What do the Nigerian people have to do to be heard by their government?
As you read this, President Jonathan is busy trying to impose amnesty on a bloodthirsty jihadist group that feels insulted by the idea.For all we know, the recent bloodbath in Baga — 200 bodies and still counting — may be partly Boko Haram’s way of avenging the slur! But the more frenzied the holy warriors’ killing and maiming spree in the name of a merciful Allah, the stronger the commitment to dialogue with them. Admittedly, the precedent was set by Jonathan’s deceased boss, Umaru Yar’Adua, with his programme of amnesty for militants of the Niger Delta who had taken to arms, kidnapping and sabotage to press home their demands forfiscal federalism, also known by the misleading shorthand “resource control.” Still, it is clear that the aims of one militant struggle, its excessesnotwithstanding, can be met by constitutional means, and those of the other only by scripture.
So the answer to the questionthat begins this essay is obvious: the people must takeup arms, form themselves intomilitias, and wage murderous campaigns that lay waste to entire neighbourhoods, towns and regions. Only bloody violence, for Nigerian governments do not hesitate to crush peaceful protests with tanks and bullets. For merely singing and drinking “pure water” in the streets, Jonathan rolled out the tanks to quell the January 2012 petroleum subsidy scam protests. If “we, the people” are to be heard, we must speak with guns and bombs and oceans of blood in our hands.
Even better if we can block the flow of petro-dollars to the treasury or render an entire region of the creaky republic ungovernable. Reminds you of that time-wornphrase, “the balance of forces,” and it explains the government’s double standards in its treatment of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra. While Jonathanbends over backwards to placate Boko Haram, he is vigorously prosecuting MASSOB’s leader, Ralph Uwazurike, together with six of his comrades, for treason. So amnesty for Niger Delta militants and Boko Haram but death for MASSOB because … well, MASSOB is not shutting down oil wells nor trying to establish with bombs, bullets and tears the New Jerusalem east of the Niger.
What, then, is Jonathan tellinglaw-abiding citizens if not thatthey must first become bloodthirsty militants before he listens to them? Otherwise,why has he been so eager to set up advisory panels on every imaginable problem but the most important: that ofmaking a genuine nation out ofthe mere “geographical expression” or “mistake of 1914” called Nigeria? In just three years, Jonathan has setup so many committees it is hard to keep count. A partial list: the General Danjuma presidential advisory council on ways of cutting the behemoth federal government to size; the Justice Belgore committee on review of outstanding constitutional issues; the Adamu Fika committee on review of the reform processes in the Nigerian public service; the Lateef Adegbite committee on public awareness on (sic) security and civic responsibilities; the Steve Oronsaye committee on rationalization and restructuring of federal government parastatals, commissions and agencies, essentially a replication of theDanjuma committee; the SheikhAhmed Lemu panel on the civil disturbances that trailed the 2011 general elections; the panel of governors of the Niger Delta to strengthen the Niger Delta Development Commission and make it accountable; the Nuhu Ribadu special task force on petroleum resources, as well as several ministerial and legislative committees.
On 4 April, Jonathan set up a committee to advise him on “the feasibility or otherwise” of granting amnesty to Boko Haram. Twenty days later, he constituted the Turaki implementation committee in the hope of restoring peace tothe northern region.
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