Mysteries are usually inexplicable and irresolvable. Some become clearer to discerning minds after efforts are made at unravelling them; others are never unravelled. Most mysteries are natural, while others are man-made. Natural or God-made mysteries are not discernable unless God reveals them. But man-made mysteries could be traced when careful investigations and analyses are conducted.
The Holy Book stated that the sins of the fathers shall be meted on the children even up to the fourth generation. Many theologians and scholars have tried to explain the expression and situate it appropriately. While many hold that it is self-explanatory having both literal and contextual meaning, others maintain that it is irreconcilable? The expression becomes a mystery as it draws the actions of fathers against the recompense which children would receive from the father’s actions. It is expected to put the fathers on their toes and make them tread with caution. Incidentally, when the sins of the fathers would rebound on the children, the fathers would not be there to render any help or make amends. They may also not be in a position to explain to the children that their affliction is the outcome of the fathers’ sins.
Nigerians have been trying to comprehend and give explanation to the current waves of violence and mindless killings that have suddenly held the nation under siege, challenging the security outfits. There is little success at deciphering the origin of the Armageddon-of-sort as people just cannot factor where the citizens got it wrong and how they got to this ugly.
The only plausible rationalisation is that the country got to this state after a long gestation period of negligence, debauchery on the country’s collective legacy and inheritance and the total erosion of the core values of the society. Apart from these, societal institutions which should have patterned the minds and sensibilities of the people, to positively impact, the country, were converted into weapons to actualise self-seeking aims. Over time, the people became disconnected and alienated from their society. The feeling that they have no share in the patrimony of the fatherland began to swell inside of them waiting for a day of reckoning when it would explode.
Today innocent children and helpless mothers are the biggest victims of the onslaught of the Boko Haram members. Being vulnerable, they are easily over powered by the rampaging insurgents who waste their lives in the most gruesome manner.? The government of the day has not shown enough adroitness in dealing with the situation.
Initially the position was that there would be no dialogue with the killers but recent reports are calling on the faceless sect members to make themselves recognisable for talks and negotiations.
If the known demands of the sect is anything to go by, their demands may not be feasible or even acceptable to the government. One of such demands is a full-scale implementation of the Shariah Islamic law in all the states of the country, thereby transforming the country from a secular one to a religious one. While not preempting the government, this, alongside other demands which they have voiced, may negate the tenets of the country’s constitution and threaten her indivisibility.
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Anyone who used to make Agura Hotel a place of choice, to spend the time or days when he visits the nation’s capital, would be grumbling at the unfortunate turn of events as one can no longer get into or out of the hotel at will. No thanks to the Boko Haram sect, the hotel may perhaps be a no-go area for its favourite tourists, businessmen, guests and personnel alike; facing the nation’s Defence Headquarters in Area 7, Garki, both premises are under tight security
Following series of attacks which have rocked most parts of the country, particularly within the north, including the FCT, the military authorities are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the building or its adjoining ones are not targets of the bomb attacks from the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents.
All roads also leading to the headquarters have been effectively cordoned off making it difficult for motorists and even pedestrians to freely move around the areas at will.
Since Agura Hotel is directly opposite the Defence Headquarters building, the road which borders the hotel and the Defence building is completely cordoned off and road users are compelled to make detours if they are going to any of the buildings around that neighbourhood.
What makes the Agura Hotel’s case rather pathetic is its place in the history of the nation’s capital. The hotel, reportedly the first in the FCT, at one time or the other housed serving number one citizens. Today, the Boko Haram saga has turned it into a shadow of itself: At the moment, patrons and associates now loath to visit the place because of the visible military presence.
All the roads around the entire Garki District areas bordering the Defence Headquarters and the Ministry of Defence building which is just a stone throw from each other are almost a no-go area. These roads which includ the Olusegun Obasanjo Way and Moshood Abiola Way are cordoned off and vehicles are made to follow the only lanes open to motorists. This action made all the roads around that axis arduous to ply.
These areas are very busy as there are several important government and private business offices and residences which attract quite a large number of visitors daily.
