By Oguwike Nwachuku
There is a nexus between the amplification of the call for amnesty for Boko Haram insurgents by Presidential Media and Publicity Assistant, Garba Shehu, and that of a lecturer at the faculty of communication, Bayero University Kano, Dr. Bala Muhammad, who said Igbo drug merchants are responsible for the supply and consumption of hard drugs in the North.
While receiving the abducted freed Dapchi schoolgirls by Boko Haram on March 23, President Muhammadu Buhari had said the government would accept the unconditional laying down of arms by repentant terrorists.
Put differently, Buhari feels amnesty should be granted the insurgents.
In amplifying what his boss thinks, Shehu described it as a “win-win situation”. He told reporters at State House that amnesty would help the jihadist to “be useful to the nation”.
In Shehu’s thinking, it would help the government save cost by channeling funds used in waging war against insurgency to other areas.
His argument: “It is proverbially said all wars end up in the boardroom. You can defeat people technically on the field but at the end, you must come to the conference room to resolve all issues.
“So, if Boko Haram would lay down their arms and stop fighting and stop preaching their negative ideology, the country should be able to embrace them; welcome all of them so that they continue to live normal lives and be useful to the nation.
“What that means is that we will be saving cost, saving lives that are being lost through bombing, killing of service personnel; and we will be saving money that we are using to procure weapons so that such money can go into services and infrastructure and welfare of the citizens of this country. It is a win-win situation.”
Shehu had hardly finished his speech when condemnation began to fly around over possible amnesty for Boko Haram members.
There was a bigger and more dangerous call that also came from a man who is supposed to be an intellectual with the gait and mannerism to speak meaningfully and discerningly about social ills, going by his position at one of the country’s citadels of learning.
On Monday, April 2 while presenting a paper on the “Nexus Between Youth, Drugs, Crime and Insecurity” at the Kano Youth Summit on Peace Advocacy and Development, organised by Hamisu Magaji Foundation, Muhammad blamed the Igbo for the prevalence of drug abuse in the North, especially Kano State.
He said Igbo drug merchants supply cough syrup that contains codeine for the consumption of Northern youths with the connivance of local people. In his view, drug abuse was not prevalent in the South East.
To say that what he said was as shocking as the call for amnesty for Boko Haram terrorists by Shehu is to say the least.
Hear Muhammad: “Our investigation revealed that drug abuse is beyond normal marijuana, cocaine, alcohol, etc. It has moved to the extent that the medicines we take in order to cure our diseases are now being converted into hard drugs.
“We then discovered that it is the handiwork of the Igbo people, who connive with our local people here, to supply the codeine into our region, especially into Kano State.
“There are many instances where Igbo guys were arrested for supplying codeine into Kano and some parts of the North. The cases have been reported in national dailies.
“So, why shouldn’t they take it to their region? Why don’t their youth engage in drug abuse? This is really sad, and we have to rise up to fight this menace.”
Mohammed accused judges of compromise to secure the release of drug suspects without trial.
I agree with those who say the plan by the government to grant amnesty to Boko Haram is one joke taken too far. We are talking about a band of murderers pretending to be fighting a religious war and decapitating thousands.
Shehu and his fellow amnesty advocates should reflect on the recent disclosure by Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State that 100,000 have been killed and two million displaced by Boko Haram since its first onslaught in 2009 in Borno and Bauchi.
The figure includes those affected at the Federal Capital Territory where in 2011 the jihadists attacked the headquarters of the police and the United Nations.
Shettima released the grim statistics of deaths and material losses at the annual Murtala Mohammed Memorial Lecture at the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja in February.
In a paper titled “Managing the Boko Haram Crisis in Borno State, Experiences and Lessons for a Multi-party, Multi-ethnic and Multi-religious Nigeria”, Shettima said “the Boko Haram insurgency has led to deaths of almost 100,000 persons going by the estimates of our community leaders over the years.”
He added that: “2,114,000 persons had become internally displaced as of December of 2016, with 537,815 in separate camps; 158,201 are at official camps that consist of six centres with two transit camps at Muna and Customs House, both in Maiduguri.
“There are 379,614 IDPs at 15 satellite camps comprising Ngala, Monguno, Bama, Banki, Pulka, Gwoza, Sabon Gari and other locations in the state.
“73,404 persons were forced to become refugees in neighbouring countries with Niger having 11,402 and Cameroon having 62,002.
“We have an official record of 52,311 orphans who are separated and unaccompanied. We have 54,911 widows who have lost their husbands to the insurgency and about 9,012 have returned to various communities of Ngala, Monguno, Damboa, Gwoza and Dikwa.”
Those critical of the amnesty largesse for Boko Haram have weighed, time and again, the huge loss of Nigerians and their property vis-a-vis the intentions of the characters that perpetrated the carnage and could not see why they should be compensated for embarking on a killing spree.
Most proponents of amnesty for Boko Haram would refer to the amnesty granted Niger Delta militants. But those who draw a parallel with the agitation in the Niger Delta over neglect of the region by damaging public utilities and the unprovoked destruction of lives and property by Boko Haram protesting against Western education and lifestyle must have their heads examined.
Or have we suddenly forgotten that the government at several occasions conceded that the Boko Haram insurgents and of late, killer herdsmen, were marauding criminals from outside Nigeria? Simply put, they said they are foreigners.
