Abia 486: DHQ in the eyes of the Northerner

THURSDAY Column by Ali M. Ali

aliyumaliyu@yahoo.com

I just ponder and wonder. Is the Nigerian Army a   state sponsored ‘terror’ organisation? Between the army and the Department of State Services (DSS), ordinary northerners have been mowed down on unfounded suspicions that they are Boko Haram elements than any other time in our history. Each time it happened, the dead became mere statistics.

 I am a  full blooded Nigerian. I am also a northerner. These two traits defined me but thankfully they don’t define my world view or outlook. But today, I would like to deconstruct the Nigeria Defence Headquarters (DHQ) through the eyes of a northerner.

For the umpteenth time, the Nigerian Army has demonstrated that it   is all brawns, no brains. God help all of us. The arrest and subsequent labelling of 486 hapless northerners travelling across the  east  as ‘insurgents’  is a  further demonstration that indeed, the Defence Headquarters ( DHQ) is peopled by clueless red necks with the intelligence of zombies. Knowing that they are zombies lacking in rational thought, I will not, altogether, be surprised if this newspaper and its editors are hounded any moment on account of this piece. I am as certain of this as   the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. This column will be seen as ’embarrassing’ the military. Its red necks will go further. They will yell for my head. They would  raise their fist, ’flex’ muscles, no doubt, because they have run out of  ideas to   cover up their gross incompetence in counter insurgency. In their warped logic, brawns not brains are all it takes to silence ‘busybody’ commentators and the media.

Well, I am not going to lose sleep over that. In case those red necks didn’t know, only the uninformed live in awe of their might. Those  armed scoundrels called Boko Haram  in the North-east have systematically  demystified the pot bellied  bull necks  savouring the conditioned air in cosy offices at the Defence Headquarters posing as ‘Generals’.

The elders and youth of Borno for instance, don’t believe there is an army. If there were, the rebellious elements bandying the name of God for their bloody campaign wouldn’t be stalking their land baying for blood. Today marks the  66th  day since their daughters were abducted by lunatics fighting for an unheard cause. The response of the national army was  grandstanding. Before the bubble burst, they hawked  a spin that the girls have been  gallantly rescued. It turned out a fat lie. Lacking in shame, they passed the buck to citizens and parents. Let me make a distinction here. The soldiers in the front line of fire are courageous patriots. We owed them a lot for sacrificing lives and limbs for motherland. The rotund belly, beefy  cheeks officers in DHQ are mere merchants expressly driven by profit.

If they can’t engage insurgents, soft targets like northerners travelling east come in handy. What does it matter? All northerners are Boko Haram elements by the twisted logic of DHQ. There is also another ‘soft’ target-the press.

Penultimate week, the Army flexed its wizened muscles in dealing with unarmed civilians. It clamped down on newspapers and radio stations it said were poised to ‘embarrass’ it. For three consecutive days, the army routinely bloodied by elements of Boko Haram, found its balls waylaying circulation vans and seizing copies. Being numskulls, the DHQ advanced a laughable reason for the siege. I am pretty certain; the reason must have sounded incredulous even to its originators. They said such vans were being used to transport arms. I am still laughing. Newspapers circulation vans used to circulate arms? Haba!!! I am bewildered.

A frenzied search proved otherwise. An intelligent army, at this juncture, will let go but not this one. Currently, intelligence is in short supply in our brawny army. All the copies were seized and probably destroyed. Another day, all the papers were prevented from being circulated in Abuja and elsewhere in the country .On the third day, they were similarly disallowed.

Curiously all the seized newspapers except one are located in Abuja. So also the radio stations. All media organizations, except one, the army boots trampled upon are owned by northerners. All the media organizations have dared to expose the rot in the military. A d the bigger rot that in the government led by Ebele Jonathan. They dared to be different.

I am truly baffled that a rag tag army of misguided youths appear to have superior fighting strategy to a standing army run by a rich nation where $20 billion is missing and the president doesn‘t give a ‘damn’. This brings me to the grim conclusion. The fight against insurgency has become a white elephant project. The top guns who execute it will, naturally, wish it doesn’t end. Given the horrendous amount of money spent as made public by the finance minister, they will pray that it lasts forever.

The expose has become an ill wind that has blown no good to the fat cats. They are under pressure. Tongues are wagging. Questions are being asked. What to do? Ambush some northerners travelling in search of livelihood in the east and label them ‘insurgents’.

Let’s call a spade by its name. The top guns in DHQ are fat cats feeding fat on our collective misery as represented by Boko Haram. I repeat for the umpteenth time. Boko Haram is evil. Its ideology is unknown to man. Its adherents are lunatics.

DHQ by the Abia arrests may have started a process that they can’t control. The idea of apprehending a kingpin among the hundreds of innocent  travellers arrested in Abia  after thought to cover this great gaffe. It very much reminds me of the Chibok fantasy rescue. As a northerner I have since ceased to believe DHQ. Baffling is that superintendents of the defence portfolios are mostly northerners but are eerily silent in the face of this injustice. Mark my words. It will haunt them here or in the hereafter.