Femi Fani-Kayode: We must fight the good fight.

Permit me to begin this contribution with a mild criticism of those senior citizens and distinguished personalities that are making passionate appeals to the family members of Boko Haram. I am not one of those that supports the making of such appeals simply because I do not believe that they will or can possibly succeed. Furthermore I do not trust those that approached President Olusegun Obasanjo and initiated those moves and I do not think that an appeal to the families of Boko Haram members is in any way helpful. As a matter of fact it could make matters worse because it shows desperation and weakness. To make matters worse such appeals give immense pleasure to Boko Haram themselves and feeds their deep-seated and insatiable appetite for sadism and cruelty. They do not have the milk of human kindness in them and neither do such creatures react to gentle appeals. I say this because they are hardline islamist terrorists that are totally committed to destroying everything that we stand for and hold dear in this country. Simply put they have gone beyond the realms of reason and rationality. They are ruthless jihadists and they are committed to the destruction of the secular state, to the abrogation of our most basic civil liberties and human rights, to the waging of a global jihad and to the creation of a new islamic caliphate where full sharia law holds sway and where christianity and all other forms of religion, except for their own perverse understanding and interpretation of islam, are banned. They also wish to change our way of life and impose their will on us through violent and barbaric means. People that are so debased and that have such little regard for human life and values are hardly likely to listen to appeals from their so-called family members and former Heads of State whom they probably secretly despise. I have nothing but the greatest respect and affection for President Olusegun Obasanjo but frankly I think that he has misunderstood the nature of the problem and the nature of those behind Boko Haram. You do not offer carrots to beasts. His efforts to intervene in the Boko Haram issue have failed before with tragic consequences for those he met with in Maiduguri a couple of years ago and they are bound to fail again. Another group of people that are not helping matters are the so-called ”northern elders”. Their suggestion of amnesty for and negotiation with Boko Haram is simply despicable. I have nothing but contempt for those that have made such suggestions and, as I alluded to in an earlier essay, I see them as being part of the problem. A leading Pakistani politician made an interesting and relevant contribution on CNN the other day when he spoke about the horrific stoning to death of a young lady outside the High Court in Islamabad by her own father and fifty other relatives simply because she married the man of her choice. He said, ”Pakistan is a country in which some people are fighting to keep us in the 21st century whilst others are trying to take us back into the 8th century”. This is the bitter truth and we have the same problem in Nigeria. Some people in this country believe that we ought to be dragged back to the 8th century and they also find it difficult to accept the fact that under our constitution religion has no place and no relevance in matters of governance. If this were not the case how can sharia be practised in a secular state? If this were not the case how can even one inch of Nigeria be declared an islamic fundamentalist state where women are treated like chattel, where young girls are subjected to rape and married off at the age of nine and where western education is banned? If this were not the case how can some misguided individuals want to turn Nigeria into a Taliban- style Afghan country in which no-one is allowed to watch television and women are not entitled to go to the doctor, to drive cars, to go out without their husbands or to practice medicine. Yet there is still hope. I say this because for the first time since he came to power four years ago I was genuinely impressed with President Goodluck Jonathan’s Democracy Day speech. He declared total war on Boko Haram and directed that our security agencies and Armed Forces should utterly crush them. Now that is a real President talking. For the last three years this is what some of us have been asking for. I am proud to be a Nigerian again. Let us hope that he puts his money where his mouth is and follows through with hard action. When we really want to fight no one fights better than a Nigerian. May God grant us victory in this war against the unbelievers and the servants of satan. The Haramites should bring back our girls and stop killing our people or utter face destruction. Hardly had the hope and inspiration that the President’s speech and new found valour set in when, the very next day, we heard some very bad news: Boko Haram had struck again. This time their targets were not defenceless and innocent little girls and boys but first class traditional rulers. The killing of the Emir of Gwoza and the abduction of two other Emirs by the terrorists on friday morning is an indication of the fact that the activities of the islamist terrorists in Nigeria has reached a new level of barbarity. It is time for the whole nation, whether they be christians, muslims or traditional worshippers, or whether they be northerners or southerners, to come together, close ranks, join hands and cleanse our land of the Haramites and their secret sponsors once and for all. They should be cleansed from the land and eliminated in the same way that cockroaches and rats are cleansed and eliminated from a filthy house or a dirty kitchen. This is because they are nothing but vermin and vampires from hell sent to our nation by satan to torment us, to shame us, to humiliate us, to pillage our people and to lay waste to our land. They have killed, raped and abducted our women and children, they have butchered and sodomised our men, they have burnt our homes and bombed and desecrated our places of worship, they have slaughtered our religious leaders and our men of God, they have taken over our communities and flown their filthy flag in parts of our land and now they are killing and kidnapping our elders and revered royal fathers. What more do they have to do to us before we cultivate the courage and the firm resolve to rise up and resist them with everything that we have got, with or without the help of the government? Are there no John Brown’s in this country? Are we not meant to be our brother’s keepers? Are we not called by God to fight against evil and injustice? Those that do not know who John Brown was and what he did for the emancipation of the black man and the abolitionist cause when faced with the evil of slavery in the southern states of America should go and find out. We need our very own John Browns in Nigeria and now is the time. This is a call to arms. I call on every Nigerian to rise up, to fight the evil and to protect the integrity of our land and our people. I call on our President to stand firm, not to allow himself to be distracted, discouraged or intimidated and to lead with courage and strength, knowing that in a time of war the whole nation must and will rally behind him. I call on the military to be professional, thorough, brutal and ruthless, to show no mercy and to hold no quarter. I call on our people to have no dealings or interaction with ANYONE or any group of people that suggest that we should have dialogue with or that we should grant amnesty to Boko Haram and their secret sponsors. I call on them to view such people with the utmost suspicion because they may well be collaborating with the enemy and they may well be secret associates of the terrorists. I say this because you do not reward mass murderers, sociopaths, psychopaths, homicidal maniacs, child abductors, king-slayers, child rapists and criminally insane terrorists with amnesty or dialogue. Instead you despatch them to hell where they belong and where they originally came from. When a dog loses it’s mind and starts biting everyone, including it’s owner and those that feed it, you best put a bullet in it’s head rather than allow it to continue to live. This is the kindest thing that you can do for it because the dog has gone mad and is no longer useful to anyone, including itself. It is the same for Boko Haram and all those that secretly collaborate with them, support them and fund them. They are an ever present danger and a nauseating pest. I say kill them all and put them out of their misery. View them not as human beings but as savage beasts and demons: savage beasts and demons that eat human flesh and drink human blood. That is what they are: the spoilers and abductors of little girls. They are not worthy of life. They are not worthy of God’s mercy. They are not worthy of our people or of our nation. To destroy them is our holy duty before the Living God: it is God’s will that they should be wiped off the face of the earth and that Nigeria and the Nigerian people should be rid of them forever. Let us rise up to the occasion: let us fight the good fight with all our might. Let us free our people. Let us deliver our land. Let us prove to the world that we are not incompetent and bumbling cowards. Let us show the world that we are a nation of righteous men and women and that we are not a nation of savages and barbarians. Let us confirm to the world that we are a resilient, strong and courageous people who can stand up and fight when compelled to do so and when our cause is just and righteous. It is time to fight the good fight. May God deliver Nigeria and may He grant us victory.