The President and Boko Haram State of the Mind

By Nnamdi Okose
There are two theories making the round these days. Both of them have been
unsubstantiated but in these days of bombings, pillage and kidnapping of
young women for forced marriage; the gift of rumour is akin to that of
military intelligence. There is a truism in the saying that there is truth
in every rumour.
Both theories revolve around the complicities of our President in the
activities of Boko Haram. The first theory purports that the President,
with a hoard of his PDP brethren have been supplying arms, money and now
women to Boko Haram. The President knows all their intimate hideouts. He
is in constant touch with the feisty Boko Haram leader and even calls to
congratulate him each time the rebels score another devastating blow.
The second theory, linked to the first has its epistemological origins
from the qualities of good leadership. This theory avows that there are
two cardinal qualities of a good leader. First he must have an ability to
frown. How can one be president when he cannot frown? When he seems to be
smiling, when he is actually trying to look hideous? The ability to look
hideously gruesome as a survival technique is as old as the universe,
employed by animals to scare off predators. Surely a well-practiced
presidential frown should be a prerequisite for a good leader. This theory
is also linked to an ability to know that the dance steps of the crotch
pulling Michael Jackson are not presidential. It is certainly unpardonable
for a seating president to step to any rhythm while the country is
burning. And a Michael Jackson routine at that! There are more
presidential dance steps, which can be danced in times of sorrow, but a
list of these dances will come later.
These are crimes against Nigerians, which the President must answer for
immediately after his tenure. It is common knowledge that the fire raging
in Nigeria was ignited by the re-election ambition of the President. Well
meaning Nigerians have reminded him of his promise to serve for only one
term but he has reneged on this promise. The inferno threatening to
swallow this country could have been averted, if he had refused to seek
re-election. For harboring ambitions of further presidential grandeur, the
President has become responsible for the deaths of many. The carnage will
end if his ambitions end. For this, he must answer to the people.
It has been agreed that the weapon strength of the Boko Haram insurgents
highly surpass that of the Nigerian military. This is obviously an
educated conclusion after a careful weapons analysis from both sides. That
notwithstanding, we must blame some body for this failure to upgrade the
nation’s weaponry. Who better to blame than the country’s military quarter
master, the president. It is his duty to keep stock of military equipment
and ensure that they are upgraded in time. It is also his duty to evacuate
military equipment when the military are retreating from their barracks.
It is not enough for the President to be seen in military fatigues every
now and then. He must live up to the great title of Commander –in Chief of
the armed forces. How can one become the Commander-in-Chief of any
military without actual combat experience? What better time to gain
experience in the art of shooting and ducking than now? But the President
has failed to lead the assault into the Sambisa forest. He has failed to
become like the Rambo we had earlier envisaged, two guns in each hand, a
serrated knife sticking from his belt, ammunition belt slunk across his
shoulders and need I reiterate – no bullet proof vest.
The President must recover the kidnapped Chibok girls himself.  A senator,
I hear, has proffered information about their whereabouts scattered in the
islands off the coast of Chad Republic and Cameroon. This task is not one
for our military who must be saved for UN Peace Missions ahead. The
president is rather better trained in amphibious warfare. He ought to raid
Cameroon and Chad. He must sneak up on these islands and face the
insurgents himself. He cannot confess fears about his personal safety –
this is un presidential. Being President is like being the protagonist in
an action movie. Actor no dey die.
Being Boko Haram does not only entail the carrying of arms, the attacking
of un armed villagers, kidnapping women or torching people with bombs.
Being Boko Haram can also be a state of the mind. Though we cannot prove
that the President himself is a Boko Haram member, we must blame him for
the countless times we have been pathetic to their cause. These people
were our neigbours, our village champions, our urchins; we saw them kill
foreigners among us and we did nothing. We kept a strict code of silence
when they burnt churches with innocent people trapped inside. It was not
our duty to speak against them; it was the duty of our President. He must
come down himself to our homesteads and sit in front of our houses chewing
early morning stick. He must accost these strangers who have tortured our
existence sternly, “Why have you come here to plan evil?”
So being Boko Haram entails a level of complicitness of the mind. The
President has been complicit. It is his fault alone. We are all innocent
in the matter.