So why would the Nigerian government compensate foreigners killing our citizens in their numbers with amnesty?
Politics apart, we must draw a line in the euphoria the recent release of abducted Dapchi schoolgirls has generated, causing the government to think of taking decisions that could haunt the nation.
That is why I agree wholly with the Environmental Rights Activist and Convener of Niger-Delta Self-Determination Movement (NDSDM), Ann Kio-Briggs, that we should not use scarce resources to encourage Boko Haram insurgents and killer herdsmen who will likely change tactics.
They are wicked criminals and bandits who loathe civilisation and all the things around it.
And to say that the world we live in today is on a trajectory of unimaginable civilisation in future makes it more difficult to deal kindly with people who are comfortable living the lives of beasts by killing their fellow beings with reckless abandon, regardless of their faith.
As Kio-Briggs argued, granting amnesty to Boko Haram would amount to the government conceding failure and being incapable of protecting the lives of the citizens from terrorists and foreign invaders.
Her words: “Boko Haram has owned up to being a terrorist group. It has declared its support and affiliation to the ISIS, a renowned world terrorist organisation.
“If the government wants to grant amnesty to a terrorist group, I think this country is finished. It means kidnappers, armed robbers and other criminals can be granted amnesty.
“This government wants Nigerians to believe that Boko Haram will embrace amnesty. I hope they don’t want to use Niger Delta oil money for the amnesty programme?
“Government has told us repeatedly that Boko Haram are foreigners. By wanting to grant amnesty to Boko Haram, the government has admitted that Nigeria has failed and it has no capacity to protect Nigerians. We have killer herdsmen all over the place.
“Foreigners have invaded Nigeria and the best the government can do is grant them amnesty? That is why we in the Niger Delta want referendum.
“Restructuring would have been good but since the core North does not want restructuring, we want referendum.”
What else could be as fearful as what is credited to Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, which confirms foreign involvement in the killing of Nigerians and the plan to placate them with our resources?
“Boko Haram has been rebranded into herdsmen but Nigerians are unaware. The Fulani Caliphate, in collaboration with Chad, Niger, and Mali, has orchestrated a deadly plan on Nigerians and their land,” Ortom reportedly said.
“The FG, Presidency and the Fulani elders are all part of it …. Cattle colony is a pretext. Chad, Niger, and Mali are presently on full-scale invasion of Nigerian territory.
“Nigerians must rise against it. The government now works with Boko Haram to kill citizens. I am an APC member but I must tell you this government has failed the people.”
Shehu and his ilk must think again about this dangerous amnesty proposal before it consumes all of us. To assume that these boys who are not ready for civilisation will suddenly embrace a world of civilised persons simply because they have been granted amnesty is doubtful.
There is no guarantee that amnesty for Boko Haram would not signal the commencement of another bout of schism that would give the country more misfortune that it will start looking for ways to tame.
As politicians would say, the last thing you will do is empower your opponent with resources, else he dethrones you.
For Mohammad, many had thought he would have used his lecture to bring attention to the damaging impact of drugs on all youths irrespective of where they come from.
Where I come from, drug use is now a burden unlike what we used to experience growing up in the same environment.
Even though I had broached the matter in this column, I still look forward to a more elaborate essay on what drugs have done to the lives of our so-called future leaders (youth) who want power served them alacarte instead of working for it.
From the East to the West, North to South of this country, our youths have found companionship in illicit drugs, consuming them in the full glare of their parents, religious leaders, or community leaders, most of who appear helpless.
Law enforcement agencies have equally appeared helpless.
Therefore, it smacks of ethnic resentment and irredentism for Mohammad to single out the Igbo for culpability over the prevalence of hard drugs in the North, and more so, among his Hausa-Fulani kinsmen.
Whatever he wants to achieve with his comment can only find expression in the same hatred other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria harbour for the Igbo without cause.
Perhaps, the Igbo have dominated the drug business in the North and the easiest way to destroy the business is to raise the kind of alarm Mohammad had raised so that the powers that be can send them away; or as is always the case, Northern hoodlums would be leashed on them, their shops and families.
I do not know why the preoccupation of a university don would be to make the Igbo scapegoats by trying to set them up as targets, using the hard drug saga that is a national malaise as a defence.
The question then is: how can this lousy observation by Mohammad mask the glaring failure of successive Northern leaders, including himself, to tackle the myriad of problems of poverty and destitution in the region?
It seems an afterthought by Mohammad when he asked the public to fight the menace of hard drugs among the youths in their communities.
Were he a serious scholar, that aspect should have been the fulcrum of his essay.
Today when our young ones are hooked on hard drugs, using his exposure to provide nationwide pieces of advice rather than domiciling his opinion around innocent ethnic group like the Igbo would have made a lot of sense.
Drug addiction is the most happening, frightening phenomenon all the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria are facing in contemporary times.
There is no ethnic coloration about it hence it is sweeping our young people into diverse troubles.
You can decipher the impact of drugs on them in many ways, but you readily know those high on drugs, particularly motorcycle taxi operators, by the way they behave on the bikes.
Also, the way most youths dance today, argue, dress, and so on, tells you what they really are – drug abusers.
If anyone should be granted amnesty it should be Mohammad because he really needs some lessons on mental regeneration to free his psyche from the hatred that appears to have saturated his thought pattern.
Boko Haram insurgents and their co-travellers called killer herdsmen do not need it.