‘Boko Haram members are not spirits, they live among us.’ ‘We know them.’ ‘We know their sponsors.’ ‘We will soon dislodge them.’

The above quotations are some of the many of what Nigerians hear from the media daily from our leaders about Boko Haram. Let me take them one by one. And I start with the last.

‘We will soon dislodge them.’ And I keep wondering how long the ‘soon’ will be. I, as a person, am already tired of the worn out cliché. I had thought that by now, they would have been dislodged. I think what we are doing is more reactionary rather than preempting. They government should take the battle to them. This does not mean shooting or killing them. Let there be intelligence gathering that will prevent further attacks. I sincerely hope everything is so put in place that we’ll be able to beat our chest and say, ‘we will soon dislodge them,’ and not just saying it for the fun of it.

‘We know them.’ ‘We know their sponsors.’ Really? Then why are we allowing wastage of lives and properties? If we know them and their sponsors, it does not make sense talking about it; just go ahead and do what is right: arrest and prosecute them. Government, as far as I know, has the greatest power to enforce laws. If truly, ‘We know them’ and ‘We know their sponsors’, God will be unhappy and the founding fathers of Nigeria will be weeping in their graves that we are not doing the right thing at the right time.

‘Boko Haram members are not spirits, they live among us.’ It is difficult to believe that they are not spirits and that they live among us. How come? If they live among us, then they are human beings. And if they are human beings, why is so difficult for our security agents catching up with them and stopping them from committing crime against the rest of us?

May be we should call on Uncle Sam to help us. Uncle Sam’s security will not talk until they achieve result. But my people are talkatives. They give away intelligence because of much talking. Haba. Please, let swallow our shame and call on Uncle Sam to help us in the name of collaboration.