Tell it to Mr, President

By Violet Austin

It could have been me, my friends and room-mates found head-less in our dormitory. It could have been Janet’s head found bodiless. It just could’ve been Asenath found armless, or Labake, limbless. It could’ve been me roasted beyond recognition or my bunk-mate’s body shattered beyond imagination by a chain-saw and before her own very eyes. It could be me asked to try identifying my classmates amidst roasted bodies.

It could my first year in high school. I could be my parents ONLY child. I could be the very first person with an opportunity to attend high school from my clan. I could be a very promising young student; one with the brightest of futures. It could be me helplessly watching my life come to a tragic end. It could be me pleading earnestly for my life to be spared. It could be just anybody tortured to death.It may be my body buried in parts. It just may be your next-door neighbour in the hospital suffering third-degree burns, and even praying for death to end his agony! It could be this same wall I post on today filled and overflowing tomorrow with goodwill notes, R.I.Ps and “Till We Meet Again” epitaph. It just could be my father receiving millions of flowers and condolence messages.

The level of devastation and misery members of the Boko Haram sect have unleashed in the North-eastern geo-political zone over a period of 6 years is better heard of than experienced. 6 years now gone; how much longer will these evil-doers reign?

As an alumna of F.G.G.C, Potiskum (F.G.C , Buni Yadi’s sister-college), I’m making a candid and urgent appeal to fellow concerned compatriots to tell Mr. President the situation is more tragic than what the press says. Tell him that he has not handled it as bravely as he should. It takes an angry man to confront a situation zealously and evidently, Mr. President is not yet enraged by the status quo. He is only pained. That is why instead of tackling the causes, he’s remedying the consequences! Dear reader, if you see him, do inform him also that the boko haram sect is unrelenting and they’re leaving no stone unturned in their calamitousness; and while he’s wining and dining and savouring the “year-long” centenary merriment, some people are unremittingly devising the next technical means and place to attack.

Boko haram means business! Carnage is the first of their 2-point agenda, and until the national government places the sect on top priority, any hope of this evil coming to an end will continue to remain the pipe dream it has always been. For crying out loud, local government areas in Borno state about 5 decades of creation and more than 4 decades of continuous development are on a case of serial destruction! I don’t mean destruction that would require just billions as panacea! You see the news! You read the dailies! You know it yourselves.

That’s destruction beyond recall. The virtual polity has lost trust in the government’s ability to bring these monsters to their knees and secure innocent human lives. Believe me, it will require more than “President Jonathan condemns massacre in Yobe”, condolence notes, promise-filled speeches and financial restitution to regain that trust.

Violet Austin wrote in from Yobe state