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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Bama’s 8 Hours of Armageddon: How Angry Should We Be? – By Dr. Peregrino Brimah

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It took 8 whole hours for Nigeria’s army to partially respond to a cry for help from the people of Bama in Borno state. The Shehu of Bama said he and the  Civilian JTF had heard of the convoy of several Boko Haram cars  approaching his town well ahead of time and they had both told the army  about it. This had nothing to do with Cameroon. This was not a town  suddenly for the first time coming under attack. This was Bama, a town  that has suffered repeated attacks for over a year. But there was no  response from the army till Boko Haram got to their town. The army  stayed away and gave Boko Haram terrorists ample time to massacre the vulnerable and for their total Incendiarism of all property in the  town. 8 full hours!

The Youth and those who were ambulant ran into the bushes, but not with their parents, the lame and elderly. Those who could not run were left indoors, awaiting their painful certain death.  House to house, Boko Haram ravaged, slaughtering and burning with full  impunity. It is difficult to believe that this was not a supervised and  permitted attack. How did Boko Haram know they would have such grace to  operate for so long without coming under the onslaught of Nigeria’s  military forces? Did the government lie that we are not as well equipped or did Boko Haram know that we will not come? It has to be one or the order.

What has happened to the war against Boko Haram  since Lt. Col. Sagir Musa was pulled out of Borno and since the new morbidly  obese, politically and tribally selected army chiefs were put in charge, and the new Minister of defense was appointed? Is Bama a part of  Nigeria? Is this what we get as a people in terms of police security and army defense? To be left to our fate and to an Armageddon before the  end of the world for a whole 8 hours? Or is the world end starting from  Nigeria?

For the people of Bama and the students of Yobe, the  Armageddon has already occurred. The beginning of the end of the world  looks little worse than this and the end is marked by death and the  things after. I am blessed or perhaps in a way cursed with the ability  to put myself in people’s shoes and relive the pain and torture they go  through. This horror which I have experienced since the March 18th 2013 Sabon Gari bus stop bombing repeats itself every time the greed,  callousness, insensitivity and tyranny of Nigeria’s government, who  celebrate and dance on our graves, enables another massacre. Can we all  put ourselves in the shoes of the students of Yobe, who were left to  their fate as likewise, Boko Haram terrorists were allowed full impunity to operate and massacre them for hours on end? Picture being the 20 easily abducted girls? How loud will we shout  if we were the victims of this carnage that is permitted by the  mismanagement of our administration? How loud will we shout if we were  the ones slaughtered in this government allowed progrom?

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Have we  not learned from the similar massacres of our past, to act immediately  and protest loudly each and every time the slaughter of Nigerians is  permitted by the government? Do we think the progroms of our past were  any worse than this? Most massacres are not conducted directly by the government  but are permitted and facilitated by the ineptness and political wishes and games of  those in power, whose duty it is to fight the evil murderers of  citizens. It is their duty to arrest Boko Haram terror sponsors, a duty this administration has done the opposite of. It is their duty to protect the people and the army, by investing in training and gadgets for the army and better wages for them and the police. These are not our tasks. But rather the successive administrations including this inebriated one, steal more than double our budget and deplete the army and society of safety, prosperity and hope.

Some of us were young during the massacres of the 70s,  during the criminalities of the 80s, but we are of age now and here is  where we engage; here is where we fight the government that loves the  smell of blood of innocent victims.

A government that is  preoccupied with politics and looting hundreds of billions of dollars,  ensuring the army is ill equipped and lacks motivation to protect the  people deserves our full anger and rebuke. Proverbs 25:26 “Like a muddied spring or a polluted well are the righteous who give way to the wicked.” We must die to get rid of such. If we  do not rise up and protect the more vulnerable of our societies, who  will rise up to talk for us and protect us when we are old and weak and  unable to run?

Like Fela sang. Some people ask why I write like  this, suggesting that writing like this will get me to prison or killed. I have been threatened, of course. But the truth is, I don’t write, I  cry. These are lamentations. And my tears are only welling up more and  not getting less as I see the fate of my people and put myself in their  shoes. Who will write for the people of Bama? Who will write for the  youth of Yobe? Who will write for the 100 million destitute? If we see  these things and do not cry out loudly against the voracious tyrants who rule us, who will? Who will convey the plight of the dead and dying?  The elders who cannot run into the bushes? If it is my time today, I  will go happily, knowing that after me a hundred more wailers will cry  in writing as I did.

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It is wonderful to see that FGC Alumni is  rising up and gathering signatures and arranging meetings to protest our precious students lost. This is what we all must do. This is the least  we should do, before someday soon it will be our turn.

As we  decide and move to get rid of the system that permits the wanton murder  of our people, our old and our students. I will like to ask for  contributions to be made toward getting portable alarm trumpet systems  for our most vulnerable communities and schools in the north east, so  that when the Civilian JTF and town chief’s hear of such oncoming  onslaught, the least they can do is blow these horns and alert the  masses to run into the bushes for dear life as a response of the army  can never be counted on yet in this our Nigeria under Goodluck Jonathan. We at ENDS.ng have purchased shock-tazers; walkie-talkie’s and pepper  spray, a little to donate to add to the defense of the defenseless. Now  we do see the people need loud alarm trumpets, akin to those the  developed world uses to alert its people in the event of incoming  arsenal.

Our government lacks commonsense, and the will to employ  those who have; their prerogative is to employ ministers and army  chief’s who will do one thing and one thing alone—assist them win in  elections. They will never think of such things, the basic alarm systems employed in Israel and elsewhere to get citizens to run for cover under attack. And our dear billionaire cabal, north and south will never either. They are the  government after all, they sponsor the candidates and dictate to them to enable the killing of us to allow us be distracted and engaged against  each-other while they plunder and loot the nations commonwealth.

We must act or we will be held to account.

Dr. Peregrino Brimah http://ENDS.ng [Every Nigerian Do Something] Email: drbrimah@ends.ng Twitter: @EveryNigerian

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