By Olayemisi Abdul
President Goodluck Jonathan has said he would no longer tolerate further killings of his soldiers on peacekeeping in Borno state or any other part of Nigeria.
He also said he has no intention of removing the JTF from the streets of Maiduguri as Strongly requested by a group of Borno elders.
The President who made this known at a townhall meeting in Maiduguri, Borno state capital, shocked everyone at the gathering including Shettima Ali Monguno, an elder statesman, when he accused them of playing to the gallery over the issue of JTF operations in the state.
Jonathan who spoke today, shortly before he departed the city for Abuja said he is beginning to get uncomfortable with the way eminent elders of Borno like Shettima Ali Monguno, Professor Nur Alkali, a one time Director General of the Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) and the state chairman of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), were playing to the gallery with the issues of Boko Haram.
‘This is no time to play to the gallery on the issue of insecurity, whether you are a politician or not a politician. I heard the state chairman speak, the House of Reps member here spoke, the professor Nur Alkali, who is a former VC of Unimaid also spoke on the activity of the JTF here, and I begin to get uncomfortable with the way they all spoke.
‘You said there are many bunkers in Borno state and we should remove them. Why should there be bunkers in the state in the first place? You said there are too many Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC), and I ask, who wants APCs in Borno in the first place? Some of you are even saying the JTF should be removed; and I ask who wants to be spending tax payers money in paying the soldiers’ allowances in Borno state? We need that money for development.
‘If the circumstance that brought the soldiers are no longer there, on that very day they will all leave. The Boko Haram were not in Borno state in 2001, 2002, 2003 until 2009 when the Boko Haram leader was killed – that was the beginning of the crisis.
‘Let us be very frank with you all. The analogy being given here that when one soldier is killed, the soldiers come and kill scores of people is outrageous. That is why the CDS is here with me; we always tell the soldiers to conduct themselves because they are on an internal security job which ordinarily soldiers are not supposed to be involved. But because of the calibre of weapons the militants are using, we felt the police alone cannot handle them, that is why soldiers have to come in.
“Government will never fold it’s arm and watch some group come to take over any part of this country, whether it is in the Niger Delta, or here in Borno state. I have already given the directives that I don’t want to hear that one of my soldiers is killed in Borno state or any part of this country. I cannot preside over this country as president and my security officers are killed unnecessarily. These soldiers left their families, to stay on the road and in the bush under the scorching sun so that we can sleep peacefully in our houses. So I will not want to hear that anyone of them is killed.
‘The Professor and other speakers here are making assumptions that when one soldier is killed people are killed. But let me tell you that I will not celebrate the death of any security officer as a president, anywhere in this country, whether in Bayelsa state or Borno state. We will not, and I repeat, we will not tolerate it any longer.
‘And I am pleading with you, especially those of you here who are well informed like the Professor here, you shouldn’t act like one Professor that was recently busy instigating that if you immunise children against polio, it will lead to infertility- where does he learn that from? How on earth could a professor so mislead people? Are we not ashamed of ourselves as a country that our immediate neighbours Cameroon, Chad and Niger are celebrating years of polio free while are still battling with it? And a professor is here busy instigating people. In fact if I have my ways of withdrawing his certification as a professor, we would gladly recommend that at once. I wonder what such a person is professing, for God sake.
‘We have to appreciate the fact that we have serious security challenges in our hands; I was in Yobe, the governor told me the situation is coming down, in Adamawa state it is coming down, in Gombe the situation is coming down, the same thing with Bauchi, Niger and Kano. But it is only in Borno state we are still having lots of challenges. And if you the elders of Borno will not stand up to condemn it, you will continue to suffer under the terror of Boko Haram. And without solving the problem of Boko Haram, and without peace, we cannot have economic development. Let us no play to the gallery on this matter. My self and my heads of security agencies will not want to be paying soldiers allowances continually, we need that money to develop other sectors of our country. The earlier .. we know this the better it is for all of us’, he said.
President Jonathan who was practically miffed by the way elders, including Shettima Ali Monguno spoke to him with words of disdain.
Elder Shettima Ali Monguno had in his address to Jonathan, who was sitting next to him, summarily told Jonathan that he has no fears in telling him the truth. Monguno, just like Professor Alkali faulted Jonathan’s stance on not dialoguing with ‘faceless’ Boko Haram gunmen.
Monguno said; ‘To be frank, Mr President, but for dialogue you wouldn’t have become the President of this country today. Our founding fathers who got together and begged the British government to handover the reins of government had to sit together and forget their differences and agreed that if given, we will live together in harmony, we will respect each other…Mr President, sometimes we wonder whether you are running a military government, a democracy or something called diarchy . We can hardly put our finger on what type of government you are running, Mr President. We hope the labours of our heroes past shall not be in vain.
‘Mr President, I should advise you to relate more with governments of northern Nigeria…I have a feeling that there is something like misunderstanding between you Mr President who has the responsibility of running the entire country and the governors of 19 northern States. We have told them too to always be together. Mr President take back the nice and not so nice things we have told you about your government and our country’, he said.
Shettima Ali Monguno who leads the Borno elders forum said his forum aligns with the presentation of Professor Alkali who earlier in the townhall meeting painted a grim picture of the Boko Haram conflict, where alleged soldiers of the JTF kill hundreds of innocent civilians at the slightest provocation or attack on a soldier. He also called on the federal government to consider giving amnesty to the Boko Haram sect, even as he said the President was wrong in his analogies that the situation of Niger Delta was not applicable to the one in the volatiles states of Northern Nigeria.
President Jonathan who appeared to be out to square things out with the Borno elders, insisted he would not be granting any amnesty or withdrawing the JTF troops until the conflict ends.
He however challenged the Borno elders to come forward and sign an agreement with him that they should be held responsible for the death of any soldier or security operative in Borno, and he would immediately order the evacuation of the soldiers at once.
‘You elders should come forward and sign an agreement with me that henceforth if any body or security man dies as a result of Boko Haram in Borno state I will hold you all responsible’, Jonathan said. ‘But don’t go to court saying that I am holding you responsible’.
Unfortunately, none of the elders came forward to make such suicidal accord before President Jonathan departed the state at about 12.30pm after driving through deserted streets of Maiduguri.