Kaduna Crisis: “We Did Not Kill Muslims” – Gonin Gora Community-Gbagyi Chiefdom
It has become a responsibility on our side to clear the air and the deliberate evil manipulation of reality of the Boko Haram crises into twilight of confusion and robust propaganda against the Gonin Gora community.
The nation is not being helped and saved by deviating from the reality of the Boko Haram insurgency and terrorism ravaging Northern Nigeria, and the country at large. And it is against this that we make the following clarifications, regarding the aftermath of suicide bombings that rocked Kaduna State on Sunday:
· Though we are oblivious of the fact that criminals and miscreants took advantage of the scenario in Kaduna on Sunday to molest innocent people, and as well take laws into their hands and to some extent damaged cars, properties and some places of worship, in some parts of Kaduna town after the suicide bombings that killed many people. But contrary to the mischievous propaganda, being dish out and given prominence in some quarters. We wish to state that no any form of mass killings or killings of whatever form took place in Gonin Gora. There are military presences and other security operatives stationed in the community that can attest to this reality.
· Those peddling this wicked propaganda have also gone to town with lies that innocent people on transit were stopped and serially killed. All claims that have been proved to be lies and attempt to further create confusion and escalates violence in the state. The records of killings of innocent Nigerians and those on transit are there for those that care to check, along Rigachikun-Zaria Road axis, Maraban Jos, Bakin Ruwa, Rigasa, Buruku-Birnin Gwari routes and Kawo areas among others. The atrocities committed in those areas in February and May 2000, November 2002, April 2011 and up to now (June 2012) are beyond comprehension but are swept under the carpet. Because we are ‘Infidels’ or ‘Arnas’ or because we don’t have the Daily Trust, Hausa Services of the BBC, VOA, and other propaganda machines. No amount of millions lies will make a truth; rather the country continues to groan in falsehood and insincerity.
· We are not deterred in our resolve to champion peace, and unity and will not in any way allowed our community be given false publicity, aimed at what is only known to those spreading nothing but hatred, animosity, war and as well intolerance among people of several faiths and backgrounds. We are by this also sending a message, that wicked insinuations and hatred will not help build lasting peace but rather compound and plunge our dear state into bad-blood and underdevelopment.
· Finally, we wish to reiterate again, no mass killings or any forms of killings took place in Gonin Gora, rather our community should be praised for providing security for travellers along our community. We provided shelter for many Muslims trapped in the violence, for instance, a mother to a former member of National Assembly from Niger State. The security agencies are all aware of all this and real situation of Gonin Gora.
Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola like many others high powered executives in Nigeria is bleeding the citizens of Lagos dry as the lawyer turned politician is engaged in primitive consumption and accumulation of wealth. And this he is doing either by proxy or bald-faced budget manipulation.
Orijoreporters got the inside scoop on the budget proposals for his office and his kitchen cabinet, prepared by the Office of the Chief of Staff over the years, which highlight how Gov. Raji Fashola has been obtaining huge sums by fraud. In the 2010 and 2011 budget proposals, the governor budgeted N350 million and N385 million respectively for recharge cards for his telephone lines, that of his Chief of Staff, and his Special Assistants. Those monies were also meant for the payment of NEPA Bills, and Water Rates.
Inside sources told orijoreporters that not only that the monies were approved, what was eventually allocated at the end of the years, were far above those figures. The case of other items budgeted for were much the same, including medical care for the governor, his personal assistants, staff, and security personnel where N140 million and N154 million were proposed by the office of the Chief of Staff for both years. It is said that a large chunk of such monies end up in the pockets of Gov. Fashola and his cronies.
Another area that the governor has used to feed his addiction is the area of contracts where over 70 percent of Lagos State government’s contracts, particularly in the construction sector were awarded to his proxy, one Tunji Olowolafe, a trained medical doctor and once a cab driver in London. Tunji’s company, Duex, which has been fronting for Gov. Fashola has cornered the Lagos State Government’s contract market.
A mutually beneficial relationship, the duo recently acquired A.R.M, an asset management company, and pension administrator. They are equally behind Four Point Sheraton Hotel, which is located at Lekki, opposite former Lagos governor, Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s hotel.
Gov. Fashola’s performance in his first four-year tenure was quite impressive, however, this time around, he has been helping himself to the money in the treasury. His cronies and relations have also benefited from several contracts he facilitated for them. One of them is one Soji who is married to the governor’s younger sister. It is said that Soji recently acquired a choice property at highbrow Allen Avenue, behind the popular Oshopey Plaza from the money he made from Lagos State government.
Also, one of the governor’s cronies recently got the contract to produce the Lagos State brochure for the state’s 45th anniversary, which was held sometime this year, and was paid the sum of N20 million by the state government.
