By Yero Jallow
It was yesterday that I spent time socializing with some friends and one of them, a Nigerian Muslim. The ugly topic of Boko Haram came at some point right before we did our Asr prayer. I was a bit enlightened about the composition of the group and some of its support pillars within the region. Boko Haram translates that “Western education is a sin.” So, Boko Haram has bases in Nigeria, with larger forces in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and some other areas in that region. Their entity is an evil replica model, a rebel group without moral compass, half-baked lost souls, yearning for importance through terror in the sub region, stemming from some scores they couldn’t settle with authorities in that area . When Islam clearly says even during war, women and children should be protected; Boko Haram is doing exactly the opposite. The use of political agendas to settle scores in this manner and nature is both criminal and uncalled for. It is a shame when politicians with personal agendas masquerade using religion or some other bases to justify their shameful acts. In my humble view, these girls are God’s world citizens first before any other class, and their world citizenship is not an accident. They deserve to live and to be free.
Sources has it that the group started activities around late 2000 and they have been busy organizing and taking big attention-seeking steps to settle scores, the latest is the abduction of close to 300 innocent school girls in the Borno part of Nigeria. The world is stunned! This is a punishable crime, an unforgiveable one, an act that must be confronted with all the might of our repulsion. The group is just wrong and they have no right whatsoever to do that. It is an abomination.
I followed some responses from the Nigerian community, as well as the international community. I like the solidarity, but you wonder if some of these politicians, “The legal gangster” group, are not in fact, a greater part of the world problems. I bet you they are somehow. I have a strong feeling that most of the world problems come from political jealousy, a dire determination to conquer, dominate, exploit and rule the less privileged or least equipped with defense weapons and technical knowhow. That is at least how I feel in many instances, and through my following of world events, I couldn’t convince my strong bias feeling. The politician in power as a leader is a problem and the one that failed to win position is even a bigger problem. The politician in power quickly learns the art of control with the help of man-made constitutions which they themselves created or modeled to suit their agendas and uses whatever advantage to control, to station him or herself for many more years, while hell-bent on making fame, hitting big headlines, with some few development projects, while down in his heart, he knows to protect the glittering throne, and he does everything heavenly possible to make the throne works, using “we” for “I” , “our” for “mine” in an effort to fool and dominate. The latter, loaded with anger and jealousy to the brim of his or her medulla oblongata, have a tendency to have their devilish faces out, and once that happens, that is when they go around hating and destroying for every other decent citizen, just because deep in their mind, they feel very insecure, jealous, and somehow this inner jealousy overshoots through their thinking vents, and that leaves them very empty, knowing that they have lost to be on top of others. An empty politician is more dangerous than a ticking time-bomb. Just look around the whole world and you will at some point come to agreement.
What does the abduction of these young innocent girls have anything to do with the political cause they might be fighting? Or better put, how is this helping Boko Haram win whatever nonsense they are fighting? The answer is Nada.
Here is a choice, and I believe, Boko Haram, somehow, somewhere is going to read my opinion, and you know well you belong to the latter group. Please release these girls to their families, and if you have some political scores to settle, be real Boko Haram, and go fight your cause in a better way. This one is a shame and failed attempt to score political points in your continued attempts to seek political attention.
On that note, I join the rest of you in remembering these victims in thoughts and prayers, for their freedom is way overdue, and the world over should show solidarity in the rescue operation. I am voting to free these girls as their captivity is wrong and they have done nothing to deserve their predicament. Boko Haram must release these girls from captivity and they must submit themselves to justice without delay, and they know time is running out.
Freedom for the abducted world citizens!