25th March, 2014
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has named General Muhammadu Buhari as the sponsor of the Boko Haram, the religious extremists currently unleashing carnage of unimaginable dimension in the northern part of the country.
The rationale for the accusation is the purported statements that the former Head of State made before the 2011 general elections. Buhari was not the only one fingered as the sponsor by the PDP. Some stalwarts of the All Progressives Congress, APC, like Malam Nasir el-Rufai and indeed the party itself have been accused by the ruling party of dining with the insurgents.
This is the view of Olisa Metuh who issued a statement on behalf of his party.
The proof of Metuh’s assertion: the APC’s promise to end the Boko Haram menace in the first 100 days if it wins the general elections next year. Inflammatory reports purportedly made by members of the party have also been construed as tacit support or outright sponsorship of Boko Haram by the members of the opposition party.
We find these accusation and counter-accusations whimsical and, to say the least, baseless. As politically-motivated statements, they come with no substance that can help the security agencies or even the government to tackle Boko Haram headlong. It is such divisive statements that have continued to retard progress towards finding a lasting solution to the conflict that has turned most parts of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, and Taraba to virtual ghost towns.
General Buhari, el-Rufai and members of the opposition party are private citizens who don’t control any of the security agencies. If as Metuh told Nigerians, any of these people is culpable in the Boko Haram debacle, all that is required is substantive evidence to nail the culprits.
If after thorough investigation, the police, army or the State Security Service find Buhari and his supporters questionable, they should be hauled before the law courts. Our laws are clear about how to deal with criminal and their collaborators. Politicizing the Boko Haram conflict along political lines as the PDP is doing, can only cause the sect’s rampage to fester.
In many quarters, the PDP blame game rings hollow and also perceived as government’s failure to safeguard the lives of the citizens it swore to protect. Those who share this view feel it is the need to exculpate itself of that failure that fingers are now being pointed in a direction it has so far got no evidence to prove.
The important thing to do at this stage, we believe, is to re-channel energy towards finding a lasting solution to the Boko Haram crisis. Government needs to reappraise its strategy on the war against terror. If it feels some respectable Nigerians can help find solutions to the problem, we suggest there should be a shift beyond political allegiances and let’s see how we can together put an end to terror in our nation.
The fundamental principle of social welfare goes beyond any political or religious affiliation. For now, it appears government has failed to protect the citizens of the states where it appears Boko Haram has defied government’s tactical plans to exterminate it. What needs to be done now is a holistic approach to solving the problem not these baseless blame games.