

"My worst fears have been confirmed and sadly the Haramites of Boko have struck again. Another terrible bomb blast has taken place in Abuja and many innocent people have been butchered, slaughtered and maimed. At the last count the number of those killed is no less than 39 despite attempts by the international and local media to play the number of casualties down. This damning display of primordial and pure savagery by Boko Haram comes barely two weeks after over 100 innocent people, including women and children, were killed by another bomb, on the same spot and by the same people. This is surely too much for us to bear.
Worst
 still the country, and indeed the international community, is still 
grappling with the Chibok affair in which no less than 234 young school 
girls were abducted from their schools and turned into sex slaves by 
Boko Haram. 
At
 this juncture one is compelled to ask the following question: how much 
more can we take before the centre fails to hold and everything falls 
apart? How much more can we take before some madman in uniform gets up, 
takes advantage of the situation, does the unacceptable and unthinkable,
 seizes the broadcasting stations and subjects us to a familiar yet 
unwelcome early morning speech which is preceded  by ''fellow 
Nigerians'' and which ends with the announcement of a ''dawn to dusk 
curfew''? 
May
 God forbid that this should ever happen in our country again as it 
would be a tragedy of monuemental proportions and it would set us back 
by at least 50 years. Worst still Nigeria may not even survive it and it
 may well result in another civil war. I have no doubt that despite our 
monuemental security challenges, the preservation of our fast-evolving 
democratic culture and structures remains the only way forward and that 
we must do all that we can to protect this dispensation.  
The
 best that we can do is to continue to speak out, to protest, to write, 
to demonstrate, to create awareness, to march, to pray and to demand 
that our Government and security forces do a better job by fighting Boko
 Haram with an equal and commiserate amount of viciousness and savagery 
that the islamist terrorists are fighting us. 
I
 feel a deep sense of outrage and shame and I utterly deplore the fact 
that the Federal Government has once again failed to protect the lives 
of the Nigerian people. Yet it is not just the Federal Government that 
has failed but all the the governments at all levels, including our 
State Governors and Local Government Area Chairmen. 
As
 a matter of fact every single one of us that is in the ruling class of 
this country or that is a member of it's political elite has failed 
woefully. We must all carry a share of the blame in varying degrees. 
Every single one of us has a little blood on our hands as a consequence 
of our sheer indifference to the collective plight of our people and our
 inability to act at the appropiate time when we saw all this coming. 
I
 hereby join millions of Nigerians in condemning this latest beastly 
attack on Nyanya and I have nothing but contempt and disgust for the 
Haramites and those that secretly support them. 
May
 God deliver our country from the grip of these Boko demons that feed 
fat on human flesh and blood and that seek to terrorise us into 
submission and may the souls of those that have been killed rest in 
peace.
Yet
 let us get past the rather obvious and simplistic statements and 
submissions and let us look at this whole matter from a deeper 
perspective and in a more refreshing, meaningful and holistic manner. 
Let us stop merely scratching at the surface and let us get to the root 
of the problem. It is time for us to get real and to speak some hard 
truths. Consider the following. 
When
 some people are so hell bent on taking power that they begin to bomb 
their citizens in order to achieve it one has to begin to question the 
continued viability of our much flaunted unity.
When
 some people believe that it is their right to rule in perpetuity and 
that if they do not get their way they must make the country 
ungovernable and kill as many people as possible, one must decide 
whether or not we are really one nation. 
When
 some people are prepared to use religion as a political tool, shed as 
much innocent blood as possible and pervert the very tenets of the faith
 that they claim to espouse, one must decide whether those of us that do
 not share their world view are prepared to remain in the same cage as 
those that are clearly nothing but ravenous beasts. 
There
 is far more to the Boko Haram phenomenon than meets the eye and 
Nigerians just don't get it yet. They are not prepared to hear the truth
 let alone accept it and, sadly, perhaps they never will. This is a 
nation that has an identity crisis and that still does not want to 
accept the fact that it is at war with itself. 
They
 do not want to accept the ugly fact that there are some key 
individuals, who some of them still literally worship and rever, that 
are the ones actually encouraging, fuelling and funding Boko Haram and 
that are waging war against our people. 
They
 do not want to accept that there is an international dimension to this 
matter which is beyond their knowledge, understanding or comprehension. 
May God open their eyes and help them to recognise what they are up 
against before it is too late. 
Until
 that happens and each and every Nigerian is prepared to take up arms 
against Boko Haram and those that are secretly behind it our people will
 continue to be terrorised, slaughtered, abducted and enslaved.
And
 whether anyone likes to accept it or not there are quite a number of 
people who fall into the category of Boko Haram sympathisers even though
 they remain in the shadows. For example there is a very combative, 
visible and vocal individual from the north-western part of our country 
who has been accused of covertly funding and supporting the islamist 
cause and terrorism for many years. 
