HELLO SANTA! I WANT ABUBAKAR SHEKAU’S HEAD FOR CHRISTMAS

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“Where is Abubakar Shekau?” they asked me time after time, with the barrels of their rusty AK-47 pointing directly to my head. “Where is your leader hiding?” a more senior officer who had been quiet for most part of the interrogation thundered; to probably suggest to me that he was gradually losing his cool. With tears and blood rolling down my eyes I turned to the officer who evidently had a little pity in his eyes out of the rest “I am not a member of Boko Haram sir. Am not even a Muslim (Shiite or Sunni), in fact I am nobody” I implored inaudibly, as I gasped for more air.

This grueling examination has been going on for the most part of nine hours and I was totally exhausted. My whole face swollen from the repeated jabs from either the butt of their guns or their big fists. I was captured along Buduwa area in Bama Local Government Area of Borno State. I was a freelance journalist who had gone to the terror-torn area to confirm the reports from government sources that Boko Haram will finally be defeated by the end of December 2015.

I was on the verge of transitioning from a freelance journalist to the cat that was killed because of his curiosity. “If you don’t tell us the truth, walahi I am sorry for you and your generation” the fierce looking officer who had been smoking what looked like hemp warned. My generation? I thought. 


Well, if I don’t survive today there won’t be a generation. “But officer, I have given you my ID Cards, particulars and the phone number of my family and friends. You can call them to corroborate my story. Please just let me go I will never come back here in my life” I cried; as I sensed it was almost game over for me. These soldiers would just shoot me and put my corpse alongside that of confirmed Boko Haram members. And only those who really know me will spot the difference because most of my life I have been told that I look like a northerner.

How these men think I have a clue where Shekau is hiding beats my imagination. I blame myself to some extent. I had most recently joined the “Beard Gang” and was dressed like the average northerner. It was my way of always feeling at home wherever I go. Not forgetting I looked like one. I should have listened to the still small voice in my big head that kept telling me not to play with fire. “Shave all his beards and throw him into the van. 

He will confess when we take him to the base” their commanding officer ordered. The army base sounded like abyss in my ears going by the stories I have heard about the torments that innocent people go through there. As I was been dragged into the van I kept screaming “Jesus! Please don’t kill me. I don’t know Abubakar Shekau. I am not a member of Boko Haram. Please don’t kill me!” That was when I woke up on my bed drenched in sweat from head to toe.

Abubakar Shekau, or Darul Tawheed as he is fondly known is the leader of Boko Haram and the most wanted man in Nigeria with a 50 million naira bounty on his head. He has been reportedly killed about four or five times but his comeback appearance in Boko Haram propaganda videos makes this assertion doubtable. Even though many have claimed that he is being impersonated by his followers keep to promote the myth that Shekau is unconquerable.

Truth be told, no one really knows where Abubakar Shekau is or what he is planning next. That is the horrid fact that we have come to accept as the terrorist group seems to be a step ahead of our Secret Service and intelligence agencies. With thousands of people including women and young girls loyal to Abubakar Shekau, it will be difficult to exterminate Boko Haram because of the sheer effect of its radicalization to these overzealous followers. They have been brainwashed for such a long time that it will take many years in my opinion to stop them from carrying suicide attacks or killing and displacing innocent people.

Every government that has promised to bring an end to Boko Haram in the shortest possible time has learnt the hard way not to underestimate the power of Abubakar Shekau. The biggest mistake in my opinion the Nigerian government has made was not crushing the Shekau myth at the inception. Now his influence has grown beyond Nigeria to other neighbouring West African countries. He has recently pledged allegiance to ISIL and we seem to have woken up from our slumber.

It’s almost two years since the Chibok girls were captured and their disappearance from the surface of the earth for such a long time like everything Boko Haram is shrouded in the deepest mysteries (at least in the eyes of an average Nigerian). It seems like everything Boko Haram gets involved in becomes a never ending puzzle, a fact the Nigerian government has failed to acknowledge in its audacious resolve to sweep Boko Haram out of Nigeria.

Not finding the Chibok Girls and not knowing if Abubakar Shekau is dead or alive means the government cannot lay claim to ultimately defeating Boko Haram. For all we know, those girls are Shekau’s last cards and he is holding them very close to his chest. I hate to play the prophet of doom but Boko Haram will be here come December 2016 unless Santa Claus grants my wish this year. On that very very sad note, over to you Santa!