# Whose Agenda Is Boko Haram?



## jchima (Nov 10, 2014)

Ordinarily, there should be no confusion as to why Boko Haram has become the cancer it has assumed in Nigeria today but for the confusion that has replaced rational and dispassionate appraisal of issues based on politics. Confusion has been elevated to a standard with which the credulity of Nigerian masses is exploited and in the process, we are often rendered pitiably gullible to the extent that issues are hardly seen exactly the way they are but twisted to confound us the more.



Presidential hopeful, Atiku Abubakar, in a paid newspaper advertorial last week, attributed leadership failure to the festering insurgency in the Nigeria's northeast and then sought to create the impression that a change in leadership guard amongst the present crop of the political class was all that is necessary to fix the cankerworm which have arisen from long years of religious manipulation.

While Atiku would appear to be making a valid point, he was nevertheless begging the issue by refusing to acknowledge that Boko Haram is a product of political impunity perpetrated wantonly over the years through the manipulation of religion for political ends. To understand where the rain started beating us is to decipher the agenda of Boko Haram and the politics that would likely sustain rather than abate the ugly trend!

Failure to acknowledge the full import of the challenge of Boko Haram as a consequence of overbearing religious extremism and impunity of the past is to indulge in convenient politics of deceit and acquiescence. Indeed, by failing to correctly situate Boko Haram as an agenda of destabilization is to continue to live in denial of the reality at hand and to succumb to politics of blackmail that would only serve to deepen rather than deal with the real issue.

Of course, Atiku like other actors in politics of convenience know that Boko Haram is only but a giddying consequence of the leadership they offered the country at some points in the past; however it is altogether not strange that they would rather prefer to offend our sensibilities. Indeed, while Boko Haram has become frustratingly intractable owing to the continuation of convenient politics of denial by the present administration, the truth remains that the seeds of the present crisis were sown over the years.

It was only a question of time that the bubble would burst! It is instructive to assert that violent religious extremism perpetrated over the years gave the country away as possible hotbeds of divisive religious ideology and warfare. It was against such fertile background that late Mouamar Guadaffi ignorantly advocated the partitioning of Nigeria based on misleading dichotomy, which failed to recognise the unique peculiarity in the spread of the two dominant religions.

The reality of renewed onslaught by the dreaded Islamic sect in the northeast state of Adamawa in the last one-week has further accentuated the danger which pervasive religious ideology portends for the sovereignty of Nigeria. As the military contend with the challenge of routing the insurgents in captures towns of Adamawa, most Nigerians would probably no longer reckon with the divisive and destabilisation ideology of this sect as espoused in its publicised objectives and creed. As if we are eternally condemned to devious politics, we would rather be more interested in the anecdotes of the crisis than correctly situating the evil which the emergence and boisterousness of Boko Haram represent.

In an attempt to obscure the dire reality of what Boko Haram signifies for the unity of the country, we are consciously led away from relating and engaging with the real issues in the agenda being propagated and violently and fanatically unleashed on the people of the northeast regardless of the rights and liberty of the victims to express cultural and religious preferences. Alas, the cancer is festering while our politicians refuse to appreciate the need to rise in unison, beyond political divides, against a self-inflicted scourge that threatens the very existence of the country.

The fall of Mubi town to Boko Haram insurgents and it's purported renaming as 'Madinatul Islam' is another confirmation that ideology of terror under the guise of Islamisation which Boko Haram claim to be pursuing is indeed real. It is recalled that before Kodunga was freed from the grips of the insurgents in similar attacks in late September and earlier October, the town and its environs were declared a Caliphate in violation of the rights of the inhabitants to express their cultural identities as well as socio-economic freedom.
Source: Whose Agenda Is Boko Haram - eReporter


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## waltky (Dec 21, 2014)

Boko Haram poses regional threat to Africa...

*Nigerian Islamic extremists pose regional threat*
_Dec 21,`14  -- Thousands of members of Nigeria's home-grown Islamic extremist Boko Haram group strike across the border in Cameroon, with coordinated attacks on border towns, a troop convoy and a major barracks._


> Farther north, Boko Haram employs recruits from Chad to enforce its control in northeastern Nigerian towns and cities.  In Niger, the government has declared a "humanitarian crisis" and appealed for international aid to help tens of thousands of Nigerian refugees driven from their homes by the insurgency.  These recent events show how neighboring countries are increasingly being drawn into Nigeria's Islamic uprising. Thousands of people have been killed in Nigeria's 5-year insurgency and some 1.6 million people driven from their homes.  "We are concerned about the increasing regionalization of Boko Haram," said Comfort Ero, Africa director for the International Crisis Group.
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> On Sunday, Cameroon's army announced it had broken up a Boko Haram training camp in the Mayo-Danay district in the country's Far North region. The army was looking for other hideouts in the area, said Jean-Pierre Mbida, a soldier with the Rapid Intervention Battalion tasked with fighting the insurgents.  "We will continue monitoring the area in the hope of uncovering any other Boko Haram hideouts and training grounds," he added.  Ero cautioned that cooperation between the neighboring countries is weak. "None of the sides is willing to share information with the other," Ero said. "There's always been a lack of confidence in terms of shared regional security."  She said there is also distrust of the capabilities of Nigeria's once-proud military, which has been battered by Boko Haram. A court-martial this week sentenced 54 soldiers to death by firing squad for refusing to fight the extremists.
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## waltky (Sep 25, 2015)

Better still, who's agenda is Nigeria's??...

