Stupid Boko Bagas & The New Service Chiefs by Adesuwa Onyenokwe

When the word ‘baga’ is used it connotes stupidity. This word is an example of those that I heard spoken around me when I was growing up, like, ‘scallywag’; words of doubtful origin, but which derive meaning from the context in which they are used.

Anyway, this is less about semantics, and more about the fact that, the word Baga aka stupid, went through my mind as I read of another bomb blast in a redeemed church in Potiskum that took six lives, Sunday July 5th.

With that blast the number of people killed since PMB took over on 29th May, had risen to about 423. In less than two months! As I am writing this now, July 14th, many more lives have been lost and more bombs detonated. I stopped counting.

Thankfully , just yesterday President Muhammadu Buhari changed his service chiefs. I thought it was a good move, because no matter how excellent the previous Chiefs are as officers, they certainly must have had shortcomings that made it difficult to execute their responsibility; or their ‘style’ just wasn’t working. So it was wise to ‘change the parade’; as Lynxxx would say.

Having said that, I believe that the larger public should claim some culpability in the seeming inability to squash the odious, life taking antics of these Boko ‘bagas’; people even Muslims have described as fanatics. If that is the case, there should be a stronger condemnation of the group by true believers, rather than the watered down ‘it’s not Islamic’ defence some have given!

On the other hand I have heard non Muslims say this is typical of Islam because it promotes violence, since it advocates jihads. Which they have defined as, killing if necessary, in the name of Allah, to convert non believers.  Personally, I think the issue is really beyond whether one religion perpetrates violence or not, or whether one political party or the other is using it to advance its cause. Collective will can bring anything down. The truth is that, while we are arguing in the public domain over the whys, who’s and hows, innocent blood is being spilled by the minute, and families are being disrupted.

Every one should take responsibility for the menace that the Boko Bagas have become. Let’s stop playing the blame game or being ostriches and call it what it is, a bunch of stupid Muslims running around with guns and bombs taking lives that they will surely account for at the end of time, because though God is indeed merciful, He is JUST too!

We all need to lend whatever constructive support we can, to rout the BOKO BAGAS from our land once and for all. The place to start is in the comments that we make. Take it out of politics and religion, and geography. It’s much more than it being a northern affair. Enough lives have been lost.