That
 same individual was described to the FBI as a ‘’trusted mentor’’ by 
Umar Faruk Mutallab, the Nigerian ‘’underwear bomber’’, who attempted to
 blow up a plane filled with passengers as it was about to land in the 
United States of America a few years ago.
Again
 that same individual has been accused of having a hand in one of the 
most heinous and brutal sectarian murders in the history of our country 
when a young man by the name of Gideon Akaluka, from Benue state, was 
cold-bloodedly beheaded by a rampaging mob in Kano for supposedly 
‘’desecrating the koran’’.  Akaluka’s severed head was paraded on a long
 pole all over the streets of the city before a cheering and roaring 
crowd for many hours and the whole gory event was actually video-taped 
by the perpetrators themselves. Such barbarity has rarely been seen in 
the history of our country.
Yet
 this individual has not been brought to justice or even questioned 
about these matters. Is it any wonder that Boko Haram appears to be 
going from strength to strength? The truth is that they have many 
friends in high places and President Goodluck Jonathan himself once 
alluded to this. Another individual, who was a former Head of State, was
 quoted as saying the following in 2001- 
''I
 will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the 
sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria. God-willing, we will 
not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the sharia in the
 country. Muslims should vote at the next Presidential election only for
 someone who will defend their faith''. 
This
 former Head of State may not have any link with today's terrorism or 
Boko Haram but has the words that he uttered on sharia in 2001 not made 
matters worse? Were the seeds of Boko Haram not planted at that time by 
such comments and such contributions? Yet another former Head of State 
did not help matters when he treated what he described as ''political 
sharia'' with kid gloves when he was in power. He failed to deal 
decisively with it at the time and he said that it would eventually 
''fizzle out''. 
This
 did not happen and today we are witnessing the results of his 
complacence and his inability to crush the beast at an early stage 
before it grew fangs. Now that vampiric beast is biting us with those 
fangs day and night and it is eating our flesh and drinkng our blood. 
For
 those that fail to see the nexus between political sharia and Boko 
Haram and that fail to appreciate the connection between the two permit 
me to put the following questions. Was the movement for political sharia
 not the precursor to Boko Haram? When you tolerate a monster and give 
room for extreme philosophies to take root are you not asking for 
trouble? When you give an inch will the beast not take a mile? When you 
compromise on fundamental issues such as the secularity of the state and
 allow islamist ideology to flourish in the name of political expediency
 and compromise are you not asking for trouble? 
When
 you run away from fighting a righteous war that must be fought sooner 
or later are you not postponing it for another day? Over ten years later
 we are reaping the consequences and rewards of our cowardice, 
indifference and indolence when faced with political sharia. The truth 
is that all our leaders have failed to solve this problem over the years
 and their lack of firm resolve to do so has simply caused it to spread 
and to become more virulent. 
Worst
 still some have completely capitulated and bowed in shame and 
helplessness before the evil scourge. As a glaring example of this, just
 a few months ago, an elder statesman that was at the time no less a 
personality than the National Chairman of the ruling party described the
 Haramites of Boko as ''freedom fighters''. Is there anything more 
shameful than that?
I
 really do wonder whose freedom they seek to secure and who they are 
fighting for? Is it the freedom to kill our people and to abduct and 
enslave our children? Such sentiments and expressions of sympathy for 
the enemies of our people are a national disgrace and those that express
 them ought to be called out and held to account.
Sadly
 the next few months and years are very bleak for our nation. As a 
matter of fact we may not even have a nation left in the next few months
 and years if things continue this way. I just hope and pray that we all
 appreciate the fact that we are in for the long haul and that whether 
we like it or not Boko Haram is here to stay. 
It
 is either that we succumb to them, accept their demands, bow to them 
and allow them to change our way of life or we fight them into the 
ground, eliminate every single one of them, flush them out, burn the 
Sambisi forest to the ground, avenge our people, preserve our way of 
life and restore our self-respect and dignity. 
It
 is either that we accept their evil, conceede to the establishment of a
 Taliban-style islamic fundamentalist state in the whole of our country 
and espouse it wholeheartedly or we fight a brutal, bloody, long and 
righteous war to preserve the unity of our nation, to protect the 
secularity of our state and to enthrone righteousness and justice. The 
choice is ours. 
The
 Haramites of Boko have already made their choice and they made it long 
ago. And that choice is to subject the Nigerian people to terror, 
murder, humiliation, carnage and bondage and bring us to servitude and 
to our knees. They will continue to effect this satanic  agenda unless 
and until we get off our knees, stand up like men and say ''enough is 
enough''. They will continue to do so unless and until we are ready to 
say that Nigeria is worth dying for and that we are ready to fight back .
 May God deliver Nigeria. 
 
 
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