OPINION: Fear Of Boko Haram, A Threat To Nigeria's Unity
The article below was an editorial written by Chukwudi Nweje on Tuesday, 1 July, 2014 for Daily Independent newspaper.
The Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, has in recent time intensified violent campaigns of daily killings, bombings, lootings and destruction of schools, homes, markets and hospitals in over 40 remote villages in the three North-Eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
In fact, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the activities of the sect have directly affected no fewer than six million residents in these three North East States of the country.
While Nigerians are desirous of defeating the sect and restoring peace and security to Nigeria, the country could suffer a backlash that would plunge the country into a crisis worse than the menace it is currently experiencing if the seemingly gradual trend towards stereotyping and ethnic profiling is not well handled.
Of late, some persons suspected of belonging to the Boko Haram sect have been arrested in some states in southern Nigeria including Lagos, Imo and other parts of the South.
* Leader of Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau, middle, flanked by some other members of the terror group
The arrests of these suspected insurgents have heightened security in southern Nigeria with state governments adopting some security measures to ensure that insurgents do not infiltrate into the southern parts of the country.
One such measure is the requirement by some state governments that northerners in those parts of the country are now to carry identity cards.
However, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar III, has decried the requirement. Abubakar III who spoke while receiving the new Emir of Gombe in his palace in Sokoto, said the way Muslims and northerners were being tagged as fundamentalists, would not augur well for the unity of the country.
"It is indeed sad that some northerners are being suspected as terrorists and asked to move around with identity cards in some parts of the country, despite being bonafide citizens of Nigeria.
"We should not allow our people to be harassed and maltreated. This is an infringement on their individual rights as citizens and should not be so.
* Scene of a recent bomb blast in Abuja
"As leaders, it is our responsibility to defend the rights of our people wherever they find themselves in Nigeria and we will not waiver in doing that," the Sultan averred.
The escalating insurgency and spates of bombing perpetrated by the Boko Haram sect have definitely left a consciousness in southern Nigeria that, preventing Boko Haram and not necessarily the fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Source: Legit.ng
