A good number of the reactions to President Muhammadu Buhari’s announcement that Nigeria has joined the Islamic Coalition Against Terrorism, show quite clearly that many Nigerians do not fully understand the president’s motives for this decision.  With the rise of the Boko Haram Terrorist group of the past few years, Nigeria faces a threat such as no other in its entire history and existence.  Desperate times require desperate, unusual, measures.

The girls in Gwoza who were raped by militants do not care where the help comes from as far as they will eventually be able to move about freely without fear of being kidnapped and used as sex slaves.  The mothers in Bama whose sons were slaughtered before their eyes do not worry whether Boko Haram is defeated by a Christian or Muslim coalition.  The hundreds of thousands in IDP camps are concerned simply about when they can safely return to their homes and resume their normal lives.  For these ones most hard hit by the Boko Haram terrorists, whether the help they so desperately need comes from the United States of America or from Saudi Arabia does not matter.

One of the main thrusts of President Buhari’s campaign was the war on terror.  He promised that his administration would bring an end to Boko Haram, and set about doing just that as soon as he was elected, travelling to different countries and meeting with various heads of state to discuss the way forward on the issue.  At the time, no Nigerian worried that President Buhari was seeking help from the West.  No one worried about the ideology of those willing and able to help our country to defeat terror.  Nigerians were simply united with their President in a determination to bring Boko Haram to an end so that our brothers and sisters in the northeast can resume their normal lives.

It is on account of these people and their desperate situation, and on the basis of national interest only, that President Buhari accepted the offer, with both hands, of assistance from G7 countries at the commencement of his administration. Religion was not a consideration then. It is also not a consideration now that he has made the decision to embrace help in fighting terror from the Middle-East. The safety of Nigerians and the total annihilation of Boko Haram is of more importance than the unfounded worries of Nigeria’s so-called Islamisation.

Those efforts by President Buhari led to several gains, including the technical defeat of Boko Haram by the end of 2015 as he had promised during the election campaigns.  Once again, our Commander-in-Chief has sought help where he believes our country will benefit and the religious affiliation or ideology of our benefactors should not be the paramount consideration.  It is simply one of those cases where the enemies of our enemy has become our enemy. The enemy of terrorists all around the globe is our friend.

The fears that our country’s membership in this coalition will draw Islamic State, ISIS’s attention to Nigeria are too late.  As the President has repeatedly maintained, it is Boko Haram that proclaimed allegiance to ISIS, thereby dragging us into the global terrorism network. By pledging allegiance to ISIS, the terrorists already drew the international terror group’s attention to this part of the world.  ISIS proudly and openly accepted this proclamation of allegiance.  They have their sights set on us already.

Terrorism is heathen and knows no religion. It can only be defeated by the unity of entire humanity. Criticism of the membership of this alliance only shows our disarray and a lack of unity against terror and will only make the terrorists happy. The fears of so-called Islamisation are strange and unfounded, and meant only to feed the fear and suspicions existing among Nigerians.

With a precedent as shown above, it will be unkind and uncharitable of anyone to accuse President Buhari of executing deception. In an unusually harsh commentary, this country’s most respected newspaper The Punch on Sunday  succeeded in exactly doing this. Read this:

“The presidency’s doublespeak on Nigeria’s membership of the Saudi Arabia-led anti-terror Islamic coalition is unfortunate in the extreme. In the beginning, an aide to the president on media and publicity issued a statement to the effect that the president had declined Nigeria’s membership of the coalition and therefore did not attend its meeting while on a diplomatic visit to Saudi Arabia.

But barely two weeks after, President Muhammadu Buhari himself confirmed Nigeria’s membership of the coalition in an interview with a foreign television station, Al- Jazeera. Buhari, who never tabled such a sensitive matter before the National Assembly, said there are terrorists in Nigeria who have claimed to be Muslims. So, according to the him, “We are part of it because we have got terrorists in Nigeria who claim that they are Islamic. So, if there is an Islamic coalition to fight terrorism, Nigeria will be part of it because we are casualties of Islamic terrorism.

“This explanation is simplistic, to say the least and does not do any good to expected political astuteness of President Buhari. In the main, membership of any such coalition is unacceptable for it offends the sensibilities of Nigerians in their diverse inclinations and should be reversed.”

Sensibilities offended? Can anyone face the more than two million unhoused, mostly Muslim refugees displaced by terror now being fed, almost exclusively by Christian charities that it is offensive them, or that it matters to them who, between Christians and Muslims is supplying the next meal? The one who raised a tent over their heads?

Let me say that the presidential aide in question is no other than myself. Although I write statements emanating from the Presidency, I don’t choose what headline writers will use to caption those stories.

To that extent, it is untrue of anyone to say the President had ab initio rejected a membership of the coalition against terror.

What the President said, to paraphrase him, was that “we may not be with you, but we will support you in every possible way we can.” This does not presuppose rejection. Even if it was one, nothing says that a government cannot move or adjust its position based on new, superior facts as we individuals do in our daily lives.

That some of the criticism against the President is coming from opposition Senators is even more absurd, showing a  lack of judgement and discrimination- or even worse.

