2011: Nigerians As captives of fear
By Garba Shehu     Newsdiaryonline   Wed Jan 4,2012

Attack on Police Hqtrs

Unarguably, the year 2011 was one of the most nightmarish in the lives of most Nigerians, despite the semblance of comfort enjoyed by a few privileged citizens. The choice of the word “semblance” is deliberate because no privileged man of conscience would feel at ease morally in a situation where we had an Island of affluence surrounded by a sea of grinding poverty. The grim picture of unemployment, hunger, low health standards, despair and uncertain future didn’t change significantly for the poor majority during the year just gone by. While some of us who are perceived as the elite could afford to pay their medical, water and electricity bills as well as the school fees of their children, majority of poor Nigerians were struggling to meet the barest minimum of daily existence. In fact, it may be no exaggeration if one ventures to say that millions of fellow citizens experienced living death during the previous year.

To majority of the ordinary Nigerians, the year 2011 was some kind of annus horribilis (the most horrible year). One cannot, therefore, feel comfortable while millions continue to wallow in abject poverty and despair. As William Shakespeare famously stated, misfortunes come in battalions! The experience of Nigerians during the year gone by was a grim reflection of this Shakespearean assertion. 

As poverty, hunger, unemployment, disease and despair were taking their tolls on ordinary Nigerians, insecurity also assumed a terrifying dimension with terrorist violence spreading the contagion of fear across the country. Boko Haram, a once relatively unknown fringe Muslim group, has now struck fear into the heart of the nation. For the first time in our national experience, suicide bombing has now become a new dimension to the country’s security challenges. The frequency and death caused by terrorist violence are so horrendous to bear a repetition of casualty figures.

The issue is no longer about casualty figures. The death of one innocent life is bad enough and indefensible. More disturbing is the seeming helplessness of the state to respond robustly to these unprecedented security challenges. Most recent of these violent incidents was the Christmas day suicide bomb attack on St. Theresa Catholic Church at Madalla in Niger State, which claimed the lives of innocent people. One of the fundamental rights of any citizen is the freedom to practice their religion in peace and happiness without molestation, threats or harassments.

Are the criminals defeating the state? This was the question hanging on the lips of Nigerians when President Jonathan celebrated Nigeria’s 51st Independence Anniversary within the confines of the presidential villa on October 1, 2011. Nigerians were shocked why the President abandoned the Eagle Square and observed the event inside the villa.

As the Commander-in-Chief, the President should have celebrated the 51^st Independence Anniversary at the Eagle Square in order to reassure the nation that the government would not succumb to terrorist blackmail and threats. However, by avoiding the Eagle square, the President had sent a wrong message to his citizens that they were on their own. In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the former World Trade Centre in New York, former President Bush adressed his fellow countrymen standing on the ruins of the twin towers in which he told them that the terrorist attacks could only shatter buildings but they could not shake the will and spirit of the American people. Thus, he was able to mobilize his citizens behind the success of new homeland security policy, designed to protect Americans from future attacks. Such was the kind of reassurance Nigerians would have expected from our President. Merchants of violence are now celebrating at the seeming inertia of the State in the face of these challenges.

After the June 2011 suicide attack on the Police headquarters in Abuja and the United Nations office in a few months later, our security system should have been more proactive. The irony of it is that these bombers even issued warnings of imminent attacks and eventually succeeded without being stopped before they reached their targets. From 2001 to date, the U.S security system has significantly reduced the incidents of terrorist attacks inside America. In fact, the killing of Osama Bin Laden on May 1, 2011 at his Abottabad hideout in Pakistan was a symbolic victory for the war on terror, despite the fact that Al-Qaeda terror structures are still on the ground.

Our security men need not only demand for colossal budgetary allocations butmust also demonstrate the patriotism to succeed. It is inconceivable why policemen should resist posting to Boko Haram strongholds such as Borno and Yobe States. The former U.S. Commander of the Operation Desert Storm (1990), General Norman Schwarzkopf, reminded his troops during a pep-talk; “If you are haunted by the fear of death, you need not join up in the first place.” With both the unarmed citizens and the police living in the fear of Boko Haram, how do you halt the atmosphere of paranoia that envelopes the country?

However, the most dangerous dimension to this unfolding violence is attack on the places of worship, which can trigger a religious conflagration the country can ill afford. From Bayelsa came the shocking report the week before that a church member who disguised himself as a Hausaman complete with a turban giving himself the outlook of a Muslim had been caught just as he was about to set the church building on fire. Had he succeeded, God save all Hausa and Muslims in Yenagoa that day. More than any other thing, this incident has given credence to suspicions that all those attacks at places of worship and the many in Borno, Yobe and Niger States may have come from fifth columnist actions. This is however not to absolve Boko Haram of blame. The obvious thing is that the larger body of Muslims in the country as represented by their leaders are begging to be heard; that Muslims are grieving and saddened that innocent lives are being taken by an extremist few in the name of their religion and that above all, there is growing tendency by the country to generalize the blame. In Kano last weekend, most Friday Mosques dwelled on the tragedy that struck the nation on Christmas day. Imams were not only condemnatory of the violence, they were calling for sympathy and support for the Muslims as they struggle to ward off the yoke of Boko Haram. In which case the language of the President, Christian Association on Nigeria Ayo Oritsejafor in the on-going situation would appear to be less helpful than to be expected of a man in his position.

In the search for the sponsors of this violence, the government must avoid temptations, fed by prejudice and preconceived notions of guilt. We should not play politics with this issue. The government must approach the issue with open mind and search in all directions for answers rather than looking for simple solutions.