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.