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State of emergency again? There is God o!

In Adamawa State, all the conditions necessary for a state of emergency as spelt out in the Constitution do not apply. And even when President…

In Adamawa State, all the conditions necessary for a state of emergency as spelt out in the Constitution do not apply. And even when President Goodluck Jonathan spoke about it in his media chat a few weeks back, all he said were that the state of emergency gives the military some leeway to operate outside the laws that protect citizen’s liberties. One feels sad that a democratic government will curtail liberties by infringing on the Constitution which gives the whole process legitimacy.  
Unfortunately, people seem to be taking the glaring illegality without question. But our people should be made to realize that more people have been killed in Nyanya Abuja than in the entire Adamawa State in the past one year. More people were also killed within the last one year in Plateau, Nasarawa and Kaduna States than in Adamawa State. This is not due to the presence of a state of emergency, but rather an indication that such measures imposed on Adamawa State were and still are essentially politically motivated.
As a matter of fact, the celebrated Kirchinga, Shuwa and Michika attacks succeeded because the corridor established by the military along Adamawa/Borno boundary did not function effectively. If the security forces had effectively repelled the attack, we would have celebrated it as one of the gains of the emergency rule. But alas! it did not happen. The attack took place and our people bore the brunt. The abduction of the Chibok girls happened under the watchful eyes of the managers of our state of emergency. Yet it is now left for foreigners to blame our federal government, whose spin doctors keep telling us that it is winning the war on insurgency.
Rather than talk about changes in strategy, the government is relying on the imposition of another state of emergency for another six months as the winning strategy. The motive may move from addressing the insurgency to denying the people in the affected areas the right to vote in 2015. The signs are already there. One more extension and the election timetable will fall within the state of emergency period. But we know: there is God o! There is God o!  Those responsible for the insurgency will be exposed and eliminated, eventually. But it would not be by the measures of the emergency, but by God. Those who want to use the insurgency to achieve some selfish political ends will equally be exposed because there is God o!
We have continued to watch the theatre of the absurd with all the comic relief taking place in Abuja not as disinterested bystanders but as victims of its all-consuming power. There is no doubt that we have some vacancy in the realm of intellect in the corridors of power in Abuja. Where there is such deficit in a system, sentiments and political convenience become the order of the day. In spite of the menace and evil in the insurgency, we believe politics and political considerations are at the heart of the imposition of emergency rule in Adamawa State. But then we have to live with it, hoping that reason will one day prevail and that the plan to stop the elections in our state will not see the light of the day.
On the abductions of the schoolgirls in Chibok, one does not know whether to be sad or happy that foreigners are now in the forefront of the rescue efforts to bring them back. I am sad because the girls are still in captivity. Sad because they have been shown on video which is apparently proved to all the doubting Thomases that the dire condition is not a ruse.  Sad because such doubts have been expressed by people at the highest level of our government.  Indeed, one of the president’s side-kicks, Asari Dokubo, has launched his own campaign to oppose the BringBackOurGirls movement, claiming that it is not true that the girls were abducted.  
But I am happy that the combined efforts of security forces from all over the world will eventually subdue the insurgency and overcome our current challenges. This is not the first time we have been treated this way by outsiders. After we suffered and sacrificed our soldiers in Sierra Leone, overnight the British on the scene, ended the madness, and took the credit for it. This may yet happen here in the Chibok case. Foreigners on our soil may be the ones to end the Insurgency, and then we will be told our forces had failed when in reality that is not the case. Our forces did not fail, but our political leadership failed them. We have failed to protect our kids, we have failed to recover our stolen kids and, worse, we have failed to accept the reality of their condition.
When I consider that several of our gallant forces have lost their lives to these insurgents, I feel bad. Yet, it is worse when these foreign forces simply walk in and take credit for ending what should have ended long ago given the political will on the part of our leadership. From the pictures we saw on the video of the girls recently released, the insurgents are operating in an open terrain that can quite easily be located. Unfortunately the credit for ending the insurgency may go to the foreigners, while the brunt will be borne by our forces and security details. We pray that whoever takes the credit, let our girls return safe and alive to the warm embrace of their parents and relief of the nation. That is all we pray for, because we strongly believe that there is God o!

Sajoh wrote from Yola

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