Profiting from mayhem

by Eze Eluchie

In an earlier post on this blog (Friday 12th April 2013: “Amnesty for terror”), I had advised against efforts by the Goodluck Jonathan administration in Nigeria to grant ‘amnesty’ to a group that clearly had neither asked for amnesty nor expressed any remorse for their actions.

I had clearly enunciated that the empanelling of an ‘Amnesty Committee’ by Goodluck Jonathan would merely be an additional route to fleece Nigeria and had advised that if the members of any such ‘Amnesty Committee’ had any iota of belief in the rationality of their existence, they should not hide behind huge desks in air-conditioned offices in Nigeria’s capital city (Abuja) but go into action by operating from and or visiting the terror groups in Kano, Maidugri, Damaturu or other cities where the Boko Haram groups are in effective control.

Alas, after 14 days of the empanelling of the ‘Amnesty Committee’, a Committee to which 2 wise and discerning appointees had rightly declined to serve, the millions of dollars appropriated to the ‘Amnesty Committee’ has not only disappeared, but also served, as predicted, to further infuriate the terror group - the 'committee has remained hole-up in the comfort of Abuja whilst thousands of Nigerians are having their lives unfortunately terminated by the Boko Haram group


In response to the empanelling of the Amnesty Committee, Boko Haram has unleashed its most ferocious orgy of violence ever on the hapless citizens of northern Nigeria. Well over 500 people have been unnecessarily slaughtered. The dastardly attacks on Bama and Baga towns in Bornu State and the sacking of a Police and Military Barracks by Boko Haram elements could have been prevented, if and only if, the Jonathan administration had a thinking cap to put on.

Those who accepted to serve on the so-called ‘Amnesty Committee’, amongst whose membership is someone who claims to be a Professor of International Affairs who ought to know better, having profited materially from the charade, cannot claim ignorance of the direct consequences of their rascality and should thus bear some responsibility for the deaths and destruction which have occurred since their coming into being.

The ‘Amnesty Committee’ members, who are listed below, should take a bow in shame

Nigeria's Minister of Special Duties, Mallam Kabiru Taminu Turaki,
Sheik Ahmed Lemu,
Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed,
Col. Musa Shehu, (rtd.),
Sheik Abubakar Tureta,
Senator Sodangi Abubakar,
Senator Ahmed Makarfi,
Hon. Mohammed Bello Matawalle,
Amb. Zakari Ibrahim,
Hajiya Naja’atu Mohammed,
Malam Adamu S. Ladan,
Dr. Joseph Golwa,
AVM A. I. Sheh,
Mr. R. I. Nkemdirim,
Hajiya Aisha Wakil
DIG P. I. Leha,
Prof. Nur Alkali.
Malam Salihu Abubakar,
Alhaji Abubakar Sani Lugga,
Barrister Ibrahim Tahir,
Brig-Gen. Ibrahim Sabo,
Amb. Baba Ahmed Jidda,
Group Capt. Bilal Bulama, and
Rtd, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi


Picture: Group photograph of President Jonathan and the ‘Amnesty Committee’ taken at their  inauguration