commiserate with you on the present situation in the country which is not just worrisome but is as well alarming. For me, I do sincerely hope that you are as disturbed in your mind about this issue, as your external expression on National television always makes us believe. I have never, and will never succumb to the school of thought which posited that the concerned look on your face has always been make-believe. Any right-thinking leader will be disturbed by the recent chain of events.

I do not exactly know which of the events we should begin to cry about; the abduction of the Chibok school girls? The killing of innocent souls? The abduction of respected community leaders and killing of the unlucky ones? Where exactly do we start our grief from as a nation? Particularly alarming is the abduction of the Chibok school girls who are still being held captive more than a month to the incident. Nigeria, the giant of Africa became helpless in the face of a handful of terrorists who do not measure up to 5% of the Nigerian population.

Most schools of thought, especially the ones with political funding believe the crisis has been aggravated by your incapability plus some good measure of insensitivity. While I beg to differ with this school of thought, I posit that instead of incapability and insensitivity, I think the Boko Haram problem has been aggravated by your inability to differentiate between what is important and what is expedient. In our current situation, desperate measures would have been perfect for desperate situations, the kind we have found ourselves in as a nation.

In a normal society where peace is reigning, the likes of Luxembourg, it will be possible to follow textbook-type rules of engagement in the movement of troops, discharge of criminal justice and negotiation of hostage situations. However, when in a war-like situation, and the lives of over 200 future mothers are at stake, more expedient measures has to be taken to ensure their release first, and then security beef-ups later.

While the crisis was just heating up, a few days into the abduction of these innocent school girls, a social analyst posited that the sect might be planning to use the girls as human shield in case of unexpected army offensives. However, news that filtered in later had it that the sect members were already utilizing the girls as sex toys, using them to pleasure their members at will. I see this as a temporary measure because I believe that as soon as a military offensive is launched to release the girls, they will eventually be placed in the line of fire as human shields. That is the most horrible way to die and I do not want us to imagine the possibilities.

Here we have found ourselves in a mad man vs. Normal human situation, which makes it definitely impossible to use reasonable approaches only to resolve the situation. A reasonable and legal approach would have been to mobilize troops towards the sect location and forcefully wrest the girls from their abductors. But, as we have found ourselves dealing with mad men who are ready to die and drag our promising daughters with them into the pit of hell, I think we need a twisty to that textbook approach.

Some days back, the US government released five Taliban in exchange for a US soldier who has been held captive in Afghanistan. It means it is not a new thing in the world of hostage negotiations to offer prisoners who were supposed to be sentenced for their crimes in exchange for the lives of innocent civilians, especially women and children. The Us government knew, that it can only get the detained soldier back alive if it offers the terrorist something which appeals to their self-interest. It does not matter if the criminals walk free, the life of that gallant soldier was worth more.

In this same situation that we have found ourselves, I do not believe that we stand to gain much from insisting on prosecuting detained Boko Haram members when the lives of our girls are at stake. If we can offer the freedom of these doomed criminals for the precious lives of our girls now being exposed to degrading conditions, I believe we stand to gain more as a society. Whether we do it ourselves or karma does it, these criminals are already condemned to the pit of hell; we should not afford them the luxury of taking our young girls along with them.  

If I were you in this situation Mr. President, I would offer everything that is in my capacity to secure the release of these girls. Their lives cannot be secured by military offensives for that will even endanger them even more, we just must intensify our negotiations. I would offer them the carrot of releasing their detained members in exchange for the freedom of my girls and strategize for the next opportunity I get to knock them off with sticks. That is the standard carrot and stick approach for a messy situation of the kind that we have found ourselves in.

It is important to deal with, prosecute and eliminate all elements of the Boko Haram sect, but if I were President, it would be expedient to get the girls back first, no matter what I have to do and deal with the important later. Whatever victory we achieve against the sect in commando style will be Pyrrhic when measured against the lives of our innocent girls that will be lost in the process. I would lose smaller battles (like releasing their members) so I can get my girls back and eventually win the war against terrorism. In the end, what will matter is who won the war, not the number of battles fought.

That is, if I were you....I hope you see some sense in my proposition and then act like I would have.

Long live Nigeria!!! Freedom to our Girls!!!

