ENCORE BOKO HARAM

I just saw a recent video (http://t.co/Psky5vQ0sE) posted by the Islamic Fundamentalist group operating in Nigeria's Northeastern region, Boko Haram (seeking to impose a stricter form of the Islamic Jurisprudence, The Shar'ia on the country as it has successfully done in areas under its control in recent times) on youtube, which started by showing an onslaught against Nigeria's military forces in an unnamed location (may have been named in Arabic though) somewhere in what I suspect to be the Northeast of Nigeria, that ended with the beheading of a Nigerian soldier,

THE SOLDIER IN THE AFOREMENTIONED VIDEO

and a show of arms seized by the group after the attack. Contrary to what we are made to believe about the group striking a retreat each time they encounter Nigeria's military, the video shows members of the group surging towards gunfire, all of them without Kevlar.

Though the veracity of the video, especially as regards timing isn't easy to ascertain, it is not difficult to conclude that the footage may have been recently shot. If this is so, it makes a mockery of all that we have been getting as information from the military of successes recorded in the fight against the insurgents with assurances that they will be totally quashed by December, in the light of recent cases as well as frequency of suicide bomb attacks in Maiduguri (Borno State) and other parts of the Northeast, in which many civilians have lost their lives.

The stories of arrest of masterminds, including of so called financiers (with a few millions on their persons) with picture of an emaciated fellow as the suspect for instance, or of bomb makers, or of fuel suppliers (in Jigawa) amongst others, many of which there are no pictures to verify, nor names given makes the case of the military hardly believable in the face of mounting evidence of the activities of these Islamic Fundamentalist whose bombings go almost unchallenged, many times in the same vicinity within days with nothing to show that anything was learnt from the last suicide bombing either of a female suicide bomber, or from a male dressed like a female suicide bomber, or of a male suicide bomber. Even the pro-government media which helped this administration get into power, and then went further to keep mute over the resurgence of the suicide attacks (even of recent in Nigeria's capital, Abuja) appear to have realized the foolishness of their actions and now joined the foreign media to report these attacks as well as their frequency.

I was taken aback when President Buhari in an interview he granted an Al Jazeera journalist days back, claimed he hadn't read the report by an international Human Rights organization, that accused the Nigerian army of gross human rights violation in it's battle against Boko Haram in the Northeast, when one of the reasons Nigerians voted for him was on the strength of allegations against the past government on the way it had handled the war against the insurgents albeit with laxity. This is coming just days after Nigeria (which he led to New York) missed a key event at the United Nations, where the plight of Internal Displaced People, IDPs was up for discussion, of which fringe countries and Nigeria's neighbours attended and made their positions before the international community, while his handlers played down the importance of the event, rather than admit that a huge mistake had been made.

Sadly, what the president's handlers were concerned with was how President Buhari became Nigeria's first president to speak on the opening day of the UN's General Assembly. Just like they regaled us with how he was hosted at Blair House, that only few foreign Heads of State had had the pleasure of staying at during a visit to the United States of America, over and above the fact that nothing concrete was obtained of the Americans, especially with a President Obama who was nice enough not to have abandoned the Nigerian delegation in his haste to hurry off to Kenya, all because of a LEAHY ACT which prevents the American Department of State from assisting nations, whose military have been accused of human rights abuses militarily. It therefore was no surprise that a nation like Cameroon which made little or no noise, employing quiet and strategic diplomacy had just last week welcomed the first batch of a contingent of three hundred military experts from the US to help the country combat Boko Haram terrorists within her borders, and this while the Nigerian president was simply offered a visit by the commander of America's  Africa Command, AFRICOM.

Unfortunately, this Buhari-led administration jettisoned whatever gains was achieved by the last administration to chart a new course it is looking to be doing LEARNER at, when they could just have built on it. Now, in the latest interview he granted the foreign press (as if he detests the local Nigerian press), President Buhari stated that he wouldn't resign if Boko Haram isn't wiped out by the Decenber deadline he set for the military (whose command headquarters he relocated to Maiduguri, in Borno State which is the heart of the insurgent group), an indication that it may have dawned on him that the war against these Islamist may not be a thing of the past in the nearest future. A scary thing to ponder upon for the discerning.

I hate to think that this war against Boko Haram will be long drawn. Having followed the evolution of this group, beside writing about them (the latest been: LAFIYA NOT YET DO-LE | madukovich's cogitations https://madukovich.wordpress.com/2015/10/05/lafiya-not-yet-do-le/), I think that it is high time we begin to humanize some of the things associated with this war. I know that it may be difficult to get the names of victims at the hands of Boko Haram, but when such is possible, even of the injured, their names should be documented, even if (as is expected) that the government may abandon them to their fate. That way, somehow or somewhere in the future we may just be fortunate to find non governmental organizations, NGOs or even governments at different levels that may be interested in the welfare of such people to cater for them, not only physically but psychologically as well.

