Amnesty and Boko Haram

Amnesty and Boko Haram - The Nigerian Guardian Editorial - March 21, 2013.

The attached editorial piece by The Nigerian Guardian on the necessity of improving the provocative status of popular education in northern part of Nigeria, is in sync with the opinion of this Blog, expressed about a year ago on March 16, 2012. See Optimism versus Boko Haram in Part III of "Game Change: The Uncertainty of Sovereign National Conference (SNC) and A Case for Progressive Option" - March 16, 2012.

Optimism versus Boko Haram.

 "Boko Haram is chickens coming home to roost. A child growing up should have a home, a government that cares, and the opportunity to make a choice about what to make of every religious doctrine contrary to the arrested development phenomenon within the Muslim faith in the northern part of the country. There are Muslims in Yoruba land; most of them are well educated, while others are fairly educated. The same is true of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Indonesia, and Iran, just to name a few. Why must northern Nigeria be an exception?"

"No matter the level of our understanding of the political, educational, and religious situation in the north, a compulsory, free, and popular education for all children of school going age – from Elementary School to Grammar School level - would go a long way in shaping the lives of these children and how they embrace religious doctrine when they grow up."

"Education is a right, and it is the best investment in the life of a child. Religion is a choice and should be treated that way. In northern region, religion and not education is a right, the only avenue, unfortunately, in their unsophisticated deduction, to emancipation. A child capable of imbibing and reciting Quran verses verbatim is capable of digressing quadratic equations in a Mathematics class, if given the opportunity. Don’t ask me how. No matter how you look at it, it’s all about effort and the leadership that you have and what their views are on education and specifically, on egalitarianism."

"Islam, like any other religion, preaches against immorality and fraud. Also, Quran does not forbid integration or teaching of English Language, Arithmetic, Social Studies, and Integrated Sciences side by side with Islamic studies. Christian Missionaries in the Eastern Region, before and after our independence from Great Britain, perfected the integration model perfectly well – Bible on one hand, English, Mathematics, Civic, and Social Sciences on the other. Same can be replicated in Northern region with respect to religious studies."

"There is no doubt, the Imams and the Islamic Scholars ministering to the students would buy into the integration model when framed in good faith and with a genuine intent to integrate the students into to the larger society and not to westernize them. As a free and compulsory education advocate, late Awo wouldn't have had any problem making that pitch for integration before the appropriate agencies.  It is not too late to give it a try and rescue these children from the stranglehold of a teaching that turned innocent souls into enemy of civilization."

"Lastly, we must not give up on educating these children, because informed citizenry is the most potent and decisive weapon against false beliefs and extorted indoctrination. No one would buy into the 'western education is forbidden' baloney, if regular education was part of his or her adolescence. There must be a distinction to be made between social/moral purity and survival instinct through purpose engagement in the economic sector."

"God and Allah help those who help themselves. That is a fact and not just a saying. Our Islamic scholars, teachers, and leaders should be willing to embrace changes and accept the fact that religious freedom is most ennobling when combined with economic freedom. The current helplessness of the less privileged in that part of our World is disgraceful and cannot be sustained for too long. Therefore, government intervention in the academic sector at the very early stage in the lives of the affected children would go a long way in shaping their perception and understanding of religion, its social and moral impacts, and the extent of its limitations in the context of economics – creation, distribution, and consumption of wealth." We must start early. March 16, 2012

We want to reinstate that Boko Haram is a real threat to our corporate existence as one country. We support dialogue in the past, because we believe that it is easier to subdue and conquer an enemy who you know and is in a bounded enclave than fighting an insurgent groups with no fixed address or a defined territory. Besides, a declaration of war on the sect is a declaration of war on innocent Nigerians who are in no way connected with the sect and their beliefs, but happen to share close proximity with them."

"As things are today, Government alone cannot wage a decisive battle against Boko Haram. Security Agencies alone cannot wage a decisive battle against Boko Haram. To be successful in dismantling the sect and their beliefs, our Security Agencies need the unflinching support of Local Chiefs, Community Leaders, Religious Leaders, and above all, the loyalty of other peaceful and law abiding Muslims who do not share the jihadist  philosophy, forceful indoctrination campaign, and mayhem characteristics of the Boko Haram sect."

"In addition, if it is true as argued in some quarters that the escalation is a rejection of President Jonathan administration, we want to state on record that, if President Jonathan cannot rule Nigeria, no one, henceforth, can rule Nigeria. And if for any reason connected with the present state insecurity in the northern part of the country, he ceases to function as President, Nigeria will come to a standstill. The outcome would be such that when it is all over, there won't be a country called Nigeria again."

"Therefore, as we have argued elsewhere on this blog, Nigerians should give President Jonathan a chance; he did not breach any law by stepping into the vacuum created by the death of President Musa Yar'Adua. He acted within the confines of the law and the constitution. Every Nigerian must have the right to aspire to the highest office in the land through democratic process. Let's grow and develop our democracy in accordance with the trends in most developed countries of the World. Military coup is never a better option, it has never been and it will not be. If the Judiciary is independent and graft free, we will be able to manage the war against corruption, and at the same time, conduct a free, fair, and credible election." June 09, 2012

"... it is my call that every faithful adherent of the Islamic faith in Nigeria must stand up to rescue the faith and Quranic studies from the stranglehold of those with perverted doctrinaire. Every community must rise to protect itself. Every vigilante group must reorganize to protect their women, their children, and the helpless. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Every struggle has a meaning. At this juncture, I would like to remind every insurgent group and those behind them that making peace with your number one enemy is not a sign of weakness; it takes greatness to accomplish that. We shouldn't forget the Camp David Accord between Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, brokered by President Jimmy Carter in 1978. No one thought it could ever happen, given the aftermath of the Six-Day War. Today the two neighboring countries live in peace. Why not us?"

The concluding paragraph of my short piece posted on August 10, 2012, in reaction to "No Compulsion In Religion" By Hannatu Musawa | Sahara Reporters.