In mid 2009, a misguided cleric, Mohammed Yusuf was killed while in the hands of a police with no conscience beyond its pockets. This gave rise to the unprecedented insurgency, which began in 2010 in the northeast with a level of destruction in both human and material never seen in these parts of the woods. It is estimated that well over twenty thousand lives were lost in this madness. All because of the stubbornness of a semi-illiterate preacher; the ill-informed decision by community leaders to allow such miscreants thrive among their communities; the passivity and docility of the ordinary citizen and the cold complicity of the government of the day. What started, as a local bushfire quickly became a conflagration that nearly consumed the whole of the northeast. For almost seven years now, all commercial and productive activities around the zone have been grounded to a halt.
What Mohammed Yusuf started in Maiduguri engulfed the whole of Borno, Yobe and the northern parts of Adamawa states. The three states suffered the indignity of being placed under state of emergency for three years – at a point of time there was no even telephone connection with the outside world. While the Goodluck Jonathan “locked-up” the states from civilization Yusuf’s disciples, now under the leadership of a megalomaniac had a field day killing, maiming, raping, looting and generally destroying the zone. When the government decided to lift the emergency, the rest of the world were shocked to discover that during the emergency period, the insurgents had gained control of twenty seven local governments in the three states. The northeast may take another thirty years and a miracle to get back its pre 2009 status.
This introduction is necessary for us to begin to understand how those who court trouble and those who give succor to brigands may end up destroying what they spent a lifetime building. I have condemned the invasion of Mohammed Yusuf’s compound by the military in Maiduguri in 2009 and his subsequent killing by the police. I have also condemned the behavior of the local community for allowing itself to be cowed by jobless youths under the influence of an attention seeking man ready to play Russian roulette with their lives. The biggest culprits in my opinion on the macabre dance that the insurgents have been putting the northeast in these years are the community leaders, the late Mohammed Yusuf and the local community in this order. Yusuf, never in his wildest, dreams ever believed that he would be executed like a common thief by the same authorities that have been hands-in-gloves with him. The youth whom he gave hope to, scattered in to the jungles and wilderness of Sambisa to become fodder for a maniac’s delusions. Their host communities paid and are still paying the price of their folly of being tacitly complicit by keeping quiet while the insurgents were building their arsenals. While their able bodied men were killed or maimed, their women were either killed, abducted into slavery, including sex slavery their young ones were maimed and sent to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.
The Nnnamdi Kanu drama in the southeast is giving one a sense of déjà vu. Much as my humanness is telling me everybody is wrong about what is unfolding in the southeast, my practical self is urging me towards condemning the Igbo intelligentsia in egging this reincarnation of Mohammed Yusuf into taking the zone to the brink. Those behind him may be thinking they are playing politics with what is happening in the zone, but are we all ready to live with the consequences of the acts of provocation going on right at this moment in some states of the southeast? A confrontation between the military and followers of Mohammed Yusuf during a funeral procession by the sect lead to the unending insurgency we are going through in the northeat with all its attendant consequences. In their imprudent ways they believe thy can dare the military and go scot free. Their miscalculation led us to where we are. Under president ‘Yar Adu’a the military was given the matching orders to bring Yusuf down. Miaduguri never witnessed the kind of bombardment that visited this commercial town in its entire history.
I see Mohammed Yusuf’s parallel in Nanmdi Kanu and Maiduguri elders in the Ohanaeze – the main difference is that those Borno elders did not come out to support Mohammed Yusuf like the Igbo leadership and intelligentsia are doing. I see an analogy between the funeral procession in Maiduguri that triggered the troubles in the northeast and the confrontation between the military and IPOB in Umuahia. With the on-going insurgency in the northeast, which still manifest in form of suicide bombings, the people of the southeast will be well advised to rein-in Kanu and his bunch of brigands. The fire lit by his followers by attacking northerners in the Oyigbo community of Port Harcourt on September 12th, 2017 portends grave danger to the zone. The Igbos, being itinerant, may bear the wrath of their host communities and this may have ripple effects. The innocent may be the only ones who will suffer while those who stoke the fire are cocooned in their comfort zones.
Part of the current face-off with the military in the zone is the presence of the military on the streets of ‘Igboland’. So what is new? Ihejirika and Minimah turned the whole north into one big garrison for four years between 2011 – 2015 and no one raised a finger from any part of the country to condemn the militarization of the northern society. Gun totting, trigger happy military personnel molested the populace with abundance in these four hardy years. But it all came to pass and no one called either Jonathan or his two military chiefs names. Houses were searched in the dead of the night for illusive weapons.
The futility of the threats and ultimatum issued to the military appear lose to those who issue such threats – if the military refuse to vacate the streets what then? Raising the decibel of your whining? Playing to the gallery while the lives of people is on the line is callous, no matter from what prism you are looking at it.
Can you ever learn from history?
Toungo wrote this piece from Abuja.
