Saturday, November 17, 2012

It’s hard to justify that Jonathan hasn’t visited Borno – Commissioner


The Commissioner for Information and Home Affairs in Borno State, Inuwa Bwala, tells OLUSOLA FABIYI the major security problems confronting the state
What is the security situation in Borno State now because there are reports that many companies have folded up?
As I talk to you, five Borno State government-owned companies are back in full swing and have employed no fewer than 12,000 youths. So, we are trying to be proactive in resolving this issue of security. We want the Federal Government to make a special intervention in our c ase by providing us with special fund so that we can re-fix Borno State. Borno has very great potential and we are ready to partner with the FG, but we are not going to pretend that we do not have challenges.
What advice do you have for parents who insisted their children would not serve as corps members in the state?
On the issue of parents and guardians who are asking their children and wards to stay away from Borno State, I want to appeal to them that no school in the state has been attacked contrary to the fear earlier created in the hearts of students to the effect that schools were going to be attacked. There is no tertiary institution that attracts students from outside Borno that has been attacked. You may recall that in the heat of this crisis some tertiary institutions, including the universities, were hurriedly closed out of the fear that something was going to happen; we thank God that nothing has happened to them till today.
But some primary schools have been attacked before
The primary schools that were attacked, we were made to understand, were actually not by these insurgents. And that is why we always continue to point to the fact that there are three main proponents of the so-called Boko Haram. We know that we have Boko Haram, but it was our own brothers, who, at a point, had a certain ideological disagreement with us and wanted to avenge themselves on certain individuals and institutions that were seen to have gone against their interest at a particular time, that constitute the actual Boko Haram.
But most of the killings are political and that is why a greater number of people being killed today are from a particular party, they are all from the All Nigeria Peoples Party. Not long ago, they killed somebody, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the ANPP. The late Gen. Mamman Shuwa was the chairman of a board of the ANPP. I can continue to name names for you; all of them are from the ANPP.
Maybe everything was a coincidence.
Even if the killings were a coincidence, we have very serious inclinations to the effect that this thing has serious political undertones. Politicians find in Boko Haram a perfect alibi to commit all sorts of crimes. Armed robbers find Boko Haram a perfect alibi to loot and attack banks. Businessmen who have disagreements with their business fellows find Boko Haram a perfect alibi to unleash terror on their business partners. To the effect that you cannot clearly define in this configuration which one is Boko Haram and which one is not.
Would you then appeal to the FG to consider the request by Boko Haram on the proposed dialogue?
Even this demand, even this call for ceasefire as much as we are very enthusiastic about it, as much as it sounds very good and as much as we want to come in, we still have our suspicion because he who comes to equity should come with clean hands. You have stated your terms, then you should allow the FG or whoever it is, to produce who they feel will adequately represent them, because the mention of names as possible negotiators will have far-reaching implications. This is because Boko Haram has its own modus operandi, one of which is that at the background of any of it conferences, you will see a display of Arabic inscriptions, which is what it believes in. And part of it principal demand has always been the enthronement of the Sharia law in some states, even across the federation. But these were missing in the last statement through which they were said to have called for a ceasefire. Boko Haram opens addresses in Hausa, but the two addresses were in English. So, sometimes when we begin to read between the lines, you find it very difficult to understand from where the demand was coming from: from the real Boko Haram or from other sources. 
But the government is desirous of a dialogue.
As a government, we believe in dialogue; whoever comes to us for a dialogue, we are ready. Even if it is coming from those who are not actually Boko Haram of course we will embrace it because we don’t want our people to be killed any further. We want to call on people to stop playing politics with this very serious issue that we found ourselves in Borno State and come on board and give us very solid solutions on how we can resolve these things. Our doors are open.
Are you worried that President Goodluck Jonathan has not visited the state since the insurgence started?
I want to be fair to the President, Vice-President, Senate President, the Speaker and all other Federal Government officials for failing to come to Borno State. I will never justify their action because Borno is part and parcel of Nigeria. Incidences of less intensity have happened in other places and they were there and have assisted them. Because the problem persists in Borno that does not distort the fact that we are part and parcel of Nigeria; we are entitled to the privileges enjoyed by all Nigerians no matter the situation.

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