Today Nigerian troops are
committed in Mali to fight ‘Islamic
terrorist’ without intellectually
looking at the repercussion of such
an adventure. We all know that
War against terror which Islam also
fights can easily be turned into war
against Islam. There is a thin line
between the two. And if caution is
not taken, the situation can
seriously be dangerous for the
nation and more so for the
government.
One thing is very clear. No nation
on earth can fight Islam and
succeed. A Russian General was
interviewed just before the illegal
bush junior’s attack on Iraq to oust
Saddam Hussein to tap on
Russian’s experiences in
Afghanistan. He said: “I advise the
US not to attack Iraq, because if it
does that, then it will be fighting the
whole Muslims and whoever fights
the whole Muslims will not
succeed”. When I heard those
words myself, I was amused. First I
knew then that Saddam Hussein is
not a favorite of many Muslims, I
therefore wonder who will fight for
him because Iraq is attacked.
Secondly, what weapons do the
Muslims have that the
superpowers cannot defeat in
warfare?
I can now see what he means. The
Soviet Union has fought the
Mujahideen for almost 13 years in
Afghanistan and ended up
disintegrated. Now, the USA is
facing a fatal economic challenge a
similar challenge that made the
Soviet Union unmanageable and
crumbled. The USA has been a
free country where money flows in
and out, where business flourishes
with little hindrances. But the
moment, Bush lied and tried to
attack a sovereign nation, it
frighten all the Muslim states even
those that are moderate from his
recklessness. It also frightened the
Americans from possible backlash
of such an adventure inflaming an
already volatile situation. The end
result is stringent monitoring and
restriction of flow of money in and
out of the country. A self-imposed
umbilical stenosis, a self-imposed
strangulation. Nobody will again
trust the USA, therefore people
now prefer Asia for their business,
medical care and even education.
All this caused by an idiot who has
caused untold hardship for his
citizens and others alike. Today,
Bush jr and his defense ‘Hamana’
Ramsfeild are nonentity even in
their own country, they are not
respected and they will forever be
tormented with the sights of so
many American youth that were
maimed and amputated from the
deceptive war against ‘terror’ they
manipulated.
As for Nigeria, we have seen in the
late 60’s when Maj. Nzeogwu
assassinated the Northern premier
and the subsequent Biafran War
that ensued. Ojukwu in his
declaration of war was point blank
that he was fighting Islam and the
menace of Arabs as he claimed.
The end results were that he
destroyed lives, went to exile and
to date Biafra ceases to exist
except of course in the psyche of
its proponents. And worst still for
him, Islam has reached the sea
shores of the Delta.
This brief chain of events should
be a clear counsel to people
leading Nigeria today; no one can
fight Islam or the Muslims and
succeed. It is futile to attempt. They
will only destroy their own lives and
cause untold hardship to others.
They will be cursed not only by
people they injured but by their
own people as Bush jr is regarded
now in America. Therefore if they
have such plans or are deceived
by some Islam-phobics in their
circles they should reverse their
policies immediately.
I am seriously clouded by doubts
about the intentions Nigerian
leaders in sending troops to Mali
and also the security situation in
the north. Many people are
questioning the militarization of the
north which to me is a disguise. I
Read some excerpts from an
article posted on: www.gamji.com.
Title: Executive Plane Crashes &
Roadblocks By Babayola M.
Toungo (babayolatoungo@
yahoo.co.uk). He said:
“Today most cities in the north look
like conquered territories because
of the high concentration of gun
totting military personnel wherever
one turns. Our society has been
militarised, and if I can borrow
Jerry Rawlings cliché, “violence
have been democratised”, with a
human life costing less than the
cost of the bullet used to kill him.
The soldiers deployed to our cities
and highways have turned out to
be worse than the Boko Haram
fighters it is meant to protect the
people from. The number of souls
lost to the bullets of the soldiers
may be higher than the number of
those killed by the sect members.
