Boko Haram: A Letter to President Jonathan

By Msonter Anzaa

SIR, as a student of Medicine, I should not have anything to bother about except of course, the work assigned to me as homework by my Anatomy lecturer. But the Boko Haram is wasting more lives than could ever be done by the diseases I hope to treat. My knowledge of Medicine will be of no use if everyone in Nigeria becomes a corpse. Doctors do not treat corpses. They treat human beings. As a free citizen, I could either choose to bury myself in the lab or do something about this threat. I have chosen to do something, and it is with this at the back of my mind that I write you this letter to suggest ways of handling this crisis and rescuing Nigeria from the grip of sectarian violence.I would like to present my ideas under the following subtitles:

Zoning and the Presidential Election Connection

You may recall Mr President, that following the unfortunate demise of your predecessor, President Umaru Yar’Adua, you became President according to the Constitution of Nigeria. I should not remind you of course, that it was not an easy moment. Various interest groups were not comfortable with the development. They argued that as a Southerner you should not be President when it was the turn of the North according to an informal principle of rotational presidency by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, called zoning. A compromise was reached when you appointed Architect Namadi Sambo, a Northerner, as Vice President. When the 2011 general elections approached, Northern politicians expected an exclusive entitlement to run in order to complete the remaining four years of what was seen as Northern presidency. You ran for the PDP ticket and won quite legitimately, because the Constitution did not stop you. Following this development, the only formidable Northern candidate in the race was Major General Mohammadu Buhari who ran on the CPC ticket. You know the bad blood that followed where some Northern politicians threatened war if Gen Buhari did not win. We are witnesses to the post-election violence that erupted in that region, killing many people including harmless youth corps members. You won. Gen Buhari lost and I leave it to you to decide whether those politicians have delivered on their promise of war or not.

The Boko Haram of course, began before President Yar’Adua died. What every one admits however, is that it has attained a new momentum since you came to office. Since took over, major suicide bombings have rocked the United Nations building, the Police Force Headquarters, the Mogadishu cantonment of the Nigerian Army, all in Abuja; St Theresa’s Catholic Church Madala, the City of Kano as well as pockets of attacks littered here and there throughout North East Nigeria. Mr President, there is a political motive behind these attacks. The individuals who threatened to make Nigeria ungovernable for you are not joking. They have hijacked the vulnerability of the Nigerian population to achieve their demonic aims. While the issue of zoning may exist in the constitution of your party, it is a non-existent issue as far as the Constitution of Nigeria is concerned. You did no wrong by running for President when you did. Your participation must lay to rest the lazy and Gaddafic practice of sitting and waiting for a “turn” to be President. The people of Nigeria have the right to vote in whom ever they want and when ever they want as President, without having to explain to anyone, the reasons for the choice. Beginning from the local governments up to the federal government, we have lazy, incompetent and idea-bankrupt individuals whose only reason for running and evidence of qualification is that it is the office is zoned to their area, or it is the turn of their father’s village. Then you have in Nigeria, a situation where children can not get admission into universities, pregnant women can not deliver safely and graduates can not get jobs; that is when people who want to be President do not talk of their ability to deliver. Instead, they threaten war and whip up sentiments of religious and ethnic groupings.

Look Dr Jonathan, as President of Nigeria, you owe this nation a compulsory duty to defend her vigorously and firmly. You do not have to wait for the ordinary Nigerians to mature politically. That will not happen even in the next fifty years. What zoning does in this country is to promote the “take and chop” philosophy that entrenches corruption and bad leadership. You have to send a clear message to the instigators of this violence. You do not need to be so careful as to fold your hands while hundreds are exterminated from the face of the earth. The reality of democracy is that people are free to make their choices. It is not democracy where “stakeholders” hoping to “cut” the “national cake” take up arms because the people have said no.

