Although no telephones yet in Maiduguri, most of the citizens are not in a hurry to get the relatively expensive GSM lines until the whole state is back to normal and after a complete disarmament because the lack of communication by the Intelligence or security agencies was instrumental to the tremendous achievement so far recorded. Here, the office of the NSA did well not only by inviting us to proffer solutions but to also implementing the recommendations submitted by the Civilian –Military Dialogue jointly organized by the Directorate of Research and Governance ably presided by Professor Emeritus Jonah Isawa Elaegwu of Jos who was brave enough to invite me for my views as the first scholar to have warned on the satanic and mercenary elements in Obasanjo Government in July 2009 on what Boko Haram would be created out Yusufiya ( Ahlul Sunnah wal Jihad) no thanks to the arms, dollars, drugs, cultism involved. My message was international broadcast in English, French,Hausa and Arabic asking government to carefully handle it but refused to heed, as I had earlier compared it to show how the malignant racist Masons deceitfully created Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Al-Shabaab in Somalia hiding behind the peaceful religion of Islam to give it a bad name and kill as many Africans and Asians as possible in order to plunder the resources and destroy socio-Islamically accepted norms and values with the backing of the International community and Media. Fortunately, this time around the various Security Agencies were coordinated by the office of Col. Sambo Dasuki who is the National Security Adviser to President Jonathan. They succeeded in rubbishing the game of the previous double agents under whom Nigeria lost thousands of military personnel and innocent civilians with unparalleled amount of collateral damages in terms of destruction of public and personal properties leading to the weakening of the security system and grounding the economy of the north in particular and Nigeria in general. However, I wish to draw the attention of JTF Commanders in Borno to check the excesses of some of the military personnel posted to Bama, Gwoza and environs. The Bama youths in particular are forced to leave their homes because they are caught between the killer elements in the JTF and the insurgents similar to what happened in Maiduguri, Baga and other towns before the self defending youths took it up on themselves to sanitize Maiduguri. Or is it a satanic strategy to force them to cooperate when they are not sure of what will happen to them. For instance, when young men are caught fleeing on their way to neighbouring local government areas or states, they are both extra-judicially killed by the JTF and slaughtered by the insurgents depending on where they fall victims. Although nobody could volunteer to guide the Bama youths so far to do what their counterparts did in Maiduguri many refugee youths in different states are willing to go back and be Civilian JTF if there is a serious plan in place so that they don’t fall into the trap of what they have initially run away from. The JTF Commanders, the political leaders and traditional rulers should create a robust synergy and come out with a lasting strategy to stop the killing of innocent people and indeed to fast tract normalcy and peace so that soldiers can return back to the barracks. What is going on in Bama in the past few months is a serious humanitarian crisis. Movements are restricted while essential commodities are lacking. No food, no water, no transport, no money to travel out for safety or even with the 5 or so vehicles were allowed to ply the roads to neighbouring Cameroun for a few food items or move into Maiduguri which has since become mamakiously ( extra-ordinarily) safe now thanks to God and the youth driven civilian Anti-insurgency Task Force (AITF) contrary to similar externally imposed racist and anti-religion insurgency in Somalia, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mali etc. Restoration of telephone lines and show of professionalism in terms of rules of engagement were part of the recommendations submitted by the just concluded Civil-Military Conference (Dialogue) I attended in Abuja 3 weeks ago. The conference was coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Institute of Governance, Jos headed by the great Professor Emeritus J. I. Elaegwu. The occasion was so civil and democratic that it gave me and a former Borno State Governor the opportunity to tell our story being from the embattled zone. I also met some of my former university students who are now Colonels. For security and obvious reasons, FB friends should please excuse me for not revealing more than what should be known to the average person or the general public (about 2%). The discussions at the conference were focused and aptly presented even by the civil-military section of the Armed Forces annually. It also gave us the opportunity to make friends, listen, learn and exchange radical views with intellectuals in and out of uniforms from the ranks of Colonel/ Police Commissioners up to those of Generals and Inspectors –General of Police down to the level of Colonels from the Army, Air-Force, Navy etc. on the way forward to address insurgency, armed robbery, kidnapping, oil theft etc. intelligently without resorting to the use of arms so as to avoid collateral damage to civilians and non combatant men as it is happening now in Bama. This is unacceptable and we have already drawn the attention of the international Human Rights Organisations. The conference brought together members of the officers of Armed Forces from the rank of Colonel up to General, the Police from DCP to Inspectors General, Comptrollers of Immigration, SSS, Civil Societies, Journalists of notes, etc. As a panacea to stem future armed conflicts, submissions agreed on Good Governance, Rule of Law, Justice, dialogue, moral and civil instruction to be re-introduced in schools, gainful employment, education, fixing of basic infrastructure, development of border towns and markets, credible elections and decent actors in democracy, collective war against corruption and indiscipline, poverty, ignorance. Other recommendations included the incorporation of the Almajiri system of education into the official school system, proper training and retraining as well as provision of modern equipment for the security agencies especially the police while dealing with civilian non combatant populace hence soldiers should only be invited when the police and other security agencies find it difficult to cope with any given situation. Similarly, we are able to debunk the official lies that were always told by