TOTAL WAR

Where is the report of the panel that probed the 2009 insurgency in Bauchi, Yobe and Maiduguri? Also, where is former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s report on how to end the Boko Haram menace in Borno? What about the most recent one submitted by Ambassador Usman Gaji Galtimari, who chaired the Presidential committee on insecurity in the North-East? Have the recent emergency rule slammed on Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states was capable of resolving the Boko Haram crisis?

 

The source exclusively said that unless and until some of these reports are looked into with “all sincerity” by the government, the soldiers currently deployed to the troubled spots would only succeed in “killing some innocent Nigerians, including a few of the insurgents”, adding that the aftermath would be counter-productive.

 

According to the source, the “real combatants would go into hiding, striking once in a while. But once the emergency rule is over, they will come out again in full force. Mark my words, that will be disastrous,” the source added with a tone of finality.

 

Asked what should be the way out, the security operative said: “I believe the government should have given the new committee a chance, while studying other previous reports with a view to applying some of the recommendations.”

 

Speaking in the same vein, Barrister Solomon Dallung, a human rights activist and lawyer resident in Jos, who is also a leading member of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), the group that succeeded in persuading President Jonathan to consider granting amnesty to Boko Haram, told Sunday Sun that, “For me, declaration of emergency rule, as it is, within the Nigerian context has remained a political tool in the hands of government that cannot provide serious answer to security issues. It has been done in the past, it did not change anything. So, Mr. President has done his own just to make Nigerians believe he has taken action. There is no single state you go today in the North that you don’t see military check-points. What is more of a state of emergency than that?

 

“When it was declared in Plateau, it achieved nothing. Rather, it left the people worse than they were and in a state of regret, because it has exposed them to more danger, given the spate of killings going on there today.

 

“Mr. President should stop playing politics with the lives of Nigerians. This latest move is just to blackmail the North and return to power in 2015. It is also to further widen the gulf between Muslims and Christians in the North. Otherwise, why did he not include Nasarawa and Benue, where over 80 policemen and over 40 lives were lost, respectively last week? Or why did he not include Bayelsa, his home state, where some police men were killed recently? Like the Emergency rules before this, the current one is not likely to achieve anything. Instead, allocation to the affected councils would be shared in the name of security vote,” the source said.

 

Although, all the previous reports, submitted to the Federal Government on activities of the Boko Haram could not be immediately accesed, it however, stumbled on snippets from the report of the probe panel instituted by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua shortly before he took ill, and the one constituted by the former Borno governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, shortly after the 2009 insurgence.

 

The panel, which was constituted by the then National Security Adviser (NSA) to the late President, General Sarki Mukhtar (retd), had 11 members, which included former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike;  Alhaji B. U. Maitambari, Major General B. M. Monguno, DIG A. O. Ajao, Y. M. Bichi, Ambassador Haruna Wando, Brig. Gen. M. Bala Ali, and Mr. M. Sani. One Mr. S, Haliru served as secretary of the panel, while another Mr. T. A. Othman was deputy secretary.

 

The probe panel, Sunday Sun further gathered, was saddled with the responsibility of examining the incident of 2009 in all its ramifications with a view to determining the culpability of individuals and groups in causing and or preventing its resolution. The panel was further tasked to examine the adequacy or otherwise of responses by security forces and to identify the logistics, administrative or operational lapses that hampered quick resolution of the crisis. The probe panel was further tasked to establish the “likely correlation between the Boko Haram sect and any other radical organisations in the country”, and to also identify any possible foreign interest and the level of foreign involvement in the crisis.

 

After weeks of meetings and travelling to all the affected states, the panel came up with a report, which the Sunday Sun gathered, has never been looked into let alone consider some observations and recommendations contained in the report. According to the sources, the controversy and intrigues that surrounded the emergence of President Jonathan, first as acting President, and later substantive President made it impossible for the report to be transmitted to him upon assumption of office.

