By Bala Ibrahim.
“If Insurgency Lasts For More Than 24 Hours, The Government Has A Hand In It” – Late General Sani Abacha.
I don’t know where, why, and when he said that, but whether true or false, going by the trend of speculations, there is ample reason to believe the above quote. The only caveat is, which Government? Is it the Government in the jurisdiction of the insurgency, or a complicit foreign Government ?
Information from the grapevine, is saying the President of a neighboring francophone country, had reached out to President Muhammadu Buhari, intimating him with details, of how a powerful foreign Government is financing the insurgency in and around Nigeria, and the complicit Government is working with some enemy Nigerian politicians.
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The aim of these enemies of the Nigerian Government is to make the country ungovernable, through the encouragement of insurgency and other forms of insecurity, and by so doing, ridicule the President and make rubbish all his promises.
To reinforce, or strengthen the justification of the Abacha assertion, and the privileged information given to PMB by the President of the neighboring francophone country, a video is currently circulating in the social media, with graphic and vividly explicit pictures of a foreigner, in different locations and with identifiable influential military personnel and world leaders, including the French President, Emmanuel Macron.
The foreigner also featured with some rebels, or those who seem to be engaged in armed resistance against an establishment or government, in one instance, and on a map reading lesson with a military General and others, that seem familiar with war or combat operations, in another instance.
In translating and making inferences from the pictures, a video of a hausa speaker with a francophone accent is also going viral on the social media, drawing the attention of the public to critically examine the same foreigner and his evident complicit, or involvement with people that looked engaged in some unlawful activities.
According to the hausa speaker, who said he had uploaded other videos the day before this one, and who seems to be relaying the message through a Niger TV program titled in hausa, Matsalar tsaro, or the problem of security, he is the one arming the insurgents. He is the one playing intermediary between France and the insurgents. He is the one engaged in the smuggling of gold to Europe. He is well known in spying for France.
His name is Bernard Henri Levy, who travels under the guise of a journalist or a writer, but answers different names in different places, according to the translator. The translator alleged that the man is responsible for most of the crises in the African sub region, including Libya, Mali and even Syria.
In conclusion, he placed the blame of the regional insecurity on the door step of France and called on all to rise to the challenge, by sharing the video, with the hope that collectively we can overcome the problem.
Apart from lending credence to the conspiracy theory, the assertion of this francophone translator has exonerated PMB and dismissed the accusation that the Nigerian Government is not doing enough in the fight against insurgency.
From his analysis, the problem is not limited to Nigeria. And contrary to the call by some people, who are not in any way knowledgeable about military operations, because they may be novice even by the standards of the boys scout, that since our military strategists have failed, the Government should invite foreign mercenaries, we need not look beyond France to locate the financiers of the insurgency.
It may be recalled that, immediately after taking the oath of office in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari made his first foreign trip to Niger Republic, with a view to seeking the cooperation of Nigeria’s neighbors in the fight against insurgency.
Again, shortly after the Niger visit, the President flew to Chad, whose leader then, has been critical of Nigeria’s approach to tackling Boko Haram. The then President, Idris Deby said, the fight had been hampered by poor co-ordination between the Chadian and Nigerian armies.
Before the coming of PMB, Chad, Cameroon and Niger were mainly working on their sides of the border with Nigeria to stop attacks. But he came with the idea of concrete collaboration, which has since been giving results.
As we enter into the New year, and as the President charged all the service chiefs to mercilessly crush out the insurgents, including their foreign and local collaborators, we pray to see the immediate end of the averred complicit, and alleged conspirators. Ameen.
Bala Ibrahim is a Journalist and Public affairs commentator