*U.N. appeals for help for Boko Haram displaced; Nigeria a no-show*
_Fri Sep 25, 2015 | The United Nations, Chad, Niger and Cameroon appealed on Friday for help for millions of people in the Lake Chad Basin region forced to flee the violence of Boko Haram and hit with repeated droughts and floods that have brought malnutrition and disease._


> But while the radical Islamist militants operate out of Nigeria and U.N. aid chief Stephen O'Brien said that is where most people have been displaced by their attacks, Nigeria did not send anyone to the United Nations event.  U.S. and European Union diplomats said they were disappointed that Nigeria did not attend the event chaired by O'Brien on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.  The Nigerian U.N. mission was not immediately available to comment on its absence.
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> A regional offensive by Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon earlier this year drove Boko Haram from much of the territory it held in northern Nigeria. But the militants have since struck back with a renewed wave of deadly raids and suicide bombings.  "These (displaced) families are being used as ammunition because it is the children that are used as bombers in markets and in train stations," said Chad's Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat. "Trade is virtually wiped out in this area."
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## waltky (Apr 14, 2016)

Many Nigerian children gonna grow up illiterate...

*Boko Haram leaves 1 million Nigerian children without schools*
_April 13, 2016  -- Nigeria's eight-year war against Boko Haram insurgents has left one million children with little or no access to schools, Human Rights Watch said this week._


> In an 86-page report released Tuesday, the New York-based advocacy organization noted that Boko Haram, whose grip on northeast Nigeria has been significantly lessened after a weeks-long counterinsurgency campaign by African coalition forces, has devastated Nigeria's rural educational systems.
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> Boko Haram brutality since 2009 has been responsible for the destruction of 910 schools and the closure of about 1,600 more; the deliberate murder of 910 teachers; and the fleeing of 19,000 more and the abduction of at least 2,000 civilians, many of them young female students.
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## waltky (Sep 10, 2018)

*Boko Haram sacks base, captures town in Nigeria...*
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*Boko Haram sacks base, captures town in Nigeria*
_*Mon, Sep 10, 2018 - Boko Haram militants were on Saturday in control of a town in northeast Nigeria after sacking a military base, in the latest attack that raises questions about claims they are weakened to the point of defeat.*_*



			Local officials and security sources said scores of fighters believed to be loyal to a Boko Haram faction backed by the Islamic State (IS) group overran troops in Gudumbali.  At least eight civilians were believed to have been killed, while thousands of others fled to neighboring towns.  Gudumbali, in the Guzamala area of Borno state, is Boko Haram’s first major seizure in two years and comes after a series of attacks on troops.  The authorities and the military have been encouraging people displaced by violence in the long-running conflict to return to Guzamala, insisting it is safe to do so. 

However, aid agencies have said minimum levels of basic services, including shelter, civilian infrastructure and security are still lacking.  Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general, was elected in 2015 on a promise to defeat Boko Haram and is seeking a second term of office at polls in February next year.  The Gudumbali attack will again raise questions about his claims to have “technically defeated” the group and that Borno State was now in a “post-conflict stabilization phase.”  An official of the Guzamala local government area, of which Gudumbali is the headquarters, confirmed that troops had been pushed out of the town and Boko Haram was in “full control.”

A military source in the state capital, Maiduguri, said the attack began at about 7:50pm on Friday and lasted until the early hours of Saturday, “when troops were forced to withdraw.”  “So far eight civilians, who were errand boys for troops, were believed to have been killed in the attack,” local civilian militia member Musa Ari said.  However, “most civilians were spared, because the attack was targeted at the military base,” he added.  The IS-backed faction — known as Islamic State West Africa Province — has vowed to hit only “hard” military or government targets.

It is reportedly trying to get the support of local populations in the Muslim-majority region.  Ari said soldiers and residents fled Gudumbali to Damasak, about 80km away, on the border with Niger.  Others escaped south toward Gajiram, where nine soldiers were killed in a similar attack in June.

Boko Haram sacks base, captures town in Nigeria - Taipei Times

Click to expand...

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## Synthaholic (Sep 10, 2018)

The Republicans have abdicated all US power and influence in Africa.

Thanks Republicans!


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## waltky (Sep 10, 2018)

Reminds me of Uncle Ferd's...

... old g/f's daughter.


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