KHARTOUM, Sudan – A year ago Mohammed Khidir Khalil was glad his family had obtained refugee status in Egypt after fleeing Islamic hostilities in Sudan.
The 38-year-old Christian was also heartened that his formerly unbelieving wife was attending church with him.
Today the convert from Islam is back in Sudan fighting to recover his family after his in-laws compelled his wife to claim she was Muslim and divorce him. A Sudanese court automatically granted her custody of their two sons and forbade him to see them, he said. He fears that if he persists in his legal battle, he faces the threat of being accused of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam.
It was last August that his Muslim mother-in-law visited them in Egypt.
“Without my knowledge, she took my wife and children back to Sudan,” Khalil said.
The couple had fled Sudan just before the South Sudan vote for independence on Jan. 9, 2011, after threats from the couples’ Muslim families and others intensified, Khalil said. In Egypt, they reported their case to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and won asylum.
In emails to friends back in Sudan, Khalil freely shared his Christian experience and pointed out what he termed as contradictions in Islam.
Hearing nothing from his family after his mother-in-law took his wife and two sons back to Sudan, on Christmas Day Khalil decided to return to an undisclosed town in Sudan to search for them. He was shocked to discover that his wife, Manal Hassan, had filed for divorce on grounds that she was a Muslim and he a Christian.
Khalil, who converted to Christianity in 2001, had met Hassan in 2007. At that time she said she was neither a Christian nor a Muslim, and they married in a non-religious wedding. The bride’s Muslim family learned that Khalil was a Christian but had no objection to the marriage, he said.
By 2010 the couple had joined an undisclosed church and had become visibly active in it; opposition from their families grew, leading to the couple’s flight to Egypt in early 2011.
Last February, Khalil decided to appeal the divorce ruling. His wife had presented a copy of the UNHCR certificate showing Khalil’s testimony as a Christian, however, and that was proof enough for a judge to rule in March that the marriage be annulled and the children automatically handed over to the spouse professing “the popular religion” – Islam, the supposed faith of Hassan.
In spite of the court’s ruling that Khalil did not have a right to even visit the children, in April he decided to try to see them. His former wife’s family threatened to call police if he persisted.
“I am very upset with courts like this that bar one from seeing one’s children,” he said. “I have to appeal against this.”
Asked what risks he might incur by appealing, Khalil said it could lead to a case against him for apostasy – punishable by death in Sudan, where sharia (Islamic law) is established as a primary source of legislation.
“They might take the case to a prosecution court, which might lead to my sentencing to death according to Islamic apostasy law – but I am ready for this,” Khalil said. “I want the world to know this. What crime have I done? Is it because I became a Christian? I know if the world is watching, they will be afraid to do any harm to me.”
Conversion
Khalil was a practicing Sufi Muslim when he began studies at a university in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1998. By the time he graduated in 2000, he had left Islam; he returned to Sudan an atheist.
After his return to Sudan, Khalil came into contact with a U.S. pastor who inspired him with his Christian faith.
“He was very calm and confident,” Khalil said.
He recalled that the pastor made reference to the Nubian people of southern Egypt and northern Sudan calling themselves “sons of the Nile,” the river being considered the source of life, and connecting that idea with the Son of God likewise coming from God as the source of all life. References to Jesus as the Good Shepherd whose Father was the God of love also moved him. Khalil decided to visit the pastor’s church, and he entrusted his life to Christ in 2001.
He stayed with the pastor for three months before he left to his home village. The pastor paid him visits, and when his family realized that Khalil had embraced the Christian faith, his father threatened to shoot him. Khalil fled home.
He was later baptized in a historically Nubian area near his home village. Khalil began winning friends to Christ, and persecution intensified; family members reported him to the police, and he fled his country.
“Life became unbearable, and I decided to flee to the United Arab Emirates, where I was received by a Sudanese family in 2001,” he said.
He remained there until the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between north and south Sudan in 2005, and then decided to return to Sudan with the hope of serving his community. He became an English teacher, at the same time developing programs to promote Nobiin, one of the Nubian languages, and its cultural heritage. Building a literacy program for children in Nobiin, he also wrote poetry in the language and translated several hymns and Bible verses into it.
Along with his other challenges, Khalil is working toward publishing his sundry manuscripts in the Nobiin language, in spite of financial constraints. A deacon at his church summed up: “Mohammed needs prayers and support at this trying moment.”
WASHINGTON — Iran’s uranium enrichment effort has picked up speed and Tehran could produce enough fissile material needed for a nuclear weapon within four months, experts told US lawmakers on Wednesday.
The rate of Iran’s uranium enrichment has accelerated despite cyber sabotage from the Stuxnet virus in 2009, the experts said.
Based on the findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), “it’s clear that Iran could produce a nuclear weapon very quickly should it wish to do so,” said Stephen Rademaker of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.
