The origins of Boko Haram may be likened to a casual flirtation which gradually grows into lurid and explicit sexual acts–with demons. Abubakar Shekau imagined 72 duo-breasted virgins in his paradise, each as beautiful as the one he had pictured here. To have taken religious violence up to this Osama proportion must mean that his dreamed paradise is taking too long to come. So he must kidnap young girls, in the hope that they are still virgins, send terror down our spines, and at worst, take over the entirety of Nigeria. That would be a great achievement, so long as it is done in the name of Allah.
Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in Chibok in April this year. The mass response locally and internationally is very impressive. We are yet to see a mass response against violence itself. Especially noticeable is the slow or lack mass mobilization among Muslim to denounce violence, extremism, or terrorism in the name of Allah. The same may be said of Christianity; the church congregations that promote social injustice and poverty are not challenged by those who do not. The latter are mostly concerned with how to get to heaven. But Fela Anikulapo says they do not want to die, yet they crave to be in heaven. For the records, few years ago I have told my pastor friend that if 8 pastors in Nigeria possessed the boldness of this late legend, Fela, Nigeria’s political class would practice quite a bit of justice. But, because encouragement to perform new forms of disdainfully wicked acts come from the churches, the moral compass of society in this part of the world becomes impenetrably fuzzy, if not lost outright into the abysmal ocean of decadence.
Nigeria’s beleaguered history is marked by black stars of chequered politics of spiritualities, which have rubber-stamped impressions of angry, janus-faced gods on the country’s religio-political terrains: unmitigated poverty sprawling across majority of the population, while stinking wealthy, unpretentiously capitalistic pastorpreneurs flaunt around in private jets, colorful limousines, high-end western, Euro-American-produced accessories (basically, material gifts by way of believing in the radical Jesus of Galilee, who ironically, historical records set as a poor and humble personality); shifty and malleable political philosophies, which allow for easy cross-carpets, and/or egregious cultural politics. These, alongside the fact that that Nigeria’s dominant ethic nations have, and continues to see themselves through lenses of domination, not accommodation, led to an atmosphere of terrifically exponential rise of violence across this world-acclaimed corrupt country of West Africa.
It is little wonder that Boko Haram’s new image would be birthed from this environment. Before the emergence of Boko Haram, and up till now, politics in Nigeria is a zero-sum game; winner takes all. What we know as a win-win situation is non-existent. You are either the winner or the vanquished. Other polite terminologies are simply clichés.
Clamor for power and wealth gave birth to Boko Haram. Among Nigeria’s northern politicians, religion and religious conflicts were, well before Boko Haram ascended its new throne, tools for political profits. Setting off tensions under the guise of upholding the tenets of the holy quran was a major way of gaining access to the now notorious national cake. And it has to be accessed by any means necessary. Arming young chaps as young as three years of age, teaching them that everyone who does not subscribe to their religion, who does not speak their language, who does not look like them, is an enemy of Allah, becomes the nuance. Well before long, the young has now grown; Boko Haram is born. Who will deal with this self-created monster?
The present power of Boko Haram’s terror was unforeseen. The elite who created it did not understand that absolute power destroys all in its path. But the new lords and owners of Boko Haram’s terror patents could only flirt with this global devil’s breast for so long. Ibrahim Babangida, known as Nigeria’s political Maradona (Diego Armando), who literally, with assistance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, milked and wasted the country’s human economy. His ultimate ambition, to set up an Islamic caliphate of Nigeria as it was widely rumored, where he would rule, as Allah’s ordained Moammar Gadhafi for Nigeria. You’ll pity Gadhafi, I guess, when you watch videos of how a mighty warrior fell like a roach.
All sensuous benefits of having sex with Satan lead to the same result: a frightening attainment of the whoredom of terror. It would be advisable for Nigeria’s current president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to muscle more meaningful strategies in quelling this rise of romance with Satan. He should not go behind the curtains to allow himself get some enjoyment from squeezing the devil’s breasts, milking what he considers some juicy drinks. He must know that, like Abacha the terror, the wages of sin is death, and death surely shall come upon all bringers of death to Nigerians.
