“I am treading softly on Islamic terror group Boko Haram because its members are our siblings. It is extremely difficult to deal with them. You cannot mobilize the whole soldiers to go and wipe out your entire family. So, it is easier to deal with foreigners than with your brothers.” ~ President Goodluck Jonathan 2012
If we can recall, a Perth-based International Adviser and hostage negotiator, Dr. Stephen Davis whom was hired by the government of President Jonathan to negotiate the release of Chibok abducted girls, has Named former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-General Azubuike Ihejirika and former Governor of Borno state, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as potential Boko Haram Sponsors. Dr. Davis also mention an undisclosed official of the Central Bank of Nigeria who currently works in the policy operations department of the Bank, Davis refused to disclose his identity but gave a clue that he's an uncle to three suspects arrested in connection with the tragic Nyanya bombing in Abuja.
While some quarter of Nigerians were rejoicing and jubilating that the end of Boko Haram has began since names are being mentioned, some are saying "NO" it can't be possible, which evidence does this man has to accused Ihejirika of hands in Boko Haram? the man that fought so hard for Nigeria as a military officer.
As an intellectual, the first thing to do before jumping in to accuse or exonerate somebody is to take a closer look to the two men in question and analyze the tendencies of their possible involvement in breaching the long enjoyed peace and unity in Nigeria, not forgetting also about Dr. Stephen Davis.
Senator Ali Modu Shariff, a three times Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and a two times Governor of Borno state all in sixteen years. Meaning, Ali Modu Shariff has been a political office holder since the onset of democracy in 1999 to date and one among the few richest billionaires in Nigeria, he recently added the fourth private jet at a cost of over ₦11bn to his fleet of luxury flights. Senator Ali Shariff (popular known as SAS) was a school dropout and a close ally to President Jonathan, he was awarded a contract sum of ₦3bn to procure military hardware for Nigerian government during Gen Abatcha regime and many people believed he uses that opportunity to smuggled arms into the country for his personal purpose.
SAS was a Governor of Borno state for eight years from 2003-2011 after spending four years at the senate, his regime as a state Governor virtually did nothing to the state as far as democratic dividends are concerned, no infrastructures, no welfare, no economic growth. The only project SAS did as a Governor with all the state/local government statutory allocation for eight years was to trained a group of thugs he named ECOMOC who works for his political ambitions as political thugs, and many believed these Ecomoc are what turned over to become the dreaded terrorist sect called Boko Haram today, SAS however owns an airline "Sky Bird” through which he allegedly smuggled arms into the country.
Lt.-General Azubuike Ihejirika on the other hand is a retired army officer who rose to the highest ranking in Nigerian Army and as you may all know, he's a close associate of President Jonathan and has now ventured into politics with the intention of contesting the Governorship office of Abia state having full Presidential backing. Since the name of Ihejirika was mentioned among Boko Haram sponsors, it has been like a war between my Hausa anf Igbo friends, the Igbos were furious that accusing Ihejirika was a conspiracy against the Igbo tribe seeing he was the only Igbo to attained such a high rank within the military for the past forty years and such a man that sacrifices his life for Nigeria can never engage in threatening her sovereignty.
Many northerners believed Ihejirika is using Boko Haram to terrorize the north in retaliation for the killing of his tribal men during the Biafran civil war where thousands of Igbos were killed by government troops under the command of northern commanders, this they said was why "Ihejirika ordered the military not respond as they cowardly watched the assassination of Gen Shuwa", the then military commander who led an offensive against Biafran soldiers.
As you may all know, Nigerian forces under the flag of Joint Military Task force (JTF) recorded a tremendous achievement in the fight against boko Haram leading to the death of the sect overall leader, that time the original Abubakar Shekau was killed in an offensive by the Military, the terrorist were on the run and the villagers of the villages ravaged by Boko haram today were themselves single handedly apprehending Boko haram fighters in the bushes with the help of Civilian JTF (a youth vigilentee group) before the appointment of Gen Azubuike Ihejirika as the Chief of Army staff.
As soon as Azubuike Ihejirika assumed duty, the first action he took was to transfer the leadership of the JTF that exalted in chasing out Boko Haram out of northeast, he also disbanded the JTF whom were patrolling all over the troubled states, borders, and surrounding bushes in search for the remaining terrorist who flee military offensives, Ihejirika then created the so called "7 division" that was widely believed to be a deliberate sabotage of the success of JTF. With the creation of 7 division, powers of the CJTF and JTF were cut to a minimal level, making the military an army that was stationary instead of an army that took proactive measures in combat, thus allowing Boko Haram to regroup back in bushes and camps.
