When we neither punish nor
reproach evildoers, we are not
simply protecting their trivial old
age, we are thereby ripping the
foundations of justice from
beneath new generations".

-Aleksandr Isayevich
Solzhenitsyn

I will never understand how this
Boko Haram phenomenon got
this far. Sometimes when I read
about their atrocities, I pinch
myself to be sure that this is still
the same Nigeria where I grew
up. Things have really gone out
of hand in this country.

Incredible things have started to
happen here. One of them is the
total lack of respect for the aged.
Things weren't like this. In the
days when I grew up, no one
would dare harm the elderly. We
all wanted to advance in age and
we imagined that anyone who
wanted to grow old would not
disregard, let alone, do harm to
an elderly person.

This was more so in the north
where religious, monarchical
and patriarchal authorities were
almost incontestable. But all that
has evaporated before our very
eyes.

Just a few hours before I started
writing this, Nigeria's one time
Minister of Mine and Power, Dr.
Shettima Ali Monguno, was
kidnapped in Maiduguri, the
Borno State capital. I found that
as unbelievable as I found it
disheartening, a telling sign of
how fast we are plunging into
the abyss. Ali Monguno is not
just an extremely old man of 92
years, he was returning from
Jumat service where he had
gone to worship God. Those are
two immutable reasons why no
one should have contemplated
snatching the old man, but I
guess I live in ancient times.
Things have so terribly changed
that we can barely recognise
ourselves again.

But maybe we needed to get
here. For years now, Boko
Haram insurgents have
terminated the lives of
thousands in a variety of violent
ways. Some were slaughtered,
some were bombed, some were
shot, some were burnt alive. And
sex or age did not matter. Men
were killed; women were killed,
so were children; these killers
discriminated against nobody.

Although statistics will very likely
show that more Christians and
southerners, especially people
from the South-Eastern part of
the country have died in the
hands of these godless human
beings, there were times that
they didn't care where the
people they were killing came
from or what faith they
professed. They killed in
churches as they killed in
mosques. They killed in
restaurants and drinking joints,
they killed in market places and
on the streets, places where one
would never be able to say who
was who.

It was like they were possessed
by the demon of destruction. At
the last count, no fewer than
3,000 people, as the Human
Rights Watch claims, had lost
their lives in the hands of these
misguided elements.

Yet, not one concerted effort at
putting an end to this
unfortunate menace has come
from elders and leaders of the
Northern stock. We are talking
about a North which produced
the current second, third and
fourth citizens of the country. I
mean the Vice-President, the
Senate President and Speaker of
the House of Representatives. A
Northern Nigeria which parades
the likes of the Sultan of Sokoto,
the Emir of Kano and Shehu of
Bornu, the Emir of Zauzau and
so many heavy weight
traditional cum religious leaders.
We are talking about a region
which produced former leaders
such as Gen. Yakubu Gowon,
Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Maj. Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari, Gen.
Ibrahim Babangida and Gen.
Abdulasalami Abubakar, all of
who are still alive.

A region with countless elder
statesmen and politicians, 19
state governors, God knows
how many intellectuals in the
various fields; federal cabinet
ministers, chairmen of boards
and government parastatals;
local government chairmen and
so on and so forth. All these
people, even the big shots in
government, do nothing but call
on government to put an end to
the killings.

The failure of these respected
leaders to intervene in the
insecurity that has taken over
the North-East, parts of the
North-West and North-Central of
Nigeria has always bothered me.
Not even attacks on the
Governor of Niger State, the
Shehu of Bornu, Emir of Fika and
the Emir of Kano triggered the
patriotic alarm in these leaders. I
have concluded that there must
either be some conspiracy at
work or the North is not as
united and homogeneous as we
believed in those days.

We were told about a few mafia
groups in the North and that
whenever these groups got
together and took a decision,
the North fell in line. The last few
years indicate that this either
existed in the imagination of
some people or the North is up
to some grand conspiracy.

Oh well, I remember the recent
blackmail of the President into
considering amnesty for the
terrorists. And in spite of how
bitter that tasted in my mouth, I
thought these leaders were at
last standing up to the situation,
only for me to hear the rejection
of any amnesty by the leader of
Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau,
as he indeed boasted that it was
the Federal Government that
should seek amnesty from the
group. That shocked me to the
bones.

