By Sam Kayode
This is like a distraction to my daily routine in Maiduguri but there was no way my binoculars could miss the recent unnecessary rant of Yele Sowore who dared to demonize one of the warriors of the “hadin kai” theatre General Chris Musa by calling him a “foolish” man simply because he rightly suggested that we need a fence to protect residents from our known and unknown enemies. A high tech fence that can even compete with what the Israelis have against their known enemies. I told myself I had to leave whatever I was doing to defend the General and the Borno people. And to correct the ignorant impression he has painted with such misplaced comments.
Reading such despicable bile coming from someone who is not in touch with the trauma of Borno residents and has never visited even the capital city of Maiduguri spells volume about a man who wants to be the Commander in Chief of the armed forces yet so ignorant about Nigeria. He sounded so daft in his presentation that one begins to wonder if indeed he was educated as he claims to be. He actually spoke as if he was paid to do so because nothing happens in the vacuum in Nigeria these days.
You are very wrong Yele
Let me educate him on why this fence will help our war Commanders in the operation Hadin Kai especially if the contract would be given to military engineers who will build with one hand and handle weapons for protecting themselves with the other hand. This is because no civilian contractor will be safe enough to take such a big risk meant to stop insurgents to cross cross as they will.
Borno is the only State sharing massive borders with three African countries. Chad, Niger and Cameroon. That places the State in a very critical situation when it comes to the management of intelligence and warding off the criminals related to the 16 year old lingering insurgency war. It puts our Intel agencies at a vulnerable defensive state rather than proactive position of strength to help the military.
And indeed, like several other countries have done to protect their people, hi-tech fences were built with sentry towers to ward off external aggressors. In our case, those enemies of state who will get to terrorist cells in Libya, Mauritania and even the Magreb region to train and return with standby mercenaries to kill, steal and destroy the existence of our people. They have been doing it since 2009 and will not stop till General Chris Musa succeeds in positioning a memo that will sail through the national executive council for the first phase of the fence building spree to commence.
I watched Sowore vomit so much gibberish recently about General Chris Musa that i wonder if he knows that he can never rival the pedigree of the Minister of defence. He should equally know that he is just a confused brat in terms of pedigree compared to the towering image General Musa has built for himself. Sowore therefore is not qualified to de-market the Minister for any reason at all under the sun. He is rather the “foolish” one using his language, that needs to apologize to Gen Musa for talking out of point. How much will it cost to build the Israeli type of fence even if we must get it from the stolen commonwealth EFCC and ICPC are recouping daily for government?
Yele’s lack of focus and failed Presidential ambitions
Sometimes I wonder if we as Africans don’t believe in reverencing our role models rather than spending time firing arrows of the Pull Him Down syndrome (PHD) against them out of foolish pride and envy. That Yele contested for the position of President on the platform of an obscure party does not mean he is qualified to hold the political position of councillor even in his state Ondo. He should go start at the level of councillor to see how acceptable he is before daring to want to be our Commander in Chief which he will never get.
He even had the audacity to call General Musa “foolish man”. I don’t blame him, its because talk is always free in Nigeria. If not, that people like him give unnecessary importance to themselves even without electoral value who would have known him even as an ordinary ilaje boy. How on earth do you demonize a man who is fighting to save his country from eminent collapse so we do not have a repeat of what happened in Afghanistan here. A situation where after a long generational fight of asymmetric warfare, the Americans had to leave the county for their very enemies, the Taliban to take over the reigns of government.
I used to think Omoyele had some grits around his persona but it is obvious he is just a confused empty barrel fit for the noise he makes around himself.
Sowore who has never held a political position in his life should know that right thinking people in Nigeria do not take him serious because of the lack of focus in his pattern of activism. I wonder why anyone would think building a fence like other countries faced with terrorism is a stupid idea when he has not come to Borno for an informed survey on the matter. Sowore has really touched the raw nerve of Borno people by de-marketing an actionable idea which most of the informed residents here think will make sense. How foolish he looks now!
Yes Borno needs a hi-tech fence with all the sophistication of technology we can get.
You really need to be in Borno state to understand why President Tinubu must build a fence to restrict infiltration of criminals into the country. For as long as there is a sahelian insurgency going on in Mali and Libya, we really need to build that fence as quickly as possible. Mali alone has a coalition of two groups liked to ISis and Al-qaeda while Libya is equally polluted because they have a massive power vacuum created after the death of Gaddafi. From Mali, fighters are passed through Niger into our territory.
For the information of Yele, Saudi Arabia built a fence to stop Iran long time ago from having incursions into their territory and today they can sleep with their two eyes closed. The Saudi Kingdom started the 900km fence against terrorists from Iran in 2014 and are trying to fence the entire country against extremists bent on bringing them to their knees. Pakistan equally has a 2,600 km fence with Afghanistan to prevent smuggling and religious extremism caused by incursions. Many countries with similar challenges are thinking about it so why should Nigeria be different? At least 40 countries have constructed security fences around their borders to avoid extremists infiltrating into their communities since 9/11. America isn’t exempted either.
So what is Sowore talking about? As far as I am concerned , he does not live in Borno and is not qualified to know what is biting the residents on ground. Someone should tell Sowore to stop that foolish rant he started against a solid professional like Minister Musa because it is an unsellable and unwinnable campaign. The proposed fence will generate over 5000 jobs and we in Borno are waiting for it.
