only GOd wil save us in ds country, wat r dey doin abt d ASUU strike

they are telling you to pack you bag and leave,you are still talking about ASUU strike.will you remember to go to school when your head is not hanging on your neck?

In Nigeria, Boko Haram Is Not the Problem- American Professor

Prof. Jean Herskovits

http://economicconfidential.net/new/features/865-jean-herskovits


GOVERNMENTS and newspapers around the world attributed the horrific Christmas Day bombings of churches in Nigeria to “Boko Haram” – a shadowy group that is routinely described as an extremist Islamist organization based in the northeast corner of Nigeria. Indeed, since the May inauguration of President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the Niger Delta in the country’s south, Boko Haram has been blamed for virtually every outbreak of violence in Nigeria.



But the news media and American policy makers are chasing an elusive and ill-defined threat; there is no proof that a well-organized, ideologically coherent terrorist group called Boko Haram even exists today. Evidence suggests instead that, while the original core of the group remains active, criminal gangs have adopted the name Boko Haram to claim responsibility for attacks when it suits them.

The United States must not be drawn into a Nigerian “war on terror” – rhetorical or real – that would make us appear biased toward a Christian president. Getting involved in an escalating sectarian conflict that threatens the country’s unity could turn Nigerian Muslims against America without addressing any of the underlying problems that are fueling instability and sectarian strife in Nigeria.

Since August, when Gen. Carter F. Ham, the commander of the United States Africa Command, warned that Boko Haram had links to Al Qaeda affiliates, the perceived threat has grown. Shortly after General Ham’s warning, the United Nations’ headquarters in Abuja was bombed, and simplistic explanations blaming Boko Haram for Nigeria’s mounting security crisis became routine. Someone who claims to be a spokesman for Boko Haram – with a name no one recognizes and whom no one has been able to identify or meet with – has issued threats and statements claiming responsibility for attacks. Remarkably, the Nigerian government and the international news media have simply accepted what he says.

In late November, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Homeland Security issued a report with the provocative title: “Boko Haram: Emerging Threat to the U.S. Homeland.” The report makes no such case, but nevertheless proposes that the organization be added to America’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. The State Department’s Africa bureau disagrees, but pressure from Congress and several government agencies is mounting.

Boko Haram began in 2002 as a peaceful Islamic splinter group. Then politicians began exploiting it for electoral purposes. But it was not until 2009 that Boko Haram turned to violence, especially after its leader, a young Muslim cleric named Mohammed Yusuf, was killed while in police custody. Video footage of Mr. Yusuf’s interrogation soon went viral, but no one was tried and punished for the crime. Seeking revenge, Boko Haram targeted the police, the military and local politicians – all of them Muslims.

It was clear in 2009, as it is now, that the root cause of violence and anger in both the north and south of Nigeria is endemic poverty and hopelessness. Influential Nigerians from Maiduguri, where Boko Haram is centered, pleaded with Mr. Jonathan’s government in June and July not to respond to Boko Haram with force alone.

Likewise, the American ambassador, Terence P. McCulley, has emphasized, both privately and publicly, that the government must address socio-economic deprivation, which is most severe in the north. No one seems to be listening.

Instead, approximately 25 percent of Nigeria’s budget for 2012 is allocaated for security, even though the military and police routinely respond to attacks with indiscriminate force and killing. Indeed, according to many Nigerians I’ve talked to from the northeast, the army is more feared than Boko Haram.

Meanwhile, Boko Haram has evolved into a franchise that includes criminal groups claiming its identity. Revealingly, Nigeria’s State Security Services issued a statement on Nov. 30, identifying members of four “criminal syndicates” that send threatening text messages in the name of Boko Haram. Southern Nigerians – not northern Muslims – ran three of these four syndicates, including the one that led the American Embassy and other foreign missions to issue warnings that emptied Abuja’s high-end hotels.

And last week, the security services arrested a Christian southerner wearing northern Muslim garb as he set fire to a church in the Niger Delta. In Nigeria, religious terrorism is not always what it seems.

None of this excuses Boko Haram’s killing of innocents. But it does raise questions about a rush to judgment that obscures Nigeria’s complex reality. Many Nigerians already believe that the United States unconditionally supports Mr. Jonathan’s government, despite its failings. They believe this because Washington praised the April elections that international observers found credible, but that many Nigerians, especially in the north, did not.

Likewise, Washington’s financial support for Nigeria’s security forces, despite their documented human rights abuses, further inflames Muslim Nigerians in the north. Mr. Jonathan’s recent actions have not helped matters. He told Nigerians last week, “The issue of bombing is one of the burdens we must live with.” On New Year’s Eve, he declared a state of emergency in parts of four northern states, leading to increased military activity there. And on New Year’s Day, he removed a subsidy on petroleum products, more than doubling the price of fuel.

