Boko Haram: Between Soyinka’s Rabble-Rousing And Decency

8 Min Read

When Professor Wole Soyinka takes the centre-stage, he expects to be listened to, and because he hides beneath the genre of entertainers who seek to use the mastery of English Language and Boko Haram to catch the ears of others, he oftentimes oversteps the limits of decency to the applause of many with itchy ears, the same way I find disgusting those comedians who wax blasphemous to pursue money.

I must confess that while many find the Nobel Laureate titillating, I avoid him on account of the havoc he has wreaked in the citadels of learning that has arrested the development of many a youth. I often wonder that while he receives applause here on earth what awaits him beyond?

The other day, he took Dame Patience Jonathan to the cleaners again, and I could not but wonder if senility was not being masked by intellectual masturbation. What good is there to poke fun at a woman doing her own type of best as she knew it, when Soyinka did the same at Port Harcourt just a few weeks earlier on the Chibok girls? Must we all be like him in sophistry; but then, what did his sophistry and play at entertainment achieve in Port Harcourt? At least, after the President’s wife got into the fray, many got to know that the three irresponsible governments of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe were fore-warned by WAEC before the girls were abducted.

Do Soyinka and his like think they really earn the respect of the West when they drag their leaders in the muck? The West sees them for what they are: unpatriotic pawns. They know that a man who calls his father a fool will call another’s an imbecile; so, while the television networks and the West goad them on, they know they that men who abuse their leaders are no better than treacherous non-entities. If a lettered man does not have any qualms about rubbishing the symbol of his nation’s sovereignty in the international domain, all because he wants to remain relevant, then he is above all men pitiable.

It is astonishing that because of his affiliation with the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Soyinka has remained largely selectively amnesiac over the failure of leadership in the three troubled states that led us to this pass where school girls have become weapons of war. Soyinka, like his ilk in the APC, who like to appeal to his former affiliation in the battle against dictators, in all of his fine and erudite speeches, glosses over the ineptitude of our leaders in the north that created this behemoth that never stops drinking the blood of its kith and kin.

A story that is flying in the north will bear repeating here to men like Soyinka to stop them from getting involved in our politics that they are so pathetically ignorant of. True, Boko Haram started as an offshoot of the Maitasine group that was routed sometime ago by the Nigerian forces. But beyond the Nigerian belt, the members are also made up of infiltrators from beyond our borders.

One Aminu Sa’ad Beli in reaction to a Daily Trust story that the Federal Government was ignoring Boko Haram posted this instructive piece on the internet last February: “Beyond the usual lamentation by the northerners, always without any solutions proffered, may I suggest that, military personnel of north-eastern origin, be mobilized to Borno as front-liners in the recondite battle? And, we should be fair to Jonathan that, this unprecedented crisis was inadvertently but honestly triggered by the late President Umar Musa ‘Yar’adua, who commanded while in Brazil attending a conference on education, that a sweeping crackdown be launched on the insurgents.

“His inability to gain a sweeping victory made them desperate, ingenious and worthy of foreign support from international militants. Again, until the massive intervention by the locals the war seemed conclusive that it was lost. Then, the uncooperative attitude of Cameroon on the borderline also makes the situation worse. So, while the President should step up military action, the locals should double up and the insurgents should fear Allah and call off the war. I believe they are also human beings whose collective conscience must be pricking them occasionally. Above all, I pray to Allah to intervene.”

The sect had remained largely unknown nationally until they were pricked by security forces, but our elected officials knew them and even supported them through patronage for political reasons of winning elections and keeping the opposition in check in the north-east. They were supposed to be a religious group, but when our people saw the onslaught of southerners at the centre, they were radicalized along dangerous lines to stop the southern attempt to continue in power after General Obasanjo’s eight years. With that also came men wanting to settle personal scores and forming their own militia and aligning them with Boko Haram, or simply ascribing their own wicked exploits to the sect so much so it is difficult to tell the real jihadists from the fake, what with Abubakar Shekau ready to take the credit for everything.

Have the Soyinkas not wondered why all the hype about Gusau and Dasuki not worked the required magic? Have they not wondered if foreign elements, not necessarily al Qaeda, have not bought into the Boko Haram franchise and are using it to gain a foothold in Nigeria? There is more than meets the eye.

When the leaders were empowering this monster, they forgot to create the wonder bullet to kill it, and now they are also running away from it because the Frankenstein does not know its masters anymore; so everyone, including the creators, are bewildered by their creation.

The solution to what is on ground now lies with the Almighty, the One I know the like of Soyinka are too important to resort to; but for those like him who think the Americans can solve the problem, good luck to them, but it bears a reminder that they do not need to blame Jonathan and his wife for what we created and nurtured up here.

As for those women who are chanting #BringBackOurGirls, my candid advice is that if they are afraid to come over here to harass the Governors, they should also franchise their brand to the women and men who are willing over here rather than the show business going on in Abuja.

Written By Hamisu Abubakar
[email protected].

 

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