By Jones Fcc Onwuasoanya
When the Goodluck Jonathan administration went all out to route out Boko Haram terrorists and other terrorist gangs in the North, a good number of Northern political and religious elites politicised the military operation and even labelled General Ihejirika, a war criminal who was out to commit genocide in the North. They threatened him with a suit at the International Criminal Court.
Ordinary Northerners also made one excuse or the other for Boko Haram terrorists and other criminals ravaging the North. They either called them “fighters for the faith” or “protesters against bad governance”. I once engaged a good friend of mine who is a lawyer from Jigawa State on this issue and he told me that if Yar’Adua could grant Amnesty and doled out billions of dollars to militants from the Niger-Delta, then, the same should be extended to Boko Haram “fighters” and other Northern “agitators”.
My Igbo siblings are making a strong case for Nnamdi Kanu, a terrorist, who founded the Eastern Security Network and inspired the resuscitation and founding of many terrorist cells in the Southeast who are responsible for deaths and enormous destruction in the Southeast. I am reading about some fraudulent and cowardly looters parading as legislators who have written to the President, urging him to stop Nnamdi Kanu’s prosecution. I will write about them later.
When Gani Adams was rampaging with his Oduduwa People’s Congress (OPC) and most recently, Sunday Igboho with whatever name he gave his own criminal group, there were Yorubas who made a case for them and urged the FG to leave them alone. Today, Gani Adams, a pardoned felon, is the Aare Oona Kakanfo of Yoruba land, and Sunday Igboho might be waiting in the wings to resume his criminalities as soon as his ‘brother’s’ tenure as Nigerian President expires.
We are not yet serious with the idea of building a nation and sometimes, if I remove my cloak of partisanship, I sympathize with ordinary citizens who sympathize with their own terrorists, because, in reality, it is those who are supposed to lead them, that are inciting them to support these terrorists. It makes little sense when you see that everyone else is supporting their own terrorist and you come out to denounce your own terrorist, but, people like us are few in every generation and I cannot afford to live like everyone else, lest I lose myself.
May God Heal Nigeria.