Effective Legislation

What we have heard since Boko Haram suspects began being arrested is that there are no sufficient laws for their prosecution. So we have a case where the man who confessed to being a spokesman for the group was convicted and sent to jail for three years. He would leave jail just in time to prepare for the 2015 general elections! The National Assembly must make new laws that prescribe proportionate punishment for the perpetrators of these acts. I believe you have a list of suspected sponsors of the Boko Haram. One difficulty has always been how to get sufficient evidence to arrest these people and put them on trial. You can prepare target bills aimed at making it difficult for these people to operate. A good example of how to do this is found in the apartheid-era legislations targeting the African National Congress in South Africa. For instance, what does the law say about politicians who develop private armies like were called ECOMOG in Borno State? You can send a bill to the National Assembly that makes it mandatory to strip such politicians of their offices or ban them from public office. An anti-terrorism bill of this kind will make it possible to disband the various ethnic militia scattered across the nation. Then you have a case like that of Senator Ali Ndume who is standing trial for alleged involvement with the group. Were a strong law in place, the Senator upon conviction, would be handed a sentence commensurate with the numerous lives lost directly or otherwise as a result of his activities. In the face of new challenges, there must be new laws.

Improvised Explosive Devices

There are reports that the equipment used in these attacks are not really bombs but Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs. Of course, one way to reduce the attacks is to make the IEDs out of reach for Boko Haram. Now, there are important questions here. What are the IEDs made of? Since they are assembled in the country, who assembles them and where? Where do the raw materials come from? Who produces them? Who sells them and where? Who are the people buying these materials? What else are they used for? What this information helps achieve is efficient monitoring of the raw materials for the IEDs. If they are made from groundnut for instance, and groundnut is farmed in Kogi state, then we need to monitor the farms where groundnut is farmed. Who are the farmers? What do we know about them? What do they do with their groundnut? Who are its buyers? What do we know about the buyers and where they take this groundnut? Okay, groundnut is used in making oil and cake used in for food, but it is also used to produce the IEDs that kill these people after they are fed! So what do we do? Can we make laws that ban certain individuals from dealing in groundnut? Or can we create a database of groundnut dealers? Yes, we can register all groundnut farmers in the country and their farms. They could be required to provide a full report of how many sacks they harvest every year and where it is sold or used. We could have an agency that follows the chain from farm to factory and issues acknowledgement documents to dealers whose groundnut is put to peaceful use. This way, it would be difficult for violent people to use the crop for the explosives. The same steps could be taken if the raw materials for the IEDs are imported. Then we can proceed to apply penalties to those who would no follow the regulations.

Enhanced Border Security and Regional Cooperation

Nigeria’s border area is vast and has a reputation for being porous. What this means is that the Nigerian state is not in full control of what and who enter and leave the country. Early this month, a vehicle conveying arms headed for Nigeria was stopped by the Ghanaian authorities. That was one incident, but Mr President, who knows the arms that have entered and continue to pour into the country? This calls for enhanced border security. Your government should recruit and train more border guards to keep an eye on the borders.

One other way is to keep an eye on your citizens. A databank of travelers in and out of Nigeria, if it does not already exist, must be prepared immediately. With information about a person, what he does in Nigeria, where he is going and his mission, we can determine whether that individual is a security risk or not. Recently, it emerged that Boko Haram members underwent training in Somalia under an equally dangerous Islamist militant group, al-Shabab. Now, who are those people? Do we know their names? When did they travel out and when did they return? Who are their friends? Who paid their fares? Who else have they made contact with? Did they have any criminal records before? This kind of Intelligence is used in other countries to ban some fellows from leaving or returning home. It is similar to what the United States uses where it sometimes bans people from certain countries from visiting the US. Remember, Mr President, the experience of being on the terror watch list when Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab attempted to detonate explosives on a US airliner on Christmas day in 2009.

Through regional cooperation, and Intelligence sharing, we can more effectively track down the suspects. Take for instance, the man who currently speaks for Boko Haram; who gave that three-day ultimatum to Northerners in the South and Southerners in the North to leave or be attacked: what do we know about him? How tall is he? What languages does he speak? Have we shared this information with other countries in West Africa? Perhaps he might be the Imam of a popular mosque in Niger, or a teacher at an Islamic school in Chad. Recall that following the Kano bombings, the Police has arrested over 180 Chadians. This emphasizes the need for broader regional cooperation.

