JUST READ THIS IN PUNCH NEWSPAPER: "THE Northern Elders Forum has expressed its intention to institute a legal action against the Federal Government at the International Court of Justice for human rights violations. The forum’s spokesman, Professor Ango Abdullahi, said in an interview on the Voice of America on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 that the forum had assembled a team of lawyers who had been gathering evidence to establish that Nigerian soldiers were involved in the killing of civilians in Baga, Borno state. He maintained that there was sufficient evidence to prove that human rights violations by government and its agencies had been going on “with a lot of impunity in the last three years”. That Boko Haram is a band of religious maniacs has never been a subject of argument. It has equally never been disputed that the mission of the group to impose Islam on people of other faiths is as condemnable as it is unattainable. It is apparent that the sect’s stated objectives and the modality for their realisation constitute a potent threat to the foundation on which the Nigerian state stands. The sect does not believe in democracy and it sees the country’s constitution as a worthless document. It has been killing in tens and hundreds in pursuit of its goals. It has been wasting lives and destroying people’s means of livelihood. Its resolve to dismantle everything that binds together the multitude of nationalities that make up Nigeria as one political entity is also not disguised. Boko Haram’s bomb blasts at different churches in Madalla, Kano, Kaduna and many other places claimed lives in scores and hundreds. The explosion at the United Nations Office in Abuja was a national embarrassment, and so was the mindless attack on the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero who escaped by sheer force of divine providence, and the bombing incident at the palace of Sheu of Borno. All the blood-cuddling incidents did not arouse the humanity in the forum’s members. The death of innocent people and the ceaseless onslaughts on security agents who, on a daily basis, put their lives on the line has not elicited a serious concern from the elders’ forum. This is why it is amazing that the rather belated response of the government to the atrocities of a ruthless gang that has no respect for human lives is now stirring the elders into action as prospective litigants at the International Court of Justice as defenders of human rights. The extremists had taken control of swathes of land in the northernmost parts of Borno State before the government declared a state of emergency. They had become a serious threat to Nigeria’s territorial integrity before the soldiers were brought in to flush them out. That the fundamentalists live among the people is a fact that has never been contested. If the elders had assisted the government to identify and neutralize them, the situation would not have escalated to the present point. On its part, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has found it expedient to take contradictory positions on similar situations. When the Niger Delta militants were fighting for resource control during the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, the forum cultivated the posture of uncompromising nationalists. Its stance was that “no responsible government can afford to fold its arms and watch a few misguided elements hold the nation… to ransom…the will of the armed forces is being challenged when their members are killed in the course of their national assignment…government cannot reasonably be expected to shirk its responsibility of maintaining law and order. Hence the recent campaigns aimed at ridding the Niger Delta region of criminal activities of the militants…the campaigns must necessarily come with collateral damages…” With the deployment of soldiers to checkmate the advancing Boko Haram insurgents in the north east of the country, the shoe is now on the other foot. The ACF now disapproves of a military solution. Its suggestion is “the slower and more tedious path of dialogue, negotiation and conciliation”. The fact that Boko Harm has shunned dialogue and opted to be obstinately defiant has been ignored by the ACF. It is worrisome that matters of national interest are being perceived and appraised from a parochial perspective. The Niger Delta militants were fighting a just cause – against environmental degradation and for a fair share of proceeds from the oil oozing from their land. The rightness or wrongness of their method can be a matter for debate. Boko Haram, on the other hand, is evil and awful in every ramification and no one has come out to say it is not so. It wants to establish an Islamic theocracy which is well known to be impossible. How logical is it to support military bombardment of Niger Delta militants who were fighting a just cause but dialogue and conciliation in dealing with a maniacal religious group that poses an obvious threat to the continued existence of Nigeria?" ........Dr. Ephraim "Whatever opportunity that comes your way; it is for making a positive difference in the lives of people".
Posted on: Fri, 31 May 2013 14:02:22 +0000
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