. . . Don’t withdraw JTF, Borno Governor warns
The Chief of Defence
Staff, (CDS) Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, has challenged the dreaded
Boko Haram insurgents to lay down their arms and join politics, if the group
felt strong enough to impose their ideologies on Nigerians.
This is just as the Borno state
Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, has dismissed agitation for the withdrawal of
soldiers, describing the call as mere sentiment.
Governor Shettima and the CDS spoke
yesterday when the Defence boss led top military officers of the Defence
Headquarters (DHS) to a courtesy on the governor at the Government House,
Maiduguri. The visit came just as the police said they will deploy more troops
and equipment to Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.
Shettima commended the JTF for its
efforts in curbing the activities of insurgents in the state and disagreed with
those calling for the withdrawal of soldiers from the troubled state.
Speaking at the event, the CDS
admonished insurgents stalking the northern states to form political parties
and propagate their opinions if they feel strongly about them, adding that
there was no justification for them engaging in the killing of innocent people
in the country.
“If you feel so strong about your
opinion and think you can impose it on the people, then form a political party
to evangelise it”, the CDS told the insurgents.
He described the persistent security
challenges confronting Borno state as shocking, saying the perpetrators of the
deadly attacks under the guise of imposing their principles, should rather form
a political party to achieve their course.
Stating that the activities of the
insurgents were evil, the CDS insisted that the killing of innocent citizens
contravened the principles of Islam and Christianity, and wondered where the
insurgents got justification for their actions.
“Hundred percent of the activities of
the militant group are evil, I check the holy books of the two major religions,
but could not find any justification on that”, the CDS declared.
He expressed dismay over the
involvement of youths in the series of attacks, wasting their intelligence,
time and energy in smuggling arms and assembling improvised explosive devices,
(IEDs) to commit sins.
“It was unfortunate that teeming
youths, who are supposed to utilize their time and energy on meaningful
developmental venture like agriculture, are busy wasting so on how to cause
mayhem to the citizens”, he lamented.
Inspector General of Police, Mohammed
Abubakar, who was also in the CDS’ delegation, said more troops and equipment
would be deployed to Maiduguri. The move, according the police boss was part of
the Federal Government’s strategies to tackle the problem.
In a related development, the Borno
state governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, who was represented by Borno state
Commissioner for Information, Inuwa Bwala, at a forum organised by the Kaduna
state council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Kaduna yesterday
warned that the Boko Haram insurgency and other forms of conflicts may go
unabated unless northern leaders begin to address what he described as certain
fundamental issues in the area.
“To me, every leader, every rich man
is in the potential danger of becoming victims of conflicts if we fail to
address the issues of hunger, poverty, disease, unemployment, ignorance and
citizen apathy to leadership,” Shettima affirmed yesterday in a lecture he
delivered as part of activities marking the press week of the Kaduna state
council of the NUJ.
Regretting that the north is
educationally backward compared to other parts of the country, Shettima noted
that the Boko Haram phenomenon, which derides education, has further worsened
the situation even as he decried the arrogant and contemptuous display of
wealth by the rich in the society in the midst of poverty and squalor.
As Shettima put it, “the gap between
the rich and the poor is so wide that the poor become ready and willing tools
to be used by the rich. There have been claims that the worth of human life in
some places can be equated to as little as a plate of food”.
He decried the cases of electoral
malpractices exemplified in lack of internal democracy in political parties as
well as outright rigging of elections saying these contributed to the
escalation of violence in the North since the democratic experiment
commenced.
“This is so because you cannot
continuously subdue the values, beliefs and norms to your selfish motives. The
people are generally becoming more aware and they would rather engulf the area
in crisis than let you have your way”, he said.
He said unless the nation addressed
the underlying causes of conflicts, the people “will be sitting on a tinder’s
box which when it explodes, will consume all of us”.
Shettima lamented that over the
years, committees and panels of inquiries have been set up to investigate the
immediate and remote causes of violent conflicts in the north with no results.
“These committees have turned up white papers that unfortunately have not been
implemented by our leaders”, he stated.
Speaking further, he said; “It is my firm
conviction that whoever is responsible for any crisis should be punished so as
to serve as deterrent to others. We have had repeated cases of violent
eruptions simply because those responsible have always had their ways. As a way
forward, it is my considered view that we have to collectively mobilize our
citizens to shun the grasshopper mentality, wherein we are seen as dependents
upon others for survival, and work towards repositioning the economies of the
northern states”.
Earlier in his welcome address, the
NUJ Chairman, Yusuf Idris, had noted that the prevailing security challenge,
particularly in the north, has become subject of discussions, not only in
Nigeria but across its shores.
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