Two days ago (on 12th February 2014) in Borno state, the extremist Boko Haram sect killed 60 innocent Nigerians and carted off 24 young girls without any trace. On January 27, the sect murdered no less than 70 innocent Nigerians in cold blood in a series of attacks in Borno and Adamawa states.
On January 14 this year, at least 50 of our compatriots were blown to pieces by a Boko Haram suicide bomber in the heart of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. Not too long before then they attacked an army barracks in Borno, killing 200 soldiers, carting off the wives and children of our military personnel and burning the barracks to the ground.
A few weeks prior to that, numerous schools were attacked and hundreds of our children were either shot to death, hacked to pieces or had their throats cut and blood drained. Consequently many schools were closed down in Borno and Yobe states respectively.
A few weeks back, no less than 160 of our soldiers were killed by Boko Haram in one skirmish simply because they ran out of bullets. Worst still it has been generally acknowleged that the Boko Haram fighters are better equipped and better supplied than our soldiers. Goodness me…. what a mess!
Finally no less than 130 churches were burnt down in Borno state in 2013 alone and the Catholic Church alone lost 53 churches out of that figure. All in all Nigeria has lost almost 8000 innocent civilians to Boko Haram in the last three years and that includes women and children. It does not however include the vast number of women that have been captured and kidnapped by them and that are now being used as sex-slaves.
All this and yet some complain about the fact that I recently wrote that we have a ”President without balls” who is simply incapable of facing the challenge of Boko Haram. Given his accursed weakness in the face of what is undoubtedly the greatest insurgency and rebellion of our time since the civil war and given his inability to behave like a real Commander-in-Chief and to properly engage and crush the enemy, I do not regret my choice of words (or title) for that celebrated essay. As a matter of fact I ought to have gone much further because our President deserves far worse.
As I wrote in another contribution almost one month ago, ”the problem that we have is the President himself- a President who prides himself on his own weakness and incompetence and whose love of false prophets and strange women knows no bounds and has no end. A President who is as confused and as clueless as the comic character called Chancey Gardner in the celebrated 1970′s Peter Seller’s Hollywood blockbuster titled ”Being There”. A President who does not understand the meaning of the word ”class” or ”honesty” and who breaks his own word consistently. A President who has abdicated his responsibilities, destroyed his own political party, divided his own country, alienated his own friends, humiliated his own mentor, abandoned his own people, brought ridicule to his own faith, cowers before his own officials, betrays his own governors, scorns the international community and BREAKS HIS SOLEMN OATH TO PROTECT AND DEFEND THE NIGERIAN PEOPLE. A President who does not even have the nerve or the guts to call to order any of the numerous Jezebels that control him. He is the problem we have in our country today and until he resigns, is impeached or is voted out of power nothing will change and Nigeria will continue to go from bad to worse. That is what you get when you vote for a man who never wore shoes to school’- (‘JONATHAN, TUKUR AND A GOVERNMENT OF JEZEBELS’, Premium Times, 19th January, 2014).
It is no wonder that President Goodluck Jonathan has been endorsed for a second term by an hitherto unknown group known as the ”Witches and Wizards Association of Nigeria”. As my good friend and brother and the Kakaki Nupe, Mr. Sam Nda Isaiah, recently wrote in response to this rather strange ”endorsement” from an equally strange group- ”the devil is a liar”.
Each time a precious soul is snuffed out and a life is cut short by Boko Haram, whether that person be a Christian or a Muslim, or a northerner or a southerner, it takes something away from our collective humanity and it wounds our nation’s soul. Worse still, it diminishes us before the entire world and confirms the fact that our country has been turned into a human abattoir and slaughterhouse where, no matter how many innocents are butchered, no one really cares anymore.
Such matters no longer even make it to the front pages of our newspapers anymore and neither do our politicians or newspaper columnists even talk or write about it anymore. All that stopped long ago and now we see such atrocities as a norm that we must just accept and live with. We have accepted it as our ”lot in life” and, as our President said last year, we regard it simply as ”Nigeria’s contribution to the war against terror”.