MY PROBLEM WITH AWOISM

Before I begin writing this piece, I need to make it abundantly clear that I do not intend to personally attack the person of Chief Obafemi Awolowo neither do I intend to bring whatever honour is attached to his name to any form of disrepute. He was an elder statesman and today remains a reference point in the history of Western Nigeria and of course Nigeria at large.

What I am going to do in this piece however, is make clear my sincere reservations towards the saintly manner in which the AWOIST theory has been presented. The proponents of this political and administrative ideology make it appear as if Papa Awolowo’s principles of politics and administration are ideal and free of all blame. The mistake is general and I have once jumped on the bandwagon, preaching the Awoist ideology as a veritable roadmap towards fostering a united and just democratic society.

On a fateful morning, I was a drive-through in the ancient town of Ogbomoso and had to take the road from Orita-Naira to General area of the town. Unavoidably, the road I was to take passes through the front of the residence of Late Chief S.L. Akintola. On seeing this residence, I immediately began reviewing the stories I heard of this late politician and one of those stories included his violent feud with Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The feud was generally violent, a despicable show of shame between two Yoruba elders at the time. It was indeed a misrepresentation of the Yoruba people.

This review of my knowledge of history prompted my questioning the beliefs I have always had in the Awoist ideology. The proponents of this ideology presents it as a model for good governance, non-violent electoral processes, a lesson in sound public administration and a model for peace, unity and mutual co-existence. I no longer believe those things. I now believe, that whoever they are who cooked up a political ideology called Awoism did it with the mindset of pulling off a grand deception. They intended to recruit Nigerians as disciples into an almost religious belief system which shares so much in common with an aphorism.

I remember the stories I was told about the era of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Truly, education was free in his time, he built the very first television station in the country and he pioneered a lot of innovative developmental moves while he was Governor of the old Western region. Yet, that era witnessed the deadliest and most brutal forms of election violence and political thuggery ever witnessed in the Nigerian political landscape. He was a leader who valued infrastructural development, yet he had a strong penchant for political violence which transpired in his uncontrollable feud with Chief Akintola based on elfish political interests that led to loss of many lives including that of Akintola.

How peace-loving would it sound to describe the icon of a certain political ideology as a man who could not control the violent traits of his followers? How do we explain the ‘wet e’ era (a time of great political upheaval in the south-west which was characterized by massive burning of opponents’ houses and personal properties)?

In recent times, the notable politicians who have openly declared their belief in the Awoist ideology are politicians who have had connections with electoral violence and political thuggery. Across all party divides, mostly in the PDP and APC, you find them in numbers claiming to be strict adherents to the policies of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Yet, the violence they mastermind is such that adheres strictly to the lessons they learnt from the icon of Awoism, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Stated clearly, what then is my problem with Awoism? It is that part of the political ideology that depict its icon, Chief Obafemi Awolowo as a peace-loving, non-violent saint, who embraced all and hated none, who gave all the chance for survival and killed none. The truth as I realized is, Obafemi Awolowo was a very practical man, he preached peace but employed violence and force when it was expedient. He campaigned for equal rights to life yet he killed those he considered as threats to his own life. My problem with Awosim, is that it is not a model for violence-free democracy as many preach it to be.

Thank you.

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AN OPEN LETTER TO THE BOKO HARAM INSURGENTS

The Boko Haram Insurgents
Unknown Base
Nigeria.

Through:
The Court of Public Opinion
Nigeria.

Dear Brothers in life's struggles,

RE: ZAMFARA MASSACRE - THE NEED TO STOP AND RECONSIDER

I would want to salute you dear friends, in the Islamic way but I fear I will be getting in the bad books of those Islamic faithfuls who consider you outlaws of the Islamic faith. So, I send you greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why Jesus? He said in the book of John 3:16; " For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." So, why Jesus? Because He came for the righteous and the sinners alike, to bring us all back to eternal redemption. I salute once again.

I chose to call you brothers in life's struggles, that again will call for certain criticisms of my moral standings by many. Yet, the grievous sins you have committed against humanity notwithstanding, we are all born of blood and flesh and whether we segregate along the lines of belief and disbelief, what matters in the end is the fact that we all remain brothers and sisters connected through a very long chain of descent. I greet you brothers.

