by Michael Orodare

The Northern leaders have failed their people and the unborn generation will find it hard to forgive them for this generational flaw. Their sin; under their watch and nurturing, Boko Haram sect grew out of hands into an international terrorist group

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“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”- Barack Obama

I hate the Boko Haram sect with passion! Like seriously, don’t see me as sounding too emotional, but I know every right thinking Nigerian also hate the Boko Haram sect.

Like a Yoruba adage says “if your neighbour is eating a bad insect, and you fail to warn him, his groaning won’t let you sleep at night”, when these boys started their profane teachings, will the Northern leaders now casting aspersion on the Federal Government deny being aware of their escapades?

A Yoruba adage also says “an Iroko plant should be cautioned while it is still young, because when it finally grows into a big tree, it becomes uncontrollable and starts demanding for rituals”. Now that the Iroko tree has matured into a big tree, extending its tentacles beyond what can be curtailed, those who were supposed to keep watch over it and not allow it to go out of hands are now crying foul, pointing accusing fingers at the Federal Government in Abuja which has little role to play in how you put your house in order at the local level.

We are always swift in our 140-characters feat of rhetoric, political statements, patriotic and psuedo-patriotic reactions to berate the Federal Government and its security apparatus whenever the evil men of Boko Haram launch an attack, good, but have we found time to question the northern leaders, whose sons are hell bent on turning the Northern region to a desolate area?

Have we sincerely asked what they’ve done or are doing to caution their sons when they started exhibiting traits of terrorism? They saw those boys, now men, when they were holding crusades, going from door to door teaching and feeding the gullible people with their barbaric doctrines, yet they didn’t call them to order then, or call the security operatives to caution them, now just like the Yoruba adage, ‘the iroko tree has grown beyond caution, it is now demanding rituals we can’t afford’. That’s what you get when you are insensitive to strange activities in your neighbourhood.

Truth is, the Northern leaders didn’t take meaningful actions to curtail those boys before they got out of hand, they fold their arms and continue to look the nation battle a tiny minority of people drawing negative attention to the nation from the international community.

I do not blame them though, it all seems the so called Northern elder statesmen are not bothered about the killings and maiming going on at their doorstep, but they are more concerned about how one of their sons becomes the next President in 2015. Their vituperations are always centred on how power must shift to the North.

The Northern leaders have failed their people and the unborn generation will find it hard to forgive them for this generational flaw. Their sin; under their watch and nurturing, Boko Haram sect grew out of hands into an international terrorist group, it is a shame and failure of leadership on their part.

The dream of young Muhammed to become a medical doctor in the future has been thwarted, likewise the dream of young Umar of becoming a lawyer, little Abdulkareem’s dream of becoming a teacher has been thwarted. Their lives have been cut short at their tender age. Those whose lives have not been cut short have been kidnapped and we were made to believe are being used as sex slaves at the sect’s hideout.

Tomorrow, little Musa will ask his mother, ‘why is our land under developed, unlike other parts of the country?’ I hope Musa’s mother will be sincere enough not to blame the underdevelopment on government alone, but also on the lackadaisical attitude of their leaders in curtailing the Boko Haram sect.

It seems life has become so cheap in this country that we now see the daily massacres and kidnapping of a score of young girls as usual events. When the attacks are still hot, we make comments and continue with life, life goes on, after all no one gives a damn, since it’s not happening in our neighbourhood. We cannot continue like this.

I could not but continue to hope and pray that these carnage unleashed on our nation by the Boko Haram sect will not consume all of us before northern leaders, government and concerned citizens come to terms with the true reality of events in the North and tackle them appropriately.

May God heal our land.

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Michael Olanrewaju Orodare has worked in the Office of the Chief Press Secretary to the Ondo State Governor as a Media Assistant. He has garnered experience writing in the The Nation Newspaper working with the paper’s Sunday Desk. He leans towards the Labour Party. He blogs at www.michaelorodare.blogspot.com and tweets from @MichaelOrodare

 

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