The Scope News had watched some very astute Nigerian journalists interviewing Ashisha Buhari, the wife of the president of Nigeria, while she was for undiclosed reasons supposedly in the Middle East. The core of that interview was that the ladyovertly lambasted the press orps mof the presidency for counter productive and concentrating on the mundane instead of on the core matters. She used the presidency publicity forum on their concentrating on on President Jonathan and some party related activity he was involved as at that point in time in time. Is Jonathan in APC she had asked. What is the interest of the journalists interet in PDP and Joknathan actvities when the are supposed to contrate on the incumbent president and his governance and highlight them.
sadly, no time in the history of Nigeria has a government and its leadership been so shrouded in incompetence. Yes, Jonathans government was encompassed with corruption Therfore Nigerians exercising their franchise had kicked them out and ushered in this Buhari government with so much hifh hopes and grand expections. The joy in Nifgeria when PDP was voted out was boundless.
Now with the nepotism, apathy, corruption, incompetence and unprecended insecurity in Nigeria, the people are now overtly saying that they had made a gross mistake invoting out a corrupt government to replace it with an incompetent and equally corrupt one,
In less than two days, the security representatives of the Federal government of Nigeria has a anounced that they know the sponsors of banditry in the east, and blatantly pointed an accusing at IPOB 9The Indegenous Peopl of Biafra) a group fighting against oppreesion in the east of the country. This is against the same group denouncing the act of violence occuring in the part of the country. Now thi same government has a list of teh sponsors of a group that has been annouced by the UNO as one of the most bloody terrorists in the world and which openly laid claim to thousands of brutal and horrid killing of Nigerias for years now and is sheilding such list.
to think that this government in which a lot of its stake holders are known to be open thieves, has covered these criminals and concentated on persecuting members of the opposition, which we agree to be guilty though, while they left the bloody and blood thirsty one amongst them …..
This selective prosecution is the worst for of terrorism.
When the new Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, promised recently: “I believe that before the rains come you will have witnessed a downward trend in the violence across the country,” little did the average citizen know that the presidency had in its possession a breaking news to announce. Shehu Garba’s statement: “There are a number of people who are currently under arrest, bureaux de change are facilitating money to terrorists. We have already concluded with the UAE on Nigerians who are transferring money to Boko Haram terrorists and this also happens domesticall. I tell you that by the time we conclude this investigation, the shocking details will surprise many Nigerians”, constitutes a significant national news.
Shocked and excited are Nigerians likely to be about the news from the presidency and the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) that the same pool of people funding Boko Haram are also fuelling ban ditry and kidnapping in the country. Although it is premature to jump in the air about the end news, it is, however, salutary once the government acts on it immediately.
The announcement from the presidency is encouraging, as belated as it might seem to victims of terrorism and kidnapping. Citizens’ demand for such intelligence is as old as the launch of Boko Haram terrorism. For example, Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, shortly after the bombing of the UN building in Abuja in 2011, urged President Goodluck Jonathan to use all security and intelligence networks at his disposal to unmask the sponsors of the sect.
And ever since, the media has been emphasising the importance of intelligence in the anti-terror fight. And since six Nigerians were convicted in Abu Dhabi in 2018 for illegal remittance in 2017 of $782,000 from Dubai to Nigeria in support of the terrorist group, the call for hardnosed investigation into internal and international sources of funds for terrorism became more strident.
It is, therefore, significant that the Federal Government has in 2021 successfully followed up on the signal from the UAE trial that sent two Nigerians to life imprisonment, and four to 10 years in jail for illegal remittances to Boko Haram.
But there are concerns about this important revelation from the presidency that the government ought to pay immediate attention to. How wise is the release of partial information about a very sensitive national threat at a time that investigation is still in progress, especially when no specific names are available to the public? Though the news that those behind Boko Haram are also behind bandits and kidnappers, and perhaps, herdsmen’s violence against farmers may not be particularly strange, citizens are still likely to wonder why the presidency would release such shocking news without identifying any of the people under arrest. With the most important detail about the ongoing investigation — identities of citizens in conspiracy with terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers — still under wraps, it is crucial for the government to complete the investigation before the news becomes a fertile source of distractions, speculations, and rumour mongering.
The trauma created by Boko Haram in the past 11 years and tragedy caused for thousands of victims of banditry, kidnapping, and herders’ violence against farmers must be too harrowing for hitherto hidden supporters of agents of destabilization of the country to remain in the dark any day longer. Similarly, the addition of kidnapping and banditry to the list of challenges being funded by invisible agents cannot but continue to worry citizens, should the important investigation become stretched inordinately.
While congratulating the intelligence services for finding a major missing link in the growth of various forms of terrorism in the country, we urge the Federal Government to complete the ongoing investigation into funding of terrorism and other forms of criminality, to enable it prosecute such enemies of the nation.
