The recent comment from the Sultan of Sokoto and the spiritual head of the Islamic religion in Nigeria Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar that a total amnesty should be given to the members of the terrorist group that operates unabated in Northern Nigeria today by the name of Boko Haram is uncalled for, ill-advised, unintelligent comment and totally senseless. The members of this group have used acts of genocide and terrorism to kill to date over 1,500 innocent Nigerians mainly Christians, Southerners and Northern Nigerian minority ethnic nationalities since its onset. The Boko Haram and its members in my own personal judgement are simply pure murderers, ethnic cleansers, arsonists, looters. religious bigots and fanatics.
The online encyclopedia, the Wikipedia defines genocide as "the deliberate and systematic destruction of, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars. While a precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG). Article 2 of this convention defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."The Oxford English Dictionary defines genocide as "the deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic or national group ...".
These are some of the violent terrorist incidents that were linked directly to Boko Haram in the Northern Nigeria according to the data that is coming from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and was released officially in July 2012. "This is borne out by quantitative data. Out of the 137 religious-motivated violent incidents we tracked, 88.3% were attacks on Christians, 2.9% were attacks on Muslims, attacks on security agents 4.4%, sectarian clashes 2.2% and extra-judicial killings were 2.1%. The US Terrorism report 2011 indicates a total of 136 terrorist attacks in Nigeria. It is inconceivable therefore that Muslims were the primary victims of a jihadist group whose intent is to Islamize Nigeria. This year 2012 alone, there have been 49 security incidences of which 80% have targeted Christians" - CAN
Can Nigeria ever survive as a nation without true justice for the innocent Nigerians who were killed by Boko Haram? Will these deep wounds that were inflicted on these Nigerians by the Boko Haram ever healed without bringing these terrorists to true justice in the courts of Nigeria and according to the constitution of Nigeria? In conclusion, any amnesty for the members of Boko Haram that excludes the true justice through our courtrooms and the rule of law on behalf of these dead and innocent Nigerians will never solve this problem in all truth, honesty and reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment