Bomb blasts – Jonathan must do the needful, now!

NIGERIA is not one of the most dangerous places on earth, but its exclusion from this notorious list is not a cause for celebration, it just says how dangerous the world has become and why people all over the world should be concerned at new violence spots, especially when they attain a certain regularity. The suicide bombing that took down part of the United Nations headquarters in Abuja on Friday is another warning to the authorities who keep treating insecurity as “another item” on a long list of challenges.

We have often warned that without adequate security, all pretences to development would be lost in the atmosphere of renewed uncertainty that has prevailed since Boko Haram gained prominence in 2009. Why would the UN building be a target? There would be speculations in answering the question.

However, Boko Haram may be seeking ways of gaining international attention for its operations and strengthening its hands as it negotiates with the Nigerian government. Boko Haram would be excited about the massive publicity the attack has generated. The incident revibrated throughout the world.

The UN secretary-general Ban-Ki Moon had to comment. The news headlines are about Boko Haram – Libya is now mentioned on the sidelines. Is there a better way to maintain relevance?  Whether the attack is a testimony to the reaches of Boko Haram or possible international assistance in its operations are not the concern of Nigerians and others who the interruptions of the sect affect.

The question remains what government will do. Its tepid efforts at stemming the activities of the sect have not achieved anything other than emboldening the sect. A profound analysis of the sect’s intentions is aborted in the parochial acceptance of its supposed opposition to education. How many schools has Boko Haram bombed? Why is it targeting police stations, markets, and other places that can achieve maximum attention or loss of lives?

When will the government be tired of its worn warnings to the sect? Is government not embarrassed that it cannot protect its people? Now it cannot protect diplomatic settings like the UN building, which shares neighbourhood with other diplomatic missions. Things are getting worse and it took a while coming. The bombing of the police headquarters in Abuja did not elicit the type of crackdown people expected on Boko Haram.

Government opted for negotiation and set up a presidential committee that has been touring the country talking security instead of doing something about the insecurity Boko Haram has upped with bombings that in some weeks are daily. Bombs go off these days in Maiduguri, its base, Kaduna, Suleja, Bauchi, Jos, Abuja, with such frequency that it is difficult to keep an accurate count. Government’s response remains regurgitation of statements used when the sect first struck in 2009.

All the morbid analyses about ties to al-Qaeda, Libya’s Mummar al-Gaddaffi and other promoters of global turmoil, are not answers to the problems Nigeria faces with Boko Haram. Political exegesis keeps prevailing over the security of our people, proving again that politics is more important than the people.  Government has a responsibility to keep Nigerians safe.

It is not doing enough. Boko Haram delights in letting Nigerians know that they are not safe anywhere, whether day or night. The extension of its attacks to the international community is a big blow to whatever economic plans President Goodluck Jonathan has. Government cannot abandon the country to criminals of any hue.

Each concessions made to Boko Haram is a victory for its senseless campaign that has no place in the religion it claims to propagate. Are universities in the Islamic nations not better than the ones in Nigeria? Do the faithful in those places shun education under any guise? Islam promotes education and its earliest scholars, among them Avicenna, were famous for their scholarly activities across several spheres of learning.

Wikipedia says these of Avicenna, “Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn Sina, born in Persia, son of Sina’; c. 980, in Afshana near Bukhara – 1037, Hamadan , Iran ), commonly known as Ibn Sina or by his Latinised name Avicenna, was a Persian  polymath , who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular, 150 of his surviving treatises concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on medicine.  His most famous works are The Book of Healing , a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia , and The Canon of Medicine , which was a standard medical text at many medieval universities.

The Canon of Medicine was used as a textbook in the universities of Montpellier  and Louvain  as late as 1650. Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine provides a complete system of medicine according to the principles of Galen  (and Hippocrates ).  He was also an astronomer , chemist , geologist , Hafiz , Islamic psychologist , Islamic scholar , Islamic theologian , logician , mathematician , Maktab  teacher, physicist , poet , and scientist . He is regarded as the most famous and influential polymath of the Islamic Golden Age .”

As a democratic government, the Jonathan administration must respect peoples’ rights to choices the law grants them. Those choices include freedom of movement and right to worship. None of these choices count if they would violate other people’s right to life of similar or different offerings so long as it is lawful.

Robust constitutional provisions that award Nigerians these rights expect government to protect the people. The entire essence of Section 14 (2b) of the 1999 Constitution, “The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government,” captures the expectation.

A government that fails in its primary purpose diminishes its right to further claims of caring for the people. Government is yet to make the point that these bombings are no longer tolerable. When it does, Boko Haram would disappear without a trace. When government will do the needful is important than how it would do it. Will it wait for the next bomb? The violation of the UN building can be the last of Boko Haram if government wills.