It is time the Nigerian government woke up to the challenges posed by the Boko Haram sect in the country. It is time the Northern political leaders spoke up against the violence its children perpetrate against their fellow Nigerians. It is time that all thr Emirs spoke with one voice against the injustices their religious organizations are formenting against their fellow Nigerians. It is time the security agencies in the country stopped pretending that this issue can be contained by isolating its treatment and handling of this nonesense.

Now, my advise to the religious sect leader who has openly declared war against some targeted Nigerians under the guise of Islamization of Nigeria by attempting to institute the Shari'a form of laws; I do hope that you would be willing to shoulder the retaliatory bloodbath that could follow your challenge. Thus far, your target has been the Igbos under the guise of attempting to de-Christianize the North or the Middle Belt. It is a shame that prominent Northern Christians such as the former Head of State - Gen. Yakubu Gowon or Lt. Gen. Theophelous Danjuma have kept quiet over these flagrant abuses of our legal system. It wouldn't take the Igbos long to re-group if the intended target of the Boko Haram are the Igbos.

And for the Yorubas to keep quiet over this issue is to me, quite numbing. Some would probably argue that the writer of these commentary is perhaps partisan, and is therefore from the South-East. Well, I am not. I am perfectly happy to have come from the Rivers State, and I am proud to be counted as such. But, this notwithstanding, it wouldn't make sense for Nigerians of any ethnic persuation to unleash this kind of cowardly attack on their fellow country men and women. There is no justifiable reason why the Federal Government has allowed this mayham to continue. Nigeria was founded under the imagined principles of equity. It is our responsibility to transform this imagination into a practical reality. By our political class not adequately engaging the aspirations of the societally dispossessed especially in the North, we now find ourselves paying a heavy price for generations of poor planning.

While the restive Northern youth sought for a sense of direction throughout the years of barberic leadership of Northern military dictators, our visionless leaders intentionally allowed their kinfolks to be perpetually blind. There was never a plan to improve the lots of these disenfranchized lots. There were no schools built to address the serious issues of intellectual disequilibrium, nor did the dictators care if their kinfolks were eternally kept in the dark. In many cases, if the Northern leaders had the courage to go to the South to recruit teachers, they literally treated them as expatriates in their own country. In other words, the government of the day saw their fellow Southerners as foreigners. It was a very sad thing to observe. These blind leaders sowed these seeds of despair and cared nothing about the sociological consequences of psychologically alienating their fellow citizens from the emotional interplay that should have been a part of the teaching experience.

Religion is meant to teach empathy and love, and not bloodbath or blood-letting. I frankly do not know what manner of man be they and Immam or the Preacher that would urge its audience to go out and kill their fellow citizens in the name of religion. All the military coups that took place in Nigeria were based on poor governance, and not about Nigerians NOT loving or wanting to associate with each other. That our leaders would tolerate an Immam preaching blood-letting in our country, or that the National Assembly have cared to be mute on these matters makes me wonder if they are at all watching the events unraveling in the Arab World of which Nigeria is NOT one, but however, soaked by the same leadership inpetitudes which has become characteristic of Third World leaders. Again, it is time we woke up to actually smell the coffee. I don't particularly care if it is Colombian or Ugandan coffee; it's time our leaders smelled something. The wave of change is about to engulf the entire African Continent primarily because our leaders have been derelict in their duties and responsibilities to their fellow citizens whom they swore to serve and protect........especially the integrity of the entire nation. It is time to wake up from the deep slumber. It is time to think Nigerians first.

Is it not interesting that the same assassinations and chaos which the Borno political leaders, Police, christian religious leaders (including Matthew Kukah) and foreign journalists (especially BBC) have been calling "political killings ahead of elections", are now being acknowledged and taken responsibility for by Boko Haram? Why do we keep deceiving ourselves? Boko Haram wants Sharia leaders in power! Islam is a peaceful, political religion! Power is needed for its propagation and dominance!

Illiteracy has really eaten deep into the marrows of the northerns. What happens to peaceful negotiations to drive home their request? Instead they engage in boisterous killings, turning their region they seek to protect into a spacious grave yard. They should have a rethink on the long term effects of their immoral acts or posterity will never forgive them.