It holds up a mirror to the PDP’s cluelessness and total absence of strategy to defeat Boko Haram terrorism. The party’s projection of itself as better than the APC in this regard is hobbled by their own record of indecision and serial abdication on Chibok girls as disclosed by Ambassador Packock and greed, corruption and a general incapacity to drive the anti terror war.

A set of politicians who failed to confront or attack terrorism while in power have no right to challenge President Buhari’s hounding of them. To global acclaim. Trivia smells. There is a need for a new fragrance in the air.

Garba Shehu is Senior Special Assitant to the President onMedia and Publicity. [myad]

The bestiality, foolery, buffoonery that has characterized the actions of Governor Nyesom Wike and Minister of Transport, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi in the Rivers State re-run is simply a contest of ego measurement. The womb of destruction in that state is therefore a function of the delusionary objectives of the two gladiators, which sadly is not people based but selfish, vindictive and asinine.
As usual, the human collateral damage cannot be avoided. The slow but growing turnover of human lives for“mere” re-run only shows how desperate politicians can be and how gullible some electorates can go on errands for their paymasters. While the innocent or sometime apolitical victims are taken in their prime, followers of these two ego-measuring gladiators must realize that they are the puns in some macabre political chess game.
Interestingly, this is the first time in the past 17 years Rivers State will be divided along party lines. The state has always been a one party state with uniformity of votes once candidates are selected by an established godfather. It is even believed that despite the irregularities, human carnage that has marred elections in the state since 2015 general election to the re-run, it is adjudged the best when measured against actual votes cast and the decision of the people to ensure that their votes are counted.
Nigerians however have conflicting views in the Rivers debacle. Some blame it on Buhari, some on the ruling party the All Progressives Congress, some on one or all the gladiators, some on the Independent National Electoral Commission, some on the Peoples Democratic Party. While every Nigerian has the right to place blames wherever, it is important to exclude the president out of the entire fiasco if the crisis in Rivers state must avoid the trappings of wailing, wailers and hailing, hailers.
What makes the battle ground in Rivers state a deadly razor edge dance is the quantum of firearms, propensity to spill blood and level of competence of the two gladiators in manipulating results during elections. We must not for one second forget that Amaechi and Wike have student, lecturer relationship from an institution established on impunity. Their core subject is political brigandage, criminal rascality with electives in killing, maiming and arson.
INEC has played it well in the volatile elections in Rivers State. Declaring results of some areas inconclusive was indeed in the best interest of all. Reading the results as they came in was indeed bravery of the highest order. INEC has refused to shift result in favor of a political party of their choice, hence allowing all the stakeholders to slog it out in supplementary. In the not too distant past, the PDP government would have done differently.
Nobody is calling on the ruling party to awaken the monster of denying Nigerians their votes, and that is the reason why those chiding INEC must see the good in each instance elections are declared inconclusive. After all, INEC isn’t responsible for the unnecessary violence that usually characterizes the “do-or-die” election mantra of Nigerian politicians.
For Amaechi and Wike, this election is indeed worth dying for. As earlier mentioned, ego is a prime motivating factor. But protection of political interest is also another factor. For Amaechi, getting all the NASS members on his leash will help diminish the political influence and sometime affluence of the incumbent governor. For Wike, he has to protect his territory. He must prevent a single APC politician from getting to the coveted legislative position. he is aware of the repercussion once his party the PDP loses out of the on going saber-rattling.
With the “looming” supplementary, there is no telling what would happen to the hapless Rivers people and the hired political thugs. With the amount of weapons in the hands of the wrong people in that state, it is indeed expected that supplementary for eight (8) local governments might be the match that would ignite cyclical killings in that state. The worst violence is that which exists between people in a defined social political environment. They know themselves and can predict themselves, hence guerrilla attacks, kidnappings will become a trend.
Buhari might just be the solution to the dance of desperation going on between Amaechi and Wike. Once the two gladiators are charged with liability of any unruly conduct along party lines, they will adjust a bit. For now, they act like untamed horses charging in different directions trying to claim political territory with human lives as bargaining chip.
A clarion call goes to youths of Rivers states, nah, Nigeria youths. It is time Nigerian youths understand that they are not mere tools in the hands of politicians. It is time they realize they are future of Nigeria’s human capital. Their paymasters have rubbed them of education, denied them of social amenities, only to present them with stipends barely enough to buy them more than a meal.
It is time for Nigerian youths to understand that while they fight for their self-based political masters, children of these prebendal politicians are taking up juicy jobs, groomed to take over from their parents. While the circle for the politicians is an emerging monarchical democracy where fathers bequeath the political assets to their children and children, children, the thugs used for violence are programmed as expendables and their children left in despondency only to toe the lines of their fathers.
The carnage in Rivers state must stop. Humanity has stooped like a beast devouring every ounce of civility. Nigeria has transcended beyond this type of politicking. Humanity is far more superior to bestiality. While every other factor is consistent with the high rate of madness in that place, this is the time we must stand up against politics of violence, politics of bitterness.
. Ebije can be reached via: ebijeo5@gmail.com or @ebijeisrael.com. [myad]