Enemies in the House
By Ochereome Nnanna
I KNEW Alhaji Modu Sheriff was not fit for exalted public office when I watched him acting up in December 2006. The event was the flag-off of the All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, presidential campaign at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu. The former Borno State Governor was very central in the campaign activities.
He frequently fouled the atmosphere with his chants of “Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar”, any time he had the opportunity to speak. And he kept referring to the presidential running mate of his party, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke as “Eze Umoke”!
Remember, this was Enugu, the capital of the defunct Eastern Region, the centre of Nigeria’s Christendom. Sheriff had the temerity to shout the war cry of his religion at a purely civic political campaign in an area of the country where Islam is at best a tolerated curiosity. Of course, due to the liberal attitude of the people of Southern Nigeria as a whole (including the West, where about half of the population are Islamic adherents), people did not react beyond glances of irritation at the laughable antics of this religious fanatic.
I asked myself what would have been the result if the situation were reversed. Let’s assume the campaign was taking place in Maiduguri and an official of the party from the South started shouting: “Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord”. There would be pandemonium right there on the podium.
And before the end of the campaign, some rag-tag al majiris would already be killing, burning and looting the non-indigenes in the city in an orgy of violence, probably instigated by one of the political leaders on the podium with a simple phone call. Many riots that claimed thousands in the North have been sparked by much less incidents.
A wise man always allows his actions to be governed by the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would them do unto you. If Jesus is Lord from a Christian Southerner is repugnant in the heart of the Muslim North, it should be obvious that Allahu akbar from a Muslim Northerner is equally repulsive in the heart of Christendom. The wise person will stick with the language and issues that unite both sides in a campaign. A political campaign is not an opportunity to propagate any religion. While the two officially-recognised religions (Christianity and Islam) are respected at public gatherings such as political campaigns (through prayers said by representatives of both), it is only a foolish and dangerous element that will overlook the sensibilities of others by chanting the war cry of a particular religion at a campaign rally.
How on earth was a man like Alhaji Sheriff to know the difference? Yet, such a man was considered by the local electorate as fit to be elected for two terms as governor in his state. By the time he was through with them, he bequeathed to them and the entire country a calamity known as Boko Haram, an Islamic sect that has become the local allies of the Al Qaeda global terror merchants.
His government funded extremist elements and used them to subvert the genuine wishes of the electorate. Their chieftains and financiers such as the late Buji Foi were made members of Sheriff’s cabinet. Today, Sheriff is on the run from his state, bolting from the Frankenstein Monsters he created. He was the first of the cowardly leaders from the north to grovel before the terror group, begging for forgiveness to avoid being targeted for elimination.
For long, it had been obvious even to cretins, that much of the Boko Haram violence was politically motivated. Foreign terror merchants only infiltrated the group because they saw a fertile ground and willing hands ready to take their blood money to do their bidding.
The possibility of foreign influence notwithstanding, much of the fuel upon which the Boko Haram terror machine runs is supplied by indigenous politicians who have one score or the other to settle or one interest or the other to pursue through this unscrupulous means.
There are those who are in it as part of the post-election disgruntlement over the failure of their political party or candidate to win elections. There are those who are soured by the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan’s victories from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primaries to the presidential election punctured their misguided notion of being born to rule other Nigerians. Some cultural and religious leaders have been carrying out hush-hush campaigns of hatred and religious intolerance among the impressionable, idle youth on account of this, thus the continued targeting of Youth Corps members from the south.
Then, there are others, especially opinion leaders, who see the Boko Haram insurgency as an opportunity to benefit from proceeds of blood and violence in the same way that some vociferous opinion leaders from the Niger Delta are currently gorging themselves on the ongoing post-amnesty bonanza. Just as the Boko Haram faceless leaders copied the modus operandi of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) the elite and opinion leaders from Borno State and the Muslim North in general adopted Chief Edwin Clark’s style of offering excuses for the bloody activities of their young anarchists with calls for “negotiation”.
The tendency of northern leaders to withhold unreserved condemnation of the killing of innocent Nigerians, the unanimous effort by Borno leaders to ask the federal government to withdraw troops from the theatre of violence, the campaign by northern media opinion merchants for “dialogue” with a group that has shown it is not interested in such, and the wishy-washy document submitted by the Galtimari Committee set up in August 2011 by President Jonathan that suggested they did not even meet with leaders of Boko Haram before compiling their self-serving report; all were evidences of politics being the main reason for the rebirth a Boko Haram that had been vanquished by the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua.
It was only a matter of time before concrete evidence would replace speculations over the sponsors of Boko Haram. The capture of Ali Sanda Umar Konduga, who bears the alias of Usman “Al Zawahiri”, the name of the successor of Osama bin Laden, became a watershed of sorts. Our Department of State Security Services (SSS) indeed seems to have woken up at last. Konduga revealed that his sponsors include a dead former Ambassador of Nigeria and a serving senator, Mohammed Ali Ndume. Ndume, incidentally, was a member of the Galtimari Committee.
I am convinced that the more of these youthful errand boys of these deaths merchants the security services are able to pull in the more of their financiers and sponsors will be exposed. It is gratifying to note the speed with which Ndume was arraigned for trial by the SSS. That should be the fate that awaits anyone with a prima facie case to answer for crimes against the nation.
At the end of this trial, we may find out that Ndume and his cohorts are actually linked to the international terror network, Al Qaeda. Or, he might just be another opportunistic Nigerian politician who decided to help himself to undeserved political triumphs buying into the new weapon of terrorism which is in fad in his area. After all, when kidnapping was discovered as a viable political weapon among politicians in the South East and South-South, it was liberally deployed, particularly in Akwa Ibom and Anambra States, in the run-up to the governorship polls. On the other hand, he might be found innocent of the crime. Let the courts decide.
However, since this is the first high profile case in terrorism charges, we must toe closely the line of law and justice. We must resist the temptation to politicise this case. The world is watching to see if our justice system is able to stand up to the test that this case presents.
50 golden cheers for Oliver Okeregwu
LAST week Monday, November 21st 2011, a cherished friend of mine, Mr. Oliver Okeregwu, breasted the tape at 50 years old. I am not in the habit of celebrating every friend’s birthday on this forum, but I am willing to make an exception with this Omuma, Rivers State-born Surveyor and construction engineer, who has done so much to uplift the people of his community even though he is not a politician or public office holder.
Okeregwu, a Deacon, was the first to electrify his Umueke community and helped attract the attention of the Rivers State Government to connect it to the National Grid. He has also demonstrated that being from the Niger Delta is not synonymous with carrying weapons and harassing the federal government and oil companies or getting involved in illegal bunkering or sponsorship of militants.
Instead, he is fighting it out with local and foreign construction experts in projects all over the country, proving what locally trained professionals can do in that sphere. Not only that, he has brought hundreds of young Omuma men to learn and specialise in all aspects of construction, and many of them are working with him on his various sites.
I am celebrating his community spirit and his efforts to give hundreds of young people rich and proud capacity empowerment that have changed their lives in more ways than one.
Happy 50 golden cheers, and may you never stop!
