On the 11th of September 2001, Al Qaeda, a terrorist group of mass murderers carried out the bloodiest terrorist attack to date in human history, leaving more than 3000 dead and heaps of ash in place of the once glistening twin towers of the world trade centre in New York. The attacks spanned the whole of America with targets that included the Pentagon and the White house. Beyond incoherent noises, Al Qaeda could not give any reason why they had to carry out such cowardly attacks on innocent people. Then on the 25th of December 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab, a Nigerian terrorist, tried to down a plane over American airspace Al Qaeda style which would have led to the mass murder of the 289 people on board the Northwest Airlines Flight. Unknown to many, Abdulmuttallab’s attempt to down a plane in the United States was the graduation of Nigerian terrorism into the deadliest and final phase of organised acts of mass murder.
Kano has consequently become Nigeria’s ground zero of sorts with more than 200 people murdered in cold blood by the cowardly boko haram group of terrorist mass murderers who have perfected the suicide bombing methods Abdulmutallab had earlier attempted in his bid to down a plane in the United states. Indeed between Christmas day and today, the boko haram group of cowardly savages have murdered more than 350 people in cold blood. Like Al Qaeda, boko haram has only mouthed some laughable reasons for their attacks. In all these attacks, there is a clear intent, and it is to murder as many people as possible. The true reason thus for such attacks is to satisfy the blood thirst as dictated by a religion which Salman Rushdie famously called the “satanic verses”.
There is a long history and (DNA) of terrorism and organized acts of mass murder in the North, beginning from the Islamic jihad centuries ago in which there were organized invasions of communities with the sole aim of forcing such communities into the Muslim creed and slaughtering those who refuse. With the arrival of the British imperialists, such organized jihadist massacres were halted, but by 1945, with the evolving Nigerian state it resumed again in Jos and in 1953 in Kano. This time as a means of demonstrating their intolerance of others and of protesting against those who were fighting for independence from Britain. In the aftermath of the Major Kaduna Nzeogwu led anti-corruption revolution in 1966, another pretext was created for the Northern leadership to pioneer Africa’s first genocide. More than 50,000 innocent civilians including women and children were slaughtered in cold blood.
Of greater note is the fact that the whole northern leadership including top Northern military and police officers who were supposed to be maintaining law and order were all directly involved in the mass killing of civilians. After the interregnum of the civil war occasioned by the pogrom, Maitsasine riots continued the long tradition of mass murder. More than 10,000 people were brutally killed and countless properties looted and burnt in the mayhem. By now such acts of organized mass murder had become routine. In 2000 a new dimension was added to the routine acts of organized mass murder when several northern states began the application of Sharia law in violation of the constitution. Sharia riots consequently led to the deaths of more than 30,000 people. Through the decade from 2000 to 2010, barbaric acts of mass murder have been consistent. Most notable have been the unending Jos massacres that have since snowballed into a low intensity conflict, the 2002 miss world riots, the 2006 Denmark cartoon riots, the gruesome murder in 2007 of Ms Oluwatoyin Oluseesan a school teacher in Gombe state by her students.
In all, it is estimated that more than 300,000 people have been brutally murdered in cold blood, another 400,000 maimed and property worth at least five billion dollars looted or destroyed in the seven decades since 1945 of organized and targeted ethnic cleansing-genocide in Northern Nigeria.There is thus a centuries long history predating Nigeria, of acts of organized mass murder sponsored by the Northern leadership. It is in that light that boko haram must be seen. It should therefore not be a surprise that Northern leaders are supporting a cold blooded terrorist group engaged in mass murder like boko haram, it is consistent with their history to organize and support such acts of targeted mass murder. One only needs read some of the laughable arguments advanced in support of boko haram by northern leaders to understand their psychology. While some of them have tried equating boko haram with MEND, MASSOB and OPC, some others have claimed that boko haram is fighting for justice, while the CBN governor have linked boko haram with the 13 per cent derivation. This is the extent to which they have been ridiculing themselves with silly arguments.