Iran has produced 3,345 kilos of uranium enriched to 3.5 percent, according to the IAEA, which if it was enriched further would provide enough uranium for at least two atomic bombs, Rademaker told the House Armed Services Committee.
If the Iran leadership decided to go forward, “it would take them 35 to 106 days to actually have the fissile material for a weapon,” he said.
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), told the same hearing that “it would take Iran at least four months in order to have sufficient weapon grade uranium … for a nuclear explosive device.”
Uranium 235 must be enriched close to 90 percent for use in an atomic bomb. US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said that the Iranians are about a year away from producing enough highly-enriched uranium needed for a nuclear weapon, a threshold that Washington views as a “red line.”
More than 9,000 Iranian centrifuges are churning out 158 kilograms of 3.5 percent enriched uranium a month, three times the production rate compared to mid-2009, when the Stuxnet virus struck the program, Rademaker said.
The enrichment rate is “three times the rate of production prior to the Stuxnet virus, which many people have suggested somehow crippled their program.”
“So Stuxnet may have set them back, but not by very much, at least not sufficiently,” he added.
According to the New York Times, President Barack Obama, and his predecessor in the White House, George W. Bush, approved the use of the Stuxnet virus to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program, in the first known sustained US cyber attack.
Stuxnet — a complex virus developed jointly with Israel — sowed confusion at Iran’s Natanz nuclear plant, the Times reported, but the virus later accidentally spread outside of Iran, appearing in computer systems other countries.
President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil has accepted an invitation from President Goodluck Jonathan to visit Nigeria before the end of the year in furtherance of efforts to boost economic and trade relations between both countries.
President Jonathan extended the invitation at a bilateral meeting with the Brazilian President on Wednesday during the ongoing United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, noting that greater economic and developmental cooperation would be in the mutual interest of Nigeria and Brazil.
The President said that Nigeria will welcome increased Brazilian support and cooperation for the development of mechanized agriculture, power generation and other sectors in which Brazilians are globally acknowledged experts.
He also called for the revitalization of the Africa-South American Cooperation Forum which was jointly initiated by Nigeria’s former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and the former President of Brazil, Mr. Lula Da Silva as a platform for the promotion of economic and political cooperation between the two countries and continents.
Accepting President Jonathan’s invitation to visit Nigeria, President Rousseff said that she will come with Brazilian investors and businessmen with expertise in many fields to give them an opportunity to meet their Nigerian counterparts with a view to establishing profitable joint ventures.
She assured President Jonathan that Brazil, currently the world’s sixth largest economy, would be glad to deploy the skills and expertise which its people have acquired in many fields, including engineering, construction, technology, public infrastructure, hydro-power generation and large scale mechanised agriculture for economic growth and development in Nigeria.
Her state visit to Nigeria was tentatively scheduled for November.
Some Anambra people are fast getting distinguished as people who, like puppy dogs, delight in tearing and jeering at one another. The other day there was a public outcry against the activities of known hoodlums in Onitsha who specialized in harassing innocent citizens, rape and rapine. But the moment their excesses were decisively curtailed and peace was restored, those seeking ropes to hang Governor Peter Obi started shouting: ‘Attack on Ndi-Igbo!’ It was however heartwarming that the ultimate beneficiaries of the restoration of sanity in Onitsha glorified the Governor as an angel of light. Offodile Syndrome could therefore be defined as that innate capacity of man to allow petty prejudices to affect his sense of judgement.
When you tell a person suffering from Offodile Syndrome that someone bought a new Nissan car, his disgruntled inside would make him grunt: ‘what is so special about Nissan when everybody is going for Range Rover’. Make the mistake of telling him that you were happy that somebody made distinction in his papers and he would quickly remind you that even Adam made distinction in clothing his nakedness. When such a person sees chaos coming, he wishes to amplify it.
No doubt, the hottest debate in the newspapers recently was the debate prompted by an article written by Mallam Nasir El Rufai on Anambra State. I thank Igbo people for rising in unison to defend what was clearly an assault against them. With what is going on in the North today, it is baffling that a critic, real or fake, would look outside that clime to locate insecurity elsewhere.
Anybody who has been following development in Anambra State does not need a soothsayer to reveal to him that El Rufai is acting a well scripted drama. Recall that at the beginning of the year, a write up circulated on the net warning of impending media war against Gov. Peter Obi as part of the efforts to pitch him against the President, portray him as being far from what he preaches and generally disparage him in such a manner that he would lose control by the time his tenure would end. Some mistake him for other politicians who insist on foisting successors on the electorate, and so war to prevent him from so doing.
