Borno 'Elder' Labels Boko Haram Terrorists Cowards For Bombing Innocent Citizens

Alhaji Bulami Gubio (Nigerians love titles, 'Alhaji' in this case denotes he has been to Mecca for the hajj), the secretary of the Borno Elders Forum, BEF, in the wake of the twin suicide bomb attacks on 2 mosques in Borno and Adamawa states today has labelled the Boko Haram terrorists as cowards. He said they would rather take to bombing innocent citizens praying in mosques than take on the Nigerian military in the bushes.
Mr Gubio can sit in his comfortable and secure home and talk bullshit because he and people like him are the very reason Boko Haram is in existence. I have written about the reluctance of the governments of the 19 northern Nigerian states to invest in education. This is exactly what birthed Boko Haram (literal meaning: western education is forbidden) and Mr Gubio has thus lost the moral authority to criticize the terrorists.

Mr Gubio also does not understand that they are called terrorists for a reason; they inflict and inspire terror, and Mr Gubio's comments are a direct result of the terror he is feeling right now. He, like the ordinary citizens who directly feel the impact of the terrorists' scourge, is now feeling a combination of fear, frustration, and a sense of foreboding with every detonated bomb. The attacks are getting to close for comfort. Borno state, the hotbed of the terrorists has a governor, who collects a monthly subvention from the federal government. Since economic activities have literally ground to a halt, there is simply more money available for them to steal, not that they would invest the money in anything worthwhile if there was 'peace' anyway. I do not believe the governor has built any new roads or schools, health centres, or made any attempts at investing in income generating schemes. So what does the state government do with all the monies they collect every month?

Mr Gubio has advocated mosque guards. Who will the guards be? They already have a civilian JTF who torture, in all probability, innocent young men whose only crime is  that they are suspected of being Boko Haram members. Does he want to constitute another militia, or expand the civilian JTF? He has also accused the terrorists of being anti islam and pretending to be muslims in order to give islam a bad name. Boko Haram does not need to give islam a bad name, the religion speaks for itself; and it is evil.

As is the norm with Nigerians, Mr Gubio has enjoined his fellow citizens to continue to pray for an end to the terror attacks. Dear Mr Gubio, if you want the attacks to end, first of all reduce their recruitment pool by investing in education and encouraging your children to go to school. Tell your state governor to make primary and secondary education compulsory and free. Let your lazy state legislators pass this into law and send to jail any parent who will not send her/his child(ren) to school. That will be a good place to start. Or you can continue to offer prayers while your youths continue to blow themselves up, along with the rest of your people.