I first travelled to Borno State in the company of other journalists about eight years ago on the invitation of former Governor Ali Modu-Sherrif during his second term.
Then, reports of ritual killing and kidnapping of mainly girls gave everybody cause to worry.
Modu-Sherrif confessed to us that the two incidents were giving his administration a bad name and that he was doing a lot to nip them in the bud. His political opponents pointed accusing fingers at him, but it all remained at the level of accusation because there was no evidence.
When, therefore, one reflects on what is happening in Borno today, one can deduce that it has only reinforced feelings in the state that ritual killing and kidnapping have assumed lives of their own, in a peaceful state where hard working men and women abound.
I have friends who are from Borno State. I also have colleagues. Those I have interacted, and am still interacting with, are simply wonderful men and women: hardworking, sincere, tolerant.
But for some time now, particularly since the madness called Boko Haram crept into that part of the country, the best way to describe these wonderful men and women is that they are downcast, bitter, sad, physically and psychologically reduced and, all in all, dejected and rejected.
One of them insists that Borno and other parts of the country where Boko Haram insurgents are wreaking havoc have been destroyed due to politics. She would not take any explanation that deviates from the perception that the troublers of Borno in particular and the North East as a whole are simply relishing the bad seed they sowed in the garden of politics.
But her explanation differs from that of another young man also from the state who, though did not dismiss the political ting, argued that kidnapping and ritual murder got out of hand because there is no concerted effort to control them. He said the targets of both crimes are always Christians.
Regardless, my two friends agree that Borno will never be the same again. I share in their sentiment.
The harrowing experience Nigerians are going through because of the abduction of more than 200 girls from Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State on April 15 calls for sober reflection.
It is not about the submission of Borno indigenes who think their state can never be the same again. What has happened to the state has invariably happened to all of us; meaning, if the state cannot be the same again, we too cannot be the same again since all of us are Nigerians.
That is why I am worried about our understanding of the word patriotism. In Nigeria the term has been so abused that it has lost its dictionary meaning. Those who use it do so for selfish reasons. They have no commitment to the country and are not ready to die for the country in the sense of living up to the true meaning of the word.
Three different issues currently have called to question the genuine character of the men and women who mouth patriotism at the slightest opportunity.
First, the abduction in Chibok. Second, the national conference. Third, the House of Representatives’ probe of Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke over the $10 billion she allegedly spent on charter flights. The lawmakers are shouting blue murder that their efforts at probing her are being frustrated.
Today, we shall concentrate on Chibok.
Those advising the government against inviting foreign nations like the United States and Britain to help find a permanent solution to the Boko Haram insurgency cannot be said to be patriotic. They should rather be seen as suspects in this festering sore that has got to the level where young, innocent girls are taken away only for us to form protesting gangs as if that will change the mind of a principality like Abubakar Shekau.
The support the U.S., the UK, France, China and even the United Nations have shown has reinforced our hope that the fight against agents of terror and terrorism is not a battle for one person or country alone.
Going by the United Nations’ position on the threat by Shekau that he is going to sell the abducted girls in the market and marry them off, and that he is holding them as slaves, do we need anyone to remind us that what the insurgents are reintroducing in this world is the long forgotten and discarded slavery with its sexual components?
I like the confidence with which British Foreign Secretary, William Hague; U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry; and White House spokesman, Jay Carrey; spoke on the common international enemy called terrorism.
“We warn the perpetrators that there is an absolute prohibition against slavery and sexual slavery in international law. These can, under certain circumstances, constitute crimes against humanity. The girls must be immediately returned, unharmed, to their families,” Rupert Colville of the UN reminded the monster called Shekau.
I also salute the boldness of Ugandan President Yovenne Museveni who advocated maximum force. That is what Nigeria needs at this point to stamp out the menace, not politically-induced protests that Shekau will watch on television and call for a bottle of wine because patriotic Nigerians cannot go beyond advocating dialogue.
The question is: who can dialogue with the devil? We deceive ourselves if we think Shekau is not a devil and should not be treated as one.
Perhaps President Goodluck Jonathan is realising it late that his so-called patriotic Nigerians who advise him to dialogue with Shekau and the rest have helped to compound our collective woes.
Why would Jonathan wait this long to seek help? Why would he not be the man in charge by ignoring what his political opponents say if he was proactive in mobilising assistance outside the country if that would end terrorism?
“This insurgency is not only a Nigerian problem but a West African problem because it is a force that has scandalised the entire nation…. I think President Goodluck Jonathan should have asked for help from the beginning. I don’t believe in false pride,” said Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka.
Indeed, Jonathan is too laid back in the way he approaches the menace and that is the same attitude he has towards other equally critical issues that touch on the survival of our country. One needs to advise him to be the president at least in taking responsibility when it matters most.
Jonathan is yet to visit the town in the eye of the storm, Chibok, and he wants the families whose wards were taken by the insurgents to believe him.
No serious person will believe or trust him.
