Unongo And The Call For Amnesty

The call for amnesty for members of the Boko Haram terrorist group recently by elder statesman, Dr. Paul Unongo, at a forum of the Northern elders, is to say the least unfortunate and condemnable.

The Tide is particularly worried by the negative picture, Dr. Unongo’s statement tended to paint of the integrity of President Good1uck Jonathan as a sectional leader who, he said, had jettisoned his oath of office to protect lives and property of every Nigerian and has found pleasure in the seeming unabatting mass killings perpetrated by the radical Islamic sect.

 Unongo, in his argument, alluded to impr ssions that series of bombing and senseless killings in the northern part of the country persisted because President Jonathan refused to grant amnesty to the Boko Haram sect, the same way amnesty was granted the Niger Delta militants by his predecessor, late President Umaru Musa Yar’ adua.

Pedestrian as such argument sounds, The Tide believes that Unongo may be trying too hard to please the core-north by simply re-echoing recommendation of the Presidential Committee on Security Challenges in the North-Eastern Zone, which was set up following the bombing by Boko Haram, in Abuja, to dent the nation’s 51 st Independence Anniversary celebrations.

While submitting its final report, the Federal Government panel headed by Ambassador Usman Gaji Galtimari had asked President Goodluck Jonathan to consider the granting of amnesty to members of the sect who may wish to surrender their arms to the Federal Government.

In that report which was widely abhorred by Nigerians, the committee recommended that “the Federal Government should consider the option of dialogue and negotiation which should be contingent upon the renunciation of all forms of violence and surrender of arms to be followed by rehabilitation”.

The committee also told Vice President Namadi Sambo, who received the final report on behalf of the President that the Jaamatus Ahlus Sunnah Lid Daawatis Wal Jihad, aka Boko Haram, has nominated the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ ad Abubakar III or his representative; the Emir ofBauchi and Sheik Abubakar GeroArgungu, as its representatives in any Federal Government team that will negotiate with its members. This was rejected by

BokoHaram.

We are indeed disturbed that people like Unongo cannot still see the difference between the Niger Delta struggles and the apparent act of terrorism that the Islamic extremists in the north are engaged in.

The Niger Delta militants took up arms owing to years of massive pauperisation through the destruction of their sources of livelihood, destruction of their eco- system over years of oil exploration and exploitation of petroleum in the region without the requisite development of the region.

But Boko Haram is a group of Islamic terrorists who believe that western or non-Islamic education is a sin and therefore decided to take up arms to destroy anything that is not Islamic or Sharia-based, they also seek to forcefully impose Sharia in all the states in the northern part of Nigeria. They have also destroyed schools and tended to disunite Nigeria by killing innocent christians.

Apart from the fact that Boko Haram has continued to be faceless and so amnesty cannot be considered, Unongo should have known that no where in the world are terrorists paid money to end their senseless behaviour against society. If Unongo’s logic was anything to go by, every ethnic group should carry arms to qualify for federal grants. This to us is senseless.

We feel bad that even the little that was left of the north in terms of commerce is being destroyed, and to mislead the northern youth, to destroy themselves the way they are doing is rather wicked. Someone should tell the north the plain truth that they are destroying their future.

As long as some Northerners continue to justify killings by Boko Haram either for political purposes or the usual scramble for the national cake, which they would do anything to ensure that they got the lion share even when they contribute next to nothing to the making of the cake, nothing will change.