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Real Boko Haram ’ll accept amnesty –Yuguda

By CHIDI OBINECHE

Governor of Bauchi State, Mallam Isah Yuguda, has said the real members of the Boko Haram will accept the amnesty, which the Federal Government is proposing. He said those who were kicking against the amnesty package were the criminals and politically motivated among the members. Yuguda said it would be left for the government to deal with criminal and political members of the sect when the real members of the group embraced the proposed amnesty.

The Bauchi State governor, who spoke with journalists in Lagos last Saturday night, said there was a serious need to look into the issues that prompted the sect into its action, such as joblessness and illiteracy. His words  “On the issue of Boko Haram, amnesty has been given to the real Boko Haram and I believe they are willing to accept it.

That is my belief but you know there is the criminal Boko Haram and there is the real Boko Haram. But the criminal and the political Boko Haram, they are the armed robbers and that arm of politicians that call themselves Boko Haram. “Maybe it is the criminal Boko Haram that are saying they don’t want amnesty because they have a different intention. Some of them are gunrunners, some of them are armed robbers and some of them are doing that on behalf of politicians. So, they just hide under Boko Haram and perpetrate evil.

“For those who are actually Boko Haram, I would want to believe that there is something that is agitating their minds, not about killing human beings but probably there are certain things that have agitated their minds (probably joblessness). I understand that some of them are university graduates of 15 years with no job. “Now that the president has extended that olive branch to them, I would like to believe that they are quite happy.

There has to be an end to all these. Once they have accepted, we know that we have to face the criminals. Any other persons calling themselves Boko Haram, we know they are the armed robbers and the political Boko Haram. You have to understand this. Boko in Hausa is learning in English, including learning rocket science, medicine, biology, Chemistry, Hausa, Yoruba (anything learnt in English characters). But if you learn rocket science in Arabic, is it Boko too?” Yuguda contended that it was wrong to refer to Boko Haram as a religious sect or Islamist sect. Rather, he said there was a serious need to look at the sect and find out what the agitation was all about.

He stressed that neither Islam nor Christianity permitted its adherents to kill. According to him, “I become really worried when I read about mayhem, insecurity and all that in Bauchi. What is all this? I am telling you that the crimes committed in one city in any of these developed countries are more than that committed in Nigeria. Way back in 1999, the budget for security alone was in the region of about $30 billion in one city alone.

“If you read the Bible from the beginning to the end, there is nowhere it said go and kill for God.  Even the Bible said if you are slapped on the left cheek, you should turn the other cheek. What is the justification for the killing of people? Certainly not from the Bible! As for you being a Muslim, you cannot be a Muslim without believing in the Bible. In the Quoran, Jesus is Isah, the son of Mary. You must believe in His mother and believe that He was given birth to by the power of the Holy Spirit. You must believe in the Bible, even though there are minor variations, that which relates to the crucifixion and the Trinity.

“For any Muslim or Christian who picks up a weapon and says I want to kill, that man is a criminal. He is not a Muslim. He is not a Christian. And the earlier you start preaching this philosophy, the better for all of us. We must find a reason for the killing. It is either poverty or tribal. It is not religious.” Commenting on the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Yuguda said the party would come out stronger and win more states in the 2015 election. He said there was no crisis in the party that could not be resolved. He said: “PDP is going to win 35 out of the 36 states of the Federation in 2015. We are winning in Lagos.”

Yuguda dismissed the views that the formation of the PDP Governors’ Forum was because of crisis in the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF). He said: “It is not a crisis. Formation of association is provided for in the constitution. Today, the opposition parties form an association and they call themselves APC. If PDP governors feel that there are certain things that are exclusive to them as PDP governors, in the PDP manifesto that they need to discuss and try as much as possible to make sure that they implement the programmes and manifesto, we should do that. But the Governors’ Forum is Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum. I had the privilege of going to the annual general meeting of the American Governors’ Forum. PDP has its own interest to unite and discuss our own problems.”