Barely one week after the federal government declared a state of emergency in 15 local government areas of four states in the North, bombs and killings have not abated.
No fewer than twenty persons may have lost their lives in more than five different attacks carried out in the affected areas.
President Goodluck Jonathan, penultimate Friday, during a nationwide broadcast announced a state of emergency rule in parts of Nigeria plagued by the Boko Haram insurgency, and shut the borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger in the affected areas, mostly in the North-East. The state of emergency affected about 15 local councils in Yobe, Borno, Plateau and Niger States.
According to the president: “The temporary closure of our borders in the affected areas is only an interim measure designed to address the current security challenges, and will be resumed as soon as normalcy is restored,” he assured.
Following that declaration, Nigerians were divided on the likely impact of the president’s prononucement While most Nigerians hailed the action, describing it as long overdue, not a few others however, averred that the declaration could be made more effective if it covered the entire areas of the affected states.? According to them, the declaration in only a few local government areas would only create the right atmosphere for the perpetrators to expand their range of operation.
One of the country’s main opposition parties, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in its reaction shortly after the declaration welcomed the idea as a measure meant to put to an end the needless loss of lives and the overheating of the polity. The party however, warned that a state of emergency could only address the symptom rather than the root cause.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Muhammad, told the media that a more fundamental solution must be found to the crisis to ensure lasting peace. He also warned against any attempt to leave the president with the responsibility of finding the solution alone.
‘’All stakeholders, including religious, political and traditional leaders as well as civil society organisations must come together to help fashion out a lasting solution. Our party, on its part, is ever ready to contribute its quota in this regard, if and when called upon.
‘’We can liken them to the way armed robberies have continued despite the numerous roadblocks dotting the country. The robbers simply avoid the roadblocks on their way to carrying out their nefarious activities. A state of emergency, therefore, is a palliative measure. We must fashion out a lasting solution now. We don’t have to wait until the entire country is put under emergency rule.
‘’It is clear that the perpetrators of the violence believe they have grievances against the state, at whatever level. As unreasonable as this may seem in certain quarters, the truth is that unless these grievances are largely addressed, we will remain in the woods,’’ the party said.
‘’We also believe that our elder statesmen, the past heads of state, have a great role to play. Though they may have acted individually on this, it is imperative that they work in unison to help end the crisis, which is threatening our democracy and indeed the very survival of our nation. If we all fail to act now, no one will be spared of the consequences, irrespective of their party affiliation or religious leaning,’’ ACN said.
Nigerians from all walks of life hailed the state of emergency as a timely measure to give teeth to the federal government’s promise to contain the member of? sect. Less than a fortnight after the declaration, however, the warnings of Nigerians seem to be materialising. The sect seems to have swiftly relocated to other states not affected by the declaration.
As at the last count, Jigawa, Gombe and Adamawa states have joined the list of states under siege by the dreaded Boko Haram sect. By this, the sect has added three more states to make the growing list of those they? already have their bases, of course, they have also not stopped terrorising the indigenes and residents of Borno, Jos, Yobe and Niger States where the emergency rule supposedly subsists.
True to the prediction of many Nigerians, most of the attacks so far reported in the wake of the emergency rule were recorded in these newly listed states not affected by the martial rule. In Madalla LGA, the only affected LGA in Niger State, the residents affirm that they have not felt the impact of the state of emergency. They averred that most of the residents in the LGA and other adjoining places have continued to live in fear of continued attacks from the attackers.
Mr Cosmas Nwoko, a resident in Madalla who told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that he was an eye-witness of the gruesome Christmas Day bomb blast, opined that if the broadcast was meant to build some confidence in the minds of people residents in the state that the federal government was out to safeguard lives and property, it did not achieve much.
“In Madalla, people are still living in fear after that Christmas Day bomb blast in St. Theresa Catholic Church. The state of emergency should have come long before that Christmas Day bomb blast. The federal government underestimated the Boko Haram members. As I am talking to you people are not too sure that the state of emergency will change anything. In the last three or four days, I have not seen any soldier. People are going about their normal duties. We just hope that we will not be taken by surprise again.????
In one incident which occurred in Mubi, a town in Adamawa State, no fewer than 17 people were killed as gunmen opened fire in a town hall where Igbos were meeting.
The people attacked in the Mubi incident were said to be have been meeting to organise how to transport the body of a man who was also reportedly shot dead by gunmen on motorbikes few days earlier. Residents said they were holding the meeting when the gunmen came and opened fire on them.
Witnesses said gunmen burst into the hall and shouted “God is great” as they opened fire. There were also simultaneous attacks in Gombe and Jigawa States. Even up to yesterday, sources in Gombe disclosed that gunmen stormed a hotel and killed two people while many other sustained various degrees of injuries.
The next day the sect also reportedly attacked a church in Yola, killing eight people and many injured.
