Not so Prof!

While I respect the views of Prof Tam David West on most national issues, his comments on the state of emergency are most disappointing. For insisting that the leaders of Boko Haram are "rational" people smacks of insensitivity to all those families that have lost loved ones by the mindless killings perpetrated by the sect. Unless David West has been living under a rock  in the last few years of Boko Haram insurgency, he would have known that apart from their leader the late Mohammed Yusuf who was killed in mysterious circumstances, the leadership of the sect has been faceless, more so the followers. Nobody can say for sure he knows a Boko Haram member. He may be your always smiling next door neighbour, the neighbourhood tailor, the okada rider, he may even be the stranger discussing with you the tenuous security situation in the country, either justifying or condemning the sect! The northern leaders are at best keeping quiet about it all. Without being told you know that they are playing the survival card - nobody wants to be on the wrong side of the sect by speaking out of turn. Was is it not the same sect that first denounced and renounced allegiance to the Sultan who is both the religious and cultural leader of Muslims? Was it not the same sect that denounced secular authority and have said Western education  (in which Prof West has so distinguished himself) is sin? The latest dastardly kidnapping of 87 year old Shettima Ali Mungono (Tam David West's predecessor in the Petroleum Ministry) is a clear demonstration of the lack of respect for elders by these people.

How rational is a group that insists that all Nigerians must convert to Islam? How rational is a group that targets schools and churches for destruction? To make matters worse, David West suggests that Government should "subtly identify the people in the community whom these people respect, these people should be made to talk to them in camera seriously and sincerely, and pointing out to them what the country is losing and what they are losing." Without meaning to disrespect our erudite professor, this suggestion is so pedestrian it makes mockery of a very serious matter. For the information of David West and all who think like him, evidence is on ground that these people see themselves as being superior in Islamic knowledge than the emir, than the imam, the Mallam, than everyone else! The way and manner they inflict maximum damage tells you they have no respect for age and accomplishments. They have dispatched eminent persons to their untimely graves without blinking an eye and that includes a leading urologist and Professor of Surgery, Hyacinth Nong Mbibu of Ahmadu Bello University. And he was not the only professor killed. Another was killed at a church service in the university campus. Boko Haram have damaged public buildings and destroyed the livelihood of thousands of people including their own relatives without counting the cost. So far the only language they understand is force. Perhaps by the time they square up with the Nigerian military they would be forced to the negotiating table.

We plead with Professor David West and other eminent citizens to support the bold move by the Federal Government to contain the insurgency. This is not the time to play politics with the lives of fellow Nigerians. Every effort was made from covert to overt to bring this sect to the negotiating table but they rather preferred to talk to innocent, defenseless Nigerians through bombs and the barrel of the gun. Let them stand and face the turrets from tanks, the helicopter gunships and incendiary fire from fighter jets. They hoped for it, let them have it.