Intelligence Gathering

The best anti-terror security tactic is to be proactive. So far, Dr Jonathan, the Nigeria Police has only been reacting to bomb blasts; it has not prevented them. We need information and we must look everywhere and very carefully for it. What have suspects in custody been telling the Police? What names have they been calling? What cities or villages; what house numbers have they been mentioning? Who else have they made contacts with? Who do they do business with? What is the name of their bank? How do they move money? Do we have a law limiting the amount of physical cash that can be moved?

Mr President, you rightly said there are Boko Haram infiltrators in your government and in the security forces. Now, plant your own informants in their ranks too. In the 21st century world today, information is exchanged on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. State Security Service underground agents must go on Facebook and monitor the comments people make. Those who make inciting comments and threaten others on news headlines about Boko Haram: who are they? What do we know about them? Can we watch their movements and activities? This would help foil planned attacks.

Again, look at that – a situation where suspects have been disappearing from Police custody. This can give you a cue about the Boko Haram infiltrators. When Kabiru Sokoto was arrested, how did his supporters know? How did he get into the Borno State Governor’s lodge in Abuja? Who are the people who worship at his mosque? Who gave his supporters information about the movement of the Police team conveying him? Mr President, these questions must be answered. Those collaborators must be prosecuted and if the laws are not there, make them. Imagine what will happen if an inmate escapes from the US Military Detention Centre in Guantanamo Bay. That can lead to the resignation of the Defense Secretary. In Nigeria, a suspect disappears and no one is prosecuted; no one resigns. Then the next day, you hand over new suspects to the same security officers! We have to be serious, Dr Jonathan. Yes, we have to.

State of Emergency

Following the recent suicide attacks including the one on Christmas day at a church, you declared a state of emergency in some local government areas across the North. While it is your exclusive discretion to declare a state of emergency wherever you want, I would like to say given the territorial anonymity of Boko Haram, the emergency should cover the entire North East Nigeria. Then in addition to closing the international borders, cordon off the entire region from the rest of Nigeria. You must agree that it is safer to fight Boko Haram in one region than to do so in every corner of Nigeria. Closing the North East would ensure that the group does not spread to other parts of the country. What I mean by closure of the borders is that there should be intense, detailed 24-hour security check on vehicles and people leaving or coming into the region.

Another step to be taken during the state of emergency is a thorough house to house, no-nonsense, no-safe zone disarmament. You must enable your security forces to search any building or community, any time there is need to retrieve illegal arms or carry out arrests. One way to make this a little easier is to give an ultimatum to all people under the emergency to turn in illegal arms in their possession. Upon the expiry of the ultimatum, tough penalties should be imposed on individuals still caught with arms. Remember, Mr President, that Boko Haram has declared war on the Nigerian state. So what powers does the Constitution say you can exercise when the Republic is at war? Do you have the power to issue proclamations like the Freedom Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 during the American civil war that freed all slaves held in the south of the country? You must use every little power you have creatively in making it hard for Boko Haram and its sponsors to operate.

Reform of Security Agencies

It is self-evident that the Nigerian security forces need be reformed, retrained and re-equipped. As Commander-in-Chief, Mr President, you must have confidence in your security forces. Appointment into the high commands should not be on political patronage. Do you have generals in the Army or officers in the Police who are more loyal to certain individuals than they are to their duties? Sack them! Are there officers who are reluctant to carry out your commands? Do you have those who are running with the rabbits and hunting with the dogs?

There is also need to reform the command structure of the security forces. How long should it take them to respond to reports? How efficient is their response to colleagues in the field who need reinforcement?

Of course, Dr Jonathan, you need to address corruption in the security forces. Do some of them collect bribe and allow arms or even suspects to escape through their check points? Do they leak Intelligence to the Boko Haram? Let a strong precedent be set on this matter; let the reputation be made that you can no longer be disorderly in the security system. This means we have to police the Police.

