ears.

Soyinka, who also claimed to have been busy on the subject of nosing around for Boko Haram sponsors, affirmed there were “overwhelming evidence” against Sheriff, who, he demanded, should be prosecuted for criminal culpability. Of the unnamed CBN official, the foremost playwright said President Goodluck Jonathan has been furnished with the name and details of his involvement. It is now up to him to abandon his “letting the law take its course” to “galvanising the law to take its course”, and whenever he decides to do so, he (Soyinka) will gladly supply the hombre’s name.

Where he left you and me flat, just like (so it seems) his friend, Davis, was on the case of Ihejirika. Just like his Aussie buddy, Soyinka did not openly accuse Ihejirika. While Davis told us that Boko Haram told him of Ihejirika’s purported involvement (without providing any shred of evidence to back it up) Soyinka merely said, and I quote the THISDAY story (Monday, September 14th, 2014, page 6): “Soyinka added that in the case of Ihejirika, he had his own theories as to how he might have come under Davis’ searchlight and ended up on the list of the accused”.

While Davis implicated Ihejirika based on alleged Boko Haram hearsay, Soyinka is asking for his investigation based on his own “theories”. None of these highly placed intellectuals and activists could proffer a prima facie evidence to support their hearsay or trumped up “theories”. Meanwhile, the Directorate of State Services (DSS) Nigeria’s equivalent of the American Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has already cleared Ihejirika of culpability, describing the false accusation against him as “wicked”. No word describes the whole sordid affair better.

Here was an army general who flushed out Boko Haram from the major cities of northern Nigeria, such as Suleja, Abuja, Okene, Kano, Maiduguri and other parts of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, Kaduna and Gombe States. He pinned them into the Sambisa Forest and Lake Chad areas before he was retired after an extended, merit-based service. Ihejirika ended the frequent suicide bombings in Abuja, Kano and Kaduna. The terrorists only made their comeback to Nyanya, Abuja and Kano after his retirement.

Muhammadu Buhari once made a plaintive call for the Army under Ihejirika to stop killing Boko Haram fighters since the Niger Delta militants were not killed that way. While Ihejirika fought Boko Haram, Professor Ango Abdullahi, a vitriolic attacker of President Jonathan and ranking official of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), wailed that Jonathan had “declared war” against the North. Former Governor Murtala Nyako wrote  a poisonous letter to his fellow Northern governors, saying that Jonathan, an “Easterner”, was “depopulating” the North. The NEF actually threatened to sue Ihejirika before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged “genocide”.

I am wondering aloud: was it while Ihejirika was crushing Boko Haram that he was also “sponsoring” them? Or was it before or after? When the international panel that Professor Soyinka is calling for is finally assembled, will they be investigating both Ihejirika’s sponsorship of Boko Haram and his emasculation of their terror network? That would be one hell of an investigation! It will be the first of its type, and Nigeria will achieve a feat in empanelling a probe to approbate and reprobate at the same time.

The Boko Haram I know is not an idiot. They have tended to be smarter than the government thinkers fighting them from the other side of the battle line. They have remained a step ahead of government forces. This Boko Haram will not disclose their sponsors to any bloody white mercenary “infidel”. They are jihadists, and could easily turn on Stephen Davis and behead him with a video for the world to see. If they ever named Ihejirika, it was a ploy to put him in trouble for what he did to them and their fighters.

The Boko Haram elements that may name their sponsors are not within the reach of Stephen Davis. Only those in the custody of the security forces undergoing interrogation may be forced to do so. Abubakar Shekau will not want to sabotage his coveted Islamic Caliphate where he will become a Sultan. He will not divulge his sponsors while he is a free man.

I want the international panel that Professor Soyinka is advocating for to be established, and everyone implicated in the sponsorship of the insurgency in Nigeria should be arraigned. But unless a prima facie evidence is established to show that Ihejirika has been a sponsor of Boko Haram, the hero of our war on terror must be left alone to enjoy his well-deserved retirement.

Professor Soyinka’s views are respected worldwide, not just because he is a Nobel Laureate. Even as a youth he has always spoken what he believes to be the truth, often to great personal pains. But the Prof is still human and can make mistakes.

He just did

Source: VANGUARD