WHY WE MUST FIGHT

“War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings, which think that nothing is worth war, is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” John Stuart Mill.

As I quiz my mind and ask questions as to what has given fruit to Boko Haram, why they torture, kill and destroy, I look at the fact that most of these insurgents are young men. What has created a situation where our young citizens would raise up arms against their innocent brothers, government departments, schools and traditional leaders? It must be that there is some kind of disconnect; some marginalisation that has allowed them to be drawn to such a brotherhood of terror.

It strikes me that they are rebelling against a state with no moral fibre like a vulture, a band of hyenas who want to take all for themselves and enough is never enough. Is it our system of government that they are rebelling against, a system that does not cater for the people and our welfare?

Is this why democracy is abhorrent to them? Why they feel it must be destroyed? What is Boko Haram? As far as I can make out, ‘boko’ is northern vernacular of the word ‘book’ and ‘haram’ means ‘forbidden’. Is it their understanding that this Western teaching, this democracy as is practiced in Nigeria, is not equitable and therefore abhorrent?

Is that why they have decided in their immaturity to create havoc and anarchy, to destroy? Why should a section of our society feel this way and so easily be consumed by such evil?

These are symptoms of an ill in the land. The Chibok girls’ kidnap has helped us in highlighting to the world our plight at the hands of this terrorist group. It has also highlighted to us all how vulnerable and exposed we are. It is clear that our government is suffering from a real capacity issue and that we must all rise to the challenge in trying to protect ourselves from the ills that we have allowed to overtake our polity.

We should also not be comfortable in thinking that now that the spotlight is on us that something will be done. The international press are only interested in sensation. Boko Haram has killed thousands of people in Nigeria; these killings did not make the international press. Our bad news competes with similar situations all over the world.

My point is that this will soon be old news or no news at all and we will be back at square one, unless we dig deep and look into what we are doing wrong. We have a situation in Abuja now where the army is raiding newspaper sellers, beating them up and confiscating newspapers at gunpoint. Anybody who is caught filming is immediately pounced upon, beaten and carted away.

For the record, this is just as bad as Boko Haram. We are reducing ourselves to their level and should check ourselves in not becoming exactly what we should be fighting against. We should not further erode an already eroded rule of law. Where are we headed? We are a fractured nation. We need to take stock and not allow ourselves to descend into anarchy. The army should understand that they only hear harsh criticisms because we need them to do better and not because they are not appreciated. They should not stoop down to the same level as these terrorists.

The government spokesmen who pick up the microphones and make inarticulate noises that only further buttresses their lack of capacity and understanding should understand that they have a stake in this too and so if they have nothing sensible to say, then should perhaps say nothing at all. We must stand together and fight and not start bickering amongst ourselves. This is exactly where the enemy wants us to be. They are winning their fight.

The southern part of our land have gotten it into their heads that the terrorists are being funded by the northern Muslims to kill and destroy in their land just to remove President Jonathan. The North believes that he (Jonathan) is not doing enough or that an alien being is bent on destroying our land.

We need to fight this ill, otherwise our fear will consume us and we really will be shown to be that miserable creature, whose fate is left to chance. We must fight together.