Guardian

THE PUNCH newspaper of May 31, 2013 reported that the Federal Government might before long commence a clampdown on “extremist groups”, especially the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram. He explained that the three constituted threats to national security. President Goodluck Jonathan, as the chief national security officer, spoke in his Midterm Report that was presented to mark the Democracy Day.

His words: “The activities of the MASSOB and the OPC, though not as violently intense as those of Boko Haram, they still pose a serious security challenge to the Nigerian state”. Curiously, the President omitted the MEND. It could be an omission from the head and not from the heart. Whatever it could be, I am treating MEND in this piece. Concerning the first two organisations, I disagree with the President for some reasons. But I agree with him intoto on Boko Haram. Nobody can gainsay his claims on the needs for security.

Security of persons and properties is fundamental. It is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Without both, there can be no foundation for peace and development in all strata. However, of the four main movements – MASSOB, OPC, MEND and Boko Haram – the last of them is the worst, and deserves to be clamped-down upon. There is the need to examine each of them to know their objectives and methods of operations.

First, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) is a secessionist movement with the aim of securing the resurgence of the defunct state of Biafra from Nigeria. Its leaders argue that it is a peaceful group to support this contention and advertised the plan to achieve its goal peacefully. The group’s philosophy is hinged upon the principle of non-violence as propagated by Mahatma Gandhi of India (1869 to 1948). MASSOB members, in recent years, reserve its activities for celebrating key dates and events in commemoration of dead members.

MASSOB does not kill people or destroy properties, rather, its members were allegedly killed by security agents. It is the opinion of this writer that there is nothing wrong to demand for the resurgence of a defunct state, like Biafra, if it is possible to achieve it. It is not possible, because secession is frowned at in the 1999 Constitution (amended). Therefore, as MASSOB is not a danger to the State, it does not require to be axed; it must be left alone to its periodical peaceful protests. In the events of minor clashes, the leaders could be arrested and detained. That is normal.

Second, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is an organisation that claims to expose the exploitation and the oppression of the people of the Niger Delta and the devastation of the natural environment by public-private partnerships between the Federal Government and the corporations involved in the production of oil in the Niger Delta. It is an organisation that is striving for the distribution of greater share of the country’s oil and to secure reparations from the Federal Government for the pollution that is caused by oil. It is the opinion of this writer that an organisation that makes legitimate demands for equitable distribution of resources does not deserve a clampdown, more so if it is peaceful. If there is any violence, such is localized and selective.

Third, the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) is a Yoruba nationalist organisation that focuses on disciplining erring citizens, effecting rectitude, and eradicating injustices. The OPC was formed when a group of Yoruba elite including Fredrick Fasehun, a medical doctor, a tried and tested old stager, resolved to form an organisation to actualize the annulled mandate of Chief Moshood Abiola, who won the presidential election of June 12, 1993, but was barred from the office. Factionalised in 1999 by Ganiyu Adams, the same name endured till date. The OPC is the only group that carries out internal examinations to discipline ruthlessly its own defaulting members however highly placed. Its uses of Yoruba traditional magic are unique, but devoid of arms and ammunitions in its operations. The group achieves its objectives by co-operating in esprit-de-corps in the extermination of crimes in the society.

Examples abound. Few years ago, at Ota, Ogun State, some OPC members helped to retrieve ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s generating plant from fleeing thieves at night. Chief Obasanjo was in office then. Also recently, The Guardian, May 31, 2013, reported that on May 29, there was a robbery attack on Fuji musician, Wasiu Alabi (Pasuma), in which his Range Rover Sports Utility Vehicle was stolen. The president of OPC, Gani Adams, ordered his men to conduct comprehensive search for the recovery of the vehicle. OPC members are not angels, but they are performing useful services. Could these laudable activities be compared with Boko Haram, the fourth organisation?

Boko Haram is a notorious terrorist organisation, meaning “Western education is sinful”. It is a Jihadist militant organisation whose stock-in trade is violence. It is a movement which strongly opposes man-made laws and Westernisation. It was founded in 2001 not only to establish sharia law in the country, but to exterminate Christianity by bombing churches. Boko Haram was founded as an indigenous group, turning itself into a jihadist group in 2009. It proposed that interaction with the Western world was forbidden. And it encouraged petulant criminal elements and disgruntled politicians as well to penetrate into its membership. Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, once described Boko Haram as “Bermuda Triangle”.

Appeals that were made to the sect in the past were ignored. Such appeals went like water off a duck’s back, producing no effect. Prickly and irascible, the members attacked churches. The sect began its violence in 2009. On December 25, 2011, which was Christmas Day for Christians, St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State was attacked and 46 worshippers were massacred. These gory incidents continue to resonate. Also, St. Rita’s Catholic Church was attacked, pretty indicating that Boko Haram is hell-bent on the Islamisation of Nigeria. In the same year, 2011, Police Headquarters and the UN buildings, Abuja, were attacked and 44 people were killed to lend international colour to Boko Haram. The notorious sect was not done yet with violence.

Adding insult to injury, Boko Haram’s peace call in November, 2012, included, inter alia, the conditions that “Peace talks must be held in Saudi Arabia, compensation must be given to the families of those who were killed in the course of its terrorists acts, and the re-building of its mosques by the Federal Government”. No consideration was given to Christians who were massacred during church services and the churches that were destroyed. How else to prove the group’s desire to Islamise the country? Which movement deserves clampdown now? Mr. President must not throw out the baby with the bath water.

Comparatively, the OPC, MASSOB and MEND are lilliputian and lily-livered Boys Scouts and Boys Brigade, unlike the militant Boko Haram, a terrorist gang which has assumed national and international levels of notoriety. Therefore, if there is any group to clamp-down upon, it is certainly the Boko Haram, and not the three others. President Jonathan ought to have a re-think.

• Oshisada, a veteran journalists, lives at Ikorodu, Lagos.