The problem with this type of extra-judicial state murder is that the whole world is watching and bearing testimonies as to the lawlessness of the Nigerian authorities? Nigeria is not an island and must operate as part of a decent world humanity whose membership, the comity of nations, is obliged to conform to certain ethical decorum with respect to human lives. More-so, the bare-faced lie of his "trying to escape" is as laughable as it is ridiculous; as no person shackled down in a body manacle, handcuffs and leg-chains could possibly "try to escape", under that condition of restraint, except that person is a Houdini but fortunately, Houdini has since been long dead! Why didn't the police give a chase? Where were those police dogs? Why was the escapee's legs not targeted? How can somebody who was found hiding inside a goat's pen in his in-laws' hut, "try to escape", hamstrung and surrounded by fierce looking, battle tested Nigerian army and police? Oh no, tell that to the marines!
With Mohammed Yusuf, 39, his deputy Bukar Shekau and several hundreds of his followers now killed in battle, whatever remains of the nefarious bloody-letting dogs, 'Boko Haram Sect', now in disarray will eventually wither away as a snake without head is not fearsome. Also Icheoku says, kudos to the Nigerian security agencies for timely containing this crisis! We particularly congratulate the newly appointed Inspector General of police Ogbonnaya Onovo for giving a very good account of himself, on this his first baptism of fire! Nigeria is a boiling conundrum which periodically boils over, leading to destruction of lives and properties; but luckily the good guys always wins and Nigeria is better of, for that.
Borrowing a page from the Human Rights Watch, Icheoku concludes that the manner of Mohammed Yusuf's dispatch was "extremely worrying." With an estimated number of 10,000 Nigerians so far killed as a result of sectarian violence in Northern Nigeria, Icheoku says it is about time Nigerians really sit down to find a way out of the woods which a force amalgamation of 1914 forced them in. All this adhoc reaction of sending in security agents each time to go flush out and kill anarchists and/or agitators will not cut it; as it is akin to fire-brigade approach of arriving after the fire had already started? The question should be, how do Nigerians prevent the fire from starting in the first place? Icheoku says, a national sovereign conference to chart the way forward for the future might be a good starting step, and in the right direction. Periodic violence is too disruptive for any meaningful progress in Nigeria, as it not only scares away prospective would-be investors but tarnishes Nigeria's image further. Alternatively, the political elites of Northern Nigeria should be held to account for the dire poverty in the North, which fuels this intermittent eruptions of disgusts. A hungry youth is an angry youth and this is the feeder-lot that supplies unlimited manpower to lunatics like Mohammed Yusuf? Where a people have nothing to live for, because of very endemic corruption and ineffective leadership which deny them practically everything, including basic amenities like running water and electricity, where would such low-lifers find their life's anchor, but in a sect leader who preached paradise and forty virgins? Icheoku says, now go rendezvous with your forty virgins, Mallam Mohammed Yusuf!