by Deji Adeyanju

Many of you will be wondering why this question. It is a question that must be asked due to the prevailing circumstances in our nation. The loyalty and activities of some individuals, organizations, social groups and also media houses deserves to be questioned in the ongoing war against terrorism. They have been making comments and writing articles that are overtime indicative of a degree of sympathy towards terrorism against the National Security of Nigeria. That some Nigerians are on the payroll of terrorists to run down the military is no longer contestable reasoning.

The disposition and zeal with which they propagate the false victories of Boko Haram and the swiftness at which they castigate and wanting to demoralize our military at all cost leave little to conclusion as to what part of the arena these group of people are cheering from. In a latest development, these unpatriotic Nigerians went online to celebrate the “fake resurfacing” of Shekau II-the impostor, who was killed in the battle of Konduga without first watching the video. While the video have been found to be a contrived piece to deceive unsuspecting Nigerians, these folks have refused to listen to wise counsels.

We are indeed in a critical time and those giving media leverage to terrorists are pretending not know the implications of their actions. Let them learn from the ignoble role played by the media Sierra Leone. Unfortunately all those who wrote to cast aspersion on the military and leadership of that country ran away when the rebels entered Freetown. Otherwise, how else do we explain a situation where they are so swift in declaring the negligible /intangible progress of Boko Haram but feel so reluctant in mentioning the tremendous victories of our troops especially when it’s too obvious for them to either deny or ignore. They practically refused to tweet or write about the victories of our Soldiers recently in Borno and Adamawa States. When they did, it was done with deceit and fault-finding.

It is now clear that there are those Nigerians who have pitched their camp with the axis of evil to undo our nation; while the rest are honest and patriotic Nigerians who are daily desirous of terrorism coming to a quick.  One would have thought that if there is a party to cheer, it should be the Nation’s military; if there is propaganda to promote it should be to the advantage of our military; and if there is any party that should be targeted for demoralization, it should be without thinking the Boko Haram sect.

A reference point is the Punch newspaper which has summed up the promotion of false reports as a defeatist strategy for our Military. What it seeks to achieve by taking this position, only God knows. Recently, a Punch columnist, Temitayo Famutimi, who has been very consistent in the hatchet job against the military, twisted a tweet of Defense Spokesperson, General Chris Olukolade, to suit his objective to discredit the army at all costs.

Famutimi regularly sieves through news concerning our military, apparently looking for any version that will serve the interest of a paid master. Instead of an attack on our Military to be regarded as an attack on our nation and the citizens, the Punch has elected to support Boko Haram through its publications against Nigeria. Pa Aboderin will be weeping in his grave on how badly a newspaper that was once the darling of all Nigerians has deeply descended into the abyss.

Characteristic of Famutimi, out of the numerous responses of General Olukolade during an online Twitter Interview (TweetMeet) on September 28, 2014; this writer went ahead to create a false and alarming headline from one of the tweets – “BOKOHARAM LOOTING OUR ARMOURY”-DHQ. This was all that Punch could create as its headline on September 30, 2014, out of all the courageous and heartwarming information given by Olukolade. The newspaper went further to explain its false position:” Defense Headquarters has said it is aware that members of the outlawed Islamic sect Boko Haram, are in the habit of looting its armory.” What an unpatriotic and wicked way of reporting against a nation.

This was a tweetmeet that received the commendation of Nigerians all over the world and some foreigners. This writer created a reasonable time to go through all the tweets to pick the one that will serve a vested interest. To put it straight, this is the response of Gen. Olukolade to a tweet asking if Boko  Haram has access to our arms” : “@GENOlukolade: @BlessinAbundant We are taking measures to ensure that our Armouries are secured. We agree & are aware BH has stolen arms #VictoryForNigeria”. And he went further to explain how these arms might have been stolen and some coming in through our borders. He explained that the military is working to see that this is curtailed; all of this you can read from Nairaland.

It is now very clear as to why that pertinent question especially in a time like this when we are trying to truly understand who the apologist and proponents of Boko Haram are amongst us. Let Punch Newspaper know that Nigerians are seriously worried over its role and it should quickly desist from this.  The Spokesman saw this coming, when he responded to another tweet, saying:

Therefore, was this move by the Punch an act to strengthen our military? May be one of those acts of demoralizing antics the General made reference to in order to create anger towards our military.  Obviously, this wasn’t the first time of Punch. Now if that is the case, to what advantage is this move if not to strengthen Boko Haram by demoralizing our military and making Nigerians to despise them to their own detriment. The Punch Newspaper need to clarify its cold war with the Nigerian Military before things get out of hands.

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Deji Adeyanju writes from Abuja and can be contacted on Twitter @adeyanjudej9.

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.