Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi StateGovernor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State yesterday in Lagos painted the gloomy picture that awaits the country should the Islamic sect, Boko Haram succeed with its ongoing insurgency.
The governor, who at a time ,was alleged to be one of the sponsors of the group, did not only deny the allegation but said: “It would be a tragedy for any governor to finance the activities of a group that takes lives.”
He added: “I do not think any governor would do that. If you are in the business of politics, you should realise that you will die one day and God will ask you to account for your deeds in life.”
Governor Yuguda, who delivered a lecture titled “Nigerian Unity: Marching Forward to Greatness” at a business luncheon organised by the Island Club, said of the Boko Haram insurgency: “Under the weight of the current Boko Haram insurgency, Nigeria may implode, leading to a general breakdown of law and order, creating a refugee crisis and escalation of cross-border crimes and violence. This will ultimately lead to a gradual collapse of the sub-region.
“Those beating the drums of war at the slightest tension in the land must know that breaking up a nation is very hard–as hard as its founding, and often just as violent.
“Perhaps with the exception of Czechoslovakia, there is no record of a country disintegrating into its constituent parts peacefully. They should save Nigeria having to experience and live through such a great unknown.
“Nigeria as it is, has come to stay. The issues that unite Nigerians are more important and certainly more numerous than the few that divide them.
“In any event, there will be no winner in such war that these doomsday prophets are advocating. A free-for-all internecine conflict in Nigeria will take on the character of several different battles-an inter-regional, intra-regional religious war between Muslims and Christians; an ethnic war fueled by pent-up tribal grievances within a single state or across the boundaries of neighbouring states; an indigene-settler, farmer-nomad war of attrition and an all-out war between the haves and the have-nots across the length and breadth of the country
‘’It will be a war without a warfront, because the whole country will be the theatre of battle and every inhabitant a reluctant warrior. And it will be a general war with an unprecedented number of casualties that, in addition, will cause large-scale suffering in which several millions of internally-displaced persons will be rendered homeless and many more refugees will be forced across Nigeria’s borders into neighbouring countries.”
On Boko Haram, the governor said: “As far as I am concerned, the activities of the group give its members away as animals, and our society must find a way of dealing with it. Anyone who takes up arms against the people and the state is nothing but a criminal, whether as Boko Haram, Niger Delta militants or any other group that might be fomenting violence.
“The Boko Haram insurgency is a product of poverty. We Muslims know that the greatest sin anyone can commit is to take another person’s life. The sect’s members must have been wrongly indoctrinated to kill in the name of religion.
Responding to a question on speculations that some northern governors are behind the sect, he said: ”Any governor who has sworn with the Bible or the Quran is duty-bound to protect lives and property, ensure justice and equity and provide social amenities. And any one who has not done these has failed completely.
‘’Therefore, if there is any governor involved or behind Boko Haram, God will catch up with him, because human lives are sacred, so no one has the right to take the lives of fellow human beings.”
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