A man who claimed to be a spokesman for Boko Haram was quoted as saying that the group had defied the declaration of state of emergency to show the Nigerian government that they would not be stopped.
“We are extending our frontiers to other places to show that the declaration of a state of emergency by the Nigerian government will not deter us. We can really go to wherever we want to go,” said Abul Qaqa.
He described the attacks after the declaration as “part of our response to the ultimatum we gave to southerners to leave the north” and called on the government to release all Boko Haram prisoners.
The ACN the action must be followed by a robust engagement, wider consultations, dialogue and measures to address the grievances of those perpetrating the violence.
ACN said the state of emergency had its limitations, in that it will simply result in more militarisation of the affected areas, more roadblocks and the constriction of the civil liberties of the people, adding that unless more far-reaching measures are adopted, the perpetrators of the crisis will simply leave the affected areas and move to other areas to continue their dastardly act.
Commenting on the issue, A security expert, Mr Oluseyi Balogun told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that in the fight against insurgents, they must not be given any room for expansion. They must be pre-empted and not allowed to reinforce. He pointed out that the more they expanded the more they were likely to recruit more members and cause more havoc.
Balogun further averred that the president may not have been properly advised.
According to him, rather than the action scarring away the insurgents, they would become more daring knowing that they were now fugitive.
“The president did the right thing but at the wrong time. This action should have been taken when it was first realised that these boys were not going to soft-peddle.
Perhaps it would have caught them when they were not yet well equipped and when they might not have committed much havoc.???
“As we can see today, in spite of the state of emergency, the sect is still carrying out her attacks. This should tell the president that he needs to come up with his plan B. The people are not yet convinced that the emergency rule will help matters. The Boko Haram understand their terrain very well and they are going to take full advantage of it.
They also know people who would be willing to shield them from the watchful eyes of the government’s security operatives.
“As we can see already, they have expanded their areas of attack to include other states which were not covered by the attack such as Adamawa. Who knows before long, we may find reason to include all the states in the North. If the government had covered all the local governments of the affected states and sent in the soldiers as soon as the declaration was made, the insurgents would have found it difficult to move out of the state without detection. Moreover, they would not have been able to move into any other state.
“Also, another mistake of that broadcast was the retention of the democratic institutions in the affected areas. That on its own annuls it as a true state of emergency. There is no way the activities of the civilian administrators would not interfere with those of the security operatives. This could be responsible for the continued incidence of the attacks despite the emergency rule”, he said.????
The Presiding Bishop of Sword of the Spirit, Bishop Wale Oke, in his reaction, warned the federal government not to allow the outcry which attended the fuel subsidy removal to overshadow and distract it from addressing the Boko Haram menace in the land. The Bishop said it would be dangerous for the government to lose focus on the actual problem that threatens the nation.
“We should not allow the noise on fuel subsidy to distract us from the real problem that we are facing as a nation. The unity of this country is of great essence and we must be careful how the matter is handled.
“The federal government should strengthen its intelligence network and seek support from developed nations of the world like United? States, Britain, Israel and United Arab Emirates,” he said.
The cleric made allusions to claims by President Jonathan that some Boko Haram agents had infiltrated his government saying that the failure of security agents to provide useful intelligence was responsible for the current security breakdown.
A Christian Cleric and parish priest of St Theresa’s Catholic Church, Jos, Rev. Fr. John Go’ar, also reacting to the state of emergency? has criticized the imposition of state of emergency on some states of the federation averring that the state of emergency has never solved any crisis.
Go’ar noted that rather than being a solution, state of emergency had only tended to exacerbate the problem. “State of emergency has never solved any problem because when you look at the present situation if you impose a state of emergency in Plateau, they will strike in Damaturu”
President Jonathan gave his reasons for the declaration; “you are all aware of the security challenges which the activities of the Boko Haram sect have foisted on the country. What began as sectarian crises in the North Eastern parts of the country has gradually evolved into terrorist activities in different parts of the country with attendant negative consequences on our national security.
“Government in an effort to find a lasting solution to the security threats occasioned by the activities of the Boko Haram sect, constituted a Presidential Committee under the Chairmanship of Ambassador Usman Gaji Galtimari, to ascertain the immediate and remote causes of the crises.
“While efforts are being made to implement the recommendations of the Committee, the crises have assumed a terrorist dimension with vital institutions of government including the United Nations Building and places of worship becoming targets of terrorist attacks.
“While the search for lasting solutions is ongoing, it has become imperative to take some decisive measures necessary to restore normalcy in the country especially within the affected communities. Consequently, I have in the exercise of the powers conferred on me by the provisions of section 305(1) of the Constitution, declared a state of emergency,” he said.
The President, last week, through a letter to the senate president urged the Senate to ratify the emergency declaration in line with the provision of the constitution. Nigerians are anxious to know what next step the president would take in the recent surge of attacks in both places covered by the declaration and other places not covered by it as rumours of threats and ultimatum continue to send the shivers down the spine of everyone.