A Response to Mr. Wilberforce Okoli on BH

Mr Okoli! May I indulge you a little please? Kindly hold a conference with yourself and attempt to answer this simple question - How much of the North do you really know? And do you really think Northerners are happy with the situation as is? My advice is that we look at this Boko Haram (BH) problem as a national one and approach it in that direction rather than apportion blames or look for scapegoats.  BH and their ideology is warped, anti-Islam, inhuman and anti-developmental and we  have collectively cried so. I am a Northerner, living in Kano and will like to tell you  a little about wars.  

Nobody - Nation or State desires to fight wars on their soil, as doing so is simply foolhardy. The implication is that you will kill your own people, destroy your own property, and impede your development.   That is what BH has subjected the north to. Do you really think we are happy with that?   

If you conduct a simple perception survey today of the Northerners around you, you will find out that the BH activity is like a pestilence that they all wish will go away immediately. The destruction and deaths that BH has forced on us over the years can only be imagined. Virtually all of us have a story or two to tell about the pain that the dreaded group has forced on us. You must have heard of a police officer (female) that was shot to death recently in Kano - that was my sister.  Talk to more Northerners and you will hear worse.

Should you care to understand the North even a little, you will discover that pronouncements such as yours is simply causing more pains to people that are already burdened with pains.  How can you say that BH go around in convoys in the North? How can you even use the word "conspiracy" in this rather sordid situation we have found ourselves? I think you and your likes are grossly unfair to the suffering majority of the north. 

We call on Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) and ask for more from him simply because he is the president. We would have done the same to any other person holding that post.  Or are you trying to deny us that by your pronouncements?

Mr Okoli, I wish you will understand the psychological trauma that the Northerners are subjected to by these insurgents. I wish you will understand the degree of fear we feel at night when we are robbed of sleep by incessant bombings and gunshots. I wish you will understand how scared we are when our children leave home to go to school every day.  I wish you will understand how frustrating it is to spend hours on a journey of usually less then 4 kms because of the various checkpoints we have to encounter?  I wish you will understand the pain of losing a loved one. 

Your statement is not only an attempt to colour the situation based on your limited understanding of the socio-political implications of BH and their warped ideology. It is also a classic case of a stupid patronage that doesn’t benefit even you, the advocate.  We are Nigerians, we need each, let us be learn to support each other.

WHO DO THEY REALLY SERVE

Why do they keep making policies or pronouncements that the generality of Nigerians cannot identify with? Why are we so insignificant in their eyes?

The other day I was listening to someone analysing Nigeria and making allusions.  According to him, Nigeria has joined the unenviable ranks of failed nations.  It is number nine now in the list he said. Listening to him, a very faint feeling of anger was growing inside me, but on a second thought, I simply nodded my head in agreement. I will only be deceiving myself refusing a spade its name.

On a different day, but not too far off, right on my TV, GEJ was telling Nigerians how his administration has made giant strides in bringing development to Nigerians. According to him Nigerians are now enjoying uninterrupted power supply because his administration has increased generation to 4,000 megawatts. My first reaction was to turn and look at my wife, just to check if I heard him well.  My wife’s reaction was dismissive. She simply told me not to mind them.  We were running on generator, and it’s been like that for three straight days.

These issues and several others, especially the new thinking by the government to buy mobile phones for 10 million farmers in Nigeria informed this piece.

Strange and bizarre things will not seize happening in Nigeria, at least for now.  Sometimes one wonders if our leaders’ brains still function in a manner that can be called sane.  Else how can a government enact a policy that supports expenditures that the eventual benefit is at best flaky?   Even a ‘no-brainer’ knows that buying mobile phones for farmers can only in the immediate, promote their social status and in the long run burden them financially, because of the recurring costs of buying recharge cards that are so expensive in Nigeria.

Considering the myriad of challenges that farmers face in Nigeria today, mobile phones are what our political leaders thought as the silver bullet.  What about infrastructure, ie., storage facilities, good roads, tractors, etc. Can't they even think of bringing back extension workers who in those good old days used to advise farmers on new methods?  How about fertilizers???

Sometimes one will be forgiven to think that our leaders approach to policy issues is guided by pure malice.  If not, how do you explain government’s pronouncement to buy 10 million mobile phones for farmers? What purpose will it serve? Will it solve the problem of failed crops? Will the farmers use it to weed their farms? Will it preserve yields that go bad before the next session? Will it fix bridges that stop farmers from taking their yields to the market themselves for better value? Will it provide them hospitals to treat themselves and save them from missing a farming season because of ill health?

Let's even go back to the basics, how did the government come to the figure of 10 million phones? Is this the number of farmers without phones or the number of entire farmers in Nigeria?  And why expend N60 billion on phones when the total budget of the Agric Ministry is a paltry N81 billion.  If it is a case of stealing through contracts that you guys are interested in, don't you think you are all been lazy even in the act of stealing? If you use your heads very well, you will make more money providing tangible things.  For instance, should you decide on a policy that will move say 10,000 small scale farmers to a mechanized level, don't you think you will make more money from that initiative, using the same resources you are planning to waste on phones that will not get to the farmers? And above all, you will receive several accolades from Nigerians.

Another basic issue to consider also, is that for decades now, the government cannot successfully distribute fertilizers to farmers; their usual claim is that the fertilizers are hijacked by middle men.  On the remote premise that we even agree that the phones are necessary, what guarantee do we have that the same middlemen that have refused fertilizers getting to farmers for decades will not put on their best acts of hijacking the phones again?

Mr President Sir, the actions of our representatives in government are becoming shameful to us, we are finding it very hard to defend you or your actions.  Please stop these nonsensical policies and channel the money to services that are beneficial to Nigerians. A stitch in time, wise men say, saves nine.