Nigerians are hardly spared anything these days. Besieged by all manner of challenges, wherever Nigerians turn, it appears there is a new challenge, challenger, critic, or critique waiting for them.
The most recent to join this league of critics was Ali Modu Sheriff, the former governor of Borno State, who was on an interview on Arise TV the other day as a guest. When confronted with questions about his links to Boko Haram, the former governor denied any links to the terror group while taking his sweet time to lob some verbal grenades at his critics and Nigerians as a whole, many of whom are convinced that he has questions to answer about Boko Haram.
Since the expiration of his stint as governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff has largely maintained a low profile. Whether this decision is voluntary or enforced by the increasingly damning reports linking him to Boko Haram is not clear. But what is known is that in recent times he has not played as prominent a role in national politics as he or his supporters would have wished or wanted. This is especially striking given the more pronounced careers his successors to the office of governor of Borno State have gone on to enjoy.
Kassim Shettima, his immediate successor, became Nigeria’s vice president in 2023, while Babagana Zulum, who took over from Shettima, is regarded as one of Nigeria’s best-performing governors today.
If anything, the political career of Ali Modu Sheriff has seemingly stagnated all these years, and during a rather pugnacious media outing on Arise TV, he showed anything but remorse at how his time as governor of Borno State yielded the devastating security crisis that Boko Haram has become. If anything, he was all hubris and haughtiness.
While he publicly and presumably privately denies any links to Boko Haram whatsoever, the evidence is rather clear that the monster he helped create has in less than two decades grown multiple heads, spreading its deadly poison from Borno State to neighboring states and indeed all over Nigeria.
While Nigeria has largely struggled to control the terrorist surge across its territory, those responsible for the disintegration of its security architecture are doing a rather remarkable job of containing their glee, no thanks in small measure to the fact that Nigeria has struggled to call them to account.
It beggars belief among Nigerians that the government appears to know those who sponsor terrorism in the country but rather strangely lacks the political will to investigate, interrogate, and prosecute them.
This reluctance of the government, which borders on ineptitude and incompetence, is the reason victims of terrorism always have salt added to their injuries by terrorist apologists and their sympathizers. Since Ali Modu Sheriff handed over as governor of Borno State in 2011, Boko Haram has become even deadlier, going blow for blow with the Nigerian government and watering the ground for terrorists of different shades and stripes to sink their teeth into the country.
If the Nigerian government lacks the courage to prosecute Ali Modu Sheriff, it can at least keep him away from polluting the airwaves and insulting the sensibilities of Nigerians who have suffered incalculably from the actions and activities of terrorists.
Kene Obiezu is a lawyer and writer.
