This was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Although there have been calls from across the country for the government to wield the big stick, government was apparently dissuaded by the claim by security operatives that they were on top of the situation. But the Christmas day bombing at a catholic church in Madallah, a border town of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja was beyond explanation. This magazine gathered that Owoye Andrew Azazi, the National Security Adviser, NSA, who was spending his Christmas holiday in Lagos, hurried back to Abuja immediately he got information of the attack, and was locked in a serious security meeting with heads of security agencies. The meeting shifted to Aso Rock where they spent two days explaining to President Goodluck Jonathan what went wrong.
Two days before the Madallah bombing, Damaturu,  the Yobe State capital was a theatre of war between the Nigerian armed forces and members of the Boko Haram sect. About 81 persons including an assistant commissioner of police and 59 members of the sect were reported killed. Chief of Army Staff, Azubuike Ihejerika, a lieutenant general described the operation as successful. He said his boys overran the major stronghold and ammunition site of the sect. “They came with sophisticated and heavy weaponry including GPMGs, (general purpose machine guns), SMG (submachine guns) and bombs but our soldiers subdued them,” Ihejerika told newsmen at the brigade headquarters in Abuja. He confirmed the death of three soldiers in the attack while seven others were wounded. Ibrahim Mohammed, officer-in-charge of mobile police, MOPOL, unit in Damaturu, and Ibrahim Abubakar, assistant commissioner of police, operations were also killed during the operation. 
The attack of the sect’s cell was based on intelligence report available to security agencies that the group was planning to cause mayhem during the festive period. But while the army deployed its quick response troop, QRT, to man specific points as well as carry out patrol of areas believed to be targets of attack, no one gave little or any thought that a sleepy suburban town of Madallah in Niger State would be a target of attack. That early morning attack, which claimed over 40 lives, destroyed 10 vehicles, damaged surrounding buildings and left scores of people with various degree of injury took, security operatives by surprise. 
The declaration of the state of emergency in 15 selected local government areas in four states was the first official pronouncement against the Boko Haram sect by President Jonathan in the face of insecurity in the country. The president’s reaction each time the group launched attack on its target has been to condemn the blast and “to reassure all Nigerians that government will not relent in its determination to bring to justice all the perpetrators of acts of violence.” Sometime last year however, a joint security taskforce, JTF, was deployed to Borno State where the group’s headquarters is located. The heat was turned on members of the sect who were driven underground. Borno leaders who were uncomfortable with the actions of the JTF met President Jonathan in Abuja and pleaded that the force be withdrawn but the state government, Kashim Shettima said the presence of the force is necessary to maintain law and order. Although the activities of the JTF have reduced, the outlawed group has shifted their attacks to the neighbouring Yobe State.
But on the New Year eve, and after a marathon meeting with security chiefs, President Jonathan took the bold step to confront members of the sect. He told Nigerians that “it has become imperative to take some decisive measures necessary to restore normalcy in the country….” Citing the provisions of section 305(1) of the constitution, which gave him power to declare state of emergency in any part of the country where there is threat to peace and order, President Jonathan imposed emergency rule in the 15 council areas, comprising five each in Borno and Yobe States, four in Plateau and one in Niger State. Also, land borders contiguous to the affected local government areas were closed so as to control incidences of cross boarder terrorist activities as terrorists have taken advantage of the present situation to strike at targets in Nigeria and retreat beyond the reach of our law enforcement personnel.” Perpetrators of the November 5, 2011 shooting in Damaturu, Yobe State, were believed to have come from outside the country. 
The affected council areas are Maidugiri Metropolitan, Gamboru Ngala Banki Bama Biu and Jere in Borno State; Damaturu, Geidam, Potiskum, Buniyadi-Gujba and Gasua-Bade in Yobe State; Jos north and south, Barkin-Ladi and Riyom in Plateau State as well as Suleja in Niger State.
The Madallah attack was the third to be launched in Suleja local government by the Boko Haram group last year. The group had earlier in the year successfully detonated two explosion in Suleja town, including one which exploded at a function where the state governor, Babangida Aliyu was in attendance. A bomb making factory was also discovered in one of the suburbs and some arrests made. 
This is the second time a state of emergency has been declared in Plateau State since the dawn of democratic government in the country. The first was in 2004 when former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration imposed a  six-month emergency rule in the state following spate of ethno-religious violence, which started in 2001. But this time, only a part of the state was affected by the emergency rule. Unlike what was the position in the past, under the amended 1999 Constitution the declaration of a state of emergency does not permit the dissolution of elected institutions of government. The Jos crisis appears intractable. Over a thousand persons are believed to have been killed since the crisis started. About a week to Christmas, a family of four was killed in a machete attack by suspected Fulani herdsmen. A bomb exploded at a church in the state capital, although no one was killed. About a week before then, an explosion at a football viewing centre in Jos sent scores of people to their early graves. In 2010, two bomb attacks on the Christmas eve at a drinking joint and a church respectively, killed scores of people. The victims were from Berom tribe. The sectarian conflict has been between the natives, the Berom and the migrants, Fulani. 