If you go to the net or read a recent backpage article in Thisday by Chudi Offodile, you will notice that writers of such pray unceasingly for misfortunes to befall the State because they delight in celebrating them. It is baffling that some people prefer evil to happen in their State because in the event of any good news, Mr. Peter Obi would be glorified. Offodile Syndrome!
Hon. Chudi Offodile is sadly in the aforementioned league. He is part of the old order that is fading away. He belongs to the tribe of old politicians who came into office through electoral robbery (he rigged and was removed by Hon. Osy Egwuatu) which Obi’s reform is sweeping away. In his piece, entitled Anambra: The Limits of Propaganda, he gave himself out as one of those who have been recruited with El Rufai to deal a lasting blow to Obi’s growing repute in Nigeria and beyond. He shamelessly signed out as a former member of the House of Representatives, when he was removed by the courts for rigging. What an example for the youth!
In the write up under reference, he sought to justify Mallam El Rufai’s thesis which well-meaning Anambra people, using facts and figures, have proved as incorrect. He merely succeeded in letting people into a practical understanding of his patent Syndrome.
“Peter Obi brought civility into governance in Anambra State at a time politics the State had degenerated to dangerous and unacceptable levels”, so declared Chudi Offodile. Yes, Peter is trying his best, but how can that civility be sustained when people like him, without qualms, allow their hotels to be used for anti-society acts that bring shame and opprobrium to the state, a good case being the repotted use o9f the Hotel for rigging? Would you count this as a patriotic act from one who wants the good of his state?
Chudi Offodile said Obi “engaged in needless propaganda, pursuit of Federal lucre”. I have maintained that Obi is a “disappointment” to many, who feel that the level of propaganda in the state does not match the projects on ground. Why should we not propagate his good work? Such will amount to an aspect of Offodile Syndrome; unnecessary bickering over good and noble things. As for pursuit of Federal Lucre, let me ask Offodile if it is Local Government lucre that Obi should pursue? Obi himself encourages our people to go after Federal goodies and bring them back to the State. That is dike in action. You cannot be dike by staying in the State as people like Offodile do and hanker after the state treasury. Even during his inglorious sojourn in the House of Representatives, he had so weak a wing for developmental flight, otherwise let him tell us a single thing he attracted to his Constituency. What Offodile is doing reminds me of those who criticized the governor for being close to the President of Nigeria. I have often asked them if he should rather be close to the President of ‘Wastelands’.
Among men of goodwill, one of the best things that have happened to Anambra is the good image she enjoys today. Because of what the state is today, Abuja has taken Obi into confidence. Anambra people are proud to see him on television routinely after each of the numerous meetings at Abuja. His presence at the centre ensures the state suffers no short circuits. If this is what Offodile calls Federal lucre, I prescribe an orientation for people like him on how to appreciate positive development. Before Obi, the presidents of the country did not reckon with Anambra State, but today, through Obi’s singular effort, the face of Anambra is renewed.
For the purpose of setting the records straight, the present Government did not claim it has asphalted over 500km of roads as Offodile said. As at the 19th day of June, 2012, Anambra State Government has asphalted over 600kms of roads. The records are there for everybody to see. Offodile is not an engineer to talk about qualities of roads; RCC, CCC, Nigercat among other reputable companies construct roads for the State. Now and then, the Governor tries to involve local contractors, especially those from Anambra State as a way of encouraging them. If he does not do this, who knows how people like Offodile would have called him names for ignoring Anambra people. The Nigerian Society of Engineers were in the State and gave pass mark to the roads. It is a classical case of onye amaghi ihe o ga eji koo mmadu onu, o si ya na odi ihu ka nna ya (a person who does not see any valid point upon which to castigate somebody tells him that he resembles his father). The statistics on roads in Anambra are there for everybody to see.
The Government of Peter Obi always prides itself as the most prudent in Nigeria, so says Offodile. This is incorrect. It is those that deal with him, one way or the other, who say so. In 2009, he won Thisday prize for the Most Prudent Governor in Nigeria. On the 18th of June, Governor Adams Oshiomhole invited the Governor to commission some of the projects he executed. Speaking during the event, Oshiomhole said he decided to invite him because both of them shared the same qualities of prudence in the management of resources. At the 2012 World Bank Spring meeting, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala introduced him to the World Bank Chief as one of the most prudent Governors in Nigeria. I say this to let Offodile know that his fame has gone International, beyond their pettiness. The incompetent thinks he can only grow by pulling others down.
I challenge Offodile to compare what Obi did on education, health, Agriculture, environment, water with what past governors of the state did in those sectors.
