By Rotimi Fasan
While Nigeria’s crotch bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, continues to hallucinate in faraway USA that Osama bin Ladin is still alive, the rest of Nigeria remains trapped by the not-too-different disease, caused by fear, that seeks to place Boko Haram, the murderous fringe group that engages in the deadly but cowardly game of bomb throwing- we do, by our act of spreading foolish urban myths, become captive worshippers in the temple of lies built by Boko Haram. And this boko nonsense just needs to stop!

But first to Farouk Abdulmutallab. He, for those who may have forgotten, is the Nigerian-born, al-Qaeda-trained zealot, whose dubious 2009 Christmas day present to America of attempted mass murder of innocents on an airplane bound for Detroit brought Nigeria the cynical stares of a world that had quite for some time held her in suspicion.

As his trial opened in the US, Farouk entered the district court where he is being tried proclaiming Barack Obama a liar for his claim that American seals killed bin Ladin in an operation conducted in Pakistan on May 1 this year. ‘Osama bin Ladin is alive’, our man screamed as he entered the court.

I don’t know how much access Farouk has to the news but it’s clear he already lives in another world that operates on warped time logic. He, like Hamza Al Mustapha that is beginning his second decade in detention on trial for the murder of Kudirat Abiola, deserves some understanding.

Isolation does take a heavy toll on the mind. Farouk truly needs to be pitied while one hopes his present condition doesn’t signal the onset of dementia that may prove more devastating for him with time. But the rest of us Nigerians don’t seem too far from the same type of confusion that Farouk appears afflicted by.

The only difference is that our confusion, unlike that of Farouk, is the result of fear – and perhaps plain mischief.

I really, truly, truly wish that I didn’t have to say one more word than I’ve in recent times had to say on Boko Haram. Either directly or otherwise, the Boko Haram matter is like a festering sore gradually turning cancerous but I’d rather go for amputation than bide its hateful odour.

For one it focuses undeserved attention on the group and its despicable tactics and ideology. For another reason, it may give some readers the impression that this columnist has run out of steam and, therefore, stuck in a groove like a stylus.

But it would be facetious to deny that Boko Haram has simply refused to leave the front page, no thanks to the bunglers that have the task of engaging the group and ultimately putting it out of business.

Yet in the last seven days or more the Boko Haram discourse/scourge has assumed a dangerous dimension with the elements of fear and rumour mongering brought into the mix. Several universities down South suddenly became military zones that came under the watchful eye of security agents that frisked visitors to these civic spaces where they were not altogether shut down.

This followed reported threats or rumours that Boko Haram or agents of the group planned to or had, in fact, planted bombs in some universities. That was all and our so-called citadels of learning went into mass hysteria. From the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife to the University of Ibadan panic spread like wild bush fires that finally consumed the University of Benin where the authorities hurriedly shut down the institution and sent the students home.

For a university system with highly irregular calendar, this kind of disruption is totally unwarranted. The remarkable thing about this latest incident is that it’s happening far from Boko Haram’s usual zones of operation. There is neither order nor much logic to the reaction that these rumours gave rise to, especially when one considers the kind of rumours that are being spawned from older rumours left to take on a life of their own.

Head of security

The first sign that something might be developing came to me when I got a piece of document from the head of security in my university. I had been standing outside the office when he approached me with the two-page paper. It contained warning tips on how to be ’security-conscious’ and respond in the event of an emergency, particularly one connected to bombs.

Although aware of what had been happening in different parts of the country, from Abuja, Jos and Maiduguri to Kaduna, I couldn’t help smiling on looking at the contents of the notice. What’s this talk of bombs, I thought. The matter would be clarified the following day when news came that some universities had been pencilled down for attack by Boko Haram insurgents.

The reaction of the public, one of utter panic and confusion, is an indication of what happens where those in authority don’t have answers to the security concerns of those they pretend to lead. People believe anything in times of insecurity and would in fear accept if told that lizards talk like human beings.

This was what happened immediately after the Boko bomb scare that led to the country’s universities shutting down on themselves. What followed was a deluge of phone calls and sms text messages going back and forth from one part of the country to another, warning people against taking calls from certain phone numbers.

To do otherwise, those sending these messages claim, is to risk instant and gruesome death. While figures were being bandied of victims, nobody claimed personal knowledge of any such victim who had received a call from the murderous numbers. Surely the only thing propelling these rumours is fear.

People are helpless and need to be reassured that they are safe. We’ve been here before. There have, in the past, been rumours of people facing instant death on receiving calls from certain numbers. That such rumours are again circulating is sign that we are all in a bad shape security-wise.

There is danger in allowing rumours like these to spread in the country. In university environments, as in other places, it could leave room for mischief makers and other opportunistic criminals to strike hiding under the guise of Boko Haram.

Campus terrorists called cultists could easily seize moments of fear like this to operate and usually credulous Nigerians would believe it’s Boko Haram at work. The situation is quite dire and our security and intelligence agencies would need to show, as they want us to believe, that they are, in fact, a step ahead of Boko Haram and all other harams still out there harassing Nigerians.