Boryobe Republic

“People in temper often say a lot of silly, terrible things that they really mean.” P. Gilliatt

A national newspaper on Sunday November 11^th headlined with a story in which the Borno State Commissioner for Information, Mr Inuwa Bwala claimed that the federal government has abandoned the people of the state. The Commissioner told The Nation newspaper that no federal political office holder had visited the state either to assess the security situation, or to symphasise with the state government and its people. The paper said he complained that the President and his Vice have refused to come to the state to boost the morale of the people, or to show that they care and remind the people of the state that they are part and parcel of Nigeria. “We have been left on our own. For some time, nobody has shown that they really care, nobody has visited to show solidarity with us,” he said. Although a team made up of the National Security Adviser, (NSA) and Chief of Defence Staff had visited, the Commissioner said the people of the state have been left on their own, “as if we are not part of Nigeria. That has been our grouse against the federal government.”

For a spokesman of a government which has walked the tightrope of supporting agents of the federal government and dealing with the consequences of their activities while exposed to the now patently-partisan assaults of the Jamaatu Ahlil Sunnah Diddawati Waj Jihad (JASLIWAJ) (a.k.a. Boko Haram) this public outcry against the neglect of the state by the federal government is bound to make its mark. The cry against seeming insensitivity and neglect by the highest public office holders, one of whom is a northerner will sound even louder against claims by the same commissioner that Borno State is functioning pretty much normally. He said markets and banks open, workers go to work, economic activities go on, flights come and go fully booked everyday.

Perhaps the Commissioner was lost over what issues he wanted to raise in a rare opportunity to dispel the impression that Borno and Yobe State have been virtually grounded by the JASLIWAJ insurgency, or as he claimed, by criminals and political assassins who have hijacked the cause of the insurgency. He was doing the job of an image maker, but he was doing it badly. If life in Borno is virtually normal, what is there to complain over the failure of President Jonathan or Vice President Namadi Sambo to visit? How can things be normal in a state where being a prominent ANPP member is a virtual death sentence, and in which even the recent assassination of General Muhammadu Shuwa is speculatively linked with partisan interests?

The attempt to create the image of normalcy will do great injury to reality, and the life and circumstances of the vast majority of the population which lives particularly in Borno and Yobe States. These circumstances under which millions of Nigeria citizens and thousands of soldiers, policemen and other security personnel live in these two states ought to have impressed upon the President the need to visit and commiserate with them.

It has been nothing short of bewildering that President Jonathan has not been able to visit Borno and/or Yobe States all this while. The Commander-In-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces can demand near-perfect cover and protection to visit Maiduguri, even if he will be limited to the airport. No one believes that the airport is unsafe for the President to land and take off any more. He could summon the entire State Executive Council, Council of Chiefs, Commanders of the JTF, community leaders civil society groups and even school children to Maiduguri airport to meet with them, in case his security advisers caution him against driving into Maiduguri.

If the President is advised that Borno State is so unsafe that he cannot visit under any arrangement, then  the war and the circumstances of the existence of the people in Borno and Yobe needs to be fully reassessed. It should not be lost on the administration that the dispatch of a Minister to condole the people of Borno State over the assassination of General Muhammadu Shuwa has been very poorly received by most people. Why, for instance, couldn’t the President himself, or the Vice President, lead a delegation to show sympathy and concern over the loss of a genuine elder statesman whose murder has tremendous symbolism for this war?

By the day, the life of people in Yobe and Borno States is becoming more imperiled. The cry for help from fellow citizens in the region is responded to with more violence from both sides. Their elders and leaders have cried to the high heavens against high-handedness; and have been routinely reminded that they are the key to finding solutions to the very problems they complain over. They have seen an uprising blossom into a sophisticated insurgency, consuming their young people, their social structure, economy and civilization. Their young either join the insurgency, or pay the price for it as perennial suspects, or targets of bullets and arrests. Citizens run between the JTF and an insurgency which is deeply embedded in their communities, and live with endemic fear of both. State governments cannot protect them. The federal government is the JTF, at every doorstep with finger on triggers, and suspicious of everyone. Well-to-do people migrate in droves by the day. Politicians are targeted and shot, and rich people who choose to stay are rumoured to pay for protection.

Participants who attended the North East Summit on Peace and Security a few weeks ago were bemused by the drama which surrounded the insertion of a sentence in the address of the convener, Alhaji Bello Kirfi, which said that the people of the north east region may consider leaving the federation altogether owing to a feeling of being abandoned by the rest of Nigeria. Frantic efforts were made to distance the forum from the statement, which was “withdrawn” by the author. Which was just as well, because a forum of that nature has no mandate, legitimacy or credibility to decide the future of the beleaguered people of Borno, Yobe and neighboring states. What it could have done, in the light of a revealing mindset from an elder statesman who had given his entire life to the service of his nation, was to devote the whole event to discussing strategies on how to reclaim Borno and Yobe State, and integrate them into the rest of the nation. Many people in that hall must know that most people in Yobe and Borno feel abandoned, whether it was said so or not at the forum.

Millions of citizens in Borno and Yobe States are caught up in a destructive stalemate. There are no peace-making initiatives in sight; and no evidence that either the state or the insurgency will win this war soon. They have missed out on the recent hearings on how the constitution of Nigeria should be amended. They see their President visit flood victims, commission projects in States, or summon elders in states feuding over oil wells to settle them. Their only contact with the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the JTF. They should be forgiven for thinking that they live in a different country, where violence alone determines how they live or die. The flicker of hope that a negotiating offer has been put out by the insurgency has now been snuffed by genuine doubt and deep suspicious that the crisis is being manipulated for narrow, selfish ends. This failure should spur other credible Nigerians, particularly those from the North to step up and come to the relief of millions of fellow Nigerians who are living under intolerable conditions.