Ihejirika's disbanding of JTF and reduction of CJTF powers led to Boko Haram's regrouping and survival to reign more terror on Nigeria and her people, it was evident the retired army chief wanted to preserve Boko haram and not complete their defeat to keep the money flowing from the continuous war on terror in the north. Spectators wondered what were Ihejirika's reasons for transferring all the military heroes and intelligent officers that championed the war against Boko Haram out of the states? Ihejirika deployed a new commanding officer acknowledged by SAS and this can show a strong link between the two men from day one, Ihejirika and SAS.
Another offside scored by Gen. Ihejirika was failing to answer questions, investigate or fish out those top military officers who always gave "orders from above" stopping government troops from engaging or chasing terrorist at the time of an attack, the surprising disappearance of troops from their duty post each time Boko Haram insurgents signaled their arrival all started when Ihejirika was the Chief of Army Staff and to my dismay, Gen Ihejirika has never questioned those deserted soldiers.
On the part of the whistle blower, Dr Stephen Davis is a Perth-based expert negotiator who left his home in Australia to travel to Nigeria after being recruited by the country's president for his hostage negotiation expertise, he was hired to negotiate the release of 276 girls abducted in a raid on their secondary school in Chibok town of Borno state, by the violent group Boko Haram.
The former Canon Emeritus at Coventry Cathedral in the UK, was hired by President Jonathan (although the president has denied hiring any negotiator) and asked to come to Nigeria after previously brokering a truce between violent Niger Delta terrorist and the government in the Niger Delta region in 2004 and 2009.
These three gentlemen have generated a lot of reactions and controversies among Nigerians and i wonder, instead of Igbo people to be defending their kinsman Ihejirika and Hausa defending their own SAS, why do we have courts in Nigeria? Why can't we simply pressure the government to arrest and prosecute anyone suspected to have links with terrorism? Non among you either has the power or privilege to declare someone innocent or guilty, it can only be proved by the court of law.
Instigating and casting insults on one another in defense of Ihejirika or SAS only makes us look like motor park touts assuming we were not one, and until we learn to unite and face our enemies with a common goal, people may mistake us for another group of prostitutes who keeps chorussing what they has been paid to sing irrespective of whether it makes sense or not.
The most amazing part of all was the public denial by Nigerian Government of not hiring the services of Dr. Stephen Davis, the spokeswoman of the State Security Service (SSS) also dismissed Dr. Davis allegations calling him a self acclaimed negotiator, this shameful denial of Nigerian authorities reminds me of the words of a US military general, Hiram W. Johnson who says: "The first casualty when war comes is truth.” Dr. Stephen Davis has now been rejected by the government that facilitate his coming all the way from Australia just because he spoke the truth he knew about the evils involved in destroying the foundation of our founding fathers.
I personally doesn't know what Dr. Davis will gain by voluntarily coming all the way from another continent to Nigeria just to coming and lie, and had it been he was hired by the opposition, i may agree he's being partial but how can he lie against the people that hired his services? One quality i adore in white men is that quality that's missing in us blacks, "their inability to be economical with the truth" and that led Dr. Davis to his revelations. Instead of the government to arrest the alleged sponsors and commence investigations, Mr. President is seen hobnobbing with one of the accused even before we could spell SAS. Chai!! DiarisGodoo!
President Jonathan's inaction to bring the alleged sponsors of Boko Haram to justice took me down the memory lane to 2012 when Mr. President was quoted as saying; “They (Boko Haram) are our siblings and you cannot send the army to wipe out your family…. We are handling them with a soft approach.” Clearly, President Jonathan isn't capable of addressing the security challenges in Nigeria.
Nigerians from all over the globe got furious over Mr. President's remarks and i told them; listen guys, Mr. President isn't a fool, he definitely knew what he was talking about by calling Boko Haram his siblings, he knows what he was saying. He won't wipe out terrorist because they are his siblings but can wipe out protesters and the opposition, Mr. tried to play a sympathy game with this but failed.
The relative peace of mind and ease in operations enjoyed by President Jonathan's siblings (Boko Haram) must inevitably be attributed to the soft approach by their dady's government. Well, Nigerians are well conversant with Jonathan's romantic unionism with terrorists, his preservation of them and his continuous opposition to their designating as "terrorist group" for many years until when pressured by international communities.
The security of Boko Haram has long been guaranteed with their dady in Aso Rock, given them all the protections they need to drive in convoys with Armored Carrier vehicles uninterrupted and operates in a free reign undisturbed, given Shekau the confidence to threatened that he will kidnap and sell Barrack Obama and viladmir Putin. Did Boko Haram has anything to fear with their dady in power?