Offodile criticized commissioning of boreholes, immunization programmes and giving grants to schools as not befitting a Governor. He also frowned at Obi’s saving culture. This incestous analysis, in a world where lack of savings is one of the reasons for economic recession. Somebody says we should not save? Even animals do not indulge all their urges; they save. Even squirrels and ants do. As far as Offodile is concerned, visiting schools and paying attention to immunization are infradig for a governor. It is a pity that he does not know at his level that promoting immunization culture is one of the most fundamental in the general health of the people globally. As a primary 4 pupil, I was part of the school children who stood and waved to Alhaji Shehu Shagari when his motorcade passed along my primary school. The inspiration I drew from that has not quite left me. One of the greatest things Obi does today, which people like Offodile have not understood is visiting primary and secondary schools. Such visits have long lasting psychological effects on children. I think it was President Clinton who dreamt of being an American President when President Kennedy visited his school.
Obi says he attracted Innoson and SABmiller. Why should this give Offodile high blood pressure? Obi laid the foundation for Innoson Motors and not Innoson Motorcycle and invited the President to commission it. Yes, Obi attracted SABMiller and some other companies. If they are angry with those who have built their facilities in the State, what would they not do to prevent those coming to the State. The Global Chief Executive of SABMiller, Mr. Graham Mackay, made it clear that they came to Anambra on the insistence of Obi and because of the presence of a strong government in the state. I like Offodile to deny that it was not Obi that attracted development partners in the State.
One thing unique about Obi is investing for Anambra State. Today, Anambra State has invested over N4 Billion in Orient petroleum and N2 Billion in SABMiller. Why is he so callously passionate about other corporations that invested in the Company rather than being happy over Anambra’s investment? This is typical pessimistic outlook in life.
Next International is one of the many companies the Governor was part of before he became Governor. The Offodiles would want them to close shop because Obi is the Governor of Anambra State. Next started from Onitsha and still retains Onitsha as its head office. In essence, it has investments there. Obi has not told Anambra people not to invest outside Anambra, but to remember Anambra when investing. Obi has verifiable investments outside this country.
Pretending to care for the State, Offodile lamented lack of airport, stadium and good public school. He talked about Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital as only referral hospital in the state. Obviously, he is not aware that Anambra State Teaching Hospital located in his home town has started operations. But will it be above him to turn blind eyes to such things because Obi made them possible? He must surely pretend not to know that no health institution was accredited in Anambra until Obi reinvented that sector. He does not understand that the reason for return of schools to original owners with grant of N6 Billion is to restore quality. He does not understand that support to church hospitals to the tune of N3 Billion is one of the processes towards restoring quality.
To show you how mischievous Offodile is, he said Obi claimed to have done 77 bridges. Thisday on its own (31/05/12) reported on page 7, line 7 that Obi has built 77 bridges. However it corrected itself in the same write up, line 14, to read 20 bridges. Today, other bridges have been flagged off, bringing it to 22 – see Thisday of 15th June, 2012, page 12D, line 4 of paragraph 5, with the names of some of the bridges. A clever person would have avoided giving himself up by chosen the figure of 77 simply to arouse the feeling of “Where are the bridges” from the people.
He said Obi did not build any school, when he built five classroom blocks in each town in Anambra State. The one for Awka, his home town, is at Community Secondary School, Nkwelle Awka. Obi is putting N6 billion in schools, and somebody has the absence of mind to say he has not built any school. Must we make fools of ourselves for love of blind criticisms? From Obi has not built any school, Offodile told us he built 4000 classrooms, what a contradiction! To him, the pattern of building schools, visiting schools, handing over computers to them and finally handing them over to Churches is evidence of incoherence. Well, he knows what he means, Obi has said from inception that he set up the Ministry of planning that helped generate the short, medium and long term plans for Anambra. Some of those things he did not understand fall into short, medium or long term plans for the restoration of glory to Schools. Part of the long term plan, which is return of schools to their owners, is even backed by law. So what exactly is Offodile saying?
On the issue of Onitsha Hotel and Convention Centre, one is a bit happy that Offodile appears to know a little about what Obi is doing. He mentioned two contractors over the project. He should have gone ahead to tell us their quotations. I thought at certain age and with certain level of exposure some of us ought to have overgrown selective biases?
As to the base map and Structure plans, Ofodile should better tell Anambra people why they did not do all that until Obi came in. This is a necessary question. He should also not border himself with the Governor’s Lodge and office Obi plans to build, because he did not have people like him in mind. After him, only those who know about governance will become Governors in this State.
Offodile piece is scandalous. He proved he wrote out of frustration because of the state of affairs in Anambra, where godfathers and professional politicians are all angry, because it is not business as usual. They have a failed Hotel in Awka, now inhabited by prostitutes. He is advised to go and rehabilitate the place and leave governance for those who have the capacity to lead.
Suicide car bombers attacked three churches in northern Nigeria over the weekend, killing at least 16 people and wounding dozens more.
