Nigerian Citizens and the question of sincerity in desire for better Nigeria: AN EDITORIAL

Shekau calls Nigeria a country of hypocrites and infidels, Kanu calls Nigeria a country of animals (zoo).  Shekau has his own National flag and cabinet, Kanu also has his own.

The attitude of some Nigerians towards their much mouthed yearnings for better Nigeria can be appalling when it comes to religious and ethnic considerations. This country would have risen to the desired height but the hypocrisy of some vocal and, dangerously too, biased religious leaders, groups and some ethnic leaders.

There was a period between 2015 and now when the cries in town were about how President Muhammadu Buhari was planning and had concluded arrangement to take off his Islamisation of Nigeria. It got worse when the need to bring Mosque and Church centres under the Financial Report Council of Nigeria (FRCN) came up.  Even the religious constituency of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo lashed at him publicly saying he failed to act as their representative in government. That was when many Islamic scholars agreed to open their books of account to the FRCN (if any). Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Reign Assembly however stood out to say that he was ready at any time to comply with FRCN. That was an experience in our national effort to improve as more of national stolen money were clearly alleged to have been stacked away through religious organisation who yet don’t pay taxes.  That era passed and another one, still religious, cropped up.

Every Nigerian agrees that moral decadence is bane of the country’s developmental move. Many Nigerians find it easy to say “The more the increase in number of mosques and churches in Nigeria, the more the rate of crimes and immorality.”  They then comfortably conclude that religion is the problem of the country. But these same blame pushers fail to ask themselves: “How many of the dictates of the religion have they allowed to be formalised in the knowledge delivery to children from primary through elementary to tertiary levels of school system in the country? When mission schools were in charge of their schools, the quality of human products was higher than now that government has taken charge and, ironically, it is the same mission schools operators who, because of their sentiments and biases, kicked against effective religious knowledge delivery in those schools now outside their control, claiming Nigeria is a secular state. Reason attempt by government to implement compulsory offer of CRK by Christian students and IRK by Muslim students faced stiff criticism from leaders of the Church recently who – without proof – said it was attempt to force Islamic education on Christian students preparatory to Buhari’s take off of his national Iskamisation project. The good news was that, those heated oppositions did not stop the Buhari government from going ahead. This media organisation will however follow up to see what effort government is making to make the impact felt.

The other hypocritical attitude of Nigerians towards their much mouthed desire for better Nigeria is in ethnicism as it affects Nigerian national security and interest. When President Muhammadu Buhari won election and began to appoint his aides in the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), service chiefs, media aides as first stage, the cries rented the air as to how could he have appointed only Northerners as security chiefs. They forgot to see that when he refused to sack the security chiefs of Southern extractions he inherited from Goodluck Jonathan-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s Federal Government, the promised fight to defeat Boko Haram suffered setback and it was the same PDP and Jonathan men for that three months who were vocalising with media assistance saying Boko Haram was worse under (three months of) Buhari than (six years of) Jonathan era. Same thing to Directors General (DGs) inherited from PDP’s Jonathan all of whom sabotaged the sitting APC government led by Buhari. They were largely appointed from South.

It should therefore not elicit criticism when Buhari decided to tame the tide with the appointment of people he trusted. If the President had not sacked those PDP government appointed service chiefs at that time, many have argued, Buhari would have been easily ousted considering the volumes of money and media powers available to the defeated PDP people, who even till the present find it difficult to accept fate with their ouster by the electorates of Nigeria.

That finally brings us to the current effort being made by the government to check fresh security challenges that for economic and political reasons have cropped up to join the Boko Haram inherited from the PDP government namely, Niger Delta militancy now checked and Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Nnamdi Kanu.

Now back to the topic of this Editorial, when President Buhari was fighting Boko Haram, no Northern Federal lawmaker, governor or monarch, not even any youth, raised eyebrow about rights of those terrorists talk less that they would condemn the government deployment of soldiers in prosecuting that war in the North East.

But when the same government deployed soldiers against economic terrorists of Niger Delta Delta, who bombed the oil facilities thereby finally plunging Nigeria into recession, the same Nigerians who hailed deployment of soldiers in North East against Boko Haram spat into the air and caught it back with their own eyes saying “over their dead body.” They then called Buhari many unprintable names. But for his resilience, the President would have been cowed by their heavy vocality. But no, the President Muhammadu Buhari used the soldiers to find the economic terrorists and if not for that, Tompolo would still be dominating how government should transact its business today.

Then come the IPOB.  The South East of Nigeria is the only place that governments, traditional institutions and political elites would be united in encouraging a group that has done no less if not even more than what Boko Haram has done against Nigeria. For those including human rights lawyers who are in doubt as to whether the deployment Operation Python Dance II troops was right or who are even condemning the deployment, they should tell the world what Boko Haram that they supported soldiers against had done that is different from what IPOB started doing simply because President Buhari won election.  That simply was the main reason because it was stated clearly in many of the speeches of Nnamdi Kanu on his Radio Biafra, which he further dubbed in video clips and have been widely in circulation.

Unfortunately many Igbo leaders even try to say IPOB’s atrocities were caused by the October 1 quit notice issued by Arewa Youths for Igbo living in Northern Nigeria to leave.  Some of them including their governors even have to face he Federal Government and condemn it for deployment soldiers on streets of their region for the purpose of checking insecurity posed by IPOB.  Many of the Igbo leaders were announced ministers, Governor of Central, Ambassadors or the IPOB recently declared “Republic of Biafra” and they have not up till now declined the appointments and they were either professors who had been major beneficiaries of Nigerian goodwill meaning, therefore, that Nnamdi Kanu enjoys the goodwill of governments and other institutions of his region, funded with Nigerian money, to destroy same Nigeria that fund them.  How then can any Nigerian government be blamed for not trusting such people with power that they are complaining they are not allowed to have?  It is a question because, it is only when the person they don’t want in power gets there that they (Igbo and Niger Delta) always remember that they are marginalised and that their environment is structurally marginalised.  Where is the sincerity for better society of Nigeria in their agitations therefore?

The similarity of Abubakar Shekau (Boko Haram) and Nnamdi Kanu (IPOB) is hereby presented for patriotic citizens home and abroad to see why IPOB must be given yhe Boko Haram treatment. The Defence Headquarters gave some of these reasons but here are those left out as written by Manuel W Christian and posted on Facebook wall of Liberty Badmus on Friday September 15:

1. Shekau curved an area in the North east and called it Boko haram country, Kanu curved South east and called Biafra his country

2. Shekau formed his military, Kanu formed his military

3. Shekau declare to bring the head Nigeria’s president to his acclaimed country, Kanu did same

4. Shekau boast to kill and destroy Nigerian military, Kanu brag the same

5. Shekau banned his followers from attending mosques where boko haram member is not the Imam and Kanu also banned Igbos from attending a church where yoruba is the pastor.

6. Shekau calls Nigeria a country of hypocrites and infidels, Kanu calls Nigeria a country of animals (zoo)

Shekau has his own National flag and cabinet, Kanu also has his own

Let the Nigerian Army spot the differences, Liberty Badmus noted.