Part of the reason why the Federal Government of Nigeria cannot meet up the very genuine demands of striking University Lecturers is that the government has a very genuine reason of extraordinary expenditure in the area of security of the country which is under the severe siege of terrorism especially in the northern part of the country where the Boko Haram sect is ferociously waging battle against a combined strength of the armed forces of Nigeria.
Just imagine the amount of money needed to keep the joint task forces on the war front. The Nigerian security and civil defence is also there. Who can easily calculate the cost of establishing a new division of the army with all the intendant logistic implications.
Perhaps those locally recruited young men who are dying in their numbers in the hands of their Boko Haram brothers may be on some stipends as well for their sustenance. Here lies the real issue.
Boko Haram (education is evil), if we must accept is literally against western education elites. The whole gamut is about the impact or effect the western education has had on the people whether as recipients or relations and neighbours of recipients.
All those who are calling for amnesty for Boko Haram fully understood the situation and therefore know what they are doing. They realize that they helped to create the problem and have erred ab initio.
They all acquired western education and constituted themselves into a new class and live either in Abuja or Kaduna and turned their back on their people and life has remained miserable in far away Potiskum, Gombe, Biu, Yobe and the likes.
In the other parts of Nigeria, their educated elites build schools from nursery to university levels and also build hospitals for the benefit of the people.
But what do we have up north, the educated elites are the only ones that can be elected and once elected they make laws that take care of themselves. The elites own the good houses and ride the best of modern cars. Some are even flying their own jets and are crashing with them. The elites could not think of any other benefits for the youths than as thugs in their elections.
Did Nigerians not see that the Boko Haramists first withdrew into the bush and chose to fly their own flags to demonstrate their rejection of the flags flown by their elite brothers. The elites saw and knew, but kept quiet, thinking or believing that nothing would happen or be caused to happen by a people already exploited and subjugated by those who ought to protect them.
Whatever any other person or people has or have suffered in the hands of Boko Haram terrorism is only a spill over of anger.
Their real target is their own elite brothers who masked themselves with their western education and further enslaved their own brothers and have sustained the manipulation till date. No wonder the likes of Nasir El Rufai pleaded fervently for amnesty for Boko Haram and when it was not forth coming, he accused President Goodluck Jonathan of religious bias.
Through out El-Rufais accidented civil service or is it evil service, what did he do for the teeming talakawas (common people) which populate the Boko Haram terrorists?
Note that El-Rufai is a prototype of the elite western educated northerners who are the provocations.
Ordinarily who in the wildest imaginations could contemplate an attack on the revered Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, but the boys know that he acquired western education; his disposition to peace notwithstanding.
Mallam El Rufai should call his elite brothers together so that they can go and collectively apologize to the Boko Haram boys and plead with them for amnesty, because, they all the while, denied the boys of good and progressive leadership.
The boys know that each time their elite brothers speak, it is from far away Abuja away from the harsh realities of the suburbs. They speak only grammar acquired through reading western books under western education.
No wonder they were termed HARAM or EVIL because the western education their brothers acquired has not benefited them in any way.
This is why President Jonathan amnesty may not yield much dividend as it would hang in the air and not address the real problem or grievance at all.
President Goodluck is not the target of Boko Haram but got involved because the government he is leading is harbouring the western educated northern elites, the real targets, the Haram harbingers.
Did anyone hear the past British Prime Minister, David Cameron clearly say that a recent United Nations statistics show that there are about 30million school drop out youths in sub-Saharan Africa and that Nigeria accounts for more than 10million of them with close to 90% of that figure coming from the northern part of Nigeria where El-Rufai hails from.
The big question therefore is how will the Boko Haram army be crushed when they have this pool of neglected and aggrieved human resources to draw from more than the army, police and civil defence put together?
Lately the people bearing the brunt of the Boko Haram wahala is the lesser armed group of youths who are recruited into the JTF to help fight the insurrection since they know the terrain very well.
The attack on the youth should be expected because they are lesser armed and are also part of those oppressed by the elites and the Boko Haram boys will therefore simply be asking why and how come you do not want to close ranks with us to fight them but have instead gone to fight for our common oppressors.
No wonder the boys insist that they are the ones to give amnesty and people cannot understand or see why.
Just look at all those angry with President Jonathan because he refused to proclaim amnesty to Boko Haram, I mean the El Rufais, the Murtala Nyako’s, the Babangida Muazus etc. If President Jonathan wants to comprehensively end Boko Haram problem, he would do well to bring together all those named and their ilks and help the Boko Haram boys to extract apologies from them. They must also in addition make restitution to the boys they so much used and dumped. The boys who they verily frustrated into terrorism who are aggrieved, bitter, boiling and even ready to die in the process of expressing their objection to the situation they have been subjected to by their brothers.
The only unfortunate thing is that the way they chose to express their anger and disappointment is producing wrong victims because of the uncontrollable manner and level of violence involved. This has sent wrong messages and earned them very bad names.
But notwithstanding, it is high time President Goodluck Jonathan call the northern elites bluff and tell them the blunt truth that what they refer to or want as amnesty from the President to the Boko Haram is the sincere apologies they themselves owe and must render to the aggrieved boys who they have over the years failed to give a meaningful representation or common assistance.
This they know and should take a deeper reflective look into so as to come to terms.
To hide under the federal government and conquer them now with a military might will temporarily put them out of action but push them into periodic and targeted intermittent strikes which will keep the JTF in the northern zone forever and that will mean welcome anarchy.
Take it or leave it, the northern elites will be the worse for it because they cannot go home. Lets keep reflecting.