Does it mean that those who
canvassed for amnesty did not
even talk to the intended
beneficiaries before they started
harassing government? Did they
just assume that amnesty would
work for Boko Haram
insurgents? Shouldn't these
Northern elders, including
governors have come together
to arrest the attack on the total
psyche of the North all these
years?

.

continuation
In my opinion, it is the failure on
the part of all these leaders that
has brought us to where we are
now. Now, the chickens are
coming home to roost.

These criminals have moved
from killing the common man to
attempts on the lives and kidnap
of high class target. Suddenly, no
one has a hiding place, not the
poor, not the rich, not the
young, not the old; we are all at
the mercy of these cheap crooks.
We are all victims.

Our leaders have failed us by
their silence and unless they find
their voices promptly, there
would be dire consequences for
our future. I guess this is what
the Russian writer and historian
means in the quote above.

These leaders have kept quiet
for too long. Thank goodness
that it is not too late to save us
all from the doom which
continuous silence and tacit
approval of this evil portend.
Now is the time for everyone
who commands some respect in
the North to speak up and save
the country from this avoidable
bloodletting, unless of course,
there is some subtle message
that the carnage is meant to
send to us. We all should
remember that when fire gets
out of hand, it could consume
the man who lit it up!

•Adedokun, a Lagos-based PR
consultant, wrote in via
nadedokun@gmail.com. You can
follow him: @niranadedokun

source:
www.m.naij.com/news/33710.html

Some (maybe most of them) are secretly smug that the President doesn't have the peace of mind and enabling environment to carry out his policies and programmes.....that the north is being made 'ungovernable' for him.

If anyone thinks all this nonsense would abate before 2015 elections, they should think again! The only way the so-called leaders of the (core) north would even consider putting an end to this madness is if it suddenly dawns on them that a moslem (Hausa/Fulani) presidency come 2015 is nothing more than a pipe dream; either that, or the real prospect of Nigeria disintegrating.

Why we can't all see that we're fooling ourselves with this 'one united country' crap is beyond me ; how can a section of the country feel that if one of their own isn't president come the next general elections, then the whole country can dagbaru for all they care? If they feel this way, how do they want Igbos to feel? Besides, if we're all 'one united country' (as they never stop reminding us) then why is it a problem if GEJ continues after 2015?; that man has done and is doing more for that region (in 3 years) than any of their past leaders ever did......and you can quote me on this! But all this is lost on the greedy thieving political class from that region (who go on to poison the minds of the average northerner that they're being cheated), and you wanna know why?; it's b'cos they've got their covetous eyes on the spoils and criminal benefits of governance at the centre; they want to continue from where they stopped when that ' annoying fisherman ' arrived and truncated the enjoyment of their 'birthright'!

This sounds like a vitriolic opinion to entertain, but permit me to piss it out. For 30 whole months the entire Nigerian federation (and their foreign allies) turned corosively against Ndigbo (and some other minorities) in the South East and South South. They killed people whose number has been quoted between 2-3million (women and children and men alike), destroyed their land, socio-political and economic organisation. Uptill this moment Nigeria is yet to apologize or reconstruct what it spoiled there. More painful, Ndigbo are still jeered and insulted and mocked insisted.
While trying not sound saddistic, I feel that 'Karma' has found a way of fulfilling the entire prohesy of Isaiah 49.
But am interested in Nigeria, our Nigeria. We must stand up against evil anywhere and everywhere. The Reverend gentleman, Martin Luther K Jnr said, 'Injustice done anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere'. I appeal to my yoruba brothers. You might feel so safely insulated for far. But this is a terrible and ephemeral peace you're enjoying now. Let's all North, East, West and South rise up strongly and fight this common enemy. Ndigbo have fought their own war and will never fight again, unless perhaps the offer to assist other groups in times of war. Igbos are honestly NOT as bad as you were indoctrinated by those who were using you to further their gains made you to believe.
God bless Nigeria and Nigerians