By Chioma Gabriel
Nigeria’s former  Ambassador to Spain, Ambassador Yusuf Mamman in this interview, talks about the Boko Haram controversy, blaming it on extra judicial killings by the police. He opines also that if policemen were not careless in spraying innocent citizens who were not carrying any weapons with bullets, as shown on Al Jazeera TV, the problem would not have got out of control. Excerpts:

IN an interview we published recently with Reverend Thompson, he made some revelations about Boko Haram, suicide bombings and even Libya. He even said that President Jonathan could be Nigeria’s last president. What do you say to that?

I cannot respond to an ill-informed opinion. Anybody can say anything but what we need to ask is whether the person is informed or not. He expressed his opinion but what he said is not very profound. He even made an attempt to be very historic in trying to talk about Dan Fodio and the Jihad but he was ill-informed and didn’t even know about the issues he was discussing. He was ill-informed and very parochial.I cannot waste my time responding on such.

Why is Nigeria so entangled with Libya in a manner that is so incredible that even in the crisis engulfing that country, Nigerians were also victims?

It’s all historical. Right from the time of the Saharan trade, even before colonialism, Nigeria had ties with Sub-Saharan African.

There are over two million Nigerians living in Sudan. The same with Egypt. Libya is not in Europe, it is an African country. It is not only in Libya that Nigerians were killed. They were also killed in other African countries during crises. The two journalists that travelled to Liberia during its period of crisis were killed in that country. They were not the only ones.

Long history of relationship

Many Nigerians were killed in Liberia. Many were killed in Ivory Coast. So, it’s not extra-ordinary that Nigerians were killed in Libya. How many countries are in-between Nigeria and Libya? Geographically, it’s only Niger Republic. Nigeria is nearer to Libya than Senegal.

There are about two million Nigerians in Sudan and they have been there for over 200 years. They are Hausa-speaking people and even in Togo, there are Yorubas who have lived there for years. So, these countries have a long history of relationship with Nigeria. I don’t understand why Nigerians keep talking about Gadaffi as if he is the cause of our problems.

He has made several unguarded comments about Nigeria to the extent that he asked the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria to go their separate ways and forget about one Nigeria.

He was not the only person that said anything about Nigeria in the past. Collin Powel said that Nigeria is a country of scammers, people who live on 419. He said most Nigerians are fraudsters. That was a cheeky comment on Nigerians.

Where do you think this country is going when you consider the security situation, bombs exploding here and there at the instance of Boko Haram?

I think basically, there are two aspects here. There are the political and the social aspects. The most tragic thing about the Nigerian society is that people don’t have respect for life and property. We confessed to being religious but largely we are not spiritual. And no matter how genuine our grievances are, the Nigerian people must reject the use of violence as a medium of expression, be it by MEND, Boko Haram or any manifestation. Once you pitch arms against the Nigerian people, you illegitimise your cause, no matter how genuine it is.

File photo: Suspected Boko Haram members after their arrest.

The name Boko Haram sounds Islamic, yet the sect is being disowned by Muslims. Meanwhile, many believe they are fighting a Jihad.

One thing that must be rejected is the use of violence to fight any cause. It is just like kidnapping. You cannot be fighting a just cause when you are kidnapping people, even, old people and asking for ransom. It is not acceptable. Once violence is involved, it becomes criminalised and that cause cannot be justified.

What’s your take on the outcome of former President Obasanjo’s visit to the family of slain Boko Haram leader whose son-in-law was killed shortly after the visit?

We must look at this at its very broader picture. Let us look at it from the point of view of keeping law and order. The Nigerian police is becoming notorious for extra-judicial killings, whether in Enugu or Kano or anywhere. People who have been killed by the Nigeria Police were documented internationally by the Human Rights Watch. Nigeria Police do not follow due process in doing things and many human lives were lost. We as a Nigeria state have the highest rate of undetected, unprosecuted and unconvicted homicide in the world.

So, the effort of former President Obasanjo is commendable because it was not an easy thing to have done. A positive initiative has been set in motion and I believe that violence does not pay at all. So, we must do away with violence in every ramification.

A lot people think politicians are the ones sponsoring Boko Haram. Do you agree?

You cannot separate politicians from this because whether bombings were done by militants of the Niger Delta or Boko Haram or any armed group in Nigeria, politicians have a hand in it. Many armed groups are sponsored by politicians.

In the 1980s when Maitasine existed,the then President Shehu Shagari was able to nip it in the bud. How do we resolve this Boko Haram /suicide bombing?

Boko Haram must be seen in the context of globalisation and you must know the media also played a very critical role in this. Al-Jazeera showed a group of innocent people packed in one place who were suspected to be members of Boko Haram. These people were not holding guns. They were not holding weapons and the police started killing them. Even when Yusuf Mohammed was murdered by the police, he was not holding anything. He was not holding any weapon. So, we must look at this from the point of investigation, arrest and prosecution. If investigation collapses because Nigerian police lacks direction and sense of purpose, then we must go back to the drawing board. What happened has made the Boko Haram members say, okay, since they are killing us, why surrender. If we surrender, they kill us, if we don’t surrender, they kill us, so, no need. If you see what Al-Jazeera forwarded to the telephone of many people, those people were just standing, not holding any guns and then, police came and started spraying them with bullets, even your own anger would be kindled.

But isn’t Boko Haram initially a private army of a governor in the North?

This is just a hearsay. I cannot speculate because I don’t have the facts on its origin but I know that politicians have hands in all armed groups in Nigeria, be it MEND, Boko Haram or whatever.

As ex envoy, what do you think of the many illegal immigrants in Nigeria?

What do you mean by illegal immigrants? There should be a free movement of people, whether from Mali, Senegal or Niger. Nigerians are all in those countries and they don’t require any visa to be in Nigeria. They are not illegal immigrants because ECOWAS allows free movements of people across the sub-region. They don’t need any visa to be in the country and you cannot call them illegal immigrants because they are indigenes of the ECOWAS sub-region and don’t need any visa to be here.

Recently, President Jonathan celebrated 100 days in office and the opinion of many Nigerians is that after 100 days, there is still no clear-cut direction by government. Is this opinion true?

I think celebrating 100 days is just symbolic and it is too short a period to assess one’s performance in office based on his 100 days.