The attacks, for which Boko Haram has claimed responsibility, sparked reprisal killings, while also focusing international attention on the religious tensions in the West African country split between a Muslim-majority north and a Christian-majority south. Zachary Warner, a research analyst in Africana Studies at Bowdoin College, told Trend Lines that it is important to understand these attacks as part of a broader battle for control of the public space, which includes social practices, morality and governance, in northern Nigeria and the country’s “Middle Belt.”
Warner called this “a fight over the very organizing principles of Nigerian democracy: Who should define them? Who is a legitimate voice in the discussion? And whom should the system serve?”
He added that Boko Haram’s killing of civilians to assert its own view on these questions is nothing new. Pointing to the “repeated iterations of conflict” dating back to at least the early 19th century, however, he noted that “much of this has been infighting within the sizable Muslim community, with various factions claiming a particularly Islamic legitimacy.”
But these dynamics are changing, Warner said. As growing Islamic consciousness is met with growing insecurity among Christians, there are new attempts to diminish Muslim control in northern Nigeria.
“The two are ironically similar projects,” he said, explaining that both are about “constant spiritual renewal through new social practices and exegesis of respective holy texts, translating into a need to ‘win’ Nigeria for God or Allah.”
Turning to Boko Haram, Warner explained that the insurgency is very complex and not as well-defined a threat as it is often portrayed in the American media.
“Boko Haram . . . has come to mean a range of actions causing instability and violence in the north and Middle Belt,” he said, explaining that street violence as well as international terrorist networks linked to al-Shabab and al-Qaida fall “under the same aegis of generalized insecurity that we call Boko Haram.”
Warner said his sense is that support for Boko Haram is not widespread.
“Many resent the government, but they also don’t want to go about their daily lives wondering if any of their [relatives] will get killed in a suicide bombing. Elite politics is widely condemned, but Boko Haram is not seen as a viable alternative,” he said. “With no political option to throw their support behind, people tend instead to turn inward and seek refuge through increasingly new and dynamic forms of spirituality, which is one of the reasons why there has been such rapid change within both charismatic Christianity and reformist Islam over the past half-century in Nigeria.”
Warner said it is important to note that the conflicts in Nigeria are not just about religious tensions, but in fact concern a wide range of clashing identities, including ethnic, religious and regional differences.
“Because of this diversity, we have to be very careful to not essentialize this fight into a ‘clash of civilizations’ type of irreconcilable religious war,” he said.
The Nigerian government, he added, is doing little to address these tensions. So even if Boko Haram is eliminated, he said, the violence in Nigeria will continue.
“Mention is made of the need for peace, and elites call on religious leaders to preach peace, but the same problems — political exclusion, economic stagnation, perceived religious illegitimacy, corruption — go unaddressed,” he told Trend Lines. “The strongest steps toward peace are the federal government instituting a state of emergency in certain states, but these steps go in the entirely wrong direction.”
Instituting a state of emergency only militarizes what is “essentially a localized social conflict,” Warner said, and it increases state intrusion in the lives of the northerners, even when “the very problem is said to be such intrusion.”
Calling the conflict in Nigeria a “perversely violent” debate over “the very fabric of the nation,” Warner said outside actors, including the United States, are constrained by the fact that they “are generally agreed to have little role in the discussion.”
“Perhaps there’s room for us to help with economic development programs to alleviate the broader processes of exclusion in the north,” he said, “but consistent failure of the Bretton Woods institutions to deliver on poverty reduction and macroeconomic stability leave me skeptical as to such prospects, and of the scope for our involvement more generally.”
The flurry of news around Syria and Iran might look chaotic at first glance, but as pieces slowly form the puzzle, the “big picture” is becoming more or less clear.
Syria is just a transitory object for Western pressure. The real long-term targets are Iran and in future, most probably, Russia. Fruitless talks on the Iranian nuclear program in Moscow and the still raging Western media campaign on presumed deliveries of Russian arms to Syria reveal the general vector of the strategies of the US and the EU better than any official statements. The question remains, although: are the United States and the European Union ready for ANY kind of compromise?
Talks between the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jallili ended in Moscow with no result in terms of nuclear security. But, obviously, the results desired by the EU and the United States lay in a very different field. Catherine Ashton’s spokesman, Michael Mann, told reporters in Moscow that there remained “no doubt” that economic sanctions, imposed on Iran by the EU, will gain full force on July 1, as scheduled. After two days of intense talks in Moscow, the EU diplomats can say that they did everything possible to avert confrontation with Iran. And Michael Mann indicated that the EU wanted to see some steps from the Iranian side before it would compromise itself.