Early in 2013 our President also said that he regarded Boko Haram as his ”siblings” whom he ”could not move against” whilst Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the erstwhile National Chairman of his political party, the PDP, described them as ”freedom fighters”. Can you imagine that? These are commendations from Mr. President and the then serving National Chairman of the PDP for Boko Haram barely one year ago. Jumping Jehoshaphat. It is only in Nigeria that a terrorist organisation can kill thousands of it’s citizens in the most brutal, violent and horrendous manner and yet the President and the National Chairman of the ruling party still feel comfortable and safe with calling them their ”siblings” and ”freedom fighters”. What a terrible insult this is on the Nigerian people and what a bitter pill to swallow for the family members of all those that have been killed in the last three years by these terrorists.
I really do wonder whose ”freedom” Boko Haram is fighting for, whose interest they seek to further and protect and what blood ties exist between them and our President. What a shameful and insensitive set of leaders we have and what an indolent and insensitive followership who are not prepared to call them to order and keep them on their toes when they make such outrageous comments and who have absolutely no empathy with or sympathy for the many victims of Boko Haram.
The truth is that we as a people have lost all sense of compassion and decency when it comes to such matters and our feelings and consciences have become seared. To the majority of Nigerians those precious souls and compatriots that have been killed by Boko Haram over the last three years are just a number- they are nothing but distant names, from a distant place, belonging to distant figures.
There is simply no sense of national outrage from our people about this insidious rebellion and about these brutal killings and vicious attacks and neither is their any sense of urgency on the part of our government to bring it to an end. Given the way we conduct ourselves one would not have thought that Nigeria is currently enmeshed in the most brutal war against terror in its entire history.
Yet as we go on with our day-to-day business and act as if all is well, thousands are being killed in the north-eastern part of our country by Boko Haram. There can be no greater evidence of man’s inhumanity to man when one considers our attitude. Such inhumanity and insensitivity to the plight of others has taken firm root in the Nigeria of today. What a monumental tragedy this is. When did we, as a people, degenerate to this abysmal level of lack of empathy and when did we stop becoming our brother’s keeper?
As millions of Nigerians join the world to celebrate Valentines Day, please let us spare a thought and say a little prayer for those whose loved ones will not be with them on this day, or indeed on any other day, simply because they have been murdered or kidnapped by Boko Haram.
May God heal their wounds and have mercy on them even as we grieve with them. And may God forgive our President and the majority of the Nigerian people for simply ”not giving a damn” about their sad and unfortunate plight. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Femi your article is baseless and its just the same as the baseless criticism of your party that profer no solution to the Nigeria crisis. I rather you tell the president to what you think should be done. It unfortunate that the norther elder and governors cannot nip this their collective creation on the board. Like Frankiste's monster that will soon consume them.
ReplyDeleteU call this article BASELESS? Wow! U're unbelievable....
DeleteThis cracked brain you will soon wound your self because of jonathan.
ReplyDeleteU r an idiot. After u wil block someone for cursing u.
ReplyDeleteYou are not an asset to yourself let alone anybody. The more you talk the more you are ignored. Still dancing after the drummer stopped drumming.
ReplyDeleteThis man needs help. Please, Mr. President help him by arranging for his treatment in a rehabilitation centre. Presently,he cannot afford the treatment because he is broke despite all the money he allegedly stole from the aviation sector and he needs job that is why he is in this condition. Please, Mr President help him otherwise one day he will walk the street naked.
ReplyDeleteWith comments like this I doubt if you ever saw the four walls of a school, and if you did you are a typical product of the Nigerian failed Educational system.
DeleteIs u and jonathan who are d big fools.
