PC FAN CLUB - Worldwide In Washington DC, Governor Murtala Nyako made some interesting revelations about the insurgency in the North-East. - March 17-19, 2014 First, I should like to sincerely thank the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in support and collaboration with the Governments of Norway and Denmark for hosting this 3-Day Symposium on current economic, social and Security challenges in Northern Nigeria. I should also like to believe that this is being done because of the realisation that Northern Nigeria is facing daunting challenges in these sectors and you have resolved to help the region out of its difficulties. The region lies in the Sahel belt of West Africa and is inhabited by a large number of tribal/ethnic groups, the biggest being the Fulani, Hausa, Kanuri, Yoruba and Tiv who have demographic linkages far beyond the region. It became a British protectorate in the Year 1900 and had since remained virtually peaceful until the early 1990s when signs of rapid deterioration of the social and economic life of the people in the region began to manifest. We could now all see the squalor around us – the growing number of young people out of school and without skills; the increasing number of the poor and hungry people around us, the increasing number of the unemployable and the un-employed among the youths and even grown-ups and other negative indicators too many to be mentioned here; all of it very scary stuff. It is, therefore, no wonder that there is presently heightened insecurity not only in Northern Nigeria, but the whole country. Today, the level of armed robbery in the South-West of the country is such that most Banks do not observe regular hours of doing business; it is piracy and lawlessness on continual and massive scale by delinquent militants in the South-South; it is kidnapping for ransom at an alarming degree in the South-East of the country; and of course there is the series of atrocities by the so-called Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria. It is lawlessness all over the place. Boko Haram: The initial assumption was that Boko Haram was religiously motivated. Nobody now associates the group with any religion; their targets have largely been within the Muslim communities. What, therefore, are the motivating factors of the so-called Boko Haram? We must answer this question correctly to enable us determine what type of war we are fighting. The Boko Haram itself has not helped matters since it has never come out by its actions to define what type of war it is fighting; it has bombed facilities of the United Nations and those of all and sundry; it has destroyed churches and mosques and targeted and killed a large number of Muslims and Christians irrespective of the ethnicity of their victims. It is therefore most unfortunate that inspite of professional advice to the Presidency including two Memos submitted by my humble self (hereby attached) it does not seem to know what it is facing and the type of war it should be fighting; is it a war against terrorists, insurgents or as people are coming to believe a nurtured war against the people in Northern Nigeria? In short, is the massive killing of people and destruction of property and the environment state-sponsored? Let’s face it ! Neither the Federal Government, nor the Nigerian Military has ever linked those few persons paraded as Boko Haram suspects with any of their strategic commanders or sponsors ! The locations of Boko Haram camps such as those at Sambisa Game Reserve which are said to be well established and stocked are known by all traditional Defence and Security units in the North-East, but we hear about them from the authority only on selective basis ! We now notice a new trend; the random destruction of life and property in the style of Boko Haram in the North-East and the illegal carting away of herdsmen’s cattle now take place in all the States of Northern Nigeria and is being adjudged by the public as deliberately aimed at bringing conflict amongst the ethnic groups and between Muslims and Christians of the region.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 11:03:05 +0000
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