Boko Haram members
Boko Haram members
Boko Haram, Kidnappers and Slain Nigerian
Soldiers
By Saleh Ibrahim Bature
It is saddening that the peace we enjoyed with the beginning of
President Muhammad Buhari’s administration in the northeast is
about to be shattered by the recent deadly Boko Haram attack in
Metele, Gajiram and Mamati in Borno state. The BBC Hausa had
reported that 53 soldiers and farmers were killed in the state
following a 3-day fierce battle between Boko Haram and soldiers.
Other sources put 100 as the death toll of our soldiers from the
Boko Haram attack. The macabre video of the attack has gone viral.
The horrible sight of our soldiers being killed by the terrorists
Boko Haram is an eye soar. This is one assault too many. I hate to
watch the video again. In fact, I regret watching it in the first
place. It is disturbing and demoralizing to our soldiers to see
their colleagues being pursued and killed by terrorists. This is a
sad moment for Nigeria.
At the time when Boko Haram is attempting to prove its fighting
capability by ambushing and killing our soldiers, Kidnappers in
Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna states in the north western part of
Nigeria are having a field day. Victims are killed, raped and
subjected to dehumanizing treatment by their captors. It is true
that people can endure poverty, but cannot endure persecution and
killing of their loved ones. This is the lesson we have to
learn.
Worthy of mention is the pathetic story of the girl who
dissuaded her father from giving a ransom for the exchange of her
freedom to her captors. In a voice laden with emotion, the girl
narrated the dehumanizing sexual abuse she had suffered and
therefore kicked against the payment of ransom to her captors by
her dad. Death, she said, is better than the shame and humiliation
she had been forced to bear in the hands of merciless criminals.
You can imagine if that helpless and innocent victim were you
mother or daughter.
Nigeria is on the edge. The precarious security situation in the
country demands for caution by the Nigerian Citizens and more
resolute action by our soldiers. Nigeria is a strange country. It
is perhaps the only country in the world where citizens will
shamelessly celebrate the humiliation of their soldiers by
terrorists. We take delight in condemning the soldiers for failing
to end Boko Haram violence. The truth is that there is no country
in the world that ends terrorism. I subscribe to the opinion that
calls for a change of tactics in our collective fight against the
monster Boko Haram. Without the soldiers in the flashpoints,
deescalating Boko Haram and Kidnapping will be a pipe dream. We
should therefore motivate them, share their grief and pray for
their colleagues who died in depending the nation and for you and I
to leave in peace.
Saleh Ibrahim Bature
Abuja