The havoc-wreaking attack by Boko Haram terrorists, in which multiple suicide bomb blasts rocked the Kano Central mosque, during Friday prayers, killing over 100 people, is a callous, wicked, disdainful and dehumanizing act that has again demonstrated the primordial viciousness of the insurgents to march against civilization in a shameless and atrocious assault against Muslims and the faith they are claiming to defend. By their ruthless demonization of Islam, the leaders and doctrinal molders of the atrocious sect are standing civilization on its head. What is even more bizarre is the fact that this cowardly exploitation of soft targets is carried out with the sect’s awareness that all religions, including Islam, which they parody by their bloody adventurism, are custodians of the heritage of civilization. Beyond religious repugnance, another fundamental fact which the murderous fanatics seem to miss is that, this campaign of terror has no endgame. In this regard, all Nigerians must rise and fight this scourge.
The Central mosque is close to the Emir of Kano’s palace; and where the influential Muslim leader, Muhammad Sanusi II usually leads prayers. It is also where Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso also prays. Earlier this month, at a prayer meeting, the Emir had called on the people to defend themselves against Boko Haram, because the government will not protect them. The police said the Emir’s comments were a “call for anarchy” and should not be acted on. Incidentally, the governor and the Emir were both out of the state during the attack. Whether or not the attack presumably had the Emir and the governor as prime targets, it should compel a new thinking on the war on terror in Nigeria.
That those bombings were unconscionable acts of malevolence and sadistic fury perpetrated by enemies of Nigeria is not so much scary and sobering as the consequences they would have brought upon an already traumatized nation if indeed Sanusi and Kwankwaso had been killed in those attacks. Whatever the motive of the perpetrators of this carnage, the attack was malicious, repugnant and condemnable. And like other terrorist activities of such murderous dimension, it should not be trivialized to score political points even if it were not an assassination attempt on Sanusi and Kwankwaso.
However, for a crisis that is inching towards the comfort zones of privileged Nigerians, it is unfortunate that politicians are turning terror in Nigeria into a convenient means of making reckless statements, as was observed with the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Muhammad Abubakar III, who criticized the government over what he described as its inability to contain the insurgency in the Northeast. The apex northern socio-cultural organisation, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), also blamed the federal government over its inability to secure the lives of Nigerians in the North. Other Northerners have been calling on Muslims to rise up in unison to defend themselves in the face of the seeming helplessness by government. Such comments are reckless, puerile, irresponsible, counterproductive and an invitation to anarchy. They show a lack of any modicum of seriousness, to frontally address the present crisis, beyond mere lip-service.
Northern leaders should desist from trivializing and politicizing the bomb attacks by making careless and irresponsible statements capable of inciting violence. They should be mindful of the painful fact that their asinine posture neither solves the problem of insecurity nor prevents them from harm’s way. Nobody should be fooled into thinking that dishing out reckless comments against the government, will earned you the sympathy of Boko Haram. The attack on the central mosque should be seen and understood for what it is: dastardly, but cowardly acts of bestiality carried out by a murderous sect of misanthropic elements bent on frustrating the progress of human civilization. By its cruel harvest of deaths, the insurgents are telling Nigerians, including Muslims that the worst is yet to come. The message which should be well understood by all Nigerians is that no one is safe.
It is pertinent to thoroughly interrogate the warped theology and cultural tradition that inform the madness of those who attack places of worship. Are these terrorists oblivious of the spiritual immensity and sacredness of the symbol that the mosque bears? Does it mean anything to these warped minds that anyone that has the temerity to kill a worshiper before his God for whatever reason has no regard for Allah and can never claim to be fighting for Him? Friday’s attack was the height of profanity and disdain for Allah and Islam.
The ordinary Nigerian may not be a military strategist, but it is logical to ask: is there something in the army that Nigerians need to know and no one is saying? According to an estimate by the Chatham House think-tank, Boko Haram has about 6,000 to 8,000 men. Nigeria, on the other hand, has about 80,000 armed service personnel and about 82,000 paramilitaries. With this capacity of armed forces, reputedly the biggest in West Africa; coupled with the internationally acknowledged gallantry of the Nigerian military, it is expected that in principle, crushing the insurgency should not be an impossible mission. Considering the disparity between the Nigerian armed forces and the ranks of Boko Haram therefore, it is unimaginable how Boko Haram could be allowed to operate with such impunity. What then is happening to the Nigerian Armed Forces?
Is this the indolence that informs the thinking that Boko Haram might be connected with 2015; on the premise that Abuja would use it to its advantage as an election gambit? Is the government just expressing in the most obscene manner its incapacitation? Or is it a perfect acting of a long-written script? Surely, no government with the manpower and resources available to Nigeria would respond so feebly to the tenacious effrontery of a rebel group wantonly violating its territorial integrity. Irrespective of the state of mind of the government, a war between Nigeria and Boko Haram has been raging. Not only have people been massacred and villages sacked, territories are being occupied and flags hoisted to establish the occupation of conquered lands. No fewer than two dozen towns and villages in three states – Adamawa, Borno and Yobe – have been captured and a caliphate declared over them. This is the simplest understanding of war. So, the government should not be deluded that it is grappling with mere religious rascals; rather it is contending with terrorist outlaws demanding sovereignty.
The leaders must be humble enough to realize that all is not well with the polity; and that leadership has a lot to do with the problem. It must face the shameful situation that the instrumentalisation of religion for political gains and personal aggrandizement is a bane to the country’s collective well-being. Government must also acknowledge that given its resources, it has not acted as sagaciously as a country of right thinking and prudent leaders should. More than before, the fight has now escalated from one of dissuasion of fanatics and bigots to one of recapturing occupied territories. This, by all means, demands whatever resolve Nigeria can muster to address it.