Fairness to our security forces requires that we acknowledge the sacrifices they have made so far. The news reports are awash with accounts of security officers being shot and killed by gun men all over the place. In the face of this trend, what is the morale among your officers? Do they have sufficient inspiration to give their best? What is their pay package like? Do they have any insurance cover? Do they have safety equipment that enables them do their work with minimum loss?

Self-Improvement

The outcome of every security operation depends to some extent on the character of the commander. Does he have adequate information? Is he confused, or does he have a clear idea of what he wants to get done? You need to articulate a robust policy on Boko Haram, and pursue it through out the life of your administration. What is the aim of the current military engagement? Is it meant to put away every member of the group or to pressure it into negotiating with the federal government? I am sure you understand that the military involvement in itself does not constitute a solution, but can help minimize loss of life and provide the needed environment for a viable solution. The advantage of making clear your policy is that your officers in the field can then be more resolute because of the direction you have given; the Boko Haram will know what options it has, and you can better define your failures and successes.

Of course, as a civilian who has become Commander-in-Chief at this trying moment, you need to take lessons on counter-terrorism in order to creatively understand and use Intelligence reports. You can not rely solely on your advisors. You need to get directly involved and provide leadership and a sense of control. The current situation where a statement is issued only when there is an attack is not good. You do not need to wait for Dr Reuben Abati to come and issue statements. You do not even need to wait for your cabinet. What are your officers on the ground telling you? What successes have they been recording? How many suicide attempts have they foiled? You need to demonstrate to the people of Nigeria that you have the capacity to handle this crisis. So far, I’m afraid you have not. It is not security where you wait for over 180 people to be killed in one day, to issue a statement and deploy troops. That is called inefficiency. Security means your officers working on Intelligence should be able to foil attacks and make preemptive arrests. If Boko Haram realizes that your character is to wait for the ideal text book conditions; if it confirms that you are so caught in the "paralysis of analysis" that you are not going to act quick and firmly, the group will carry out even more daring attacks.

Negotiation and Good Governance

Mr President, there is a fundamental issue behind the Boko Haram Crisis that requires a fundamental solution. There is endemic corruption in your country. There is widespread dissatisfaction among your people. Over the years, government has lost relevance to its own people. The government has remained in Aso Rock, trapped in its own speech-making, budget-making, award-giving, committee-setting and contract-awarding activities while having no impact on the lives of the people of Nigeria. Down the ladder, your people are trapped in poverty, unemployment, lack of education opportunities and various economic injustices. Why is it impossible for your young ones who desire education to get it? Why is it that the wealthier Nigeria gets, the poorer her people become? The answer to this question is corruption. The government is so rooted in corruption that it has become numb to the aspirations of its people. The reputation down here is that the only language the government hears is violence. You can write all the reports, but government will not hear. If you do not take up arms, you will not get attention. Instead, the government will set up and endless chain of committees and review committees when all that is needed is sincere and timely action. Your people have been pushed to the war, Mr President. In some places, the only evidence that there is a government in Nigeria is the Radio Nigeria network news! This situation is unsustainable.

You will have to negotiate with Boko Haram. When you would have reduced their militant resolve through your military efforts, it would be time to call them to the negotiation table. Look Dr Jonathan, these people are human beings who also want peace. It will be a mistake to expect that they will bow to the military. They can not, when the fundamental issues that pushed them to war have not changed.

Your government must build trust and confidence. It must open its hands and enthrone discipline and transparency. You must put an end to the era of coming to government to “take and chop”. You need to continue with electoral reform to create a truly democratic system where leaders can be held accountable by their people. The government of Nigeria must be present in the lives of its people.

Conclusion

Though Boko Haram began its activities before you became President, political activities have since then fueled its most recent attacks. The security system needs be reformed and made proactive. When the group would have given up its arms and accepted an amnesty; when peace would have once again been restored to this country, you must move quickly and address the fundamental issues of injustice, corruption and bad governance. You must make Nigeria a place where citizens can live in peace, represented by responsive governments and hope to earn a decent living from the effort of their hands. As you implement all these, Mr President, pray for God to stand by you.

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