By Donu Kogbara

A Muslim friend who lives in  Sokoto sadly tells me that fear of Boko Haram is the beginning of wisdom nowadays…and that the organisation has gradually acquired a legendary status in the North and is widely regarded as a highly efficient terror machine that operates with deadly precision and may even possess supernatural powers and is bringing the Nigerian State to its knees.

This glamorization of insurgents — and the accompanying belief that they are somehow invincible— really bothers me. And it needs to be nipped in the bud.

Regardless of where they come from and whether their objectives are religious, political or both, all guerillas have romantic self-images and see themselves as lion-hearted freedom fighters, divinely-mandated warriors or honourable defenders of one  ideology or the other.

And we can’t prevent them from having such high opinions of themselves. But we don’t have to buy into their delusions!   OK, I admit that I have, in the past, sympathized with certain illegal groups such as Niger Delta militants.

But Niger Delta militants never specialised in bombing innocents; and I eventually concluded that they would, if they were genuinely interested in liberating their oppressed brethren, have used the millions they made from bunkering and kidnappings to greatly enhance their villages … instead of blowing their booty on flashy cars and other luxuries.

I have also tried to view Boko Haram through a compassionate prism and to imagine that its members are justifiably disillusioned young men who could have been my sons if I’d been born in a different place and social space.

And I went through a phase of describing them as poor suffering desperate victims of the greed and neglect that Northern grandees have inflicted on their region. But I have not been able to sustain this liberal, maternal mindset in the face of outrages such as the disgraceful destruction of a church on Christmas Day and the horrific attacks that brought Kano to a tragic standstill last weekend.

The bottom line is that I was wrong to make excuses for violent outlaws and am now absolutely convinced that nobody should ever succumb to the temptation to exonerate or glorify them, no matter how just their causes may appear to be.

In addition to waging war on societies and governments, using military tactics, terrorists also subject us to psychological warfare that is meant to scare the hell out of us. And, yes, the status quo is extremely frightening.   But we must not allow ourselves to be intimidated because our tormentors are not particularly impressive as individuals; and their effectiveness will be limited and temporary if we uncompromisingly and courageously join hands against them and make it clear that a minority cannot hold the majority to ransom for long.

I used to be one of President Goodluck Jonathan’s biggest fans, but he has not been my favourite leader of late and I have criticised him and administration pretty strongly because of the fuel subsidy debacle and other issues that have been mishandled; but if he is seriously committed to ensuring that this country does not become a blood-soaked basket case, he deserves maximum support.

Jonathan is often described as weak. But, as I pointed out when I was invited to discuss Nigerian security problems on a recent BBC World Service programme, this is not one of the areas in which allegations of weakness are reasonable.

It took the British (who once colonially controlled a quarter of the earth’s surface) YEARS and YEARS to rid itself of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) menace. And before the IRA was eventually disarmed, it bombed the hotel in which a whole Prime Minister (Mrs Thatcher) was staying, murdered Queen Elizabeth’s uncle (Lord Mountbatten) and bombed the London Stock Exchange.

Ditto Almighty America…which was not able to avert the 9/11 Twin Towers shocker and took forever to locate and eliminate Osama Bin Laden. My argument was and is that if immensely sophisticated Western nations cannot solve terrorism problems overnight, it is not realistic or fair to expect relatively ill-resourced African nations to out-perform them overnight.

A couple of days ago, this newspaper quoted a Boko Haram spokesperson who said that Boko Haram does not have a personal grudge against Jonathan. Well, forgive me if I am being too cynical, but this claim is bull**** if you ask me!

If you don’t have a personal grudge against someone, why would you put him under pressure and make him look as if he cannot control the country he runs? As far as I’m concerned, Boko Haram is financially sponsored or verbally encouraged or tacitly tolerated by some spoiled brat members of the Northern elite who want Jonathan to look like a lame duck who cannot govern credibly because they are furious that he took over from Yar’Adua instead of handing over to one of them.

And they have gone out of their way to embarrass him.   Sure, complexities abound and Boko Haram undoubtedly has other agendas as well, such as its desire for the imposition of sharia law. But I reckon that making Jonathan look bad is, whatever its spokesman says, one of its objectives.

Only God knows what will happen next, given that some Southerners are rubbing their hands in grim glee about the prevailing religious/tribal tensions because they are seeking a reason to say “goodbye” to the North once and for all.   Is a Sovereign National Conference the answer? Will Nigeria disintegrate in the near future and cease to be the “Giant Of Africa”? Let’s wait and see.