In a country where 90 percent of the population lives on $2 or less a day, anger is rising nationwide as the costs of transport and food increase dramatically.

Since Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999, many politicians have used ethnic and regional differences and, most disastrously, religion for their own purposes. Northern Muslims – indeed, all Nigerians – are desperate for a government that responds to their most basic needs: personal security and hope for improvement in their lives. They are outraged over government policies and expenditures that undermine both.

The United States should not allow itself to be drawn into this quicksand by focusing on Boko Haram alone. Washington is already seen by many northern Muslims – including a large number of longtime admirers of America – as biased toward a Christian president from the south. The United States must work to avoid a self-fulfilling prophecy that makes us into their enemy. Placing Boko Haram on the foreign terrorist list would cement such views and make more Nigerians fear and distrust America.

*Jean Herskovits, a professor of history at the State University of New York, Purchase, has written on Nigerian politics since 1970. She contributed this piece to New York Times a day after President Goodluck Jonathan removed fuel subsidy in Nigeria.

This issue of boko haram is getting to much and it seems they are calling for War bt i pray it will not be so.

EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEGININGS DO END SOMEDAY! IF THEY ARE SO POWERFUL HAS THEY CLAIM, WHY NOT SHOW UP YOUR FACES AND FIGHT THAN HIDDING IN THE MIST OF THE INNOCENT ONCE.

boko haram is just a stupid sect, stupid and full of dumb. How can they ask Southerners to go. can the north survive without our crude oil? Can they??

They want to take on Nigerian Army, that is a bold statement, but lets see if they can survive the fire.

Anyway, i just pity them, because when the chips are down, they stupid leaders in the north who have refused to call these animals to order will have themselves to blame.

I now see what late Ojukwu foresaw when he went to war and wanted to break up this country. Now is it very glaring that there is not like Nigeria, it is just a mere geographical drawing and with time the paper will get torn and we will see where we all belong to.

F***ck boro haram, they are all stupid.

Where is the peace and unity

i dont have moto neither generator for now but im affected by subsidy removal, pls GEJ, what is d economic implicatn to dis. More dan 100% increment, dis na wa ooo

How many hours to go?

God has arrested members of gboko haram. Whoever &wherever they are, God has arrested them.

Thank God!

The haramites are chicken hearted cowards. They have gone into hiding so soon. So the declaration of the state of emergency is working. GEJ, bravo!

NTA news at 9. FG bought a war ship frm US but still in ghana, plz ar they planin 2 go 2 war? If yes with who?

@nedu210, the warship is on stand-by,if the protest get out of hand,they will deploy it to affected areas to sweep and charge through,

THE GOD OF VENGEANCE IS AT WORK: BOKO HARAM; YOU ARE DEAD!!!!
AHAA!!!

[b]Nigerians need to be careful as regards Boko-Haram, it is becoming more evident that those behind or purportedly behind Boko-Haram, are doing things that will catalyse the break down of Nigeria; they are moving away from the attack on military/police to attacking Christians in order to fuel the call for break-up, we also need to be careful in believing that all these is done by an "extremist-Islamic" group, because signs are beginning to emerge that some of these evil acts may have the hands of "southern/northern-Christians" in it; today an issue erupted in Sabo, Kaduna the abode of many northern Christians, a Christian man was paid by God knows whom to place a bomb in his church and He was caught; a similar issue happened in Bayelsa where a xtian dressed like a Muslim northerner to burn a church; all these point to one thing that there are a group of people with the motive to exploit the current circumstances to further tarnish the image of the north to an irreparable extent.
Furthermore the recent purported call by Boko-Haram that all southerners should leave the north does not have the signature of an extremist-Islamic group; they are not usually concerned about tribes but religion, secondly there are many northern-christians in the north, whom I am sure an extremist group wouldn't give regard to as much as they would to a southern Muslim. Secondly, if Boko-Haram is a group sponsored by big northern politicians as it is usually painted, then I am sure those politicians are very aware of the big disadvantage in the break up of Nigeria, the ultimate beneficiary of a divided Nigeria is the South; so why would they be towing that line
Lastly, the sudden status of invisible, sophisticated militia that Boko-Haram has attained over night is very suspicious, I wonder how the FG can not find the hideout/camp of Boko-Haram after engaging them for 4 hours in yobe, I wonder if it isn't possible for an helicopter or surveillance jet to hover over the battle ground even if it is just for the purpose of tracking their movement; but no that won't happen perhaps some are benefiting from their existence.
[/b]

Boko Rams or Cows, are a shadow of themselves now,where are they?state of emergence a welcome development?

we are not cowards so boko haram shuld come out n lets see wat they can do,we dont need rantin,we need actions,we are ready

@sandra, which battalion do you belong to?are you an infantry soldier or artillery,or signal or ordinance?which?

Boko haram or whatever u call ur group, I must let u people know this, that nonthing rain forever ecept GOD almighty una time go soon espire.