How Much Longer before GSM Service is restored in Maiduguri, Borno State? By Nkannebe Raymond

We live in a clime where every act is deemed
justifiable once it is hinged on either Mother-
Religion or security. Perhaps that is why a senator
could marry a toddler and be celebrated in some
quarters because it is in consonance with his faith,
that is why a flying-coffin will be allowed to fly and
when the evitable happens and we make
cacophonous sounds in condemnation, we will be
calmed down, immediately we are told it is an “Act
of God” and we will just go cold like hot coals in the
winter. That is also why state governments can so
lavish and purloin our common patrimony and the
moment you dare ask, what you get is a resounding
and seemingly convincing: “It was used for security
purposes”. Little wonder, the phrase “Security
Votes” is one cliché our ‘Excellency’ state chief
executives have become so married to. But is that
all? NO.
That is also why a president can send his police to
disrupt the meeting of perceived foes and say it is
in a bid to preserve the public peace, that is also
why CP Mbu can block Amaechi’s Convoy to his
official residence and everything will just be fine.
Welcome to my country, where government is run
by whims and caprices against the ideas and policies
it is supposed to be anchored upon in order to
better the lot of 100,000,000 poor Nigerians at
least according to the World Bank report, not as if
we have come up with our own statistics. So until
we do that, I’ll believe their report as what I see
out there every day on the streets prima facie
corroborates their report. But is that all? That is
also why residents of peace loving Borno state have
been shut out of the outside world for some six
months and still counting and everybody just seem
to be moving fine. And when you are audacious
enough to question why? Or you cough in
retaliation, what you get is the fatigued phrase,
“It’s for security reasons”. What rubbish!
And that is why a certain Major General Obidah
Ethan, the GOC of the 7 division of the Nigerian
Army in Maiduguri could go on air and interject in
reaction to the persistent calls for the restoration
of telecomm services in Maiduguri, that the
blockade has helped their operations. In his words,
“What I will say is that for now, the GSM blockage
is helping our operations” not as if I was shocked
when I heard this. That is Nigerian way of doing
things. The poor masses are always not factored
into the equation of the thoughts of the powers-
that-be so-called.
As one quite familiar with happenstances in the
legal scene, I understand what makes the military
and the government so confident in their position.
It is nothing more than the provision of section
14(2)b of the 1999 constitution to the effect that,
“The security and welfare of the people shall be the
primary purpose of government” that is why state
governors could set up their quasi-police force and
receive no reproach or admonition from the
government at the Centre. How much clueless can
governance be here?
Accepted, network services have been withdrawn
from Maiduguri and our constitution has indirectly
watered the ground for that, what then about the
other horn of the section that boarder on the
welfare of the citizenry? Yes, you want to secure
these people but how have you spared a thought
about their welfare? The latter has been forgotten.
Who cares? Residents of Borno can suffer as much
as they want to, the government don’t give any
hoot. Some members of the JTF sometime come
out clearer and tell you, raw as it is that “They
deserve whatever they may be going through as by
commission or omission they gave, or are
responsible for what has become of their land”. It is
against this backdrop, that I have called their bluff
and have termed the withdrawal of GSM services in
Borno, as government’s condoning and celebration
of laxity by its military-in which case here the -JTF.
It is quite a preposterous and counterintuitive
submission I know, but you can hold me on that
submission but I am unapologetic about it. We shall
show how.
In the weeks preceding this article, I have been
ensconced in research on this subject. What was I
particularly looking for? I starved myself of pleasure
looking for where such jejune method towards
curbing terrorism has been adapted in the past
which led to our being binded by the persuasive
judicial notice of that here, but my research ended
with my not having any good story to go to town
with at least as far as the tentacles of my research
is concerned. Nigeria from my findings is the first
country that have experimented the dis-
communication of an entire region because
perceived terrorist cells habit the region in order to
checkmate their activities. It is an unprecedented
feat in the global map and before the Nigerian
Army goes to town priding that they have set a
good precedent which other nations may employ
some time in the future to curb terrorism, how
about I let them know that it is a poor precedent
which any nation worth its salt will never take a leaf
from. But because we are one hell of a country, we
do the most disdainful act and massage our egos
thinking we have left a global meal in the Menu of
global Kitchen.
Isn’t information so vital in intelligence gathering?
What has the military done with the trillion+ of our
fiscal allocation to the security sector since the
passé of the insurgency? What have they done
other than making life so miserable and despondent
for the residents of Maiduguri and its environs?
Road blocks are mounted every nook and cranny of
the metropolis in a bid to curtail attacks as though
it is the professional way of doing things. Boko
haram Insurgents attacks with motorcycles, and the
next thing is to ban the use of motorcycles in the
metropolis and people are kept out of business.
Because we are fighting terrorists, the welfare of
the people should be sacrificed on the altar of
security. Motor cycle spare parts dealers, okada
riders, motorcycle vulcanizers etc. have all been
forced to down tools and if you dare ask why? What
you get is that same belabored phrase: “Security
Reasons”. How petty!
The latest in the manual, lame and unconventional
method of fighting the insurgents is the withdrawal
of GSM services in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe
States on the 16th of May, 2013 two days after Mr.