While President Jonathan is here deceiving himself by pretending to be sympathetic, merciful and all loving President in search for sympathy votes ahead of 2015, his siblings (Boko Haram) are there killing thousands of other people's siblings, fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers and wiping out a whole town.
A total of about 25 towns are under the full control of Boko Haram insurgents with their flags flying at every angle in the towns but yet, President Jonathan is here parading himself as a born again who doesn't want to shed peoples blood with soft approach to Boko Haram while forgetting he's on the verge of loosing a whole state out of his rule. It may interest you to know the towns that are being controlled conveniently by the Boko Haram terrorist, they include: Damboa, Buni Yadi, Madagali, Gwoza, Gujba, Gulak, Bama, Gulani, Shuwa, Marte, Kukawa, Michika, Dikwa, Bularafa, Bazza, Gamboru Ngalla and Buni Gari. Others are Banki, Bara, Pulka, Bumsa, Ashgashiya, Taltaba, Limankara and Njibulwa, all in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
The only way to end this whole mess called Boko Haram, is to flush out their dady out of Aso Rock and charge him to court, this only will lead to unraveling all the sponsors of terror in Nigeria.
In the midst of all this brouhaha, another untouchable associate of President Jonathan was indicted in a case of arms smuggling. Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor's jet was arrested in South Africa carrying a cash sum of $10m, allegedly on a mission to smuggle arms into Nigeria. Pastor Oritsejafor's closeness to the presidency made him untouchable in Nigeria and as such, the Federal Government quickly rush out and claimed ownership of the cash and confirmed the legality of that particular trip just to exonerate President Jonathan's spiritual Godfather.
Government's claims failed to highlights any sense of truths in them and has no tendency of coinciding with the fact, it's yet another attempt by President Jonathan to cover up or protect his siblings and their uncivilized activities. People from all works of life accuses Jonathan's government of insincerity and faul play in this Oritsejafor's saga, thus loosing support from those in their tents.
The Federal Government in an attempt to clear Oritsejafor's name claimed it was aware of the cash movement, that it sent for arms to fight insurgency and it deliberately gave out cash of $9.3m to ensure the speedy flow of the transaction, and it reasons for buying arms in South Africa was because some countries were stopping arms dealers from selling military hardwares to Nigeria. This can't match anything except a baseless and dubious statement.
Permit me to finally hold a brake here and leave you with the 11-point posers raised by Mr Festus Keyamo, an activist and human right lawyer over the seized $9.3 million arms deal involving Oritsejafor's private jet.
"The following rhetoric posers are germane to this issue:"
"1. Is it really faster and safer to do an international transaction of such magnitude by ferrying cash across the continent or by a simple wire transfer that can go through in a matter of few minutes or few hours?"
2. "If, indeed, the matter involves security issues like the purchase of arms by a foreign government like Nigeria, why was the South African Government not brought into the picture beforehand? How could the South African Government be sure that the arms were purchased legitimately by the Nigerian government and not by insurgents if they were not officially informed beforehand?"
3. "If indeed the manufacturer(s) of such equipment was/were expecting such large amount by cash, why did they not make adequate arrangements with the authorities in South Africa to declare and clear the cash on arrival?"
4. "Why was money belonging to the Federal Government and meant for purchase of equipment for the Federal Government moved by a private jet and by private individuals and why were they not accompanied by the officials of the Department of State Services or the office of the National Security Adviser in official capacities?"
5. "Why would a government that is at the peak of promoting the cashless policy in our economy be the chief breaker of that policy by moving such a large amount by cash?"
6. "If, indeed, it was a legitimate transaction of the Federal Government, why were the officials of our embassy in South Africa not on hand to make the entry easier and smoother?"
7. "Since the South African Government has said the amount is above the limit of cash allowed into that country, why would a whole government like Nigeria not know the simple immigration laws of a sister and friendly country before allowing that type of amount of cash to be taken to that country?"
8. "Why would the Nigerian government seek to smuggle cash into a country without disclosure if it was, indeed, for a legitimate transaction?"
9. "From where did the Federal Government source that amount in Nigeria? Was it from the Central Bank of Nigeria or from the black market? Nigerians demand answers to this with proof."
10. "Is it just a wicked coincidence that it is the aircraft belonging to a personal friend and unapologetic ally of the President in the person of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor (my big brother in Warri), that was used to smuggle the cash?"
11. "If, contrary to the above posers, the transaction was contracted out to a private company in Nigeria, does it not amount to the offence of Money Laundering under our laws for the Federal Government to have allowed that company to attempt to pay for the equipment by cash to the tune of that amount without passing through a financial institution?"
We need answers not brainless insults, Nigerians needs answers with facts and proofs.
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