By Dele Sobowale

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I saw ambiguities in your article yesterday. Why did you castigate Rev. Oladunjoye, when President Jonathan himself told the nation last year that some members of his government were sponsors of Boko Haram. Please be objective in your reportage; the Rev. made a valid point. Boko Haram mustn’t be treated with levity. Jude PH.

First of all, let me apologise for my error about the Rt. Reverend Oladunjoye. He is still the Bishop of Owo Diocese and not retired. My sincere regrets on this Sir!

Having done that, let me correct one mistake made by my good friend Jude; with whom I have been in contact a few times.  A columnist does not report as such. He analyses and makes commentaries but seldom reports. The cardinal principle of journalism (even though I am not a journalist), which enjoins that facts are sacred; but comments are free applies more to reporters than to us.

The freedom of commentary allows for opinions which might not often be objective. My column referred to what Bishop Olagundoye was reported to have said. What is not objective in that? Second, I pointed out the consequences of the thinly veiled request for Jonathan to quit. That’s commentary and I expect Jude to point out any flaw in that analysis. Finally I dissociated myself from the Bishop’s threat that “If he [Jonathan] continues like this, we are going to wipe out Nigeria”. Again, what is subjective in that? One man says “we” will wipe out Nigeria; I say “we won’t; we will build it”.

What is objective or subjective in either statement when they both reflect the preferences of the authors?
The observation that Jonathan had admitted that there are Boko Harams in his government, cannot be construed to mean that he knows them specifically – as I shall soon explain. But, even if it means just that, the point had been made, in part one of this series, by accepting ‘Jonathan with all his faults”.

Those faults include saying extempore things that would later be regretted or would need to be clarified. After all, he announced that MEND was not responsible for the October 1, 2010 bomb blast; and that government knew those behind it”. Today, Okar and MEND are in the dock for the carnage. That in itself should tell all of us how much the President of Nigeria knows about who are the people terrorizing us.

With regard to the President’s observation that there are Boko Harams in his government, it must first of all be acknowledged that we are at war. Any conflict in which bombs and guns are freely used has ceased to be a skirmish; it has escalated into a war – even if for now limited to the North. It might spread soon to other parts of Nigeria. Furthermore, this war has several dimensions to it – political, religious, ethnic, personal and above all ECONOMIC. The economics of this war involves the feeling in some quarters, rightly or wrongly, that they have been deprived of their fair share of the national cake.

Given the numerous dimensions of this conflict, Jonathan made his wisest statement when he said that there are Boko Harams in his government—government in this case includes the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial branches as well as the Civil Service. Literally, hundreds of thousands of people are involved – some with personal and group agenda which tally with those of Boko Haram.

“Moles”, otherwise known as spies, have existed in every war situation from time immemorial. They are enemies within the system but usually seemingly above reproach. That is what makes them so effective. The National Security Adviser, the Director-General of the SSS, the Inspector General of Police would have been derelict in their duties if they did not warn the President of this clear and ever present danger.

All Jonathan did was to share with us knowledge as well as the burden which exists in the prosecution of this war. It does not mean that he knows specifically who they are. The same goes for the NSA. Even if they know some of them they can’t just line up people and shoot them just to please other citizens who are impatient for results. This is still a democracy; not a dictatorship and Presidents and Prime Ministers governing such nations are naturally handicapped in that regard. Under our laws, a person is presumed innocent until convicted by a court of law. Even the fellow caught red-handed at Kaduna must still go through the courts.

Indeed, if those demanding “tough action” – whatever that means, have been reading the reports carefully the summary execution of the leader of Boko Haram has been advanced as one of the reasons why the sect became violent. I don’t buy the story myself but it does indicate that extra-judicial killings by Nigerian authorities will not solve the problem.

Let us now examine the matter from another standpoint by asking the question: who is the most endangered Nigerian from Boko Haram attack? It might shock most people to realize the fact that President Jonathan is Boko Haram’s prime target. His elimination is worth over a million Nigerian lives lost to them because getting him will immediately change the course of history just as the first Nigerian coup and Murtala Mohammed’s assassination did.

And nobody is more keenly aware of this than Jonathan himself. Next to the President are the following, not necessarily in order of importance, the NSA, the DG-SSS, the Commander of the JTF and the Inspector General of Police, IGP. Personally, I pity and anxiously pray for them.

Again, if most people are not aware of this fact the endangered people know too well that they represent the most coveted prizes in this war. The Greeks in the Hellenic Age, 500-250 B.C, when Generals ruled and led them to war adopted a metric according to which a general was considered to be worth ten thousand infantry. Today, a general might still be worth that much; but a President, in our circumstances, will be equivalent to more than ten million citizens because the resulting all-out war will claim at least that number.

Again, Jonathan, NSA, DG-SSS, and IGP are aware of this. So why should they know those who are trying to kill them and not go after those people? To convince me, that is the case, anybody still mouthing the accusation that the President and NSA etc, know those involved must first prove to me that Jonathan and the others are either bent on collective suicide or are incurably insane. The shocking, but understandable, truth is that the government does not know them.

It is shocking because it means that many of us continue to be endangered; understandable because this is a guerrilla war of attrition which in some countries had gone for twenty years or more. Only God determines when they end. Ours is only two years long…..

BOKO HARAM AND DWINDLING RATIONS OF HOPE -1
The Vision 20:2020 Committee should by now have been disbanded. If not, members with any sense should just walk away. It was a fraud, from the beginning, promoted by the Minister for Planning and Chairman of the National Planning Commission.

Similarly, we should accept defeat on Millennium Development Goals, MDGs. Both were sand castles built right in front of ocean waves. The next time Usman stumbles into Aso Rock wanting to discuss “progress” on 20:2020, Jonathan should tell him to go and stuff it.  This is the second time in our history when hard realism must take precedence over bed time stories. The first occurred in 1967 at Aburi and we know where that got us.

Today the booms of explosions must have informed even the blind; and the dark clouds of smoke emanating from burning bombed buildings must have jolted the stone deaf to the reality that our ration of hope as a nation is dwindling rapidly. Progress had given way to just survival. But, we should all remember this: NO NATION HAS SURVIVED TWO CIVIL WARS.