Nigeria’s Hooded Bombers

The season of the bombs has finally arrived our shores. And with it, a season of anomie. The horrifying suicide squads of Iraq and Afghanistan have been replicated here in Nigeria, by certain frustrated politicians who have no other way to subvert and reverse the people’s popular will than to engage in such unpatriotic and iniquitous atrocities.

These clandestine perpetrators or evil have also been so daring and bold. They have never hidden their agenda to rule Nigeria until “thy Kingdom come”. For instance a former civilian governor of the old Kaduna State was quoted as saying in Kano on Monday 4 October 2010 that “The North will make Nigeria ungovernable if Jonathan wins” the 2011 presidential elections.

Also, after the October 1 Abuja bombing, a former military ruler and then presidential candidate vehemently protested the arrest of his campaign Director who was in proven telephone contact with the bombers.

Nigerians have lost their virginity. Nigerians have gone past decades of innocence. About 50 years ago, Nigerians were ignorant and were happy to be ruled by the wicked and selfish interest of Britain who imposed a lop-sided Northern hegemony on Southern Nigeria.

However, today, Nigerians are wiser. Nigerians are more enlightened. They are more educated. And a global communication network including social networking has demystified well kept secrets as in the times on our primordial father- Adam in the garden of Eden.

Nigerians now know who these hooded bombers are. They are not the Boko Haram sect. Boko Haram are only their nefarious shield and agents of destruction. The real bombers remain hooded in the background dictating operational details from their hideouts just like the untouchable Henry Okah who directs his nefarious operations from South Africa.

Now that Nigeria has almost become unpredictably “risky”, is it not about time we unmasked and arrested those who said Nigeria would become ungovernable if President Goodluck Jonathan wins?

To say that the North or Nigeria will burn if these evil men are arrested is a blatant myth that is ripe for testing. Chief M.K.O. Abiola who won the June 1993 election was clamped into jail by an illegitimate military regime. Chief Abiola was obviously very healthy before his incarceration but died mysteriously in detention 13 years ago. General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua was also framed up by the same military junta and was also eliminated in prison. However, General Olusegun Obasanjo and Oladipo Diya very luckily escaped the lethal injections and diarrhea that terminated the lives of Chief Abiola and Tunde Idiagbon.

To say that a Northern political leader can get away with any crime is the display of ignorance and an unfortunate underestimation of the enormous powers entrusted to the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Chief MKO Abiola died in mysterious circumstances and the “wild wild” West did not erupt in an uncontrollable orgy of inferno. After all no geopolitical zone in Nigeria has an exclusivity to violence.

General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua died and Katsina and its popular Zango Kataf Sect did not set the Country on a path of civil war.

And when General Tunde Idiagbon died the Kwarans could not prove that their son had sipped from the same hemlock that Abiola drank from and so they kept their peace.

Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians and no Nigerian can prove to know more than all Nigerians even if he is an evil genius or a Maradona.

The President Goodluck Jonathan government even before it came into existence on 29th May 2011 has been threatened, blackmailed, buffeted as with a stormy hurricane that has not abated since taking over power.

But happily, by now all Nigerians know those behind this violence which is aimed at frustrating and subverting the very good intentions of President Goodluck Jonathan.

According to the former Kaduna State civilian Governor, “Anything short of a Northern president is tantamount to stealing our presidency”. He further said the North must not be blamed for any calamity that befalls Nigeria if Jonathan becomes president. He further drummed it into our thick skulls that the North will not accept any government founded on a fraudulent foundation which he stressed will definitely crumble as it must be retrieved by ALL MEANS.

It is therefore an enigma to realize that the man who made all these treasonable statements in public is still walking a free man while the nation is burning from the pains and pangs of these well planned and orchestrated suicide bombers who ply their trade with nonchalance and impunity.

And of course this post election violence started immediately President Goodluck Jonathan was declared winner. Violence erupted instantaneously in Kaduna, Kano, Borno, Sokoto, Niger, Yobe and Bauchi. Also, in Abuja, Plateau, Adamawa the tension was evidently palpable. You could touch it.

There has never been any doubt about the motive of these post election eruptions. They are politically motivated and the government will satisfy the general yearnings of the people if they fish out these masked hoodlums and make them dance naked in the market square.

It is incomprehensible to note that the Jonathan government allowed such a reckless treasonable statement like “our stolen mandate will be retrieved by all means” to go unchallenged and unpunished.

Another aspect of governance that is almost becoming a government culture in Nigeria is the painful process of settling such riots and violence behind the scene. Cuprits and suspects of such open confrontation with government are let off the hook by political heavyweights from Abuja. This vice has become a syndrome and Governor Jonah Jang has cried himself hoarse over this political highhandedness which further exacerbates the political violence that endemically erupts in Plateau State.

The Federal Government must bring the fullest weight of the law on all those who believe in using violence to settle political scores. Nigeria does not belong to any particular geopolitical zone to rule perpetually. We all have a stake in the Nigerian dream and for this dream to be realised all Nigerians must have equal opportunities to available resources and opportunities.

The news that two Boko Haram members were granted bail recently was to say the least shocking. It is true that the rule of law favours transparent justice but a chronic ailment deserves a drastic surgery. Making bail conditions very stringent is one democratic way of curbing vices like Boko Haram.

•Ben Nanaghan writes in from Lagos, Nigeria.