BY VICTOR IZEKOR
Speaking in Abuja in September 2019, after submitting his form to contest the 2019 presidential primaries on the platform of the Peoples Democracy Party Tanimu Turaki, then Minister for Special Duties in President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, as well the chairman of the presidential committee on dialogue and peaceful resolution of conflicts in Northern Nigeria, he regretted saying, “Up to now, not a soul or anyone has been identified and arrested as a sponsor of the Boko Haram sect.”
He explained that bringing peace to the land and ending insurgency was one of the motivating factors that prompted him into the presidential race.
During the launching of the victims’ support fund for the victims of the insurgency in Abuja by the Jonathan’s administration, the school children drama group which featured during the ceremony, condemned the abduction of the Chibok school girls and asked the questions: Are there no sponsors of this act and where are the sponsors? The questions sent the audience dumb-founded as one observed dead silence and the nodding of heads. The children had passed the message at the appropriate venue to the appropriate quarter.
The question on the sponsors of this vicious and deadly sect is as old as the insurgency itself. The old, the young, the clerics, the media, the concerned and men of conscience have continued to ask and demand the masterminds of these demons of destruction and extremists that have for the past decade held the nation spell bound.
These elements with deep-rooted prejudice, rightly or wrongly against their father land, have continued to make the nation their habitat of acute subversion and endless prowl. They have murdered the sleep of the nation and in the words of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, “Those who murder sleep, will sleep no more.”
Yet, Jonathan’s administration never gave the answer with regards to the sponsors of Boko Haram sect. The highest, Jonathan admitted, was that there were alleged members of Boko Haram in his administration. Neither has President Buhari’s government responded adequately so far in this regard.
Happily enough, President Buhari has repeatedly pledged that his administration will deal decisively with the sponsors of violence and insurgency. Of recent, his administration revealed that a large number of unspecified alleged Boko Haram sponsors have been arrested and being interrogated.
This revelation came about five months back and the nation still waits for evidence as Nigerians believe in him.
Even the Nigerian military that has suffered human casualties in the terror war has had cause to indict alleged sponsors or accomplices of the deadly sect. It would be recalled that in some years back, the military had accused some elite and politicians of trying to frustrate the insurgency war for their selfish ends.
For example, in September 2015, the Nigerian Army issued a statement in Abuja that it has uncovered plans by some highly placed individuals and political groups to undermine and scuttle the fight against terrorism and insurgency in Nigeria. The statement, signed by the acting director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Kushasheka, said, among others, “the Nigerian Army wishes to inform the public and send a very strong final warning to some prominent individuals and political groups, who hail from Borno in particular and North East, generally, that there is information on plans by some highly placed individuals and political groups to undermine and scuttle the fight against insurgency in this country. We are aware of their clandestine meetings and other diabolical efforts to achieve their nefarious aims. This will not be tolerated.”
Reacting to the statement, chairman of the Borno Elders Forum, Ambassador Gaji Galtimari, charged the military to unmask the culprits, with a view to bringing them to book, as they posed serious threats to the nation’s security. Similarly, he indicted those implicated in the arms deals investigation as sponsors of Boko Haram.
According to him, “With the horrifying revelations about the arms deal it is no longer necessary to look elsewhere in search of the real sponsors of Boko Haram. Those who collected such huge sums of money from the treasury and converted same to their unending greed and avarice should be regarded as part and parcel of the sponsors of Boko Haram. Get them and you will get the rest.”
“Till date, all that is known of those arrested in Nigeria is that majority of them are operators of bureaux de change. Who are they and how high is their profile? “
Even, Lt. General Kenneth Minimah, one-time Chief of Army Staff, had pointed out that Boko Haram insurgency would have become history if the politicians had cooperated with the military instead of bringing politics and religion into the whole show.
According to another erstwhile Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Tukur Buratai, the war on insurgency would end if Nigerians cooperate with the military.
Today, Boko Haram has metamorphosed into varied formations ranging from banditry, kidnapping/abductions, herdsmen/farmers clashes and other criminalities.
The Nation newspaper, in its Editorial on September 19, 2021, “Bring them to Justice,” The 400 sponsors of terror should be arraigned to elicit confidence of the people,” the paper said in parts: “The devastation caused by insurgency that has seized the country by the jugular in the past 12 years calls for concerted action by the government. All-out war by the military has not stopped the carnage in the North East. One missing link that security experts have advocated is going all out to fish out the sponsors of terrorism in the region, and the North West in the form of what has been generally and officially dubbed banditry. They have called on the government to demonstrate seriousness by not only locating the financiers, but in speedily bringing them to book.
“When they were expected to be brought to court on Friday, their lawyers had managed to file cases to enforce their fundamental rights that must be heard first. We hope this is not used to scuttle delivery of justice in the case, as justice delayed is justice denied.
“There was optimism that the war would soon end when the Federal Government announced in April that some sponsors had been apprehended and would soon be arraigned in court. It is five months down the line and the case against them has just been filed in court, eliciting some optimism that they would be served justice after all. Before then, six Nigerians suspected to be funneling funds to the terrorists were apprehended and unveiled in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that did not waste time in bringing up cases against them and 32 other global suspected terrorists.
“Till date, all that is known of those arrested in Nigeria is that majority of them are operators of bureaux de change. Who are they and how high is their profile? Government and the security agencies are still keeping the information under wraps. Transparency is very important in combating all aspects of insecurity in the country, be it insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, communal conflicts or assaults by criminal herders. The identity of everyone who disrupts peace in the land should not be kept from the public. The excuse that investigation is ongoing is no longer tenable after five months of arrest. Four hundred is a huge number and failure to serve them justice is a disservice to the country.
“We agree with Mr. Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria who wrote to the Attorney- General of the Federation and Minister of Justice last month that the delay in starting prosecution of the sponsors could only further erode the confidence of Nigerians in the government.
He wondered why arraignment was taking so long. Like Mr. Falana and many other Nigerians, we are bewildered that the Nigerian state is demonstrating such lack of capacity in handling basic investigation even when foreign countries such as the United States and UAE have offered to help in unravelling whatever mystery or loose ends there might be.
“In recent times, it has taken the law enforcement and justice systems of other countries to help in dealing with crimes in Nigeria. Cases of corruption, cybercrimes in Nigeria have only been resolved when there is a foreign angle and those countries decide to launch into them in the interest of their own public. This is certainly not good enough. Those who are swiftly apprehended and served justice are mainly the less privileged who are either involved in minor infractions of the law, or errand boys of the main criminals.
“The Federal Government should be able to successfully prosecute the sponsors of terror attacks in the country who have caused so much bloodletting, destruction of public and private property and displaced so many Nigerians, turning them to refugees in their own country.”
Writing in his Eagle Eye column in the in the Nation of September, 27, 2021 (page 35) How not to fight Terrorism, Femi Macaulay said in parts, “The conviction of six Nigerians in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for financing terrorism should prompt the Nigerian authorities into action. According to a report, a court in Abu Dhabi sentenced Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu to life in prison. Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa were each sentenced to 10 years in prison. The court judgment said that the accused transferred $782,000 from Dubai to Nigeria to benefit Boko Haram.”
However, the editorial of Daily Trust of April 26, 2021 “Tracking the Financiers of terrorists”, gave a sigh of hope.
Parts of the editorial read, “A recent exclusive report by Daily Trust says security agencies have begun to track down and arrest individuals and businesses involved in suspicious financial transactions that have kept terrorism alive in the country. No doubt, this is a positive development. Security operatives involved in the crackdown acted on a tip-off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where some Nigerians were arrested, investigated and jailed over terrorism financing.
