By Theophilus Ilevbare
The dust raised by
the stunning exposé
of Australian independent negotiator, Dr Stephen Davis, on the alleged sponsors of the Boko Haram
Islamic sect, indicted former Chief of Army Staff, General Azubuike Ihejirika
(retd), the usual suspect, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, former Borno State governor,
and an anonymous senior official of the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) may not settle any time soon as fingers are now being pointed at
the Presidency for hobnobbing with accused sponsors of
immitigable and unmitigated terror unleashed
on Nigerians.
Dr Davis alleged that prominent politicians
are the chief sponsors of Boko Haram and that they channel their fund through
the CBN so it appears to be legal. The official in charge of the transactions,
Davis alleged, currently works in the currency operations division of the CBN.
One would think the President would order security
operatives to swoop on the CBN official and the two other accused persons. Hell
no! Not here. The presidency would rather regard Davis’ exposé as an attempt to bring down the Goodluck Jonathan
government.
Whatever must have emboldened the hostage
negotiator to name names, he has broken the official taboo against exposing
persons behind atrocities like the Boko Haram menace. And Davis can't be wrong.
He has worked for three successive presidents.
Even if the Jonathan presidency denies it,
there is incontrovertible evidence that he was part of negotiators contracted
to broker the release of the abducted Chibok girls. His revelation gives us an
opportunity to nail the sect’s backers. However, there was nothing he said
about the sponsors that was new.
Senator Ali Modu
Sheriff has been in the news, not once or twice, for alleged links with the rampaging
Jihadist fundamentalists. The sect blossomed to full terror under his ‘stewardship’
as governor of Borno state. Sometime in 2011, Senator Sheriff was named as an
alleged sponsor of the sect in a confessional statement made by one Sanda Umar
Konduga, an arrested spokesperson of the Boko Haram.
As ex-governor, he
was arrested on March 28, 2012 in Cameroon on
the grounds that he was sponsoring terrorism in neighbouring Borno state.
Like a tail that wags behind a dog, the tag of a Boko Haram sponsor would not
sever from Modu Sheriff anywhere his name is mentioned.
Nevertheless, the hostage negotiator’s claims
against Gen. Ihejirika, former Chief of Army Staff, the CBN official and Modu
Sheriff are mere allegations and should be treated as such until proven
otherwise.
Have we not read
reports severally in the media by local mediators and military sources that
Boko Haram sympathisers are in the military? Are these not indicative that the Nigerian
military’s rank and file has been infiltrated by the terrorists?
So, what did Stephen
Davis reveal that we didn’t have the slightest hint? President Jonathan had also admitted in
January 2012 that members of Boko Haram sect had infiltrated his government. The
intelligence and security agencies have been infiltrated, as well.
If this war is to be
won, it goes beyond naming those
who fund the ceaseless bloodbaths, abduction of adolescent girls as sexual
slaves, arson, maiming etc by an Australian,
American, or Nigerian. The beginning of the end of this insurgency is bringing their
sponsors, home or abroad to justice.
Nigerians are not stupid to think this
government and security chiefs do not know the real sponsors of terrorism.
Otherwise, we don’t have any intelligence service in our country. Boko Haram’s
political backers are the sacred cows that cannot be brought to book. Not
until we cut the source of their supplies and get those who
are involved, we cannot stop them.
This is the level of insincerity with which
the counter terrorism war is being fought by the present day government. The
battle is being prosecuted even by the military perfunctorily. Soldiers won’t
literarily be fighting with bare hands if some army chiefs have not been
diverting billions voted for regular upgrade of military equipment over the
years.
We can make
revelations on Boko Haram all we want but until suspected persons are made to
face the full wrath of the law we will only be going in cycles, as usual. Considering
that the same government has not prosecuted any highly placed individual
indicted of corruption since President Jonathan mounted the saddle, it might be
wishful thinking to assume these accused persons will be prosecuted.
No amount of pressure,
it seem, will compel Mr President to order an honest investigation to a logical
conclusion of indicted persons with 2015 elections just around the corner. The
strategy of the President’s men is to capitalise on the festering crisis in the
North East to gain sympathy votes across the country in next year’s polls.
Exposing the sponsors of terror most of whom are northern political figures
will be tagged witch-hunting and tantamount to political hara-kiri for
President Jonathan.
“There is some level of political undertone
to the problem,” late General Andrew Owoye Azazi, former National Security
Adviser, opened up on the Boko Haram onslaught. He situated the Boko Haram scourge within the PDP as an aftermath of
the internal wrangling for the presidency during the
2011 election.
He promised to release a list of politicians
allegedly backing the Islamic sect. Soon after those declarations, he was
unceremoniously sacked by President Jonathan and thereafter came his mysterious
death, with Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna state in a copter crash. The official cause has since not been released.
The least expected of President Jonathan is for
him to refer the suspects to the Special Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) in view of the gravity of the allegations of crimes
against humanity perpetrated by the political backers of the extremist group as
any local investigation conducted by the federal government may be manipulated
by vested political interests, radical lawyer, Femi Falana forthrightly advised.
There’s no better window than the heightened
attacks to seize territories and declare caliphates of the past few weeks for
the Commander-in-Chief and President to go after the sponsors of the sect. This
government may risk being branded complicit if these allegations go
uninvestigated especially as the present
administration have chosen instead, to hobnob with persons indicted with
allegations of terrorism, than shove them to justice.
The sight of
President Goodluck Jonathan all smiles with Ali Modu Sheriff in Chad sent
niggles and ruckus back home. Mr Jonathan gave Sheriff the privilege of
partaking in a closed door deliberation on terrorism he had with the Chadian
President. Modu Sheriff,
the de facto poster-politician allegedly sponsoring Boko Haram, as one writer
described him, has since taken refuge in the ruling party by defecting from the
APC, apparently to shield himself from prosecution.
Sadly, except these indicted persons are
dragged before the International Criminal Court (ICC) by concerned Nigerians or
civil and human rights organisations, we may not win this fight against
insurgency in the remaining months of this administration.
You can follow the writer on twitter @tilevbare.
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