If there was going to be any iota of sympathy or allowance left for the terrorist group going by the name Boko Haram, or whatever, they lost it with me and I hope for any other right thinking person on earth when penultimate Saturday (July 6) they went murdering 29 schoolchildren and a teacher of the Government Secondary School in Mamudo village near Potiskum, Yobe State.
The bastards (permit the use for they must be ones) invaded the school, setting fire on the hostels and shooting fleeing pupils. A horrified President Goodluck Jonathan described the attack as “barbaric, horrific and wicked”. He then went on to pronounce that they would go to hell when they die.
“Anybody,” the president is quoted to have said, “who will target innocent children for any kind of grief (grievance) will certainly go to hell.” I’d like to add that it is not just hell but the hottest part of hell is reserved for those who carried out that Saturday horror!
And may their hell start here on earth since we don’t know much about the next: may the fleas of a thousand camels infest the armpit of each and everyone of them and may leprosy chop off all their fingers so they cannot scratch the itch; may a colony of Acanthamoeba keratitis (Eye-eating parasite) infest their eyes and gorge them out while they are on earth; may they all turn blind, dumb, deaf, and paralysed on earth; may their limbs get eaten off slowly by the worst form of disease; may they spend the rest of their days crawling on their bellies; and may no human or god show them mercy.
Only the other day, my brother Okey Ndibe, literary icon and professor in a US university, posted a picture on his Facebook page. It was of two children, each probably no more than six years old, strolling under the tropical sun; holding hands, innocent and blissful. There couldn’t have been a more beautiful photograph. I looked at the picture, the usual tears of emotion welling in me. Then I added my comment, as if a foreboding of Saturday the July 6, wondering how anyone with a human heart could look at children such as these and choose to blow them off the earth!
And to think this latest of their inhuman acts came at a period of some supposed “amnesty” or “ceasefire” negotiation! What could be on their minds? What message was this meant to send?
True these animals have, right from the beginning, stated that they are up in arms against “Western education” – from which their name derives. And destroying of places of “Western education” could then be seen as understandable fallout. But to then deliberately murder scores of schoolchildren? Haba!
Which also makes one unable to completely absolve the high-powered Joint Task Force suffusing the state (especially upon the Federal Government’s declaration of a State of Emergency) of culpability. I should think that even an ordinary boy scout like me would imagine all educational institutions, particularly those with boarding facilities (and how many are there for Allah’s sake in an educationally challenged state like Yobe?), are high targets for a lawless group that ab initio stated their mission is to wipe out “Western education” from their society!
However, before now, all sorts of nonsense excuses and “justifications” have been propounded by sophists who like to think these Boko Haramites are human beings: O, it’s a result of the extreme economic deprivation they suffer; O, it’s because Niger Delta militants are getting so much and Boko Haram’s northeast part of the country is neglected; O, it’s the disparity in the social and economic conditions of the country that fuels it; O, this; O, that; ad nauseam.
Questions have been asked before and we can now ask them again: are these animals called Boko Haram Nigerians? Do they live amongst us? Are they identifiable or are they “ghosts”, animal ghosts?
One thing is clear; they cannot exist in a vacuum or obscurity such that no one would know who they are, where they sleep, etc. It has been said, and I agree, that terrorists succeed only to the degree of the persuasion, indulgence, or collaboration of the bulk of their people. If the people do not want them, then they have no hiding place. And if they are invaders from foreign land, shame on the country if we cannot defend our territory against these evil marauders.
Cut my story short: after that Saturday, July 6 dastardly act, no more meaningless negotiation, no silly amnesty, nothing, for the “animals in human skin” (apology to the great Fela).
Let them be told: those young innocent kids of Mamudo they killed are my children; those kids are the children of Nigeria; those kids are our future. To so kill them in the manner they have done, this Boko Haram people (sorry, animals) have killed me! Dem no go die beta – insha Allah!
Jimi Solanke’s literary exploration
On July 4 Nigeria’s foremost folklorist, Jimi Solanke, came all the way from his Ile-Ife base to Lagos for the launch of his new book titled, Ancient & Modern Tales, with a Foreword by Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature, Professor Wole Soyinka.
The venue was appropriately the new Lagos State’s Freedom Park, an imaginative arty restoration of the old Broad Street Prison into a romantic garden, historical museum and recreational centre rolled into one. It takes a government of ideas to do what Babatunde Fashola’s Lagos State has done to that historic site.
In the days of yore, it housed the dreaded prison famed for its most distinguished inmate, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, way back in the early 60s. The prison subsequently went into decline and disuse, eventually becoming habitation for unimprisoned delinquents and wretches who shared it with wild rodents, snakes, etc.
Making my way through the impossible Ibadan-Lagos motorway (a misnomer, though better than the more ludicrous “expressway”) I got to the venue well past the launch proper but caught up with the after launch thrill of Jimi entertaining an assemblage of old actor folk like Larry Williams (who I hadn’t seen in over two decades) and Dejumo Lewis; friends like Segun Odegbami, Femi Esho, Yinka Alakija, and so on; Jimi’s ever youthful and beautiful wife, Toyin; and many others.
The book reviewer, Tunde Ogunsanwo, Professor of Analytical / Environmental Chemistry, did a dissection of the book, like he was pouring a solution unto a compound in his chemistry lab, highlighting every aspect of the innovative style – a creative montage of folklore, culture, traditional religion, and humanity; dealing with issues such as: Ogun, Ori, Egungun, Emere, Baba Ifa, Ologomugomu, Egbere, Afinja, Etu, Alaari, Almajiris, Unknown Pastor, OsupaIjio, Bamubamu Ni Mo Yo, Ijapa Tiroko, etc.
As Ogunsanwo noted, “It is a combination of Creative Art, Historical Articulation, Fashion, Cultural Rejuvenation, Folklore, and Subtle Activism.
“JimiSolanke has once again demonstrated in this book, just as he has consistently done in his songs, his superb skill of relating the past to the present. In so doing, he takes his readers to live the past and suddenly wake to the present…
“Clarity of expression is the reason I love this book, because not only does the author make you to see the things he sees, he makes you feel the things he feels…It is a book that will always remind us of our origin, our virtues, our strength and our identity.”
Congratulations, Baba Agba!