KILLINGS OF STUDENTS BY BOKO HARAM IN YOBE: FAILURE OF JONATHAN’S WAR ON TERROR
Socialist Party of Nigeria PRESS STATEMENT
KILLINGS OF STUDENTS BY BOKO HARAM IN YOBE: FAILURE OF JONATHAN’S WAR ON TERROR
We in the Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) condemn in strongest terms the attack by the Boko Haram terrorist group on the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe state. We join the millions of the working masses in the country to voice indignation and outrage against this carnage. According to media reports, the death toll has risen to 59. However this, and the subsequent savage attacks in Mainok, Mfaka and Jakana, raise a big question on the effectiveness of military expedition of Jonathan regime in the region ostensibly against terrorism.
We hold that the resolution of the Senate for further militarization of the North-east through the transfer of the military headquarters to the region alongside drafting the Chief of Army Staff will not resolve the crisis. This latest attack sprung out despite the state of emergency in the North-eastern part of the country, which has only resulted in attacks on democratic rights while attacks have increased.
We equally reject the proposition of National Conference as a panacea to terrorism by President Goodluck Jonathan in his Centenary address to the nation as a wild-goose chase. To show the negligence and incapability of the Jonathan administration in its war on terrorism, the Buni Yadi attack was preceded by similar attacks on three major Government Secondary Schools and a College of Education, which because of the low level of casualties compared to the attack on Federal Government College did not receive enormous media attention or given proper attention.
For five years now working people have had to endure the brunt of these attacks while the state’s repressive measures, including killing Boko Haram’s founder Mohammed Yusuf after he had been arrested, have had little effect and will continue to be incapable of defending working people. We call on the working masses in the terror-prone states not to put trust in the military or the state but build self-reliant defence committees with democratic control by workers, youth and the poor in the communities. They should also build independent and united mass actions to reject and resist any attempt to divide working masses along ethnic and sectarian lines. For instance, in Benue state where mass actions have been organized against sectarian violence, such mass actions must not be allowed to degenerate into ethnic altercation between Tivs and Fulanis, but must be seen as a step towards a united working class self-defence action against terrorist and sectarian elements.
We in the SPN hold that the underlying causes for the upsurge in terrorist attacks in the North-eastern region and ethno-sectarian violence in the North-central region is the total failure of all the sections of the capitalist ruling elite to meet the fundamental needs of the Nigerian society. A complete break with this rotten system is urgently required. What is needed to be done is to build a movement so that the mass of the working people to put in power a working peoples’ government, on socialist program, that will mobilise the enormous resources of society to meet the needs of the overwhelming majority by placing the commanding heights of the economy under democratic control of workers, youth and the poor masses. This is what SPN stands for. We call on working masses to join us as we fight and work for this alternative.