OLORI SUPERGAL: Just in: Dana Air Update: Former NTA Sunday Host was among the passengers

OLORI SUPERGAL: Just in: Dana Air Update: Former NTA Sunday Host was among the passengers

Boko-Haram Dilemma: The Rise and Rise of Terror in Northern Nigeria

Ideals and principles are some two very interesting concepts which are not bad of themselves. It is therefore quite interesting to note that northern Nigeria is a society which harps quite strongly on some fundamental religious principles and ideals. The predominant language which is Hausa has a lot of derivatives from the Arabic language, and so it is not strange to say that Islam is the core religion of this society. Albeit dedicated proponents of Islam say that it is a religion of peace, and I do not disagree because I have seen a lot of them and lived among some. They can be quite nice and very peace-loving. With this background already established, it is pertinent to point out that to every principle and ideal, interpretation is always a key factor and where you have the balanced perspectives, you cannot run away from the fact that there will also be divergent views which could border on the extreme. Put in drama parlance, at this point enters the Boko-Haram sect. There have been various religious sects in northern Nigeria over time and there are still many more which hold very strong and extreme views up to the point of radicalization.

Before we go on, it would be quite helpful to interpret the word ‘Boko-Haram’ for those who do not speak Hausa or anything close to Arabic. It means ‘Western education is an abomination’. The sect accuses western education as the principal factor behind the ills currently experienced in the society, and they advocate a return to the tenets of ‘basic Islamic education’ such as is common in ‘medrasas’ or Arabic schools in northern Nigeria. Boko-Haram is only one of many sects but one that has distinguished itself over the last two years as a pain the side for governments of key northern states in Nigeria, and in turn the Federal government. In putting this together, I would be writing with an insider perspective, especially having lived in Maiduguri the capital of Borno, a major state in northern Nigeria for a whole year and this happens to be the core base of the radical sect. I must mention that the Boko-Haram sect is not a new one, because it has been around for sometime in excess of six years but until now it has been managed as an in-house issue. Reliable sources say that they have had cause to parley with the government at different times allowing for some compromise over the years and that effectively kept the whole issue under check.

The above, I had to mention in all fairness to them, because they have not always been this violent and that is why a large percentage of interested parties in this whole issue have not heard about them until very recently. Whilst the finest details of the ‘Government-Radical Sect’ parley are not totally known, it must be mentioned that the recognised leader of the sect, a man named Mallam Mohammed Yusuf had been invited for questioning by government agents at different times, and later let of the hook after some lengthy quiz. He was also said to have been warned at different times and his activities were monitored. All of these went on until the group felt that the government had reneged on some of their agreement and in their view, it had wholly embraced the dictates of western education. They felt it was an action that had led to the ‘fast declining moral standards in the society’, one which was unacceptable. After a couple of skirmishes which some members of the sect had with the authorities more especially, the police as regards issues like: compulsorily putting on helmets, double standards and corruption, they declared all-out war. In principle, they also defined their targets being the police, soldiers and any other proponent of the government of the day. They kept assuring members of the public, the fight was not against civilians but against the government, so technically barring accidents any other persons could go about their activities without fear. An explanation, they seemed to have stuck too not regarding a few who began to interpret it as a war against people of other faiths, something you can never discount when issues such as this arise.

All of these continued, and finally got to a head in June, 2009 when the whole issue degenerated in to a full-scale riot that spread across at least five states in northern Nigeria, namely Bauchi, Yobe, Adamawa, Borno and Kano. For close to ten days, there were real blood-shed and heavy casualties on both sides. According to the news, it was common sight to encounter body piles scattered across the various cities especially Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, where the leader of the sect was based and their battle strategy marshalled from. Not quite long, the leader was captured and in no time the uprising came to an abrupt end. If this was a victory for the government and for ‘peace’, it was soon to turn sour by the very despicable style of crisis management shown by the authorities. Less than two days after arresting the sect leader, rumours filtered out that Mallam Mohammed Yusuf had been murdered in cold-blood, the subject of a gory and most unreasonable extra-judicial killing. Pictures flew around on mobile phones of captions while he was arrested alive, and now shots taken of his bullet-ridden body. The blame game began, with soldiers accusing the police of carrying out the killing, because they had taken him alive and handed him over to the police for prosecution. The police did not have much to say in their own defence, possibly with the thought that this would just be another case swept under the carpet, at least the target had been eliminated and seemingly sanity had returned.

