A Fool’s Solution to Boko Haram Crisis

I understand that this article is worthless – at best it will be taken as the topic reads. But who cares, after all – even if it was written by the biblical King Solomon, decision makers in Nigeria will ignored or pretend not to see it. Just as they’ve done with other foolish ideas that has been shared about curbing Boko Haram (BK) a menace, which is gradually turning Nigerians into a neck-high frustrated people.

For a fool, Nigeria can rid herself of Boko Haram by making and taking two major decisions. Before I discuss the foolish tips let us remind ourselves of why this whole mess started in the first place.

For starters...Boko Haram is not the child of Islamic radicalism as is purported in the conventional media...now, that is a dumb way to look at it – may be you can say that about Al-Qaeda, or the Taliban but definitely not BK. BK has come to stay because it is a dreaming child whose parents have disowned or refused to identify with it. When a stubborn child goes on rampage it is up to the parent to force it back in line. What happens when they are gone? It continuous on its rampage until the society catches up with it. Somebody started something without a backup plan and that same plan has backfired! It’s like we see in Hollywood, a creature is built to serve only to be hunted for so many unanticipated reasons. If the spiritual head of Muslims in Nigeria can dissociate himself with BK, how can you now say it is a Muslim-thing?

Rather, this bad child is the seed of every northern leader who had the opportunity to make things right but didn’t. I say this at the risk of sounding biased – I wish I am a northerner, I would still say so. But what else could I be? I was born in the north, I schooled in the north, and I still work in the north. All my friends and even my girl friend is a northerner! I have stuck with the north because something in me has refused to reject it as a home. When I’m across the Niger, the dry winds still whisper me home. Well back to my foolish point: the parents of Boko Haram are unrepresentative northern leadership. If those who represented the north did their assignments; the area would have been one of the most peaceful and fruitful places in Africa. Northerners are by nature very contented people, but contentment counts only when you have something at the least – if only they had something to be grateful for this country’s unity, a mafia like Boko Haram would at worst die in the thoughts of bad men. You can only use frustrated people to pull the stunts Bokoharamians are pulling.

The level of illiteracy in the north is scary. You can’t walk the full length of a street without meeting one or two persons who cannot read or write. The worst is that the desire for education is either not there or its relevance is not seen. When you hear people saying “western education is a sin” you wonder. The world today spins and strives on western education – I don’t beg to differ! When you want to kick against a kingdom or concept like the west, you don’t start in the north and you definitely don’t start at sunset! The west has through centuries of machining, wisdom, focus, and sacrifice made west of everything – the west is the standard. Nobody can help it – even the west itself cannot help it! Today we read that the English are torn against one of their creatures – Democracy. The essence of the English crown is questioned today by some republicans who think power should actually belong to the people – a concept of their own creation.

Back to the north. Boko Haram’s victim is not Nigerians or Christians; the victim here is a dream. You know like there is the American Dream? Yeah, the Nigerian Dream. For those of us who don’t know what the Nigerian Dream is let me help you: the Nigerian Dream is the desire (often uncontrollable) to belong...to be heard...to be feared or respected...to be seen to run things. Its sounds like every body’s dream right?  What Boko Haram is fighting for is to rob all Nigerians off the ability to dream like Nigerians! We didn’t realise how free we were until BK came in – actually BK has helped us remember how free we were. There were times when we didn’t have to walk on the street with our hairs standing on the back of our necks, our police officers didn’t have to dock at any leather bag thrown at them, we only had need for military (robbers) road blocks far outside town, and nobody had to ask you to keep your bags outside before being searched into your place of worship.

One of the reasons why Nigeria has not been able to curtail BK is because Nigerians have refused to see through the cloak of religion, sectarianism, ethnicity and tribalism. All our approaches to addressing the situation has been through a myopic perspective. It was easier to handle the Niger Delta militancy because there were no religious or sectarian undertones to the phenomena. When the government decided to get over with the mess, no foul was decried – though a Muslim was on power, he wasn’t seen to be dealing with the Christians! The worst way to reinforce a social vice is to root it on a strong social value – whether it’s a mere etiquette, or a doctrine. What we had succeeded in doing is to make Boko Haram seem like a religious issue when in fact it is a political issue.

Now let me share my two foolish ways out of the situation

First, the north needs to come out plain and with all its strength to tell Boko Haram that “we appreciate your concerns for our welfare but we don’t need you to be a watchdog”. Spiritual and political figure heads in the region needs to redefine their commitment to Nigeria and let enemies of this country understand their position. Then we can single out, BK as a true public enemy and work across religion, tribe and geopolitics to deal with the menace. One thing that motivates BK is that they still believe they are fighting a just course. I wonder what they will be fighting for when the north certifies that the north is ok with the laws governing them already.

Secondly and probably most importantly is for everybody to ignore Boko Haram, especially the media. We need to report their activities in such a way that they wouldn’t enjoy the glory. BK has gotten this strong because we pay too much attention to their mayhem. It’s time to ignore what they do. The press needs to make conscious effort in refusing to report their activities. Let us stop mentioning their names on our tabloids and dailies. Boko Haram actually feeds on our fears and the more dreaded we make them feel, the more violent they become. The point is to drive enough fear into Nigerians and our government that we are forced to concede to their demands (if they even have any). If we can stop all the banter on Boko Haram and focus on something else; they will soon realise that they are no longer an issue. They can only pass their threat across when they see we get the message – ignoring their activities is one way to show that we don't realise that they are passing any.

If you notice all the havoc they’ve done was to amplify their voice and remind people that it counts – same with many other terrorists groups. Boko Haram is northern Nigeria’s version of the coastal Italy’s Sicilian mafia. They are a taskforce and they want business in their region (perhaps the country) to be run in their favour. But they only exist because we recognise them.

Well we are done here...