President declared the State of Emergency in the
troubled states in accordance with section 305 of
the 1999 constitution even though the
proclamation begs what should have been
obtainable in a true declaration of Emergency Rule
keeping faith with the spirit and letters of the
provisions of that section of the constitution.
I can remember lucidly what it was like. It was at
about 10:30 AM on the 16th of May, that those of
us who were in Maiduguri last saw the network
signals in our mobile phones and from days to
weeks, from weeks into a month it became
something usual and routinely. Save for the ASUU
strike that has refused to abate, I would have been
also shut out from the world by now. For those 5-6
weeks that I was caught up in the maze, I can only
but imagine how it felt, as no narrative whatsoever
can capture living in a society without access to
information in this information savvy 21st century.
This latest development I submit, without any
equivocation, is the latest in the series of
misfortune that Indigenes of the three states have
been forced to tolerate so much that I want to
conclude it has done more impairment than good.
But respite would later come the way of Adamawa
and Yobe residents after GSM services were
restored two months later after what the military
termed, “As a result of improved security in the
states relatively”. This is even when it is clear that
Yobe’s reconnection came on the heels of the
outcry that followed the avoidable July 30th
massacre at a secondary school in ‘Mamudo’. But if
the same military restored mobile services in these
states, is it not rife to ask, why the same hasn’t
been simulated in the Borno state capital-
Maiduguri who I am told on good authority, has
enjoyed relative peace for a very long time which
led the military to extend the curfew hours from
6-9 PM up to 6-11PM and sometime even late into
the midnight. Or is what is sauce for the goose no
longer sauce for the gander? Are we expected to
wait for a major massacre in Maiduguri before the
military order the re-connection of Maiduguri?
If Damaturu could enjoy telecomm services, I am at
a loss as to why Maiduguri wouldn’t. Residents of
Borno are not calling for the restoration of GSM
services across the local governments but at least
in the metropolis to ease the labor and trauma of
the people who must travel as far as neighboring
Yola or Damaturu on roads that are better called,
“death traps” just to make phone call. Isn’t it so
paradoxical?
The military are always quick to sing their song of
relative peace enjoyed, is as a result of the
withdrawal of telecomm services, but I want to
interject and correct that wrong notion which they
sell so cheaply as though we are in a bazaar or in a
trade-fair overt market. It is an unadulterated
fallacy, even more is the fact that the military has
not been able to explain how the relative peace
enjoyed is a direct extrapolation of GSM services
blockade in the state.
I have lived in Maiduguri for some time now to say
authoritatively a thing or two about the insurgency
in that region. The much touted peace Maiduguri
now enjoys started a long time ago even before the
withdrawal of telecomm services. Those of us in
Maiduguri before this period can relate to this
datum. The calm was already building up and
attacks by the sect, moved to the villages as a
result of the huge presence of military formations in
the metropolis. Members of the sect had no other
option than to take their sojourning into the woods
and local governments abandoning areas like
‘Gwange’, ‘London Ciki’ and other towns within the
metropolis that use to be their nests.
If the military vaunt the success of the withdrawal
of mobile telecommunication services, why have
the attacks not stopped? On the average, at least
700 persons on the average have died since the
withdrawal of GSM services and still counting as
Boko Haram with an enlarged arsenal comprising of
stolen weaponry, overrun towns, villages and even
military formations. Some concerned residents have
come out to say that the once lauded effectiveness
of the grounded telecom networks have now
turned back to work in favour of the Boko Haram
sect against the military stratagem. I agree not just
on account of their report, but as one who has
walked the streets of Maiduguri.
After the Beinisheikh attack of September 17th,
majority of those killed in that gruesome manner
were people who had travelled to make phone calls
in neighboring town of Damaturu, Yobe stste capital.
Were there GSM services in the region, one way or
another the other vehicles and their occupants who
later became victims would have been alerted and
the death toll wouldn’t have risen to that
staggering height we saw. All those young men and
potential Agro-economists, doctors, senators etc., at
gujba wouldn’t have died if the security personnel
in the school had alerted the military agents and so
many other cases of attacks that would have been
checkmated but for the availability of GSM services.
It wasn’t astonishing then, when a member of the
JTF in Beinesheikh who spoke to Premium Times
after the massacre there, on condition of anonymity
said early warning signals could not be made due to
lack of telecom services. In his words, “we had to
run out on foot into the village to alert the people
that they are in danger and should run for their
lives because they have been overpowered by the
sect”. He went further to say, “it is even becoming
impossible for us to get alerts from our civilian
scouts once they spot any unusual movement in
the bushes. In most cases, before our scouts could
make it to our base, the Boko Haram terrorists may
have reached their targets and carried out attacks”.
These are factual revelations we must not gloss
over or give a blind eye.