Anyone who could study these trends would have known that definitely the issue was far from over, and there was bound to be reprisal attacks. Some human rights groups protested against the killing, but it all largely went unheralded. The group trailed off for almost a year, launching a few attacks here and there, but that was all that was there to their names for that period. For neutral people who thought that was the end, they had something else coming. The sect regrouped and declared total war, this time around, not just on the government but a wide range of targets which included schools, churches, clerics who spoke out against them, families they had issues with and a whole lot of others. All of these they carried out in their crude manners largely until after Nigeria’s Independence Day bombing which suddenly made them tech-savvy. They realised that they could also introduce the use of bombs with much farther-reaching consequences and that was the point the whole issue blew out of proportion. Now it is not news anymore to hear of an average of four bombs going off on a weakly basis. Scary you would say, but that exactly is what the situation looks like at the moment, not forgetting that even the police headquarters car park was fire-bombed and I even heard of a church that was attacked on the same street that housed the offices of the state security service in Borno state.

Two wrongs they say never make a right. The government has a fair share in the blame, so does the radical sect. The question therefore arises “how do you deal with a sect which says it is fighting the cause of its god and death is an inevitable option?” The dilemma remains to negotiate or to fight them in return. Which would be the most reasonable option? The answer remains to be seen, but the world is growing restless at the number of innocent citizens falling prey and the United Nations is being constantly questioned about the state of events going on in Nigeria. One solution would be to engage the use of effective intelligence by the security services to get to the root of this issue which some have also tied to the fall-outs of the April general elections. Whatever it is, the unanimous chant is that this whole madness must stop and everyone who could do something had better gotten involved while the chance remains else we might soon be sharing a different story, a tipping point many would prefer we stayed away from.

A Letter To The Nigerian People

Fellow Nigerians,
The time to lament is past, this is the time to act in the collective interest of our future.The past is past,and it would do us little good exhuming the skeletons thereof.it is time to soldier on into our future.we have to fight while there is still time and the strength to fight is still available.

A set of people fought for our independence and took actions to protect it; another set came along and rubbished the gains of the first set,bringing along cowardice in the process ,these ones shied away from fighting when they should have.The Nigeria of our day is the blank result of their pathetic inaction.

The question remains do we tow their path and have our children curse us as we turn in our graves , or do we stand up and fight to leave a legacy our children can be proud of? A legacy they can conveniently leverage off, towards achieving the goals of their own day without having to start from the scratch meaning all over again.
Let us learn from the past ,but not continue to sit and lament , the time to act is now.Its a pity some say we have lost everything,and that there is nothing to celebrate,but i beg to disagree.The fact that we still have a nation is something to celebrate; the fact that we still have a chance to fight is something to commemorate .

Its another time to exercise our franchise, a time to cast our votes to choose leaders who are truly credible and ready to exercise our mandate in a way devoid of selfish interest and personal gains.its about time we fought to protect our votes, and refuse that anyone steal our mandate yet again or plunge us into the pains and waste of the past, a time that has brought us no good.We must remember that this is not the time to give up; as a popular adage says "the night is darkest when the day is about to break".

There is real effectiveness in making a conscious effort, to engender change in our nation and our collective lives.We have got to realize that giving up on this nation is as good as giving up on ourselves.we have to work together and harmonize, as this is the only way to harness the immeasurable potential of our national space.

The average Nigerian is smart,driven,bred to survive some of the most stringent conditions.The question is where has our fire gone to? Some nations would give anything to have what we do, but are letting waste, while some nations desire just half of what we are God-given, but have not fully utilized.

