MEND AND BOKO HARAM: ANOTHER POSER FOR JOS MAYHEM

MEND AND BOKO HARAM: ANOTHER POSER FOR JOS MAYHEM

Our leaders should not be quick with utterances that would serve nobody any good. When on October 1, 2010, there were bomb blasts near the 50th Independence celebration arena in Abuja, MEND claimed responsibility. But President Goodluck was quick to counter that it was not MEND because, according to him, “since they have one of their own (himself) as the President for months now”. From any angle you look at the President’s utterance, it was idiotic in the sense that while holding his view, the same President sought the assistance of South African government to prosecute the head of the MEND, Mr. Henry Okah.

It later got exposed that President Jonathan’s aides, including Mr. Uranta, tried persuading Henry Okah to recant responsibility of the blasts so that it could be put on the shoulders of some northerners who do not want Jonathan in the 2011 presidential elections. When this failed, the Security Agents then went into action leading to the arrest of another brother of Henry, Mr. Charles Okah who is also standing trial in Nigeria with some others.

The death toll of the October 1st bomb blasts is a far cry to what we have so far witnessed at Christmas Eve in Plateau State wherein more than eighty (80) innocent souls were wasted in bomb blasts. I am appealing to the Sultan of Sokoto and others who have started dismissing the claim of an Islamic group that go by name Jama’atu alhus sunnah lid da’awati wal jihad (but labelled Boko Haram). Before the table turns as in the Jonathan’s utterance, let the Security Agents concentrate in locating the self-confessed perpetrators of the heinous crime. The Boko Haram (Jama’atu alhus sunnah lid da’awati wal jihad) says it did it and some people are saying Boko Haram did not do it? What sort of society are we living in?

Everything boils down to the fact that Governor David Jang has no business still staying as governor. President Jonathan seems also to have abandoned immediate needs (security, power, etc) of Nigerians which he promised to face; he is now facing his quest to contest the 2011 elections. Both cannot go on together, successfully.

Mutum Yahaya Bello, University of Jos, Jos, Plateau State.