What can those steps be? Obviously, Iran, seeing the developments in Syria, its ally which is facing an attempt of a foreign-sponsored “regime change,” may be tempted to protect its sovereignty by all possible means. So, the Syrian example, instead of dissuading Iran from the “nuclear option” for its defense, may work in a counterproductive way, encouraging Iran to arm itself in order to avoid the fate of Syria or something even worse. The situation is entering a vicious circle: the more Western powers increase their pressure on Iran and Syria, the more Tehran may be tempted to try the last resort. Economic deprivation does not help neither.
“The West is directing its efforts to weakening the Iranian regime,” said Sergei Demidenko, an expert of the Moscow-based Institute for Strategic Analysis. “Right now, anticipation of war can be even more damaging for Iran than war itself. The West is scaring Iran so that it would spend all its money on defense.”
Western proven arms’ sales to Saudi Arabia, Iran’s enemy and one of the perpetrators of the revolt in Syria somehow attract a lot more attention in the global media than Russia’s alleged arms shipments to Syria, even though Saudi Arabia makes little secret of its intention to pass a lot of their newly bought weapons to Syrian rebels. Saudi Arabia’s recent contract with Germany, formalizing the sales of 600-800 German made tanks to Riyadh, did not awaken any concerns, even though similar sales in the 1990s, made in a legally incorrect way with some help from corrupt officials, had prompted one of Germany’s biggest journalist investigations against Helmuth Kohl’s government several years ago.
Saudi Arabia’a growing military might gives Iran one more reason to rearm, since the Sunni-dominated Saudi monarchy is known for its animosity to Iran, a traditional realm of the Shia branch of Islam. A few months ago, Wikileaks divulged American diplomatic cables on Saudi king Abdullah’s intention “to cut the head of the [Iranian] snake.” History does not provide Iran with a feeling of security: it is also widely known that the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was supported in his 1980 aggression against Iran by Saudi Arabia and most of the “oil monarchies” of the Persian Gulf. Wikileaks’ revelations, depicting the events in the Middle East as a Sunni-Shia conflict and not as “a march for democracy” could be one of the main reasons why its former head Julian Assange preferred asylum in the Ecuadoran embassy to possible extradition to the United States.
Somehow, the rearmament of the Gulf states, Bahrain’s repressions against its Shia majority and direct military aid from Qatar and Saudi Arabia to the Syrian opposition do not make headlines in the West. But movements of Russian marines’ vessels in the Black sea do. Several newspapers, including Russian ones, “dispatched” Russian Black sea fleet warships Caesar Kunikov and Nikolai Filchenkov to Syria, even though what indeed took place next to the two ships’ base in Sebastopol was just a routine exercise, after which both vessels returned to their base the same day. The strange story with British media suddenly becoming 100 percent sure that a Russian-owned vessel, MV Alaed, was carrying attack helicopters and coastal anti-ship missiles “somewhere off the coast of Scotland” also lacks clarifications. But the British foreign secretary William Hague made a special statement about it in the House of Commons. Obviously, in modern politics, politicians do not shy away from participating in media games.
“What is important is that the Western audience had these words crammed in its head: Russia – ships – troops –arms –Syria. How much truth is behind these words, will the suspicions be proved in 2-3 weeks or even 2-3 days is indeed not so important,” said Konstantin Bogdanov, an analyst on the military matters at the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
What is important for Russia and for the majority of other countries of the world is the question: are Western leaders going to compromise on any of their “revolutionary” plans for the Middle East? For the moment, signs are not very reassuring. The next talks of the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany (5+1) with Iran on Tehran’s nuclear program are scheduled to start on July 1 in Istanbul. So, there is still some room for compromise.
Sources said Finance minister Tendai Biti raised the issue of the huge Rio trip bill
HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s trip to the United Nations (UN) conference on sustainable development in Brazil will blow in excess of $7 million after he carried a 92-strong delegation.
The move comes days after he abandoned a crucial government meeting on the economy to attend a pass-out parade for police recruits, putting his commitment to Zimbabwe’s economic revival in doubt.
Sources said Mugabe shocked even his own ministers when he left the special meeting midway last week.
Ironically, it is Mugabe who had called for the special meeting — the first of its kind since the formation of the coalition government — to discuss key economic issues.
Sources said Finance minister Tendai Biti raised the issue of the huge Rio trip bill — torching heated debate during the government meeting.
This was before the 88-year-old left for the pass-out parade, sources said.
Mugabe and his bloated delegation will join thousands of participants from governments, civil society and the private sector that will gather in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil today for the crucial summit where UN member states are expected to reaffirm their commitment to advance the green economy.
The Zimbabwean President was seen taking off from the Harare International Airport on Sunday night with 92 hangers-on, including medical personnel.
Also on the plane was Mugabe’s wife Grace, Environment and Natural Resources Management minister Francis Nhema, Foreign Affairs minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi and dozens of senior government officials.
A senior government source said the entourage comprised Munhumutapa Building political aides, personal assistants, national security personnel and specialists from other government departments.
