By TIM EJOOR
I almost choked on my drink last Thursday evening when a news flash came in on television that President Goodluck Jonathan was appealing to the Boko Haram group to make its demands known so that the Federal Government would know how to deal with the situation on hand.

This came only two days after the government had vowed not to negotiate with terrorists in whatever guise. The turnaround stance was a total shift in its earlier position. Well, the body language says it all. The president is obviously exasperated and almost at his wits end with no apparent solution in sight in the wanton killings and bombings that have trailed the activities of Boko Haram.

With his admission that the group has infiltrated all the security agencies and the higher echelons of his administration, fear and grief has overtaken the land. I don’t know if this is an admission of failure but it is generally agreed that government handling of the issue has been dismal.

It is sure a failure of security in their intelligence gathering system. It is a reflection of what we have become. As I write, Abu Qaqa, the alleged spokesperson of the group has been captured and in apparent answer to those asking for their demands, he said: “We will consider negotiation only when we have brought the government to their knees.

Once we see that things are being done according to the dictates of Allah, and our members are released [from prison], we will only put aside our arms – but we will not lay them down. You don’t put down your arms in Islam, you only put them aside.”

The recent change in the hierarchy of the Nigeria Police after the escape of Kabiru Sokoto from police custody is not going to help matters. The sacking of the entire DIG corps was ill-advised. You can’t get rid of officer cadre and send them to early retirement just to pave the way for a new, lower in rank Inspector-General who we are yet unsure can be any different from his predecessors.

This is more so given the antecedents of Mr. Mohammed Dikko Abubakar. He is said to have been indicted in the Justice Tobi report on the Jos crises. Abubakar was the Plateau State Police commissioner when the crisis started.

He was strongly criticised for his partisan role and the panel recommended that he be dismissed from the police for his alleged ignoble role. Rather than carry out the cop role for which he is being paid, Abubakar allegedly took sides with one of the warring parties in the religious crisis.

This leaves a big question mark on his integrity as chief law enforcement officer of the nation. Can he be trusted not to further use his office to promote the activities of the same people whom he’s been asked to checkmate?

Boko Haram has over-night become the new phenomenon in Nigeria. Unfortunately, it is of a negative hue. What started as a small group of Islamic dissidents probably sponsored by politicians to terrorise their opponents has snowballed into a national emergency; threatening the vary existence of the nation.

The socio-economic consequence is yet to be quantified but it’s better imagined. Government can no longer guarantee the safety of lives and property in certain sections of the country. People are fleeing in opposing directions to avoid the cross-fire. Reprisal threats are echoing all over the place. No one knows when or how the madness will end. It is sure a failure of security in the nation.

But the security failure is not the making of police alone. Some other agencies that make up the security apparatus of the state are also culpable particularly, the State Security Service (SSS) and the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) for the unending reign of terror.

What is the role of the office of the NSA with its huge budget in the 2012 revenue allocation in protecting the lives and property of Nigerians? Last time I checked, NSA’s activities are not limited to advising and protecting the president alone. These people have failed in their primary duty of identifying, infiltrating and nipping in the bud any threat to our collective security.

Those who say Boko Haram is faceless are merely begging the question as many, especially northern leaders, know these people. Some are afraid of lending information to the authorities or until recently, believed it was a necessary evil until the tiger now threatens to devour its rider.

The continual clashes and killings in Kano by the Islamic group in the last few days is sure indication that the group may have moved into a new phase of its horrendous campaign. Kano is the economic nerve centre of the north.

Taking over and paralysing such cosmopolitan area is dangerous. They have probably now moved their operational base from the far flung north east segment to a more central and strategic location with almost a bird’s eye view of Abuja.

The claim by the group that they attacked Kano to secure the release of some of their members in custody in that city may just be a ruse to disguise their real intent. Will the government accede to their request?

If the government thought it was dealing with a group of rag-tag fundamentalists, by now the realisation would have dawned that this group is far more sophisticated than any before it. Their links with al-Qaeda in north Africa make them a formidable foe. Just like al-Shabaab in Somali which has become a thorn in the flesh of its home government and Kenya, Boko Haram is unrelenting in their dastardly acts.

The way out for government is to put the capacity of the security agencies to more tasks and make lesson of those who have surreptitiously supported Boko Haram. There is nothing wrong with government asking for help from a country like Israel which has continuously dealt with such threats from its neighbours successfully. However, as in everything Nigerian, primordial sentiments may prevail over exigency.