#Bring Back Our Girls: Where are our Juju men?

-By Charles Dickson

“Nigeria is the only country in the world where the best is impossible and the worst never happens.” My friend Dr. Dabin is the PDP chairman in Plateau state, with him over the weekend, he told a story of the Igalas of Kogi state. 

The Igalas have a dancing festival, in which the community is supposed to dance all night, starting from mid-night to the next morning. The dance is supposed to be uniform by all dancers. However there is a caveat, as at some point as daybreak beckons, the beat changes. 

And that’s where the danger lies, and the essence of the festival. If you miss the beat and don’t change your dance steps to the new beat and continue the old dance. You are used as a sacrifice/you are offered and killed to appease the ‘gods’.  

While I ruminated over the narrative, for me, it was not about the killing, it was about the change of the beat and the naïve dancer. 

So, its the five weeks, we are still looking to #bringbackourgirls, the United States one thought was going to wave the magical wand, storm chibok, niger, cameroun and chad and fish out Shekau and his bandwagon of insane goons. While that doesn’t seem to have happened, one thing though has occurred. 

Okay, this is it; Rann is a border town with Cameroun and about 160 kilometers northeast of Maidugiri, the Borno state capital.

Boko Haram came calling, as usual with their Hilux vehicles and motorcycles laden with explosives, infact we are informed that they had the benefit of an Amoured Personnel Carrier APC (And by the way, I am beginning a campaign to ask car manufacturer Toyota how their hilux has become a terror operational vehicle for boko haram).
 

The dreaded Boko Haram group was overpowered by vigilance group and what we know as Civilian JTF, this is the catch… “They foiled the attack on the town by confronting the suspected insurgents with weapons and CHARMS TO BLINDFOLD THEM FOR OVER HALF AN HOUR.”

Infact at the end, over 200men of the Boko Haram group were killed, the story continued that about 10 or so of the insurgents with rifles and other ammunitions could not fire any shot. And please don’t ask me why…

Before the attack the residents of the town we are told had fortified the town against any attack, so must of the towns and villages in the Kalabalge Local council have been fortified “spiritually” with dane guns, double barrel rifles and bow and arrows.

Before going far, what strikes one about this story is that it was corroborated by a military that was near mutiny due to so many reasons including poor firepower against a seemingly more formidable foe.

It happened while we were waiting for American commando and marines. It happened while #bringbackourgirls as a message or campaign had hit over 2million retweets. 

My fear is that the beat may have changed and we are still dancing to the old tune, as we engaged on the propriety or otherwise of Mr. President not going to Chibok or going to Le’shibok in Paris, the conspiracy theorists spurn more stories. Shettima was in London doing CNN when none of the actors think much of our own NTA on this matter, not that I do either. 

If the beat has or can change, the use of voodoo and or juju represents is part of the new beat to #bringbackourgirls. I am not asking you my reader to believe in african scud missile or baba ijebu skype that uses only a basin of water or mirror–no need for electricity or internet connectivity. 

But its time I ask, where are the jujumen, the voodoo. Those juju men from Igala, the ijebus noted for their “I go show you” jazz.  Where are the Benin arrangement, una wan carry last. 

Maidugiri as is Kano despite strong Islamic core have reputable seer zones, I know a place where policemen go in Zaria to get “cooked”. I mean fortified from bullets and all sorts. 

Where are the prophets that see everything, and anything including why Jonathan should not contest. Can’t they see where Shekau is or is it that the Sambisa forest coordinates are too strong or have defied. 

If voodoo worked in Rann, should our spritualists not be called to help, can’t our prosperity drone preachers weigh in, they perform miracles and magic, how about the mallams? We really need them now as the beat has changed. 

We need that association of witches and wizards that endorsed Jonathan in the last election to fly their drones and help locate our girls and destroy Shekau.

So, while we ‘politik’ on security, on state of emergency, across party lines etc. I end this admonition on this note. 

When I was in elementary school, I got into a major argument with a boy in my class. I have forgotten what the argument was about, but I have never forgotten the lesson I learned that day.

I was convinced that “I” was right and “he” was wrong – and he was just as convinced that “I” was wrong and “he” was right. The teacher decided to teach us a very important lesson.

She brought us up to the front of the class and placed him on one side of her desk and me on the other. In the middle of her desk was a large, round object. I could clearly see that it was black. She asked the boy what color the object was. “White,” he answered.

I couldn’t believe he said the object was white, when it was obviously black! 

Another argument started between my classmate and me, this time about the color of the object.

The teacher told me to go stand where the boy was standing and told him to come stand where I had been. We changed places, and now she asked me what the color of the object was. I had to answer, “White.”
It was an object with two differently colored sides, and from his viewpoint it was white. Only from my side it was black.
 
Have we done enough to #bringbackourgirls, or just arguing about who stole what, what is the color of Shekau’s canvass. The beat has changed, let’s call the jujumen, the bokas, or else, would I be still writing on chibok–only time will tell.