BY VICTOR IZEKOR
Like Babagana Zulum, like Kashim Shettima. They have common appellations of governorship of Borno State at a given period. While Professor Babagana Umara Zulum is the current governor of the state, Senator Kashim Shettima (now Vice-President of the Republic of Nigeria) was Zulum’s predecessor as a governor.
Both are leftists and natives of Borno State, the epicenter of the insurgency that is still raging and has claimed thousands of lives of notables and the rest.
Both Zulum and Shettima are men of brutal frankness and prophecy especially, in relation to terrorism assault and onslaught. When they speak, they do so from the position of authority and accumulated experience. Both men are achievers and academics.
Experience, we are told, is the best teacher. This is so because it is the wearer of the shoes that knows where it pinches. This is what informed this article premised on the recent warning that Nigeria would become a nation of history if decisive steps are not taken to halt the unrelenting onslaught in the recruitment of our youths and children by Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists.
At a recent programme in honour of the reconstituted North-East Development Commission (NEDC), Professor Zulum warned that Nigeria risked being wiped off the map of Africa in the near future if no proactive steps are taken to stop young people and children from being recruited by Boko Haram and ISWAP groups.
Governor Zulum spoke from the hindsight of his experience of administration of Borno, an infested insurgency state.
Though, he has all the while being persistent on the need for the authorities to fast-track all efforts at liquidating the insurgency, the latest call was provoked with the sudden re-insurgence of the bloodletting terrorists infiltrating everywhere and inflicting pains and orgy of destruction on mankind, animal and propriety in Borno.
At the last penultimate weeks, Governor Zulum was starred with over a dozen of farmers beheaded on their farmlands by the terrorists in addition to the kidnap of an unspecified number of farmers amidst reports of imposition of harvest tax and other illegal levies on the farmers by the terrorists in the state.
It would be recalled earlier that over 40 rice farmers in Zambamari village in the state were slaughtered by suspected Boko Haram insurgents and dozens of other categories of farmers massacred in various parts of the state on their farmlands.
Zulum’s unmitigated efforts and unwavering spirit aimed at bringing succour and peace to the thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), through his administration Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Programme are always thwarted by the nefarious activities of the blood thirsty demons of destruction and extremists in the toga of Boko Haram.
Even before the assumption of office of Professor Babagana Zulum as the governor of Borno State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu (now President) as leader of the All Peoples Congress (APC) had warned that Boko Haram was out for disintegration of Nigeria.
At a dinner hosted in Maiduguri by the then Governor of the State, Kashim Shettima, in the course of Bola Tinubu official visit to the state, the APC chieftain declared, “Boko Haram is here to wipe Nigeria out of the map of Africa.” Chief Bola Tinubu thereafter made reference to the map of Africa in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s library in Otta where Nigeria as a country is not indicated.
Recall that at the inception of his administration of Borno State, Governor Kashim Shettima (now the Vice-President) impressed on the Federal Government not to regard the assault of the deadly Boko Haram on Borno State as the attack on the state, but Nigeria as a whole. He called on the central government to deal squarely and promptly on the terror group. Governor Shettima warned of the dangers inherent in failure to halt the onslaught of the invaders who are out to dismember Nigeria. Sadly enough, no one paid due attention to the embattled Shettima.
As the terror group ferociously opened its fangs on Borno annexing more local government council areas to its empire, the troubled governor Shettima rushed to Abuja to brief his boss on the speed of meteor the insurgency was subjugating Borno State.
Shettima told President Goodluck Jonathan to act decisively then or never and lose Borno to the insurgents.
Disturbed Governor Shettima never minced words when he told the President that this was not the time for kid gloves treatment or ostrich game on Boko Haram.
Instead of getting the listening ears of the President, Governor Shettima as the Chief Security officer of Borno State got the bashing of President Jonathan and his aides.
“It would be recalled earlier that over 40 rice farmers in Zambamari village in the state were slaughtered by suspected Boko Haram insurgents and dozens of other categories of farmers massacred in various parts of the state on their farmlands”
Shettima was severely castigated and described as a “novice” in the art of war. President Jonathan who pointed out that his administration was doing all possible to minimize the menace of the insurgency described Shettima as an ingrate who saw no good in all the efforts of his administration.
Still not happy with governor Shettima’s utterances, President Jonathan threatened to withdraw soldiers on guard at Government House, Maiduguri for Shettima to better appreciate the efforts of the Federal Government. Indeed, the President manifested his threat as the troops on guard at the Government House in the state capital that serves both as residence and office of the governor were relocated and replaced by policemen to the chagrin of many.
Thus for daring to call on the Jonathan’s administration to be alive to its responsibility in the terror war, Shettima burnt his fingers. It is hoped that Governor Zulum in his persistent and sincere call on the Federal Government and its concerned agencies to bring the terror war to an end while at the same time pointing out some anomalies observed in the prosecution of the on-going terror war will not incur the wrath of the power that be like his predecessor, Shettima.
In any case, the nonchalant attitude or indecision to the calls by Shettima and his likes on the federal authorities to act decisively and tame the monster is partly responsible for the ugly insecurity situation Nigeria is presently undergoing.
The latest warning by Governor Zulum to concerned authorities to take decisive steps to check the rising rate of recruitment of our youths and children by the Boko Haram sect and ISWAP into the groups demands serious attention and action from all stakeholders. Checkmating the source of inflow of recruits into the terror groups is one of the major steps to frustrate the activities of the terrorists.
To do this successfully, the youths and children must be fully employed and engaged as the devil finds work for the idle hands.
In the words of Shettima as the Governor of Borno State, “Underneath the nihilism of Boko Haram lies the underlying cause, which is social exclusivity and extreme poverty. Once we engage the youths, once we create jobs, this nihilism, this madness will evaporate”.
Berating the Northern elite for partly responsible for the woes of the youths and children Governor Shettima said, “The hottest place in the hell fire will be reserved for the Northern elite who are living in the islands of affluence and extravagance in an unending ocean of poverty and deprivation where over 80 percent of our people are extremely poor. We take our own wards to posh private schools, abandoning the children of the poor to become ECOMOG, Yau kalere and Yau Tauri and sundry elements to be used during electioneering campaigns.
“The youths are angry, we have a few years, five to 10 years to make amends or these young men will descend upon us,” Shettima concluded.
Today, the prediction of Shettima has come to pass. Most Nigerian youths are unemployed, angry and hungry in the midst of affluence displayed by few. They are potential markets for good and bad. They act as a unit and constitute a keg of gunpowder that can explode any time if not properly handled. If we do not know or careless about the wellbeing of our youths that make up the larger part of our population, our enemies will do so through employment incentives and motivations and in unity they will descend upon us and possibly eliminate us.
Governor Zulum’s warning signal is clear. Engage the youths and children thereby preventing them from the temptations or ready made tools for the terror groups.
Let us remember the Yoruba adage that explains that once hunger enters the stomach nothing else will go in. To ignore zulum’s warning is to put Nigeria at a great peril.
.Izekor is a journalist and public affairs analyst and writes at victorizekor@gmail.com
