The plot thickens….

Also published in Daily Trust

Just as the denial of the existence of Boko Haram altogether or claiming that the real Boko Haram insurgents were crushed by the Nigerian army in 2009 when the insurgency broke out is prejudiced, so also the denial of the existence of any conspiracy behind the persistent escalation of the crisis.

In any case, it is increasingly becoming clear, particularly ever since the scandalous disclosure of the federal government’s involvement in a failed attempt to link Boko Haram to the Eagle Square twin bomb blasts in Abuja on the National Day 2010 that, apart from the misguided Boko Haram terrorists there are also some highly influential vested interests out there who capitalize on the situation to plot and execute a subversive agenda against northern Nigeria in general and northern Nigerian Muslims in particular.

However, contrary to the growing assumption, particularly among the northern Nigerian Muslims that, this conspiracy is being plotted by the other regions in the federation to destabilize the north, it appears that it is actually a plot by some crooked individuals from all the regions including the north itself who take advantage of the crisis to pursue their selfish political interests and/or make personal worldly gains at the expense of the lives and security of millions of innocent and vulnerable people.

Though many northerners who understandably suspect an anti-northern Muslim conspiracy behind the persistent attacks in the north may find it hard to believe that some northerners might be involved in the conspiracy targeting the region, yet the reality is that, the very clues based on which some non-northerners or non-Muslims elites are suspected of being behind the attacks in the region equally implicate many other northerner Muslim elites also.

After all, despite the perceived or real systematic policy of alienation against northern Nigerian Muslims at various federal institutions, their influence remains significant that no conspiracy can succeed again the region without the collusion of some of them. Likewise, the population of northern Nigerian Muslims in the country is too big to be singled out and subjected to a conspiracy of such magnitude without the active complicity of some influential Muslim elements from the region.

For instance, in his recent serious revelations and allegations linking some public figures, top government officials and military officers, including the former Borno state governor, Ali Modu Sheriff and former Chief of the Army Staff, Lt. Gen Azubuike  Ihejirika to Boko Haram insurgency, the Australian peace negotiator, Dr Stephen Davis, asserted among other things that, “I did a report in 2005 on the threat of extremism among young northern Muslims. Obasanjo’s security chiefs dismissed the report with a wave of the hand. They said no such thing existed. In 2007, President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, who desired to end the militancy in the Niger Delta, invited me and made me presidential envoy. I toured all the northern states. I went to the country’s borders. I came back with a report that there were some budding sects in the North. The National Security Adviser (NSA) at the time, Gen. Sarki Mukhtar, dismissed the report. He said they didn’t exist. A succession of NSAs dismissed all these reports and allowed the groups to flourish” (Sunday Trust, 07 September 2014)

Besides, the apparent involvement of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor President of the Christian Associations of Nigeria (CAN) in more than $9 million worth of arms smuggling did not really come as a surprise in view of his usual prejudiced stand against Nigerian Muslims as confirmed by his anti-Muslim insinuations and rhetoric. While the details of this scandal continue to unfold despite the initial official silence and the subsequent unsatisfactory and inconsistent explanations that raise more questions than answers, it seems the knots of whatever conspiracy being conspired against the north and northern Nigerian Muslims in particular are steadily loosening up, which gradually exposes all those responsible, either by commission or omission, for the continuation of the raging and ravaging insurgency in the region and indeed the persistent deterioration of security situation in the country at large.

Also while the real Boko Haram terrorists repeatedly and unrepentantly maintain their ridiculous and unjustifiable pretexts for killing and maiming innocent people, the motives and goals of such elusive conspirators (though some of them are being steadily exposed) who take advantage of the crisis to sponsor mayhem in the north remain mysterious. This is even though while a conspiracy of this nature is ordinarily too intricate to unravel with ease, the ridiculous naivety and cluelessness of Nigerian conspirators in plotting and executing their plots provide instantly noticeable clues about their identities.

This explains the usual and frantic struggle by the government and its apologists to cover up any unfolding plot against the north or deny it altogether, which they do with the support of a large part of the media that deliberately misrepresents or cleverly casts doubt on the authenticity of any scandalous discovery linking some highly influential individuals to the sponsorship of violence in the north. By the way, this unprofessional attitude may not be unconnected to the fact that, perhaps with the exception of Ali Modu Sherif, all the major suspected sponsors of violence in the north who have been suspected on reasonable grounds are non-northerners and non-Muslims, for that matter.

In any case, as the plots against the north gradually unfold, it seems the ultimate end to this security crisis lies in the continued uncovering of such plots until the whole world finds out who, in addition to Boko Haram terrorists, are responsible for the persistent carnage in northern Nigeria.