I have come to find out that Africa is not truly poor, or how else do you explain the fact that we have only ten percent of the world population but forty percent of the world resources ,yet we complain about poverty in great measures and often resign ourselves to carrying about the bowl of alms , begging for bread while we are really seating on a mine waiting to be explored.It is a thing of the mind; if we refuse to change our mindsets we would yet remain the way we are , but if we choose to act and act right , we stand to benefit a tremendous lot, bettering our lives , our people, our image, and our future in the process.you would be surprised as to how much we can achieve just by stepping out.

Remember we stand a chance of winning if we are ready to fight , but condemn ourselves to the hopeless point of no return in the like of inevitable and total defeat, if we choose not to fight at all.it is our call to make, as the ball truly lies in our court.it is time to make the decision of our lives .its make or mar time.Decide right today!!!

ONE GOOD TURN BEGETS ANOTHER

One good turn they say deserves another .This is an adage that comes into play in almost every aspect of life and this is further buttressed in this write-up by this next illustration. In the old Great Britain, all they had then were counties and shires .in a particular county, there was a man named Andrew Fleming who coincidentally shared the same environment with another man called Sir Robert Churchill.
On this fateful day, just around where Mr Fleming stayed, a young boy was heard crying and moaning and so Mr Fleming decided to find out what was wrong and to see if he could come to the rescue of the young fellow. When he got there he found the little boy in danger trapped a ditch, and rescued him after which he bathed him and then took him home. The very next day he received a visitor who happened to be Sir Robert Churchill saying he had come to thank him for the good gesture extended his son the previous day. As Mr Fleming was going out to meet Sir Churchill, a little boy ran after him, the boy a son to Mr Fleming prompting the question from the guest confirming that the boy was truly his son. There and then Sir Churchill promised poor Mr Fleming that in exchange for saving his own son’s life he would bankroll an education the equivalent of which the rescued boy had access to, even to the highest level.
Interestingly, the two boys in question happened to be Winston Churchill and Alexander Fleming. In fulfillment of the promise made, Alexander Fleming had the same noble education as Winston, a luxury he could originally not have been able to afford, all because his father decided to take a good turn rightly rewarded by another in the form of Sir Churchill’s outstanding goodwill.
This illustration only goes to show that there is great benefit in doing Good and one is advised to do it always because you may never know when an angel would be passing just waiting to reward the good turn.

LIFE AND THE SPIRIT OF LIFE

Life to various schools of thought means many different things throwing up differing opinions in definition and individual or collective outlooks. One particular one simply defines life as the period between a person’s birth and death equalling the time they spend while alive. Everything in life, they say comes with a spirit and so does life in itself not choosing to remain an exception. It is driven by the spirit of life.
According to a popular maxim which quotes as follows “when a man has lost the will to live, almost all hope is lost because he feels there is nothing else to live for. Life definitely does come with its own fair share of challenges but these must be seen as stepping stones rather than hurdles, an adventure worth embarking on. Most times when life brings on its challenges, it is often an opportunity to move to a greater height.
The very peculiar thing about the spirit of life is that as long as you stay positive, you would continue to scale the many hurdles of life one way or the other; but the moment you begin to confess negative, you are beginning to lose the willpower to live. This further explained means that life is driven by a will to live often determined by our various personalities.
It is a proven fact by science and reality alike that people who tend to stay calm even in the face of trouble often live longer than those who tend to panic quickly or easily accommodate anxiety. Some people had committed suicide in the past and some may still consider it an option just because they rationalize wrongly that there maybe nothing else to live for anymore. The most effective solution to life and its seeming myriad of problems is to stay positive, confess positive, think positive and to try as much as possible to stay calm even in face of trouble. Know that trouble does not portend an end to life but stepping boards to greater heights and opportunities.
Always realise that there is something to live for and you are not meant to take your own life because in fact you o not own it and that is in the real sense of it.