The military's quiet (even of denial as in the case of a beheaded member of the airforce few months back, at the hands of members of the dreaded group) over it's captured personnel must stop. The

THE SAME SOLDIER ABOUT TO BE BEHEADED

name of the latest victim in the video I saw (and that of many others, including a female member of the intelligence services), as well as many of our gallant men and women lost to these barbarians during combat should be made public so that Nigerians can honour them in anyway they might deem fit, and have their families feel proud of what their wards, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters etc, had done in sacrificing their lives for not just the peace and security of their beloved country, but for it's unity, rather than just focussing and making news of the court-martialling of deserters, even sentencing those who refused to sacrifice themselves because they were ill-equipped to face members of Boko Haram to death.

'kovich

PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://africanspotlight.com
- http://realchannel165.com.ng

COLUMBUS DAY RANT

Twas COLUMBUS DAY yesterday (and the day before it) and I had quite an engagement with my friend Ogidi Musso James aka OMJ - Comments https://m.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/story.php?story_fbid=10153459686286997&id=675001996&ref=m_notif&notif_t=feed_comment,  about the propriety of Americans still celebrating or marking a day in honour of someone whose actions will at best be described in the main as genocidal, and had he been striding the earth at this point in time would be a candidate for the International Criminal Court, ICC at The Hague, except maybe as an American he'd be shielded from prosecution there, as many of that countries men-in-arms are, even when they have committed gross human rights abuse while on tour of duty elsewhere in the world.

Though I doubt that my friend OMJ was entirely against my point, his point however dwelt rather with why I would single out the Americans  for an act other countries like Japan and other nations (and major ethnic groups in an amalgam of a country like Nigeria) shamelessly do even without care for the sensibilities of those affected by their action of commemorating pioneers (in the case of America), or the celebration of the exploits of a forebear of a large marauding tribal leader over minor ethnic/tribal groups (in countries like Mongolia, Turkey, Nigeria etc), even of great rulers/leaders like Genghis Khan, Atatürk, Uthman Dan Fodio amongst others. I defended my action by reminding him that I raised this issue because at that moment in time it was Columbus that was being celebrated and I would gladly do so if and when the days for the commemoration of the others come too, especially if it was given the fanfare Americans give to the controversial "Columbus Day", especially when descendants of the victims remain within their country of aborigine in a position nearly second class in nature, and having to witness this annually. 

It is even more unfortunate, that in the midst of all these is the campaign train for the presidential elections for next year, of which immigration continues to play a major role, howbeit divisive to hear Republican Candidates banter the way they do about immigration. Imagine a Donald Trump going at the Mexicans the way he's been doing like his forebears sprung up directly from the American soil, after hounding President Obama years back over his birth certificate. Most unfortunate is the fact that this rhetoric of his appear to have been partly responsible for his steady rise in the polls, a disgusting prospect in thinking that some section of America actually feels that way, and that he infact is speaking the mind, hopefully not of the majority. 

The marking of days like Columbus' by Americans demean their stance as a nation that values Human Rights, and reduces their moral standing before the Comity of Nations especially when they fall out with nations like Turkey for refusing to acknowledge what they did against Armenians in WWI was genocide. It doesn't matter if before the landing of Columbus, the Amerindians were killing themselves (as portrayed in Mel Gibson's APOCALYPTO) with stronger tribes meting all kinds of inhuman treatments (including human sacrifices to the Gods) on weaker tribes, as the British also thought of Black Africans on the so called DARK CONTINENT, and therefore came in to bring forth to them enlightenment. Did Europe not have its DARK AGES? Sadly, unlike with Africa where the idea of bringing enlightenment in the main spared a large number of the natives, Columbus' expedition sought to annihilate America's natives, which begs the question why in the first place such a person should be honoured with a day. Even if the ancestors thought it right to so do, considering their racist tendencies, does it seem right for their offsprings to continue in the same light? Shouldn't this be a basis for such a commemoration to be struck off the calendar, besides the fact that it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of a section of the American society?

Even the notion that he discovered America cannot cut it. How about the Arawak Indians? (Asks Winston Rodney aka BURNING SPEAR in his CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS track). How long can we continue this foolishness in History of who discovered "where" on earth (like Mungo Park discovering the -source of the- Niger, when he didn't paddle himself across it in the first place) when those places were already well inhabited by indigenous people? Isn't that so very absurd? Mtcheeeeeeeew!

The British recently came close to rendering an apology for what they did to the Mau-Mau in Kenya, the Australians went further by actually apologising for their treatment of aborigines, which is good. America should rid itself of a position currently occupied by Belgium as regards its treatment of the Congolese in time past, as with Turkey to the Armenians, amongst a many inglorious others if she is going to be taken seriously as the nation that upholds and respects the rights of every one and group that forms an integral part of it. *Drops mic*

'kovich

PICTURE CREDIT:
- Comments https://m.facebook.com/home.php?refid=52&ref=m_notif&notif_t=feed_comment#!/story.php?story_fbid=10103745856036331&id=6028496&fs=4