The national security and national interest of any nation should supersede its primordial, religious or ethnic interests. Consequent upon this, the threat, pronouncements and insinuations by some elements of northern extraction, like some lawmakers in the Jigawa House of Assembly, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF) against the arrest of 486 Boko Haram suspects in Abia state is to say the least unpatriotic, anti-security and against national interest.
It will be recalled that, on Sunday June 15, 2014 the nation woke up to behold two devastating incidents that would have rocked this nation to its foundation had they been successful. One was the aborted bomb incident that would have ripped through a church, the Winners Chapel Owerri Imo state as well as the arrest of the suspected Boko Haram members at the Asa, Ukwa West axis of the Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway by a detachment of the Nigeria Army as they shepherded to Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Men of good will across the country who believe in the unity and corporate existence of Nigeria have been condemning in unmistakable terms the attempt to bomb Owerri.
In like manner, many Nigerians have been applauding the military stationed in Abia state for living up to their responsibilities. But rather than join in this endeavour, the lawmakers of Jigawa and their ACF kiths and kin went to town wittingly berating the military for doing their job of securing the territorial integrity of the nation and by so doing gave tacit support to the suspected insurgents. While the Jigawa State House of Assembly vowed on the innocence of the suspects, and threatened to drag Abia state government to court, the AYCF and the ACF described them as job seekers. Pray! What manner of jobs is there in Rivers State for 486 men and women of northern extraction? When were the jobs advertised and who advertised them? Or are they seeking for jobs no southerner or Rivers State indigenes know about? The worry of everybody is why the Jigawa lawmakers and their ACF and AYCF kinsmen have decided to jump into the fray without allowing the military hierarchy to conduct a thorough investigation on the matter.
It is high time Nigerians knew their enemies and those that are covertly subverting and working against our internal security as well as the unity of this country. It has been long that the south has been accusing some northern elements of supporting terrorism and insurgency. The latest Abia catch of insurgents has blown the lid off some veiled pretenses by some northerners that they are against the activities of Boko Haram and insurgency in the north. We are now beginning to see the truth in this claim. After all truth is what we individually hold or believe to be the reality. It is appalling that people who were elected as lawmakers and who sworn an oath to defend the Constitution and territory integrity of Nigeria are the very ones fueling the embers of the disunity, acrimony and dismemberment of the country they swore to defend through the tacit support of terrorists. How many times have the lawmakers of Jigawa come out openly to condemn the various killings and destruction of properties in the north by the members of this sect? Their threat to drag the Abia state government to court over the arrest of the suspects is no threat at all.
After all they know the way to the courts of the land. Any other thing outside that is a play to the gallery. Would it mean anything to them that some of the Boko Haram leaders and a major suspect was among the 486 suspected insurgents? Indeed, the Abia state government should be commended for putting a sound security framework in place that lead to the arrest of the suspects.
Mr. Nwosu wrote from Aba, Abia state.
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