Still on the BBC documentary on banditry

After watching the BBC Documentary on Banditry, I again confirmed a number of things. Let me share 3 of them.

1. The criticism and blame of government for everything is the root of most evil in modern day Nigeria. When you watch the bandits talk it is like you are hearing regular Nigerians talk, it is exactly the same wordings, same sentiment;

“The government is not sincere”
“The government don’t value Fulani people”
“This thing that happened to us is planned”
“We want to show government they are wrong”
“Why did this not happen to Hausa? Why always Fulani?”
“The economy is bad, what do you expect?”

One even said “government is benefiting from the insecurity”

The bandits are speaking like the average Nigerian.

I have told you before that I heard a conversation between people who wanted to forge receipts to claim money from government. With my contenance in the meeting, the Oga noticed I was not with them so he went “if you don’t do this now the government will still jail you and say you are corrupt”. Think of this imbecility mistaken for logic for a second.

2. The Bandits are doing what they are doing to make the government look bad.

I am not just saying this, they said so. One even said that he is sorry is what he can say to his victims but his intention was to embarrass the government. And I am not even paraphrasing.

When asked what he did with 60 million Naira ransom, he said he used it to get more weapons. Why? He is not interested in cars or houses. He is interested in making the government look bad. He is practically telling you his game and you are playing along, motivating him to do more. One of them said their own protest against bad governance can only be done with a gun. How we don’t get this is alarming.

3. People will hold on to their bigotry no matter what.

I mean here is a President who is Fulani. His personality, administration and life’s legacy is being ridiculed and destroyed purposely by groups of bandit that happen to be from his tribe for the most part. And people still find a way to say he supports them.

My take is no matter how you consider your President weak and incompetent, if a group of people say openly that they are targeting Nigerians to fight him, you stand by your country and by your leader to defeat these folks even if you don’t like the leader.

One of the bandits was asked boldly “what kind of a person goes into a school and kidnap innocent girls because he has problem with someone else?” and he replied “…I can only say to them that we are sorry. But we feel no guilt. All we want is to inflict disgrace on the government”

And guess what, you are their tool in this mission.

So what should we do? Keep mute? No.

1. Pray against and curse those who kidnap others and traumatize our little girls. Let them read the public criticism and ill wish against them so they don’t feel vindicated.
2. Flood everywhere with suggestions on how best to go about this.
3. Boost the morale of our troops with your kind words, let them trend for example, they will see it and be more energized.
4. Criticize constructively, that is, be specific about the problem and suggest solutions if you can.
5. Create petitions and mobilize for signing. Let us have a 20 million people signed petition asking the UN to assist our government with special funds and special forces from across the world.
6. Do same petition asking for whatever method you think will solve the issue with hope that when it gets enough signs government will adopt it. Imagine a petition to the rich countries of the world to develop those villages into industrial farm sites with secured parameters. It will solve the problem of food in West Africa.
7. Call your friends and relatives in the armed forces and instead of reducing his morale with “don’t let Nigeria happen to you,” tell him we appreciate him and the great work himself and his colleagues are doing. Show this appreciation anywhere you meet a soldier and you will see how desperate they will be to end this mess, nobody wants to lose his respect. And if you think these don’t work ask yourself why soldiers all over the world sing morale boosting songs to encourage themselves.
8. Even kind words directed at the leaders while asking for specifics will be more effective than incoherent criticism.

There is a lot we can do productively to ensure these terrorists don’t use us to further their cause. Doing the opposite just to make a political point will not lead us anywhere.

• Ohwojeheri is CEO at Minhaj Publicity