"We are not surprised that Northern
Elders Forum is concerned about
protecting Boko Haram and not
bothered about victims of the Boko
Haram insurgency".
The Middle Belt Dialogue (MBD), an
umbrella body of professionals and
new breed politicians in the Middle Belt
region, has described Boko Haram as
the military wing of the northern
political elite who seek to use Islam to
dominate and control Nigeria.
The group, which was reacting to last
week’s declaration by the Northern
Elders Forum (NEF) that power must
return to the North in 2015, also
faulted the forum on its position on
some national issues.
The spokesman of NEF and former Vice-
Chancellor of the Ahmadu University
(ABU), Zaria, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, had
during a courtesy call on the Borno
State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima,
said the North had the population to
reclaim power in 2015.
He was also reported to have
castigated President Goodluck Jonathan
for declaring state of emergency in
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States.
However, the MBD said it was
saddened that in their desperate quest
for power, the “northernists” were
ignoring and fighting the very people,
who helped to sustain them in power,
namely the Niger Delta People and the
Middle Belt.
Besides, the group in a statement by its
facilitator, Mr. Rima Shawulu Kwewum,
said the NEF was not competent to
speak for the Middle Belt.
The MBD wondered why Abdullahi and
others have resorted to such
vituperations in spite of the fact that
the Boko Haram leadership is yet to
accept dialogue.
According to the group, Abdullahi and
his NEF have not seen anything wrong
with the ethnic and religious cleansing
programme of Boko Haram, stressing
that since the killings and destruction,
they have neither condemned the
killers nor sympathised with the victims.
“All they are concerned with is
“amnesty” for the killers, and how the
anarchy and mayhem being
perpetrated by these ruthless killers
and bombers will give them power”, he
added.
“The Middle Belt Dialogue (MBD) is not
surprised that the Northern Elders
Forum is concerned about protecting
Boko Haram and not bothered about
victims of the Boko Haram insurgency
who are Christians, and ethnic groups
of Northern Nigeria.
“After all, Boko Haram is acting out the
script the leaders wrote for it. For
some time now, in central and
northern Borno State, commercial
vehicles are stopped, Christians
separated from Muslims and summarily
executed; churches are primarily
targeted for destruction and attack.
“Boko Haram members we are told,
has a camp where they keep
kidnapped Christian women and
children, – and at such camps, they
execute Christians who refuse to
renounce their faith.
“Old women and children playing
around churches have been killed by
Boko Haram, whose supporters and
proponents two years ago gleefully told
the media that Christians were
responsible for bombing churches and
attacking Christian worshippers with
sophisticated guns.
“The Middle Belt Dialogue calls on
Nigerians to pray and work for the total
defeat of the retrogressive Boko Haram
agenda. We need a new Nigeria, where
every tribe, religion and group would
be accorded equal rights, a Nigeria
where religion or tribe will not be the
basis for promotion or demotion”, the
statement said.
Source:Thisday News.