Zim 1, as he is known in secret service jargon, has demonstrated his penchant for big delegations especially when he is travelling to UN meetings.
The high-level meeting is expected to bring together over 100 heads of State and government, along with thousands of parliamentarians, mayors, UN officials, chief executive officers and civil society leaders to shape new policies to promote prosperity, reduce poverty and advance social equity and environmental protection.
The biggest international event this year, the UN summit, more commonly known as Rio+20, is meant to celebrate the Earth Summit of 1992, to reaffirm the political commitments made then, and to come up with up-to-date action plans to counter the crises which have become much more serious over the last 20 years.
Mugabe’s entourage of 92 people adds to an already bloated Zimbabwe government foreign travel budget.
In his 2012 national budget proposals, Biti warned against the escalating foreign travel budget saying the executive had blown $45,5 million on foreign trips last year alone.
This means government was blowing more than $4 million on jet setting each month, a top line ripple for a bankrupt administration.
While Biti’s mobile phone was unreachable yesterday amid reports he was attending a meeting in Nyanga, he told Parliament last week that in the first five months of the year, the economy “has been in comatose and we have to take drastic measures.”
Biti said he was revising downwards his $4 billion 2012 budget because of low revenue trickling in.
“There will be austerity, there will be living within our means, there will be expenditure retrenchment and there will be selling of silverware, there will be reform of the mining sector, there will be reform of the supply side of the economy and tomorrow we are going to have an intense discussion,” Biti told the House of Assembly last Wednesday about the special government meeting last Thursday.
On Mugabe’s abrupt departure from the government meeting held last week, a senior government official said: “He (Mugabe) chose to chase rats while leaving his house burning.” – Daily News
Blood and fire lined the streets of southern Kaduna for the fourth day in a roll. The reprisal dust raised by the recent round of sectarian violence in the northern state of Kaduna which started on the morning of Sunday June 17, 2012 following multiple explosions at three churches appear to not have settled. As information recently made available to 247ureports.com indicates, the southern part of Kaduna State reignited on fire today June 20, 2012 following a misunderstanding between a Christian and a Muslim at a local market.
Today, the low income class community of Kujama situated within the Chikun local government area [LGA] bared the blood and fire trail. The mayhem began at the Kujama market when a native of southern Kaduna, a young boy, approached a young Muslim girl hawking boiled eggs – and had wanted to make a purchase when a ‘soft’ misunderstanding led to a shouting match between the two. It was not certain what sparked the misunderstanding but the reaction from the people nearby depicted the volatility of the tension marinating in Kaduna.
The reaction was quick and selective – as the Christian youths gathered against the Muslim youths who had also gathered in supposed of the Muslim girl. According an eyewitness, the gathered crowd turned into a wild brawl between Christian youths and Muslims youths. The fight was bloody and police sources tell 247ureports.com that five [5] people were stabbed to death at the Kujama market during the fight.
Following the fight inside the market, the Muslim and Christian youths headed out to the streets of Kujama along Kachia – Kaduna road to begin a rampage. “They blocked the roads and were smashing vehicles and burning houses” said an eyewitness who explained that “it was a riot and the police were nowhere to be found”. Other reports from the field indicate that it was a ruckus and 5 other dead bodies littered the Kachia – Kaduna road by the time the riot quelled.
The number of the injured was not made available to 247ureports.com. But a police confirmed that a total of 10 dead bodies were counted at the Kujama vicity. “The dead bodies were both Muslims and Christians”, said the source who went on to reveal that the men of the police force in Kaduna have become increasingly exhausted of the new turn of events – checkmating the dynamic nature of the unfolding violence has not been a simple task. “It has turned into something else”.
Speaking on the incident was the Kaduna police commissioner Mohammed Jinjiri Abubakar who told our correspondent the situation has been put under control. Sounding extremely exhausted, the Commissioner said, “I have just returned from Kujama. Things are under control and calm” – and then he hung up abruptly.
Meanwhile, the many communities affected by the 4-day bloodshed have begun to cry out against the perceived insensitivity by the federal government of Nigeria – in particular, the President of the federal republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebelemi Jonathan. The community leaders who had aired their take to the media lamented the President’s absence – and the President’s inability to visit the site of the bombings and victims. They pointed to the central bank of Nigeria [CBN] governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s donation of N100million to attack victims in Kano – as comparative to what is expected in Kaduna today.
As per the whereabouts of the President, an official press statement released from the Presidency states, “President Jonathan will participate in the Summit’s four plenary meetings at Riocentro Plenary Hall on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as attend a reception to be hosted by the Brazilian President for Heads of State and Government at the Summit”. So the President is presently be hosted in Brazil at a reception with the Brazilian President.
