STOP THIS CARNAGE NOW.....before it gets too late!

My heart was broken, watching security and rescue officers pick up pieces of human flesh into a bag at the site of last Monday's mayhem at Nyanya, a suburb of our Federal Capital, Abuja. I wept as I watched the wreckage and the wanton destruction of human lives by a band of demented and grossly degenerated criminals who go by the name Boko Haram.

Truly I believe that these evil men have crossed the line of Total insanity. And we can not be watching and appealing to them . Do they look like people who listen to appeals? Let all these appeals cease. It is insulting and disgusting. These animals with the basest instincts have completely lost every bit of humanity and can not respond to any human overtures.

Almost Every Single day since this year, they have been on vengeful rampage, spilling innocent blood of Nigerians, perhaps to appease their thirst for blood. And I think the Nyanya bombing is a complete desecration of our country . And while we were wasting energy making speeches of appeal , they rubbed insult into injury by marching peacefully into the government secondary school in Chibok , Borno State and kidnapped over 100 female Students and drove them away without any challenge. Iam puzzled how this could happen. After they had invaded several schools in the recent past, killing and maiming innocent school children, that we could allow this to happen again makes me extremely sad. More so when many Schools in the State had been shut down, why could we not provide sufficient security to the few that were in session preparing for the WAEC exams?

I have written in this column several times that it looks to me that we are not really serious about ending this crisis or winning the war. There is so much sloppiness in our approach and it is either we are not coordinated or there is too much sabotage. I accept that when we are fighting this kind of war, it is practically impossible to Police everywhere or preempt every attack, but in my opinion we have not been as effective as we ought to. After the bombing of the motor park in Kano where several people were killed and vehicles destroyed, why are our Motor packs and public places un protected even with the minutest anti terror equipment? After they had attacked our Schools repeatedly, it is a big shame that we can not protect even the few schools open in the North East.

If we can not protect or preempt attacks on these known targets, then who and what can we protect ? Just the government houses and the houses of Assembly and the homes of Political office holders.?I believe that something is wrong or deficient with the deployment of our security apparatus and network. Is our intelligence capability so poor?

So, rather than waste my time appealing to the blatantly insane insurgents and their reprobate backers, I will rather appeal to Nigerians, those who genuinely abhor and oppose what is happening. My appeal goes first to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I am really wondering how he is handling all these. I believe he must be very distressed. I believe he must be the most distressed person in the country today. When I saw his hand on his chin as he inspected the scene in Nyanya last Monday, my heart went out to him as well. I presume he must be asking the 'why me' question, the type people ask when bewildered by unsavory happenings. He must go down in Nigeria's history as the President who went out to inspect scenes of man-made disasters and condole the bereaved more than any other so far. I believe he must be doing his best but as it is obvious to him, his best seems not to be good enough. I sympathise with him because in the real world, it is difficult to measure effort. What is measured and appreciated is RESULT. No matter what diehard supporters of the President like us may feel the truth is that with the daily killing of innocent Nigerians is the daily erosion of the confidence

of ordinary Nigerians in his government. The first assignment of any government is to protect lives and right now lives of many innocent Nigerians are being wasted. My candid appeal to him is to draw the line on the ground now. If I were him, I will take what ever action that must be taken to see that the Nyanya bomb will be the last of that Nature to be detonated by the Boko Haram or any mutant. I will go to any where in the World to procure help to see that this does not happen again. I will for a starter go after the insurgents and ensure they are driven outside our borders and then cordon off the entire border in the North East of Nigeria. To hear that the book haram have training camps and depots within the Nigerian territory bewilders me. If need be, I will declare a state of emergency in the whole Nation. I will declare every day a Nigerian citizen is killed unjustly a national mourning day and will outlaw any boisterous celebration of any nature until we sort out this National tragedy. If we need volunteers to beef up our security forces, I will ask. If we need foreign troops or whatever, I will get. I know that eventually, we will defeat the insurgents, but at what cost to the lives of innocent Nigerians. I will do whatever is possible to protect the lives of innocent Nigerian Youths whose lives are being cut short in very miserable ways. Some may say that these actions may make the insurgents feel good. What the heck, are they not feeling good already? And that should not bother us, what should be our focus is to galvanize the entire citizenry to frontally resist this evil that is threatening to consume us.As long as people are feeling safe somewhere and having fun,the required galvanization and concentration will not be achieved.

My next appeal is to the Security forces. They are doing their best and many are dying in action.But they can see that their current best falls below National expectation. Iam one of those who hailed the promise of Air Vice Marshall Alex Badeh that the insurgency would be brought to an end in April. I have been praying for them to succeed. But we have less than 2 weeks left for April to come to an end and with the renewed onslaught by the insurgents, I am believing God for a miracle. But if April ends and the situation is not reasonably resolved any confidence left on our security forces will be severely shaken. And I hope that they are contemplating the consequences. Let them change their strategies and redouble their effort. The recent embarrassing discrepancy between their story on the rescue of the kidnapped students and that of the Parents and school authority adds no honour to their mission.

Thirdly, let me appeal to the Governors in the North to abandon Political divisions, urgently meet with their traditional rulers, community leaders and other leaders of thought and Marshall a plan to stop this carnage.If they unite on this, they alone can contain this insurgency. In my community, three years ago, an indigene was kidnapped. The community met and rose as one and everybody went into the bush and by day break, the captive was released, the kidnappers driven out of town, and three years after they have not returned. In my opinion, this matter is really in their hands. And that's why I applaud some of the parents of the kidnapped students who on Thursday decided to go into the Sambisa forest to try and rescue their wards. That is the type of action and Courage the citizens must show to put the enemy to rout.

Fourthly my last appeal goes to the people of Nigeria that they must be prepared to face inconveniences. If the President and the Security forces adopt the kind of suggestions I have made above, then we may have to forgo some rights and face some restrictions. We either eat our cakes or have it back,not both. When Alqueda invaded America, world travel changed, especially if you are going to America. They now insist on seeing your nakedness.I do not need to appeal to Nigerians to be vigilant and report strange persons or strange objects, because such appeals seem not to produce much result. It is our civic responsibility and if we do not want to live up to it, then let us be prepared to face the consequence, but stop looking for whom to blame.This carnage must stop now or else it might be too late!

Finally, we must be comforted by David's testimony in the book of Psalm chapter Eleven: "In The Lord,I put my trust, how say ye to my soul ,flee as a bird to your mountain?. For lo the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in the heart. If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do?. The Lord is in His Holy Temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven; His Eyes behold, His Eye Lids try, the children of Men. The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked and him that Loveth violence, His soul hateth.UPON THE WICKED,HE SHALL RAIN SNARES, FIRE AND BRIMSTONE ,AND AN HORRIBLE TEMPEST; this shall be the portion of their cup". Let us trust The Lord to help our efforts,especially if we are the righteous. If any one is not, this Easter is a great opportunity. Happy Easter, Nigerians, anyhow!

Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa OFR

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