HOUSE of Representatives’ Speaker Aminu Tambuwal this weekend joined the growing ranks of paranoid northern politicians who are calling for unconditional reprieve for the bands of murderous Islamic jihadists, popularly known as Boko Haram, who have been on a horrific campaign of terror in that part of the country for the last 3 years.
The speaker made the call during his visit to the north-eastern state of Gombe on Saturday – the same day when another northern leader also lambasted President Goodluck Jonathan as lacking in respect for influential northern leaders.
Mr. Tambuwal’s position came on the heels of an equally prominent demand from no less a person than Sultan Abubakar Saad of Sokoto, who earlier in the month tried to justify his call for forgiveness for merciless mass murders, by recalling the amnesty granted members of the militant groups in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
Records show, however, that Boko Haram’s horrifically bloody campaign strikes a strong contrast to the Niger Delta militants’, who mostly waged a campaign of economic sabotage meant to draw attention to the criminal environmental degradation and unequal distribution of wealth mined out of their lands and waters.
Indeed the campaign by groups like MEND enjoyed relatively popular support, especially among the younger generation of political observers in Nigeria.
But the growing call that bloodthirsty religious fanatics be spared the wrath of Nigeria’s laws may not be unconnected to fears among the northern elite, a group to which Sultan Saad and Speaker Tambuwal belongs, that they have also come into the crosshairs of the murderous group who view these prominent people as part of the society’s problems.
Among the influential northern elite who voiced their support for freeing Jihadist murderers from facing the law is Second Republic Deputy Senate President Maman Dan-Musa, who said the president made a bad mistake in rejecting the idea of granting amnesty to the Muslim militants.
“He would have used that opportunity to announce amnesty for the sect even if it was in response to the request by the Sultan of Sokoto, the most respected and highest Muslim leader in the country who pleaded with Jonathan to grant amnesty to the sect members,” Dan-Musa told national tabloid, National Mirror in its Sunday edition.
He also said that the president showed poor judgment in refusing to accede to the idea of pulling Nigerian Army soldiers off the streets of the communities ravaged by the deadly activities of Boko Haram.
According to Dan-Musa, President Jonathan also showed disregard for the northern leaders who made the recommendations to the president, explaining that when high profile public persons suggest the idea of amnesty for Boko Haram members, it is unique opportunity for the president to do as suggested.
“Many lawmakers want the president to give the call for amnesty for the Boko Haram sect members a second thought,” Speaker Tambuwal had said in Gombe, where he was visiting as a guest of Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo to lay the foundation stone at the site of a planned N2.7 billion International Conference Center.
The idea of multi-billion naira conference center itself will strike observers as incongruous when viewed against the backdrop of poverty that pervades the north, including the state of Gombe.