Protest, Too Nugatory …Unearthing Boko Haram Agenda

Ask an average Nigerian, what the agenda of the notorious terrorist group, Boko Haram is, nine in every ten would most likely list aversion to Western education as a key grievance and the need to lslamise the Nigerian state as a major goal. That response might have been informed partly by the group’s threat to President Goodluck Jonathan to denounce his faith as a Christian and embrace Islam or be forced out of office.

Yet, a handful may probably suggest poverty as the driving force behind the now annoying menace, which the  Islamist extremist group today represents, and hastily blame government for the  Boko Haram’s  nugatory insurgency, which from all indices, is terror-based.

This is indeed why it is sad and very unfortunate that some Northern political elements , in a bid to rebrand the Boko Haram terror group and use it as a bargaining template for their political ends are now attempting to dress the body in the robes of Niger Delta insurgents, and are now, actually proposing that whatever was good for the latter be good for the former. Simply , that all members of the Boko Haram sect, including millions of sympathisers and would-be entrants be granted amnesty, as freedom fighters, a special Ministry for North-East development created  and specific projects be pursued as a precondition for cessation of hostilities against their own people.

Ordinarily, that attempt to liken, the Niger Delta struggle to the Boko Haram’s senseless killings, through suicide bombings daily unleashed on the Nigerian state by Boko Haram, should be laughed off, but in a country where, there is no telling when  what is white, and black, black, it is important, to paint clearly, how parallel both lines of insurgency are.

In fact, the Niger Delta struggle for economic integration, political relevance and indeed socio-cultural identity, was everything, the obtuse Boko Haram campaign of terror, was not and could never be .

Even so, were Nigerians not in the habit of feigning temporary, even permanent amnatia on issues affecting oil producing minorities, a recall of the past years of horror and deprivation would be unnecessary even wrong. It is even more so, when, viewed from the worrisome direction  the ominous Boko Haram rebranding is going. And with tacit support same is receiving from the hitherto indifferent Northern political elite, a new history of the Niger Delta struggle may be re-written.

But perhaps, the most compelling need for this appraisal can be found in the expressions by a supposed fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mallam Rufai Ibrahim, who in a paper, he delivered at the just concluded All Nigerian Editors’ Conference (ANEC) in Uyo, Akwa Ibom  State, laboured in futility to insist that the Boko Haram group, is a body of freedom fighters and proactive insurgents who should not be labeled as terrorists.

In his paper titled Reporting Right, Reporting Safe, Mallam Ibrahim literarily condemned the Nigerian editor for branding Boko Haram, a terrorist group, while, in his own view, the group is indeed peopled by vibrant young and educated Nigerians protesting against systemic neglect, poverty and worthlessness of their academic certificates.

Ibrahim expressed clearly discernable angst over what he called the mass media’s penchant of under-reporting the long list of extra judicial killings allegedly orchestrated by Nigeria’s Joint Military Task Force in the North East region and instead spent ample space publishing casualties of the Boko Haram’s ‘just’ struggle. To buttress his point, the speaker released records of deaths, which he claimed he sourced from the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital mortuary. In 2010, according to him, 60 dead bodies of Boko Haram ‘freedom fighters were deposited daily, in addition to other defenceless men, women and children.

On his count, 7,016 males and 1,603 females, totaling 8,619 people were killed by the Nigerian army in the name of fighting the Boko Haram insurgents. He infact, fell short of arguing if Niger Delta militants could be granted amnesty as legitimate insurgents, why not the Boko Haram? But Ibrahim did not end there.

Even with, ‘Nigeria Editor and National Security’ as theme of the conference, the speaker, imputed that President Goodluck Jonathan is what he is today because of the rewarding terrorist activities of the Niger Delta militants and the desperation of the then Federal Government to prevent attacks on oil and gas production facilities and attendant fall in national earnings.

In his estimation, it was that singular reason that informed the consessioning of the Vice Presidential slot to the South-South geopolitical zone and which resulted in the choice of Jonathan as Vice President, and later, upon death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, acting President and today, President and Commander In- Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal  Republic of Nigeria.

Bottomline: the only way the Presidency could return  to the North, is to frighten Jonathan out of any second term bid, using the Boko Haram terror network to facilitate its deadly agenda. Ibrahim’s was indeed an attempt in futility, for the history of the Niger Delta struggle is a well-known one.

Fortunately, Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, touched the nucleus of the Niger Delta struggle, albeit in a comical manner when, he said, for over 50 years of oil exploration and exploitation in the Niger Delta, the youth and people of the oil bearing areas remained marginalised in terms of gainful employment, education and indeed provision of basic infrastructure. Without electricity, good drinking water, hospital and modest homes, the people lived side by side oil company workers whose estates enjoyed uninterrupted power supply provided by gas turbines along with other modern amenities including jumbo take-home pay.

So well paid, the so-called expatriates and their Nigerian cohorts became predators to the vulnerable girl-child of the Niger Delta, who was frequently induced, tricked and forced into early prostitution.

All these were in spite of more than 50 years rigorous non-violent and indeed intellectual protest to the Nigerian state for socio-economic integration and political accommodation.

Unfortunately, where all forms of intellectual protests failed, with each at best attracting the response, “something is in the pipeline for the Niger Delta”, what was ordinarily a non-violent protest, moved to youth restiveness and later insurgency, with the promised content of the ‘pipe-line’ as target, Jang joked.  But it was much more than that. The Niger Delta story is indeed a clear example of Federal Government’s deliberate neglect, victimisation and oppression, after more than 50 years of being the nation’s food basket.

The resolve to pronounce amnesty on the other hand is the acceptance of the guilt that the Nigerian state had indeed been unfair and responsible for the new attitude and response of the Niger Delta youth. This is because , the youth’s demands were unambiguous, the protest well defined and targets, clear.

That the Federal Government  along with its multi-national collaborators, could no longer subject citizens of the Niger Delta to early deaths, disease, hunger, joblessness and economic slavery, while, left to continually suffer the near frequent pollution of their swamps, rivers and farmlands, as well as put to great risk, their people’s traditional occupations of fishing and farming.

More importantly, since earlier economic powers in Nigeria enjoined between 50 and 100 per cent on derivation from the cash crops, and other minerals, then the Niger Delta people should also, and be allowed control of its own natural resources. It was that clamour  for resource control, as different from the senseless suicide bombings by the Boko Haram that indeed hastened the resolution of the conflict.

Prior to that, the South-South geopolitical zone was the only region that has not had a political chance to superintend over the federation either as Head of State or President which was perhaps why the approval of a paltry 13% derivation could be subjected to a Constituent Assembly deliberation and approval, while Major-General Mohammadu Buhari as Head of State could unilaterally slash the then 3 per cent to 1.5 per cent.

These together not only earned the approval of all well-meaning Nigerians but also that of the international community which pressed its weight behind the Niger Delta project. It is indeed unlike the Boko Haram agenda of imposing Islam on the entire country and for same reason, targeting Christians, religious places of worship, in the Northern parts of the country.

My Agony is that some Northern politicians are not secretly fueling the Boko Haram terror activities and undermining national security efforts, only to blame Jonathan for the seeming invincibility of Boko Haram, they are in no hurry to abandon the terrorists.

Methinks, the distinctions must be made, and very clear too that Boko Haram, unlike Niger Delta militants, is not just an Islamist extremist sect, it is , by law and disposition, a terrorist group.

Soye Wilson Jamabo

Mohammadu Buhari and President Jonathan