Apart from the Defence Headquarters building on Moshood Abiola Way and the Ministry of Defence Ship House on Olusegun Obasanjo Way, other important buildings in these areas include the Police Criminal Investigation Department CID, building on Area 10, the INEC, FCT office, and the Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, and the popular Area 10 shopping complexes. All these building and their users have had to bear the brunt of the latest security measures aimed at stopping the Boko Haram bombs from going off anywhere around those places.
Only last week, there was an alleged attempt by the Boko Haram members to bomb the Ministry of Defence Ship House. This, eye witnesses said resulted in further tightening of security around the building and that of the defence headquarters.
According to sources, the bombers had got to the gate and were trying to force themselves inside when they were stopped by the soldiers on guard.
Unconfirmed reports said there was an exchange of gunfire between the sect members and the soldiers and one of the sect’s members was apprehended. The melee was said to have led to a stampede as people were trying to avoid any stray bullets hitting them. The next day, the ministry issued a statement debunking the attempted attack describing it as a product of rumour mills.
According to the statement dated January 24, 2012 and signed for the Director of Press and Public Relations Department by the Resident Information Officer, Mr. Paul Okonkwo, no such incident occurred. Portions of the statement read; “the ministry of defence wishes to dispel the rumours going on that a Boko Haram member was apprehended and that there was a shooting incident and bomb threat within the Ship House complex.??????????
“What actually happened was that at about 10.40 am on Monday January 23, 2012, a man was seen trespassing the restricted area of the ministry and trying to enter its main gate. He was stopped and searched by the men on duty. Interaction with him revealed that he was drunk, and there was no incriminating item found on him. He was however, handed over to the military authority for further interrogation, based on the prevailing security situation in the country”.
Speaking on the issue, the national president of the Hotels Owners Forum Abuja, HOFA, Mr. Onofiok Ekong, lamented that the present situation has resulted in huge losses for the hospitality industry. According to him, most people now prefer to hold their events in villages rather than the FCT. He stressed that tourists who were beginning to find the nation’s capital as a tourist attraction have began to have a rethink since security is vital to the tourism industry.
“It is so glaring. There’s so much fears such that traveling to big cities have drastically been on the low. The few tourists that travel don’t lodge in hotels; they have the misgivings that hotels may be prime targets for attacks by the Boko Haram members.
“Since the crises began, people have been moving their events to the villages; events like weddings, recreational and weekend activities. You know, these are events that bring in people to stay in the hotels,
“Hotels are the last arm of tourism. Tourists travel by air or roads, after their activities, decide to lodge in the hotels, but when those events don’t happen, hotels’ occupancy and hall renting reduces. We are still taking statistics, but so far, we have experienced over 50% reduction in patronage.
From last year we made it mandatory for all the hotels to have a CCTV camera, hand held magnetic iron dictator, scanners and other equipment. These cost money, so you can see that with the reduced patronage and an increased expenditure as a result of purchase of these equipment, many hotels may have been in a distressed position, but we take it to be an investment, since these equipment to some extent, gives confidence to guests. More so, you have to look at doing all you can to prevent the hotels from being destroyed by bomb, which definitely will be a? costlier option.
However, we see security equipment as an integral part of hotel investment.
The Public Relations Officer, of Bolingo Hotel, Mr. Adamu Ahmad, who spoke on the toll of insecurity on the hospitality industry pointed out that bookings made, with the hotels are cancelled as a result of the security threat. He lamented that the expatriates are particularly jittery about the development that they hardly want to be seen around such places.
The story is the same in all the other big hotels. The level of security is always the first sign that the hotels are under tension and there was need to douse this tension so that the guests could feel more comfortable. One of the hotel’s managers who spoke under condition of anonymity lamented that every incident of bomb attack that is reported in the media goes further to increase the anxiety among the guests. According to him, as long as the bombs were still going off the chance were that the hotels would never come out of the customer drought which most of them are presently facing.
A staff of Agura Hotel who gave her name as Nkiruka pointed out that the government ought to compensate the hotel for the disruption of its business. According to her, “Agura has been around from the time the nation’s capital started and it has been serving Nigerians at all levels providing excellent services. Now that the road to the hotel has been cordoned off, you can guess how many customers would want to come here when they see the barricade. The government must come to the aide of this hotel so that it does not go under. So many Nigerians are depending on the hotel for their livelihood and so it should not be allowed to go under” Nkiru said.