spokespersons of the initial JTF on their atrocities in Borno, Yobe and other parts of the North. We also suggested re-iterated for a sincere dialogue with any aggrieved group in the spirit of democracy and freedom of speech and association to identify the rest. We praised the presidential Committee on dialogue and Amnesty appointed by President Jonathan headed by Barrister Turaki, the Minister for Special Duties. It is always important to start a dialogue with any of the factions of Jama’atu Ahlus Sunnah wal Jihad otherwise known as Boko Haram to give confidence to the others to lay their arms with the eventual success recorded so far by the Committee of credible and patriotic members similar to the sincere approach adopted by late President Umaru Yar’adua government for the ex-militants of Niger Delta. In my second talk at the Conference, I was able to bring out for the attention of all participants that the insurgency was imported into the country by external hands with the connivance of influential government officials via the sponsorship of cleavages they created as well as magnifying minor religious and tribal differences to combine and worsened by jungle Law, corruption, election rigging, lame duck appointments and lope sided development, representation and retirement, sacking, outright assassination or poisoning of politicians, professionals and expert hands as well as deliberate weakening of the defense and security sectors especially those from the north. Others include privatization or selling of strategically important public property to cronies and foreign firms, framing, incarceration and sacking without following due process of youths, excellent technocrats, experts, injustice and mistrust in order to destroy northern Nigeria beginning with the strategically located north-eastern States of Borno and Yobe to repeat what was meted out to Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Libya, D.R Congo, Sierra Leone, Chad, Rwanda, and now Syria, Mali and Egypt. At the conference, the few of us who are civilians were highly respected by the Generals and other gentlemen in uniforms possibly due to training they had in the past. In fact, the Generals rejected the popular terminology of ‘bloody civilians’ to tag the civilians especially under military regimes while we used to join late Fela Ransome Kuti in calling them Zombie. This time, they included themselves after retirement as well as their family members. Also commendable was the role played by the civil societies, Media giants, politicians of note, and Human Rights Organizations despite the limited presence of journalists owing to the sensitive nature of the Conference and hot air some of us were blowing. The opening ceremony was attended by Gen Yakubu Gowon, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Senate President David Mark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, the NSA to the President, politicians of note like Ghali na Abba who recalled his ordeal as the speaker and whom many of us respect for fighting the dictatorial tendencies of former President Obasanjo and that of his godson Ali Sheriff as the former governor of Borno State whose governments are the prime suspects for importing insurgency or Boko Haram yet no one dares to interrogate them or their well planted agents. Happily, God has already started answering the prayers of the people of the embattled states. Two other patriots and brave intellectuals of note graced the occasion to add substance to the conference were Dr Junaid Muhammad and Hassan Kontagora. While I very much appreciated government invitation to the Conference to listen to me for the first time since I first blew the whistle in July 2009 to give an accurate analysis of how Boko Haram would eventually turn out to destroy the whole North even though our leaders were not comfortable with my foresight and sense of patriotism. Believe me, most of them read our articles on Media, FB and listen to our TV and Radio interviews but refuse to acknowledge us as they always judge us based on Royal institutions we belong or where we come from. It is obviously wrong on their part to expect us as learned men to do what their courtiers do to them or surrender our intellectual dignity before they nominate us for anything because we will not do anything that will compromise the little knowledge God gave us or jeopardize the future of our children. For almost 50 years, we have been expecting them to copy the legacy of our slain leaders and be fathers to all. They should at all times judge us by the content of our character and knowledge, not by our state of origin. I found it amusing they still do not understand why an assembly of important security personalities such as this conference will invite me for my views on what is going on in the north but not ACF and JNI. For instance ACF(Arewa Consultative Forum and JNI chairman Alhaji Aliko and the JNI chairman who is his Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto would refuse to recognize us to talk especially at a JNI ( Jama’atu Nasril Islam) Conference in Kaduna chaired by the Sultan with his Deputy , Shehu of Borno in attendance would deny me the opportunity to talk at a conference of Islamic scholars at this crucial time of our History. Although I strongly wish and hope that his Eminence Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar should be different from the northern elite who wasted our time on trivial issues instead of addressing the problems of the North since the demise of our great first Republic Leaders. As usual, he cracked the traditional Kanuri-Fulani joke at the opening of the Conference that Kanuri would not be spoken eventually ended up meaning that none of us as Borno scholars present was allowed to talk throughout the conference. I hope it was a mere confidence and not a deliberate attempt to dig out the old nonsensical rivalry that none of us was interested in because we did not choose to be what we are nor were we the actors of the History that Borno Kingdom was more than 1000 years older than others but God . As for the insurgency rocking the north-east ,Amnesty International, International media and other Human Rights organisations deserve a special commendation for interviewing Borno and Yobe refugees residing in Abuja and northern States for publication and further actions. Lest I forget, as long as oppressed people remain prayerful, injustice will come down like a house of cards very soon. Injustice is like a mad ostrich; despite its speed, long legs and powerful wings, it cannot fly to escape the time waiting arms of Law. Insha Allah the game is almost over. Happy Eid el Fitr, 1434 AH/ 8th Aug,2013. Hakuna Matata