Attacking The Helpless

The security situation of the country in recent times has become a huge source of worry to not just government officials, but to all citizens of our dear country Nigeria.

Everywhere you go, from east to west, north to south, people are curious and worried. Many have resorted to avoiding occasions, business or appointments that are to take place or are taking place in certain public places for fear of being attacked.

In a recent estimate by the Kano State Commerce and Industry Mines and Agriculture (KACIMA), the northern part of Nigeria which used to be the hub of economic activities in the country has become the ghost of itself owing to the violent activities of Boko Haram sect prevalent in the north. KACIMA noted with dismay that an estimated 25 billion naira is lost on daily basis in the north as a result of the activities of the Boko Haram sect.

But more worrisome is the dimension that the bomb attacks have taken. Helpless Nigerians are always more in the list of casualties any time there is a bomb attack and many more are injured, children are been made orphans, women are made widows, men are made widowers, and parents are been made childless etc. According to federal government sources, more than 100 armed attacks have been carried out by the Islamic fundamentalist sect Boko Haram in 16 northern states, over 300 persons are estimated to have lost their lives in those attacks and many more are injured. Most of the attacks are carried out in places like churches, markets, popular junctions, police installations etc. and at the end every bomb attack, causalities are always the passerby, the market men and women, church members, security officers on duty and journalists.

The demands of the Islamic sect which has always claimed responsibility for most of the bomb attacks is for the institutionalisation of sharia educational system against the modern/western education. But, what is the connection between enthronement of sharia educational system and bombing, killing and maiming of innocent and helpless Nigerians?

The point must be made; sharia system of education in itself is not a bad thing, but the use of violence to institutionalise it is totally unacceptable to any reasonable Nigerian, not even the Islamic leaders themselves. To attack media, is to attack the conscience of the society and killing of journalists is the same as telling the media not to tell the people good things and the benefits of sharia educational system. Attacking markets, churches, popular junctions and public buildings is self defeating and will only succeed in making the dream for an Islamic educational system a perpetual one.

The federal government through the construction of the modern ALMAJIRI schools in parts of the north is taking the right step in the right direction. Therefore, the traditional leaders, religious leaders, political leaders, youth leaders and all opinion leaders and other leaders in the north must be proactive in tackling the menace of bomb or gun attacks on helpless citizens in the north by Boko Haram by reaching out to the Islamic sect, and enter into their world and see things from their point of view in order to get a clearer understanding of the sect’s demands.

The security agencies must not just be on top the situation, but on every part of the situation, top to bottom and even the sideways in order to fish out the criminals in their midst and their sponsors, as well as all those who are involved in the frequent killing and maiming of Nigerians and make them face the full wrath of the law.

To our brothers and sisters who are members of the sect, attacking and killing of helpless Nigerians is self defeating. If you attack the media, you starve yourself of news and information if the media decide to apply the principle get keeping on the sect and its demands by refusing to report the activities of sect, the right authority will not hear and nothing will be done. If you attack the markets, you stagnate economic development of the society and in the process increase the rate of poverty in the society. If you attack government installations, development will not be equal and poverty will continue to rise. And if you attack the markets, churches, mosques and kill men and women and make their children orphans; who then will send their children to the Islamic school where they will learn the sharia educational system.

Finally, violence they say, begets violence. This is why the sect has to drop the violent campaign and embrace peace and dialogue as the only way to achieve long lasting peace and attract public sympathy and support for their demand.

Chimezie wrote  from  Port Harcourt.

Izejiobi Kingsley Chimezie