It is self evident that neither MEND, MASSOB, nor OPC bears any resemblance in the least to a group of terrorist mass murderers such as boko haram. Indeed these groups were created by successive years of injustice, marginalisation, exploitation, domination, environmental degradation and misrule under successive northern leaders. MEND, MASSOB and OPC used civilized methods to agitate for genuine issues of injustice, environmental degradation, marginalisation amongst others. None of these groups ever attacked or massacred innocent people. Indeed MASSOB operates on a platform of non-violence. It is thus strange that any sane person can equate groups with legitimate grievances to an Al Qaeda inspired group of terrorist mass murderers like boko haram.
Boko haram cannot also be said to be fighting for justice when those who institutionalised injustice, corruption, marginalisation and misrule are northern leaders. The North dominated nigeria’s leadership since independence and in spite of the nations potential ruined it with monumental corruption, mediocrity, incompetence, oppression and injustice. If anything the South has been practically spoon feeding the ungrateful sharia north. It beggars belief that the same people who have been the purveyors of injustice and who benefit without contributing anything can claim to be fighting for justice. Truth is; the northern leaders do not yet realise that they have created a Frankenstein in boko haram which is going to eventually destroy them. Al shabbab, a similar group in Somalia has made sure that Somalia remains ungovernable for more than two decades. Like Al shabbab, boko haram is predictably going to be an oversize bone in the throat of the sharia north that eventually suffocates it.
It is a demonstration of cowardice that northern leaders have remained in the shadows secretly sponsoring a cowardly murderous group like boko haram while deceitfully claiming that boko haram is fighting for justice. When Emeka Ojukwu chose to fight for justice, he drew a line and fought against the rest of Nigeria for almost 3 years. If the leaders of the sharia north are not cowards, they should come out, draw a line and fight against the rest of Nigeria for their so called injustice and let’s see if they can survive the onslaught for up to a month after which they will still be thrown out of the country. Cowards will always be cowards and it is obvious that northern leaders do not have the stomach to draw a line and confront the rest of the nation, so they will continue to hide and sponsor a group that is sure to be their eventual waterloo.
Boko haram cannot ask all southerners to leave the north and then stop short of seceding. It doesn’t make sense beyond the fact that they want to eat their cake and still have it by clinging onto Nigeria in order to continue to parasite on southern resources. Beggars can’t be choosers and sooner or later boko haram and the sharia north will realise that they have pushed their luck too far this time.
We are in the age of self determination and Boko haram should exercise their choice to retreat into the stone age and live in a Taliban republic without western education. The rest of the nation is waiting earnestly to allow them achieve their dream. It is a simple and common sense solution and it is that boko haram should announce their secession with the sharia north and go and create their own sharia nation. They can unilaterally leave the nation or they can organize a referendum to leave, nobody will stop them. This is a simple and practical solution for boko haram and their sponsors to achieve their own republic and introduce whatever level of sharia they want. Indeed it will be a celebration for the rest of the nation. Once freed from the strangulating cloak of the sharia north, the rest of the nation will convene a sovereign national conference and choose their own future through the democratic will of the people.
Expunging the sharia north that has survived practically on southern resources with their bloated states and local governments will save the rest of the nation more than 2 trillion Naira annually that was being allocated to an arrogant and ungrateful sharia north. That money will return to those whose lands generate the resources, effectively ending the parasitic “monkey dey work baboon dey chop” system created by northern leaders .
Boko haram should quit being clever by half and take the bull by the horn by announcing their secession from Nigeria. If they are not blood suckers and cowardly hypocrites, let them take-up this challenge and quit the nation. Secession is the only solution that will give them and their sponsors the freedom to implement sharia 1000 per cent, so why waste time when there is an easy option of asking for secession? Boko haram its time to secede from Nigeria! Go boko haram and take the sharia north with you!
Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu
lawrencenwobu@yahoo.com