Erstwhile president of the Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM), Dr. Sally Adukwu-Bolujoko who also spoke on the state of the nation maintained that the country deviated from the moment they failed to entrench the core values enshrined in the country’s constitution in the minds of the citizens.
“We should be able to by now have the technology to run our refineries. We couldn’t run the refineries, we couldn’t run the railways, and we couldn’t run our health system.
Today they are bringing in new sets of mass transit buses; it will go the way of other mass transit. That is why I’m saying that we need to do a fundamental thing, not a fire-fight in this country. Go back and have a crusade; mass mobilization for attitudinal change.
“We need to change our attitude: Beginning from the leaders who should champion such attitudinal change to the followers. Attitudinal change is what we need. We have come to a point when leaders should insist that our flag is hoisted in every home. Each time you go to the ministry most of the works are in Dubai trading, it should stop
“Let us reinvent the core value of the African continent. We will reinvent our industries that are dying. Do you know that Bata is in Ghana. Bata is a Nigerian language but they left us here and went to Ghana because things are working in Ghana.
“We have too many things going for us now in Nigeria than for us to split. If we are to split, we will be two, three or four nations living on this ground. But if we are together we would still be counted as giant of Africa: A country where every five black man is a Nigerian. The population alone is going for us as? people will like to trade with us. So we should come back and harness this ingenuity in us instead of using it to kill ourselves. Splitting is not a good option”, she said.
Dr. Bolujoko hailed the President Goodluck Jonathan’s invitation for dialogue extended to the Boko Haram members. According to her, unless you know what a people are asking for one may not be able to address their needs. She averred that even if their conditions were not acceptable it would provide a forum for the people to make their demands known and if it is something the government can do they would certainly do it to end all the blood shedding.
Also speaking in the same vein Ambassador Aja Nwachukwu insisted that it was time Nigerians sat down and redefine the mode of engagement as a country. Pointing out that the best option for the country would have been to remain as one big nation, the former ambassador averred that any discussion would reflect the diversity of the country. Well, things change.
“Nothing remains the same. We have to remember that we are not same tribe, same religion or ethnicity. We are clustered in finite areas. We want to stay as one because there is power in number. America won’t be what it is today if the Latinos went their way, the blacks went their way, the Greeks went their way and the Irish went their way.
But they respect themselves. Texas State is the richest state in America, even richer than a lot of countries put together but Washington doesn’t tell them bring all your money here let us share.
“There are taxes to be paid by any state. You cannot tell me that if I am working in Port-Harcourt, I’ll be earning the same thing as the man working in Jigawa State. It doesn’t work. We are a confused people. We have to sit down and work out how we should relate to ourselves.? This thing cannot go on for too long. 2014 will make it 100 years of Amalgamation. Our treaty says that after 100 years you can redefine your mode of engagement. Let us begin to redefine it now; you cannot run away from your shadow. Let’s redefine it now, 2015 is around the corner”, he said.
Aja Nwachukwu traced the problem of the country to the current distortion of the federal arrangement “We ran something akin to true federalism before the war when we had the north the west and the east and then Mid-West. The north developed everything they had through groundnut, the west cocoa and the east Palm-oil and everybody was happy. The capital was Lagos, it was just administrative capital. Every region was living according to it means and resources.
“Education, agriculture, and health were regional responsibility, even the police, we had local government police. At that time it was 50 per cent derivation. The centre was being ruled from Lagos to maintain the military and the police. You couldn’t tell Okpara what to do in the east, or Awolowo what to do in the west or Ahmadu Bello what to do in the north. After oil was discovered, the military came in and changed everything. They insisted that everything must come to Lagos or now Abuja, then, they will tell you what they will give you. Are we still running a federation, no we are not?” he said.
Mr. Delly Ajufo, an insurance expert, also reacting to the current state of the nation noted that it would not go down well with the sections of Nigeria which are not dominated by Moslems. He averred that any discussion on the Islamic legal system should be done under an atmosphere of fundamental human rights.
“If they must practice Sharia let it be within the concept of willing participants. The law is quite clear; if I do not wish to participate in a Sharia government, I will not be forced to do so that is the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. If I commit an offence in any part of the country, even if it is in a pro-Sharia state I will have the right to determine whether I will go to a Sharia court or a conventional court”, he said.
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