By Ochereome  Nnanna
DR. STEPHEN DAVIS is an original case of loose cannon. He is both a muckraker and fisher in troubled waters; a man whose real mission to Nigeria can only be understood through proper investigation. He came dressed in the borrowed robes of “federal government negotiator” with Boko Haram.

This was what the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its loudmouths, such as Nasir El Rufai, latched on to justify their allegation that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Federal Government is sponsoring the Boko Haram insurgents through elements in the army, such as retired Army chief, Lt General Azubuike Ihejirika.

Since then, Davis has unravelled. The federal government has denied hiring him, and the man himself has admitted the government did not hire him. So, who hired him? Who brought this mercenary and soldier of fortune to Nigeria? Who started dubbing him “negotiator for the federal government”? And for what specific ends? Whose interest is Davis advancing with his activities and utterances about the insurgency in Nigeria? Clearly, he has

MEETING: From right; President Idriss Deby of Chad; President Goodluck Jonathan and former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff at a meeting in Chad on Monday. Photo: NAN.

hobnobbed with Boko Haram, if the stories we read and the photos we see are anything to go by. And an angry Boko Haram, according to news, has promised to respond comprehensively to the charges that former Governor Nmodu Sheriff of Borno State and General Ihejirika are sponsors of their war machine. When we hear from them the picture will be clearer.

I see Davis as a hired agent provocateur, someone’s cat’s paw being used to carry out a disguised agenda of confusing the Nigerian public as to what Boko Haram is all about and what they really want to achieve. Those who seek to sow this confusion have two objectives behind it: (a) to mask the real mission of the insurgents, and (b) to put the blame for their activities at the doorstep of President Goodluck Jonathan, with a view to getting him voted out in 2015 so that a northern president will come through the back door and go all out for Boko Haram, thus stopping it from dethroning the northern establishment.

What is Boko Haram’s real mission? It is all too obvious, even though some Nigerians prefer to remain dumb about it.

Boko Haram is part of a worldwide Islamic uprising or chains of revolutions aimed at overthrowing the incumbent order established by the West and protected by the statutes and protocols of the United Nations. Boko Haram is part of the campaign for a new Islamic world order.

The conflicts in northeast Nigeria, Northern Mali, Somalia, the Islamic Maghreb, Yemen, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Pakistan, Syria and Iraq are initial seeds to plant localised caliphates. If they succeed they will link up and move to the second phase. The US and the West understand this and are trying to build regional coalitions to provide the men while they supply the technology to burn off these Islamists.

More specifically, Boko Haram wants to overthrow the Sokoto Caliphate, which, they believe, has become decadent and no longer fit to serve the needs of Muslims. They want to replace the Sokoto Caliphate and its adjoining territories with a new Islamic dispensation that will not cohabit with the Western model.

They blame the current Islamic order in the north, in cahoots with Westernism, for what they see as the degradation of Islamic values, corruption, and lack of regard for the welfare of the downtrodden. It is the same urge to eliminate Western-inspired systems that is driving the Islamists of Mali, especially the Tuareg rebels to fight for their dream new Muslim caliphate known as Azawad.

There is firmly concerted effort on the side of the northern leaders to divert universal attention from Boko Haram’s agenda to overthrow a dispensation that made them what they are today; a system they are hoping will remain their stepping stone towards recapturing the presidency of Nigeria and relaunching their interrupted dominance of its oil-rich economy.

The northern establishment, with the Sokoto Caliphate as its foundation and bulwark, will do everything possible to divert the attention of especially the talakawa (hoi polloi Islamic grassroots) from tuning into the Boko Haram frequency. Boko Haram is making their own revolution unpopular through their acts of murderous brutality, which is typical of the methods of today’s al Qaeda-inspired Jihadists. They are looking for every opportunity, through intense propaganda, to misinform, demonise and point fingers at other people to create distractions.

This has been prosecuted through the activities of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), former Governor Murtala Nyako, Nasir el Rufai and many other northern opinion leaders. Sometimes they deny there is such a thing as Boko Haram. Sometimes, they accuse the armed forces of using elements within its ranks to “depopulate” the Muslim North.

I have read some laughable opinions blaming the Igbos for the insurgency! The direct accusation of Ihejirika first came from the NEF and Nyako, before Davis came with his unsubstantiated claims. NEF had actually threatened to sue Ihejirika at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Sometimes, they try to equate the Boko Haram with the former Niger Delta militants, the objective being to create another amnesty programme and funding as it was done for the Niger Delta militants.

Davis walked into the scene with wild allegations without providing a single shred of evidence, especially against Ihejirika. Whose interest is he fronting, I ask again?

He is not a known stakeholder in the Nigerian project. His utterances only resonate with the people whose interests are best served through diverting attention and hoping to weaken the president to enable them climb into his exalted seat. He is a front for those who will like to paint the president and his known supporters black for their own political gains.

While the confusionists are at work, Boko Haram is growing wilder, and the nation is gradually sliding into a second civil war that might eventually destroy it. If this eventually happens, the things the confusionists seek to achieve – the preservation of their Sokoto caliphate dispensation, and reclamation of the presidency – will also be lost. Davis will simply go somewhere else with his portfolio.