Dear Boko Haram,

I should have started this letter
by greeting you: Asalam Alekun,
meaning: peace be unto you. But
how can anyone wish or offer
you what you have precisely
denied others, in the almost four years of your bloody reign? How
can we ask the peace of the lord
or God’s or Allah’s blessings to
be upon you, when all you have
brought your compatriots are
blood, war, tears and fear? How can we wish you good, when you
wish us bad? How can we ever
think well of you, when you
display the worst form of cruelty
towards your people, our people?

[img]http://www..ng/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Armed-men.jpg[/img]

So, I will simply begin by saying:
wherever you are, and whatever
you are doing right now, I hope
you find time out of your tight
and deadly and deathly
schedule, to read this letter. It is a letter from a worried Nigerian;
one who, like other citizens, is
deeply disturbed and distraught
at your activities. It is a letter to
you, hoping someone who knows
someone in your organisation will deliver it straight to you or bring
it to your attention. I know you
will get this letter because as we
have heard over and over again,
many of your operatives, even
though they say ‘no to Western education’ are well-educated
and quite literate. So, while you
read secretly, kindly digest the
contents with an open mind.
Kindly read with a Godly mind,
even though, you will agree, you can’t be said to have been Godly
in your actions. God would never
sanction the mindless killings of
innocent citizens for whatever
reasons or grievances. God is a
God of life, a life-giver, not life- taker. God does not approve of
the shedding of blood, especially
innocent blood, by anyone or
group under any guise. I digress
too soon.

So, while you read, read without
anger; read without bias. Read
with the fear of God. Read with
conscience. Read like human
beings, with human feelings. I
can hear some people, turning their nostrils up and wondering if
I am not asking for the
impossible: Boko Haram having
fear of God and conscience?
Boko Haram having human
feelings? You can’t blame anyone for feeling this way or being
cynical about you: Yours have
truly been unedifying tales of
terror and bloodletting; a
macabre dance of blood; harvest
of tragedies. You have engaged in horrendous activities that have
left the citizens terrified and
horrified. You have struck
everywhere, that no one knows
where and when next you will
strike. You have struck at motor parks (Nyanya), at schools (Buni
Yadi, Chibok, among others), at
government offices and private
residences; shopping malls and
just anywhere, leaving sorrow,
tears and blood in your trail. In your war without boundaries, you
must have wasted over 2000
lives, and that is a conservative
estimate, just as many of your
members have been killed in the
crackdown on your members by security agencies! Add that to
the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls
still in your custody, and you get
a frightening portrait of your
deadly exploits. Are the Chibok
girls alive or dead? When will they regain freedom? No one
knows. Everyone is praying for
the safe return of our girls, our
sisters and our daughters. Mrs.
Oby Ezekwesili and the other
campaigners are asking the same questions without answer.
Even President Jonathan can’t
tell us when the girls will return.
We all seem to be at your mercy
but you remain merciless. Why?
Why?

Now, Nigerians are asking:
What does the Boko Haram
want? When will enough be
enough? That is precisely the
reason for this letter to you. What
do you want? When will enough be enough?

Some have said your actions are
directed at the government of
President Jonathan? If that is
so, you are targeting the wrong
group: The poor and the hapless.
What has bombing bus stops and malls got to do with this? How
will bombing bus stops and malls
patronised by the common people
help your cause? It is difficult to comprehend how
kidnapping innocent schoolgirls
will help your fight against
government. You can only
succeed in uniting the people, as
you have done, against what is seen as your deadly activities.
As Prof. Wole Soyinka says,
such action can only bring
general resentment and
collective angst against your
group. So, you will have to stop your bloody activities. Your
bloody outing is a war against
the people, especially the
common people of Nigeria, who
have done you no wrong. So, why
lay siege on the people?

If your purpose is religious
supremacy or fundamentalism,
credible Islamic pundits have
dismissed your activities, as
contradicting the tenets of
Islam. Islam, they say, is a religion of peace and peaceful
coexistence. So, what then is
fueling the insurgency? If your war against your people
is foreign-induced, you are
embarking on the wrong kind of
war, fighting a war against your
people, for whatever reasons. If
you destroy your land and people or succeed in maiming
everybody, are you then going to
live in a foreign country among
foreigners? What medal would
you have won, as destroyers of
your country or, as agents of foreign destroyers? What I am saying is simple: If
politics is your driving factor, it is
politics taken too far. Hundreds
of our people, poor, hapless
people, who know no politics or
the power game, playing out have been caught in the
crossfire: Bloodied and buried in
the rubble of the atrocious battle. If it is about religion, it just
doesn’t add up: Christians and
Muslims are being slaughtered in
the bombing spree, going on.
Bombs don’t discriminate on the
basis of tribe or religion. Bombs bomb and kill. So, these killings
must stop.

Dear Boko Haram, what I have
been trying to do is to see if we
can appeal to your sense of
reasoning, to see how you can
halt the tension and fear in our
country today, by stopping the spectre of blood. Nigerians are
weeping. Nigerians are dying.
Nigerians are living in fear.
Because of you! In Abuja and other major cities,
everyone is looking over his or
shoulders, scared that a bomb
could go off any moment. The
gardens and recreational centres
are almost becoming empty because people are scared of
being caught in explosions. If
your aim is to terrify the
citizenry, you have, we must
sadly admit, largely succeeded.
If killing was your motive, you have killed enough. No further
point is made in your continuous
bombings and killings. It’s time
to pause and ponder. It’s time to
stop the killings. Please, stop.
Enough is enough! Last line: May God console those
who have lost their dear and
loved ones in the Boko Haram
war against their country. To the
dead, may they find peace and
rest in the bossom of the Lord. May God Almighty bring peace
to our beleaguered nation. Amen

i hope the message gets to them, and i hope they understand the plight of the innocent helpless and defenseless masses who have come to be the victims of their bloody campaign.

Do boko haram visit Nairaland,or how will they read the letter?