It gives me great concern, to continually wake up to disturbing news everyday concerning the various exploits you have been responsible for in the Northern part of the county. If it is not 50 dying today, then its 200 dying tomorrow. The people you have killed, maimed and even rendered homeless are countless, yet so many people still wonder why. I do not wonder why you do these things, at least not anymore, but I write to brief you on the societal nuisance you have constituted.

In many quarters, a lot of persons classify you brothers, as people without reason, mentally deranged fellows or brainwashed freedom fighters at best. They think you do not think and you probably have no human feeling. I beg to differ, because I'm very sure you have cogent reasons for everything you have done so far. Like I said, a lot of people still wonder why you do these things and I will take a short while to answer the questions on your behalf.

I understand, that in your quest to attain highest levels of spirituality, you have found yourselves at the mercy of devilish clerics who fed you aphorisms. They clothed God in a way He isn't, they fed you with lies and instilled in you a cause which they were not sent by God to pursue. In the human psychology, it has been found to be normal for us to aspire towards a high, often devoted belief in a cause especially when the God factor is mentioned. I find your case to be no exception. These clerics twisted your thirst for doing the will Allah (SWT) into a penchant to kill most likely in the name of a Jihad. I do not blame you for believing them as we are all bound to be gullible at some point in our lives.

Like the crusaders in the days of Christian holy wars, you have accepted to lose your lives so that you may regain it in Al-Jannah Firdaus. You accepted to fight for the cause which you believed God ordained you to pursue through His clerics. You were misled. We understand you were probably so easy to mislead because our society has failed to discharge its responsibilities towards you. You were given no sound education, lacked jobs and basic means of livelihood and you fell at the mercy of these clerics. Who else do you listen to if not someone who clothed you, fed you and taught you his versions of the words of Allah (SWT)? I really do not blame you.

But dear brothers, the turmoil has lingered for too long. You have been in the fight, bled in the fight, died in the fight and yet, the end seems to be in heaven! I examined the futility of your efforts and I decided to plead with you to stop. Truth be told, no matter how hard you try, you cannot kill us all. You cannot even deplete the population. Of 120 million and more people, you have managed to kill barely 10,000. How long before you realize how wasted your efforts are?!

Combine the the futility of your efforts with the sacredness of human lives and you realize that presently in heaven, the stakes of hell are very high against you. But, as Jesus promised, there is yet hope for a sinner who repents of his sins. If as a reward for your actions the clerics promised you Al-Jannah Firdaus, the recent massacre you carried out in Zamfara State should be a reason for you to pause and re-consider. How do you enter Al-Jannah with the bloods of 200 innocent persons when Allah (SWT) is not the father of vampires?

Recently,government began alleging the use of chemical weapons in some parts of Benue State. You would imagine, if that continues, how soon before your fathers, mothers and siblings gets killed? Will it take one year for the trauma to get to your very pressure points? Or will it take just two weeks? No matter how long it takes, someday soon, the explosives will go off close to your heart, the very ones for whom you have decided to fight.

I plead with you dear brothers, the time to reconsider is now. The society may yet find no place for you within her ranks, but if you stop now, you will yet find a place in the heavens where only the government of peace reigns supreme.

Let no man deceive you, the lives of those 200 people in Zamfara is too sacred to overlook and God, as we know Him, holds dear the lives of His creations. If you fail to stop now, doom may just abound by the next turn. I plead with you with the sacred throne of Allah (SWT) to stop now and let us all, including yourselves live together as brothers that we truly are.

Nigeria is your home and Boko will not become Haram just because the society failed to grant you access to it. We will all work together to get what befits our human dignity, but only alive can we achieve such a great feat.

God bless our fatherland.

Yours Faithfully
ODERINU ADEDAYO T.
ibuckresources@gmail.com

Update: SSS HEADQUARTERS NOW HEAVILY GUARDED BY ARMY, SOME ESCAPEES RE-ARRESTED

As the dust settles on the attempt by certain Boko Haram detainees to escape the SSS Headquarters in Asokoro Abuja, the Nigerian Army has since mounted tight security on the Yellow House.

At the end of the crossfire that ensued, a number of Boko Haram escapees were re-arrested by combined forces of the SSS and the Nigerian Army. The exact number of re-arrested persons is still being awaited.

We will keep you posted....