 

In the report titled “The Report of the Post-mortem Committee on Sectarian Crisis in Kano, Bauchi, Yobe and Borno states of August 27, 2009, “the panel traced the history of the sect to one Nigerien named Abubakar Kilakam, who was said to have been deported by the Borno State government in 2008, one clear year before the group declared war on Borno and other parts of the country.

 

According to the report, Kilakam may have indoctrinated the late Mohammed Yusuf and initiated him into preaching against constituted authority.

 

The panel, which was courageous enough to list, at least, 11 persons, which, according to its findings, were sponsors of the group, further submitted that “the activities of the sect had attracted the attention of the governor of Borno State since he assumed office in 2003. When security reports revealed the threat posed by the sect, there was evidence to show that he took steps to check the excesses of the group.

 

“The committee noted that at the initial stage of the group’s activities, the governor convened a security meeting of religious leaders and the security agencies to discuss the issue. Similarly, the Borno State security council met on several occasions to address the simmering threat of the sect and measures were taken by the Borno State government to contain the sect. These included banning of the sect from preaching in the state, as well as the arrest and eventual deportation to Niger Republic of one of the sect’s leaders, Abubakar Kilakam,” the panel noted, adding that “as stated above, the sect’s activities became noticeable by 2007 in Borno State. Towards the end of 2008, when the activities of Mohammed Yusuf and the sect were constituting a major threat to law and order, the State Security Council (SSC) met and banned the group from preaching. One Mohammed Kilakam of Damasak town in Mobar Local Government Area was banned from preaching in the state. So was one Ba’ana of Banki town in Bama Local Government Area. Abubakar Kilakam was confirmed to be a Nigerien national and was arrested and deported to his country.”

 

In another report written by chairman of the Presidential Committee on Security in the North-East, Ambassador Usman Gaji Galtimari, the origin of Boko Haram was traced to the blistering preaching of some clerics in Borno State.

 

The report, was the outcome of a 13-member committee set up by the then Borno State government shortly after the 2009 insurrection.

 

According to the report, the idea of Boko Haram was not a new phenomenon in Borno State. It noted that the idea had been there for several years before the late Mohammed Yusuf, who it seems only met a fertile ground and capitalized on it to spread his gospel.

 

The report further traced the remote causes of Boko Haram insurgence in Borno State to the levity with which the media in that part of the country gave prominence to the preaching of fiery Islamic scholars, and the leverage society gave such preachers to propagate anti-government messages, even as the report added that the Boko Haram group derives its messages largely from the ideology of the al-Qaida, following the contacts its leader, the late Mohammed Yusuf, had established with the late Osama bin Laden.

 

It was the view of the 13-member committee that the frequent arrests and release of the late Mohammed Yusuf without conviction, before he was extra-judicially killed, contributed in no small measure to the strength and growth of Boko Haram in the state and beyond.

 

Meanwhile, Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, pleaded with members of the Boko Haram to embrace dialogue and give peace chance.

 

In a state-wide broadcast to the people of the state last Wednesday, the governor said, “I will seize this opportunity for the umpteenth time, to call on our brothers in the Jama’atu ahliss Sunnah lil Da’awatu wal Jihad to embrace dialogue so that we can solve this problem on the table through collective bargaining, offers and compromises. I am glad to note that the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution is still working round the clock as also emphasized by the President.

“I believe, like I have always said since 2011 that at the end of the day dialogue will be the last resort. Let us embrace the spirit of live and let’s live. May I also add, at the risk of sounding repetitive, that the best way to fight crime is to provide jobs through integrated agriculture and industrial growth; we are very conscious of the fact that there is mass poverty and unemployment, and as you may have confirmed from our ongoing programmes across the state, we are creating jobs and will continue to do so. I urge you to fervently pray for the return of peace in our dear Borno State and all other parts of Nigeria, so as to pave the way for rapid recovery and socio-economic transformation we so desperately seek to put in place as a government.”