By Clem Oluwole
Last Friday’s gruesome assassination of the Emir of Gwoza, Alhaji Idrissa Timta, marks a turning point in the terror war that has been raging in the North-east axis close to half a decade. The late monarch was riding in a convoy in company of two other colleagues, the Emirs of Askira and Uba, Alhaji Abdullahi Ibn Mohammadu and Alhaji Ali Ibn Ismaila Manza, respectively. The motorcade ran into Boko Haram ambush at a location called Zur near Shaffa town in Hawul local government area of Borno state at 9 am. The late emir was the most unfortunate among the trio. The other two escaped the ambush by the skin of their teeth. The monarchs were on their way to Gombe to attend the funeral of their colleague, the Emir of Gombe, Alhaji Shehu Abubakar.
The death of Gwoza monarch is the first high profile casualty recorded in the traditional institution circle in the North. Previous attempts on the institution had failed, even though lesser monarchs have been killed by the insurgents in different parts of the region.
In July 2012, a lone suicide bomber blew himself up while targeting some dignitaries dispersing from the Friday prayers near the palace of Shehu of Borno, Umar Garbai el-Kanemi.
According to reports, five people were killed in the attack. The Shehu, who was the main target, was in company of the Deputy Governor of the state, Zannah Mustapha, when the juvenile bomber meandered through the crowd and detonated the bomb but the duo narrowly escaped death.
On August 10, 2012, the Emir of Fika, Yobe state, Alhaji Muhammed Abali Ibn Mohammed Idrisa, escaped death when a suicide bomber targeted him for assassination.
The emir, who is also the chairman, Yobe state Council of Chiefs, had just finished his Friday prayers at the Potiskum Central Mosque when a young man with explosives strapped to his body attempted to get close to him. He was stopped by the emir’s police orderly.
Seeing that his mission to kill the emir had failed, the suspected assassin brought out a gun and made to shoot when the explosives detonated.
Although the emir escaped unhurt, his police orderly and the suicide bomber were said to have died in the blast while a number of people were injured.
In January 2013, Boko Haram gunmen attacked the convoy of the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero. The emir survived, but his driver and two guards were killed. The attackers had ambushed the emir’s convoy as he was returning from a ceremony at a mosque.
Boko Haram’s key mission is to create an Islamic state in Northern Nigeria and it has disowned traditional religious leaders like the Shehu of Borno and Ado Bayero and now the emir of Gwoza, for allowing themselves to be ruled by the secular government.
Perhaps, the late monarch had a premonition of his death when, a few weeks or so back, he sent an SOS to security chiefs in the country, the federal government in particular, lamenting the persistent attacks and killings his subjects have been subjected to and called for urgent deployment of more troops to protect lives of his people whom he feared might all flee to neighbouring Cameroon.
In his words: “Sincerely speaking, my people, including the traders and other businessmen and women, have been prevented from travelling to Maiduguri to buy industrial and household goods for sale to customers in my chiefdom with an estimated population of 655, 000 in 11 wards and other communities bordering Cameroon.
“Besides that, there is no blessed day that the Boko Haram gunmen will not kill 7 to 15 residents along the three roads that had already been blocked and taken over by the insurgents. My people have been prevented from going to work on their farmlands since last year, and even the limited cultivated farmlands, including my 350-hectre farmlands and orchards at Jaje village, were seized by the insurgents last October.
“Therefore, I am pleading, and will continue to plead with the military, police and other security agencies in the state to take emergency action on the three roads taken over in Gwoza council area. If my people flee to Cameroon, leaving me alone in this palace, who will I rule as their traditional and religious leader?”
However, in a twist of fate, it is the monarch that has been taken out of his domain to rule no more, even when a substantial portion of his domain located behind the sprawling Gwoza hills has been seized by the insurgents, declaring it as an occupied territory governed under the Sharia law.
One of the gains of the State of Emergency (SOE) bandied by the military was the routing of the insurgents who had virtually taken over close to 10 local government areas in northern Borno with their flags hoisted in such locations. It is, therefore, unthinkable that more than a year into the declaration of the emergency, the insurgents hold the ace in southern Borno.
Now that one of them (an emir) has been taken down, it is hoped that the traditional rulers in the North will take a serious step towards ending the menace by getting President Goodluck Jonathan to wake up from his slumber and be truly committed to the daunting challenge. The president should purge himself of the primordial sentiment that the insurgency is a northern conspiracy against his administration. For sure, this “self-annihilation” calamities forced on the region cannot be a plot to bring his regime down because it is the North that has been at the receiving end.