Amnesia International (1&2): Boko Haram and the Northern Elders game By Yinka Odumakin

Amnesia International (1&2): Boko Haram and the Northern Elders game  By Yinka Odumakin 

In March 2014, some Boko Haram activists locked up in a facility of the Department of State Security Service (DSS) near the Aso Rock Villa seized guns from men of the service and wanted to break their jail house. But they were overpowered by valiant officers. Only God knows where they would have headed within the vicinity if they had succeeded A few days after this dastardly move, it was the turn of the leader of Arewa delegation to the 2014 National Conference, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie, to give his response to the inauguration address of the President like every other delegate. 

He had only three minutes but he was able to find space to make a case for the rights of Boko Haram fighters when he said: "Look at the case of Boko Haram boys who broke the SSS jail to protest their detention without trial". Not a few delegates wondered aloud how the former Inspector General of Police got to know what led to the attempted jail break. And he didn't condemn the act. I held my chin as I looked at the man who was hauling those of us in the pro-democracy vanguard to jail without trial under Sani Abacha now celebrating jail breaks as a protest by a murderous gang. 

I recalled the time I was seized alongside Chief Gani Fawehinmi at a rally in Lagos in 1994. We were kept at the police facility in Panti. We took our bath in the open space at night. I would hold Chief's clothes and watch the surrounding as he bathed and I would take my turn while he waited around for me too. We only thought of enforcing our rights in court and not self-help! Another of Coomasie victims told me sometime ago how he was locked up at Ikoyi prison indefinitely for no crime beyond asking the military to quit. He happened to share a cell with Chief Adisa Akinloye who was also remanded on the order of the dictator. The gentleman had told Chief Akinloye that Senator Abraham Adesanya would be heading for court to file Habeas Corpus to seek his release from detention without trial and the Ibadan chief asked: "Habeas kini? O je je ki won gbagbe re sibi. Ti won ba ranti pe o wa nibi, odo Omenka lo nlo" (Habeas what? You had better let them forget that you are here. If you remind them, they will take you to the military detention facility under Omenka). 

The Coomasie agitation for Boko Haram was to reach its crystallisation to an agenda when the Niger Delta demand for an increase in the derivation formula became a thorny issue at the conference. The consensus committee was able to come up with a formula that would resolve the impasse in favour of all. It recommended that derivation should go up by 5% while another 5% of the Federation Account should be set aside for exploration of mineral resources in all states of the Federation over a period and 5% of the Federal Government allocation be used to take care of disasters across the country. The committee came to plenary to give its report and Chairman Ike Nwachukwu asked Prof Ibrahim Gambari to present the report. The Professor represented the committee well on two items but doctored the third to read that the disaster fund should be for the reconstruction of the North East and North West ravaged by Boko Haram. 

This flared tempers as many delegates frowned at the surreptitious attempt to create a "Boko Haram Fund". That would have been the end of the conference but for the wisdom of referring that one item to the president for a technical committee. Aftermath of the recent change of guards in Nigeria, that agenda has been peeping with certain Arewa voices calling for "amnesty programne" for Boko Haram. I pray my instinct gets it wrong that the new wave of attacks by the group is not a design to walk us into starting this project. In the midst of this all came the silly report from Amnesty International (AI) in this season of a collective amnesia the international community is forcing on us as a people. How I wish all the children of frustration netting away the sovereignty of Nigeria and mortgaging their own future buying into all kinds of imperial agenda to castrate Nigeria eternally would look for the speech Murtala Mohammed read at the OAU conference in 1976 titled "Africa Has Come of Age"

“Africa has come of age. It is no longer under the orbit of any extra continental power. It should no longer take orders from any country, however powerful. The fortunes of Africa are in our hands to make or to mar. For too long have we been kicked around: for too long have we been treated like adolescents who cannot discern their interests and act accordingly. For too long has it been presumed that the African needs outside ‘experts’ to tell him who are his friends and who are his enemies. The time has come when we should make it clear that we can decide for ourselves; that we know our own interests and how to protect those interests; that we are capable of resolving African problems without presumptuous lessons in ideological dangers which, more often than not, have no relevance for us, nor for the problem at hand.” 

That was Murtala Mohammed looking imperialism eyeball-to-eyeball and asserting the African dignity with a distinct Nigerian voice. He was setting our continental feet on the path of liberation. However the discerning could perceive that he had signed his death warrant. Thirty-one days after this rousing speech at the Organisation of African Unity (Eunuchs, says Fela), Murtala was cut down on the streets of Lagos. By some strange coincidence, the man who was American Ambassador in Lagos when Murtala was killed was also on the US delegation that met Abiola in prison in 1998 when he had his terminal tea. MKO had also embarked on a reparation campaign before he won the presidency he was not allowed to assume. 

A lot of waters have since passed under our bridge that an assertive Murtala now looks like a fairy tale. The low we have sunk in our servitude and genuflecting grovelling before imperial powers manifested in the 2015 elections which the West practically conducted for us. Our equivalent of Pius Anyim (former SGF) in US came here reading the riot act to our leaders and threatening them with visas. Joe Biden followed up with a call to our President that we must use card readers that had not been tested for our elections even when American laws forbid direct interference in the internal affairs of other countries close to elections. Britain and America were issuing joint communique on Nigeria! 

The American envoy made us a butt of practical joke by saying our card reader was better than theirs even after a colossal failure. May be it was better because it accredited infants in our clime which would not happen in the land of freedom! The height of the assault was when they brought one lady from the ICCJ who was threatening our politicians on Television every five minutes. Our delinquent politicians bereft of any sense of history and pride started using the ICCJ to harass one another. "We are going to report to the ICCJ" became their common refrain. We saw the West making a plaything of us even in our adversity. Mrs Obama was carrying #BringBackOurGirls which she never displayed against Barrack for the 340,000 Americans who go missing yearly. Our unsuspecting protesters kept parading Unity Fountain causing distractions. 

The foreign powers who wanted to use the issue to have a check at the oil in Lake Chad Basin came here on the pretext of finding the girls and left immediately. All is now quiet at Unity Fountain as if the girls were part of the inauguration on May 29. Our forces that were written off as incompetent within weeks of having the weapons the West would not sell to us were able to dislodge Boko Haram from most of their occupied territory. Here comes Amnesty International with a list of the top brass of our gallant Armed Forces who must be tried for violating the rights of Boko Haramites. The silly report stopped short of declaring detained activists of the terror group "prisoners of conscience " ....To be concluded!