Much as the people have been
calling on the authorities for the
withdrawal of the soldiers, the
authorities have turned deaf ears
because they believe the people
are their enemies and must
therefore be shielded from by force
of arms. All this may be a direct
consequence of how our leaders
emerged through fraudulent
means. Apart from the daily lost of
lives caused by the military, the
humiliation our people suffer from
the hands of these uncouth goons
both in the cities and the highways
are terrible, to say the least. I had
the misfortune of travelling to Yola
by road from Kaduna and the way
commuters in public vehicles are
humiliated and intimidated made
me hate being a Nigerian. The
military men manning the
roadblocks behaves no different
from occupation forces we see on
our television sets in Afghanistan,
Iraq and Palestine. Passengers are
asked to come down from their
vehicles and open their luggage for
a public display of their most
personal items. At some
roadblocks, passengers are
ordered to face away from the
vehicle while searches are
conducted. I saw a woman forced
to mow grasses for daring to look
at a soldier while he was searching
their bus. The ‘rule’ is that all
passengers are to turn their backs
to their luggage while it being
searched. Can’t be worse for
Palestinians crossing into Israel.
We ended up making a trip of eight
hours in ten. For those in the
towns, the experiences are far
worse for those using motorcycles.
You are forced to dismount at the
pain of being flogged by the
soldiers at the roadblocks. The
harassments and humiliations
apart, the stupendous amount of
money that goes into maintaining
these roadblocks are mind-
boggling. The monies should have
made a lot of difference in the lives
of our long-suffering compatriots.
With all the ubiquity of the
roadblocks, the bombers – what
they are purportedly created to
stop – are continuing to have a
field day. With the twin bombings in
the heart of the military’s elitist
Cantonment – Jaji – the
uselessness of these roadblocks
have been exposed. They are just
useless money guzzlers and a tool
for the humiliation of the poor who
find it difficult to navigate the
various fierce looking, gun-totting
soldiers, to go looking what to eat.
My point in this piece is for us to
use Yakowa’s death to rethink our
security strategies. Our
government houses have been
turned into fortresses and most
government institutions and
structures are looking like mini
military cantonments all in an effort
to protect our governors,
lawmakers and other public
functionaries. But the architect of
this draconian security policy – the
late Owoye Azazi – died in a
chopper crash. He was “attacked”
by death where you can’t erect a
roadblock. I do not claim to know
much about the man Azazi but I
know him from reputation as the
man indicted for the crime of
unprecedented movement of
military hardware to Niger Delta
militants when he was the General
Officer Commanding (GOC) 1
Mechanised Division, Kaduna. He
went on to head the Army and
retire as Chief of Defence Staff. He
reinvented himself during the
Goodluck Jonathan’s
administration as the National
Security Adviser (NSA) with
enormous powers and influence.
He is no more but his legacies of
roadblocks live with us. The
continued attacks by faceless terror
groups who, for all we know, are
hiding behind the mask of Boko
Haram to perpetrate mayhem in
the north, is a testament to the
failure of these death traps. They
are there simply to degrade and
intimidate poor daily road users
who cannot afford sirens. “ unquote
There is no border sharing
Between Nigeria and Mali. There is
Niger republic, Burkina Faso and
Togo in between. All these nations
did not report of terrorism and
suddenly we read in the news that
‘the Army Chief of Staff (COAS)
Azubuike Ihejirika, who did not
offer evidence, claimed that
terrorists trained in Mali had
already arrived on Nigerian shores.
See: http://saharareporters.com/
news-page/‘terrorists’-mali-seen-
nigeria-army-chief-alleges, Posted:
January 17, 2013 – 22:19.
If what he said is true, then
Nigerian is unnecessarily plunging
itself into a War that will have a
grievous consequence on our
security without any foreseen
benefit. Let us encourage the
Malians tackle their insurgency
peacefully not by taking sides. If
however, the SS&SE (COAS)
wants to use the volatile situation
to build on what his predecessor
Azazi implanted, then we leave him
to posterity. Time will tell.
All we do is to urge Muslims to be
calm, pray full and watchful.
Allah said:
( ﻭﺇﻥ ﺗﺼﺒﺮﻭﺍ ﻭﺗﺘﻘﻮﺍ ﻟﺎ ﻳﻀﺮﻛﻢ ﻛﻴﺪﻫﻢ ﺷﻴﺌﺎ ﺇﻥ
ﺍﻟﻠﻪ ﺑﻤﺎ ﻳﻌﻤﻠﻮﻥ ﻣﺤﻴﻂ )
“and if you are patient and guard
yourselves, their scheme will not
injure you in any way; surely Allah
surrounds what they do.” Q3/120.
May Allah protect us from all evil!
Ameen.