ReplyDeleteWell I 'd rather FFK didn't attack the president as usual, but his point is clear and sussinct. We as a people have degenerated to the level of being animals. We do not care what happens to human beings anymore. This is indeed very sad given the fact that we all are not safe in this country. If we continue like this, this is an implosion waiting to happen. God help us all.
ReplyDeleteYou have all said it all bout this deranged lunatic called FFK. He is still suffering from the curse his fathers past deeds have placed on him.
ReplyDeletea sane mind knows you never speak with a dispassionate heart.your psyche has been known for long to be warped by primeval tribal sentiment.you can never think clearly and you can never emacipate your self from this bondage..."once a thief always a theif"
ReplyDeleteIf FFk achieved anything as aviation minister, then he will have a platform to criticise . Terrorists are killing ppl all over the world and their leaders even those in opposition pull together to solve the problem. FFK has never proffered any solution to the on-going problems in the country. The only person that shd be taken seriously is the one that says, "this is not being done well and this is how it shd be done".
ReplyDeleteFemi, you are your good old self. You did not even mention the mosques that were burnt. I will advice that you finish with your aviation corruption charges in court before we can listen to your sermons.
ReplyDeleteI have not read the article and I don't need to read it, this guy is one of the thieves we are hoping to tie down in this country, all of you both fathers of most the young politicians today stole and and still stilling that makes problems upon problems to generate in this country. If things were right, boarders would have been created with standard survalance equipments all arround the country, we don't even know Nigerians in this country and goverment don't care until the issue of this Boko Haram. Only what they struggle for is how to increase tariff (fuel, electricity, car registration, plate number, driveing licence etc) causing more boarding to the people and pocket the money.
ReplyDeleteFFK, what has been your contribution to this country?
ReplyDeleteCan you say openly that your hands were clean from looting public fund while serving in Aviation? What I mean is that the money you looted then, did you use them to create job for the suffering masses that you are hypocritically canvasing for?
Or, you took the money out to enrich richer nations?
FFK, you talk like an irresponsible man even in the public. Keep quiet because I see that you are getting out of hand.
FFK need attention, please Nigerian help o o o o o o
ReplyDeleteIt takes one to know one.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but laugh and wonder why some commentators are always asking FFK and Co. To offer suggessions & solutions to the President on national crisis. Hasn't Mr. President got brains to think on his own? What are the people he appointed to top security positions doing? What of all those dumbo head advisershe has around him doing? As far as am concerned, Mr. President ought to start using his brains rather than wait for d opposition or the critics to offer hI'm solutions. If he can't handle the job of being the President of Nigeria, then he should find something to engage himself with...... Nigeria is not yet a Zoo for God's sake!!! Goodness me....
ReplyDeleteIt saddens me when I read some comments when serious National issues are discussed. People like Samuel Friday, Ojoma, and some other anonymous commentators here make me shake my head for Nigeria. It is heart breaking when we as a people see criticism and decides to attack the critique because of tribal or religious differences rather than digest the facts of the content and reflect. FFK is spot on in this article, and its true to know that Nigerians are somewhat selfish on this Boko Haram issues. The Southerners seems not to care simple because its happening in the North but they forget to realise that the moment a bomb goes off in Southern Nigeria there will not just be massive violence, but it might be the beginning of the end of the Nation Nigeria. The fact remains that our President has shown he's not capable of solving the Boko Haram insurgence but so many of us really don't see that as his fault because we don't care cos its happening in the North. Nigeria will not move forward until we put religious and tribal sentiments aside.
ReplyDeleteThis exactly why many Nigerians always performed woefully in Eng Lang @ SSCE and JAMB examinations. Rather than comment on article we are busy commenting on the writer of the article! The message of this write up is the fact the president say BH are siblings and ex PDP chairman says BH are freedom fighters! And none of the commentors simply ignored these assertions! Does it matter who inform u about a pending gas explosion? Even when can smell the gas urself? Sometimes I wonder who has a more 'brainwashed' problem BH or some of the commentators here? Na wa o
ReplyDelete