President Jonathan appears to be tactical in declaring the state of emergency. Two of the four states where emergency rule was imposed and which are hotbed of Boko Haram activities, belong to the opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP. A source told this magazine that the option of imposing emergency rule in the entire states was weighed against the backdrop of its political implications. Already, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, an ANPP controlled state, had accused the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP of sponsoring the Boko Haram sect to distablise his administration, an allegation the jailed former spokesman of the sect, Alisanda Umar Konduga appeared to have corroborated in his confession to the state security service, SSS. Konduga told the SSS that leaders of PDP in Borno State used members of the sect to intimidate the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Maiduguri, Borno State with a view to forcing it to cancel Shettima’s election in favour of PDP. Ali Ndume, former ANPP member who before the April general elections defected to PDP and was elected a senator on the platform of the party, was equally arrested by security operatives and charged to court for allegedly sponsoring the group. Imposing state of emergency on the entire state would amount to laying credence to Shettima’s accusation. That was why the president refrained from holistic declaration of state of emergency. Ali Modu, a resident of Pompamari area of Damaturu, Yobe State capital, told Newsworld that if President Jonathan had declared the state of emergency on the entire state, some politicians would read meanings into his good intention because being being a state ruled by the opposition party, they would accuse him of capitalising on the security challenges in the state to “topple” an opposition government. But then, the argument of Ibrahim Ali, a lecturer at the federal polytechnic, Damaturu that selective imposition of emergency rule might not have the desired effect since the sect would move to other local government areas not affected by the declaration is worth consideration. Ali noted that the sect has no base, they are nomadic so they can strike even in the unaffected local government areas out of anger and frustration.”
The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, also welcomed the measures put in place by the president to end the senseless loss of lives and property in the country, describing the imposition of state of emergency in some select local government areas as a “natural course of action to take at this time.” ‘’We also believe that our elderstatesmen and  the past heads of state, have a great role to play. Though they may have acted individually on this, it is imperative that they work in unison to help end the crisis, which is threatening our democracy and indeed the very survival of our nation. If we all fail to act now, no one will be spared of the consequences, irrespective of their party affiliation or religious leaning,’’ Alhaji Lai Mohammed, spokesman of the ACN said in a statement.
There are also some school of thought who believe that use of force might  not be a solution to the crisis as it might not achieve lasting peace as is the case in Iraq and Afghanistan after the US invasion in 2003. The ACN cited the case of Niger Delta militancy which was successfully handled by amnesty after all attempts to crush the militants had failed. “It is also important to learn a lesson or two from the resolution of the militancy in the Niger Delta. While the Niger Delta militants complained of massive neglect of their communities, impoverishment of their people and destruction of their flora and fauna, the Boko Haram insurgents have raised the issues of injustice, poverty and corruption and the extra-judicial killing of their leader and members,” the party noted. But the argument has been you cannot dialogue with a faceless group. An attempt by former President Obasanjo to initiate the troubleshooting with a visit to Babakura Fugu, brother-in-law to late Mohammed Yusuf, leader of the sect, ended in disaster when Fugu was killed by suspected members of the group shortly after the former president’s visit. Since then, no one has been prepared to negotiate with the federal government on behalf of Boko Haram members. How then could peace be achieved with the group through dialogue?
There is the fear that continued attack of the group, especially on Christians like the Christmas bomb blast at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madallah might lead to reprisal attacks by Christians. A bomb explosion at an Islamic school in Delta State was reported to have injured seven persons. A group of Igbo boys in Suleja was said to have assembled on a Friday after the Madallah bomb to attack Muslim faithful at the mosque but was prevailed upon to rescind their decision. Majority of people who died at the Christmas church attack were of Igbo origin. Former militant leader, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari also warned that bomb attacks by Boko Haram could provoke retaliation by Christians. These were indications to the federal government that reprisal attacks might not be ruled out if no decisive action was taken to curtail the activities of the Boko Haram sect.  
Last Monday, the group gave a three-day ultimatum for Christians living in the north to relocate to their states of origin or face more attacks and Muslims living in the south to return to the north to avoid being attacked. Incidentally, except few isolated cases, most of the sect’s attacks were targeted at Muslims. The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has however dissociated itself from the threat while security operatives said there is no cause for alarm. 
Additional report by BAMIDELE BABALOLA (Damaturu)  

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