Barely 17 days after a bomb blast killed
over 86 people in Nyanya, a suburb of Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital
Territory, another blast occurred less than 100 metres away from the
scene of the first, killing over 20 and injuring scores of others.
When the first bomb went off precisely
on April 14, 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan paid a visit to the scene
in company with top government functionaries.
While expressing his condolence to
families of those affected by the mayhem, Jonathan described the Boko
Haram menace, which before now had largely been confined to the North
East, as a temporary challenge.
He said, “Government is doing everything
to make sure that we move our country forward in spite of all the
distractions that want to take us backward. We promise that we will get
over it.”
According to him, nations that have
succeeded in taming monster of terrorism were those whose citizens
assisted the security services with relevant information to act.
“So, we believe that if people will
become observant and all of us become security conscious by the movement
of people, we will be able to reduce some of these incidences. We will
do our best, the security services will continue to work very hard, God
willing, we will get over it. The issue of Boko Haram is temporary
surely, we will get over it,” he observed.
Government, he explained, would continue to work very hard to deal with the nation’s security challenges.
Perhaps, as a demonstration of his
commitment, he convened a Security Council Meeting involving the
military high command as well as the political and religious elite.
He reiterated his commitment to the
fight against terror while addressing members of organised labour during
the Workers Day celebrations earlier in the day, just a few hours
before the second bombing.
However, none of the measures so far
taken appears to have shaken the resolve of extremist Islamic Sect, Boko
Haram, which claimed responsibility for the April 14 blast and is also
likely, responsible for the latest one.
An attempt to dialogue with members has
been mired in controversy. Many Nigerians have come to the conclusion
that a change of strategy is required to tackle the menace.
The President of the Senate, David Mark,
captured the mood of many Nigerians when he noted that because the
insurgents are fired by zealotry and extremism, they are not likely to
be swayed by overtures of any kind.
As a way forward, Mark suggested an
increase in military action. He told his colleagues during plenary
earlier in the week, “We must henceforth shift from fighting terrorism
to fighting insurgency.
“The full might and strength of our
security services must now be deployed to confront this scourge and we
expect our security services to rapidly reorient their assets and
capabilities so as to overcome this difficult challenge. And this must
be done within the shortest possible time frame with minimal casualties.
“The government must do all it can to
immediately identify the sponsors and the source of funds to the
terrorists and the insurgents. In this connection, nobody who is
implicated, no matter how highly placed, should be treated as a sacred
cow.”
Well said. Questions however remain: Are
those saddled with the responsibility of following through with all
these measures prepared to set aside their political and religious
sentiments to perform their duties?
Only a few years ago, a move to
strengthen terrorism laws was resisted by a section of the political
elite who claimed that the amendments being sort were targeted at
adherents of a particular faith.
The world’s most populous black nation
is sadly gliding towards joining terror ravaged nations like
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Nigeria has never had it so bad in terms
of loss of lives in peace time.
While condemnation for the sect’s deadly
campaign has not been short in coming, an attitudinal change among
Nigerians would go a long way in setting the nation on the path of
victory.
The political elite must begin to view
the war on our home grown terror as a collective one and not an
opportunity to score political points. Only then can this situation be
brought under control.
No comments:
Post a Comment