Beyond the security implication is the commercial
and social repercussions. This government likes to
bury everything on security but sacrifice welfare on
the altar of protection. What about all those whose
lives depend on mobile telecommunication
services? Does the government/military even have
them in their thoughts? I do not think so. The
popular GSM- Market at the post-office area
directly facing the NITEL building and renowned for
its bustling demeanor have suddenly gone taciturn
with little or no life lately and the thousands who
put food on their table from there have been
forced to down tools by a government who likes to
posture that they are protecting the citizenry while
we know Darwin’s theory of “Survival of the Fittest”
is at play here and there. What about the recharge
–card sellers, residents who specialize in charging
handsets of artisans along the streets of Maiduguri
to make ends meet and so many other businesses
whose life depend on the running of telecom
services? Does the government even think about
that? They barely do and if people out of frustration
become sympathetic to the sect and join ranks with
them, would the courts of Equity find them
culpable?
So I wasn’t surprise when the deputy governor
Alhaji Zanna Mustapha came out to ask for the
elongation as though we do not know that he has
wireless Thuraya mobile phones and internet
services wired even into his commode. As though
we do not know that he and people of his ilk barely
stay in Maiduguri for a week without junketing from
one part of the country to the other or even
outside the country. As though we do not know
that their wards aren’t in the state. So much for
leadership by example! Same too was the rhetoric
of the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Garbai ibn el-Kanemi
while asking for the elongation of the withdrawal of
GSM services as though (with all due respect to the
crown) he will be a variable if a poll is to be
conducted to ascertain the number of ‘ayes’ and
‘Nays’ the situation will garner from the entire
populace. What does it even matter to him? His
salaries and estacodes have not suffered any
fleabag since the eon of the blockade. But how
about we walk the streets of ‘Konduga’, ‘Jere’, the
popular Monday- Market, ‘Kiri Kasama’, ‘Bulumkutu’
and so on and so forth and ask that sorrow-ridden
man you see on the street, how life has been since
May 16th, 2013 the response you get will give a
better picture of what is/has been happening in
that theatre of sorrow and nightmares and not
those of a few elite-individuals who are not
dramatis personae in this tragic drama.
I think it is high time, telecom services is restored
back in Maiduguri and should not be allowed to
drag into the second half of the Emergency Rule
that has just gotten legislative patronage from the
National Assembly. It has been experimented in
the first half and while we cannot objectively deny
it any credit, the attendant adversity and
consequence on the general population is one not
sufferable and shouldn’t be experimented any
further as it would only traumatize the peace-loving
people of Maiduguri further. They have already
seen too much than we know, we shouldn’t in a bid
to protecting them, exacerbate their woes and
troubles.
Permit me to use this auspicious platform to
welcome each and every one of you to join the
debate considering the destitution indigenes of
Borno have been forced to condone with, by
clicking on this link: bit.ly/networkforborno and
signing the petition for the restoration of GSM
services in Borno state capital-Maiduguri. Your voice
might just be the decisive outcry to reverse the
situation and thereby ameliorate the privation the
situation has led to.
It doesn’t really make sense, keeping the
telephone lines shut down for almost 6months and
yet the killings continue to linger on. After the
attack in a secondary school in Yobe where 30
Students were killed sometime in July, the public
hullabaloo from residents led to the re-connection
of Yobe State, and since then no other serious
attack have been recorded in the state. If it could
be done in Yobe state, then the same should be
replicated in Borno at least in the state capital so
that people from the villages can come into the
town to make calls instead of travelling to
neighboring states, wasting scarce resources and
putting their lives on the line.
What is more? Residents have come out to say that
the relative peace enjoyed in Maiduguri recently, is
as a result of the heroism and pains of the Civilian
JTF. Therefore, with the restoration of telecom
services, their efforts will further be deepened and
upped as they would be able to report the least
apprehensive movement in their milieu to the
next-door military base by just a short message
service. Also, members of the civilian JTF can also
communicate among themselves more often
through group chats on social media and by so
doing, keep the outside world in the loop of goings-
on in the state and not this unprofessional,
unethical and unprincipled information blockade
from the entire world. It is too lame and hobbling.
Finally, any success in the fight against terrorism
cannot have been without painstaking and well-
tailored intelligence gathering. Much of the success
of America in combating terrorism has been
credited to a well-manicured intelligence gathering
and report. All these couldn’t have been, but for a
robust information communication technology. Isn’t
it then an irony, that in a bid to quell terrorism
here, we are shutting out information mechanisms?
Nigeria ronu!
Librarians have argued that Information is more
important than water. Their argument leaves one
with no option but to be in consensus ad idem with
them. Therefore, I agree. Their argument: if in a
village that has been struck by famine/drought,
there happen to be a bucket of water somewhere in
the woods not far off from the village, the villagers
will continue to die of thirst even when a bucket of
water or an oasis mysteriously is not far away from
them but with no body to blow the whistle. Extract
the structure of that scenario and affix in the Borno
story, and you will agree that by cutting telecom
lines, the military have killed the people both
physically and psychologically. The military always
like to say that they fight a faceless group, but with
the disconnection of telecom lines, it is a drift from
bad to worse towards steps in curbing the
reprehensible activities of the blood-thirsty sect.
The writer is a student in the University of
Maiduguri and a public affairs commentator. He is
on twitter as @RayNkah.
Raymondnkannebe@gmail.com