By Mahmoon Baba-Ahmed
American security men have arrived Nigeria to partner with their local counterparts to help free the abducted Chibok school girls and to deal a decisive blow to Boko Haram insurgency. The decision to send them down had come barely few days after President Goodluck Jonathan had, in a televised interview, hinted that he was in touch with America and other Western European countries ostensibly to solicit their support in ending the five-year old insurgency that inflicted untold hardship and misery on Nigerians. In the same vein Britain, China and also France offered to help.
Special advisor to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati said Jonathan had accepted the offer during a telephone conversation with United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry who had earlier hinted his country’ readiness to assist in many fora.
If that move could actually bring the insurgency to an end and restore confidence in the minds of the bewildered and depressed populace it would certainly be a most welcome development as it would surely open new vista of fresh hope for the people who had unfortunately found themselves in a situation that resulted in painful and humiliating loss of dignity and self-esteem, and most painfully, agonizing mourning of loved ones. Definitely a drowning man would hold on securely to any object, including a sharp sword, if it were pushed to him to keep him from sinking. The people at the receiving end of Boko Haram’s unrestrained, devastating activities would welcome any practical and realistic step that could deliver them from such afflictions which prevent them from performing religious obligations or discharging social responsibilities. Presently, they can neither pursue their economic activities nor engage in any gainful venture.
At the moment incessant unrests and the high frequency of kidnaps and willful killings of innocent souls have rendered the good peoples of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states depressed and distressed and they also couldn’t ward off the conditions that militate against the schooling of their children. From June 2013 to February this year, vicious gunmen had brutally attacked and vandalized four higher institutions of learning in Yobe State alone: at Mamudo, Damaturu, Gujba and Potiskum, killing 137 and maiming hundred others.
Presently, most schools in the three North-eastern states have either been razed or smashed up and their students sitting at home redundant. And to add insult to injury more than 270 female students of Federal Girls Secondary School Chibok were whisked away in a midnight raid. Their fate remains unsure and their destination a mystery. That unfortunate incident has added another unsavory dimension to the Boko Haram narrative, leaving Nigerians disconsolate, praying for divine intervention in the face of federal government’s striking inability to contain the situation. In addition they have collectively decried government’s helplessness in protecting hapless students from the unremitting night marauders.
However, it would be worthwhile if caution is exercised before extending an open invitation to the countries jostling to demonstrate their newfound care and concern for Nigeria in its trying moments. That is necessary in order to avoid pitfalls that could warrant disagreeable or horrible situations.
These countries which President Jonathan wants to invite are well-known to Nigerians because they had earlier demonstrated the unattractive stuff with which they are made. Their machinations and blatant dislike of some Nigerians because of their belief and creed has for long been recognized, and with the new role they would be expected to play they would certainly fan the embers of dogmatism and sectarian strife when they arrive. These neo-imperialists may want to overstay their welcome in Nigeria and it would be hard, if not impossible, to flush them out once they have dug in. It is therefore imperative to devise concrete plans of neutralizing their malice. In fact their long-term ambition may not to assist Nigeria in a positive way but to plot the continued plundering of its immense natural resources.
Recent events have tended to show that Nigeria is slowly but steadily disintegrating especially as the crises bedeviling the Northern parts of the country are increasingly getting out of hand and becoming more and more intolerable. Despite all these the government doesn’t seem to be forthcoming in taking any proactive step to ameliorate the situation which poses great danger to the continued existence of the country. Nigeria should find means and ways of ending this lingering crisis and should not rely on others to do that.
America and its allies have created so many problems for Third World countries which had later exploded in their faces. They are now strutting hard in vain to get out of such self-inflicted predicaments. These boastful countries are after all entirely dependent on Nigeria to fight their own wars in countries where their manipulative and exploitative policy have backfired. How then could they effectively extinguish the fire ignited by their selfish and inequitable policies in the countries they have used and dumped? Nigeria should learn a lesson from the countries ill-treated and physically abused by America and its vainglorious allies which they had later forsaken. Nigerians must reject these gift horses.