Massacre of farmers: We want to hear more from Lai Mohammed
In September 2008, while addressing House of Commons in London, the present Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed accused previous government of total failure in handling Boko Haram insurgency. With several killings before and after 2015 till date includi
Why is Goodluck Jonathan government still being talked about today after six years of leaving office? Is it because his government was extensively accused of incapacity and incompetent by both the partisan media and the opposition parties in managing the economy and insurgency, or that his management style has been adjudged better than the present. Almost everybody believed if he was voted out, the economy and the security environment will be better under the present administration.
Six years down the line, Nigerians are still struggling with the same issues, even at worse situations. Many military personnel, civilians are being killed wantonly. Insecurity, especially the atrocities of Boko Haram has continued unabated. In spite of the military efforts, the massacre and kidnapping had continued wickedly without the leaders, members and sponsors of the insurgency, arrested and prosecuted since 2009. Their hideouts also seem mysterious to our intelligentsia.
It has been difficult for several years to round up the insurgents and their sponsors from their hideouts or cut off their weapon supply channel, a development which is still threatening security in Nigeria but it was easy for American forces that landed in Northern Nigeria located and rescued their citizen kidnapped in Niger and taken to Northern Nigeria for hostage.
Precisely on October 31, this year, US military forces made brave entry in Northern Nigeria and rescued their citizen, Philipe Nathan Walton who was abducted in neighbouring Niger but taken to Nigeria. From far away, West, they were able to identify the location and hideout of the kidnappers, perhaps with tip offs. They meant business and they succeeded.
Applauding the brevity of the American soldiers in the early morning operation, Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said U.S. is committed to return Americans taken hostage while abroad.
“We delivered on that commitment…, where some of our bravest and most skilled warriors rescued a U.S. citizen after a group of armed men took him hostage across the border in Niger.”
On Saturday, November 28, this year, Nigerians woke up to a bizarre occurrence of the another killing of scores of farmers in Borno, Nigeria by Boko Haram. Three days later, Boko Haram boldly claimed responsibility for the brutal massacre of the 76 farmworkers on the excuse that farmers are collaborating with Nigerian army against them. Their leader Abubakar Shekau has been carrying out this atrocity for several years, killing several thousands of Nigerians without being hounded down.
For several years this rebel group in the north-eastern Nigeria has terrorized the region and shut down markets, schools, movements and other public places.
Prior to the 2015 Presidential elections, the killings, kidnapping and massacre got to a boiling point when over 276 Chibok town school girls were kidnapped on April 14-15, 2014. This drew local and international attention with #Bringbackourgirls campaign embraced by international prominent people.
To end this human massacre by Boko Haram, as many innocent, industrious and well-meaning Nigerian lives have been wasted, Nigerians voted out Goodluck Jonathan administration and brought in All Progressives Congress, APC which had promises to deal with Boko Haram.
Lai Mohammed, the minister of Information had on September 8, 2014 while addressing the House of Commons in London stated that the former administration’ s efforts at handling the Boko Haram was a total failure.
“President Jonathan’s handling of the Boko Haram insurgency has been a spectacular failure, and this is deliberate for political reasons. Where and even if the President Jonathan-pdp Administration may claim to know nothing about the origin of Boko Haram, it has actively sustained the crises, profiteering from it”, Mohammed told the House of Commons.
Based on thumb calculation or loud promises, many Nigerian just believed that APC government will deal with the terrorism better.
In his speech, Mohammed attempted to convince Nigerians and the international community that APC had a better approach to tackling the insurgency. He listed some approaches which included urgent formulation of a holistic Counter-Terrorism strategy that emphasizes the synergistic use of military, political and economic elements, and roles for civil society and other critical stakeholders.
He also said that bringing in the United Nations (and its specialised agencies), and mobilising local and international peace-building organisations to work with communities and groups affected by Boko Haram was another approach APC will use to fight Boko Haram insurgency.
Lai Mohammed who later became Nigeria’s minister of Information frowned at the former government’s unwillingness to prosecute the sponsors of Boko Haram on the belief that their prosecution was another strategy in fighting the menace and slowing the attack.
It was clear that Mohammed was speaking from the side-line as opposition and the speech was designed to canvass for votes for APC in the 2015 elections. But it is not clear after APC eventually took over power, whether those strategies were implemented to reduce the massacre, killings and kidnapping by Boko Haram. We are also yet to know how many of Boko Haram members and their sponsors the ruling party has identified and prosecuted in the last six years. Boko Haram is still ferocious which suggests that the channels for the supply of their weapons are alive. So, what has APC done differently?
The ruling party appeared to have also fallen into the same accusation, Lai Mohammed levelled against the former administration of issuing propaganda claiming technical defeat of Boko Haram.
Mohammed had told the House of Commons that “since 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan-pdp led government has increased security spending; declared and renewed emergency rule, issued propaganda claiming the capture and killing of Boko Haram members (including the leader Abubakar Shekau), destruction of Boko Haram camps, and countless assurances of improving security and winning the battle against Boko Haram”.
Perhaps, we need to hear from Lai Mohammed on the difference in the operation of Boko Haram between 2007 to 2014 and 2015 till date and whether some sponsors of the insurgency and their members have been arrested and prosecuted and why is Boko Haram activity still fierce.
Since APC took over power in 2015 and was re-elected in 2019, perhaps, the minister now possibly understands the complexity in the war against Boko Haram. After the massacre of the 76 farm workers, the minister instead of accusing any other person or party said, “terrorism is a global problem that requires the collaborative efforts among nations to combat. Nigeria needs the support of global partners, especially in the area of acquisition of effective platforms to deal with the terrorists”.
We, Nigerians need to hear from Lai Mohammed that if previous administration’s handling of Boko Haram was a failure, what is better today with soldiers, clerics, farmers and other civilians massacred in cold blood or is the nation politicising Boko Haram insurgency while many continue to be killed?
After the massacre of the rice farmers, similar to other dastard acts, world leaders expressed shock on the incident. Pope Francis condemned the killing by suspected Islamist militants as a `terroristic massacre’ that offended the name of God. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the deadly attack against rice farmers.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari also expressed grief over the killing of the farmers on rice fields at Zabarmari, in Jere Local Government of Borno State, describing the terrorist killings as insane.
World leaders expect Nigeria to take the bulls by the horns and do more in curtailing the atrocious activities of the Boko Haram. Enough is enough!