I have fond memories of Borno state, camping beside my LandRover in the cold, crisp early mornings, steam rising from a cup of tea, then the thermometer climbing visibly as the sun got to work. Fulani herdsmen crossing the horizon under conical hats with their angular cattle, women walking behind, slim and with beautiful posture, swaying as they walked. The neat homesteads surrounded by fences of beautifully woven millet stalk. Meals of roasted corn and suya. I remember the farmer who offered me a drink, then took a tin cup and brought milk straight from the cow, still very warm. The people there are grave and hospitable.
I never one felt in the slightest danger, thirty years ago. I am taken aback that places I went round then without a care for the British High Commission (I had the agriculture brief, which was an amazing license to roam) are now no-go areas. The region is mostly dry savannah: the forest area stretching into Cameroon, incidentally, is by no means impenetrable, though it is true the canopy would be a barrier to aerial surveillance. Very little of it is primary forest any more.
The media now have a new cartoon figure of hate in the bearded, bobble-hatted leader of Boko Haram, and in truth he is a very bad person. But armed rebellions of thousands of people do not just happen. It is not a simple and spontaneous outbreak of evil, still less a sign that we must wage Tony Blair’s war on Muslims everywhere.
Nigeria is a country with governance and corruption as bad as anywhere in the world. A country of billionaires and of near starving sufferers. A country of pollution and exploitation by big oil, and a happily complicit and deeply corrupt political class. Nobody disagrees with that, and very few would disagree that there lies the root cause of Boko Haram’s ability to gather support.
If the Nigerian government were to have sent in the army en masse to try to recover the kidnapped schoolgirls, the first result would undoubtedly have been, on all previous experience of the Nigerian army, that hundreds more women would have been raped, this time by soldiers. Villages would have been looted and people arrested, tortured and killed, more on the basis of extorting money than of looking for suspects.
To be fair to President Goodluck Jonathan he knows this, and he had made the extremely brave decision a year ago to try to deal with Boko Haram by dialogue and negotiation, and call off the military campaign which was making matters far worse. He drew much criticism for it at the time, particularly from neo-cons, and will be blamed now. The problem is that things have gone too far to be easily remedied, and to negotiate with the crazed is not simple.
Were I trying to get back the girls, I would operate through the agency of traditional society. Nigeria’s indigenous institutions are much degraded, but offer more hope than any Western style interventions. I am not precisely sure which is the appropriate traditional ruler, but I suspect that it is the Lamido of Adamawa, whose immediate predecessor I took tea with on several occasions. Information on the girl’s whereabouts will definitely be obtainable through the networks of subsidiary chiefs and elders, which still exist, even though their political and administrative power had passed. It is particularly helpful that in this region these traditional allegiances are linked to Islamic authority. Adamawa’s territory extends into the Cameroon, and even Chad.
The fact of the old state of Adamawa extending into Cameroon and Chad brings us to the heart of the problem. Nigeria is an entirely artificial, colonial construct created by the British Empire (and bounded by the French Empire). Its boundaries bear no relation to internal national entities, and it is huge. The strange thing is that these totally artificial colonial constructs of states generate a genuine and fierce patriotism among their citizens. After just my first year of living in Nigeria I had formed a firm view that it would be much better for the country to be split into at least three states, and that Britain’s attitude in the Biafran war, that colonial state boundaries must be inviolable, had been wrong.
Many patriotic Nigerians will be very angry with me for suggesting their country should split up. It is also worth observing that, not only in Nigeria, many Africans who are, with justice, most vocal in their denouncing of colonialism, are at the same time most patriotic about their entirely artificial nationality, created by the colonial power.
Mark Golding, I am sure you’re right about the mindset having read some of the Wikileaks-released information supplied by Herbie at 6.38 pm. I would trust Wikileaks before I would trust West Point.
Can I say off topic well done to Craig for his e-mail to One World Media. It did the trick.
Ian Pannell and the BBC did not win the award in the categories for International Journalist of the Year and News with their Syrian Chemical School Attack lies.
International Journalist of the Year Award
WINNER: Guillermo Galdos – Channel 4 News
Ian Pannell – BBC News at Ten, BBC One
Katrina Manson – Financial Times
News Award
WINNER: Raped, plundered, ignored: central Africa state where only killers thrive – Mark Townsend for The Observer
Central African Republic: Rape Victims – Sky News
Chemical School Attack – BBC News at Ten
http://oneworldmedia.org.uk/winners
Details below.
Ian Pannell & ‘Chemical School Attack’ report up for awards this evening
Posted by Robert on May 6, 2014, 5:57 pm
The One World Media awards hosted by Jon Snow will be livestreamed from Kings Place this evening at 8pm here
Ian Pannell (not sure if he’s in the country at present) is up for International Journalist of the Year and his ‘Chemical School Attack’ ‘report’ is up for News Award.
My thoughts on his reporting – which I have been sharing with the relevant jury panellists and others via Twitter – are here.
Craig Murray’s communication with the organisers is here.
More on the ‘Chemical School Attack’ & previous awards lavished on Pannell & co here:
Also worthy of dishonourable mention is Matthew Vandyke’s “Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution” in the Short Film category. Some background on the participants here:
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1399395467.html links within
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http://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/
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“From a grand strategic perspective, the West’s more general long term interest lies in a much weakened Nigeria, and that’s why Boko Haram is useful to them.”
And not just a much-weakened Nigeria, but Ukraine, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Egypt. The trouble is with the US its economy is on the blink, hanging on by the skin if its teeth. Why? Because, like NAZI Germany, with the mighty Krupps armaments factories it built up a huge arsenal of superior weapons, and in the end felt it was time to grow its empire. Unlike Nazi Germany the US, with its parallel concentration camps and military bases all over the globe, and increasing number of prisons has learnt the lesson, with its allies, Israel, Europe and the good old UK, it is better to weaken all these countries first before marching its jackboots in. So it has a policy of creating failed states where different factions are fighting people they previously got along with reasonably well.
The world has seen it all before. As John Betjeman said “Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough . . . ” not knowing that two or three years later they would be falling not a hundred miles away. The world will be getting the US payload before too long because the alternative is war and torture trials when the economy pops. I don’t know how to avoid this, but the only sensible senators appear to be Rand Paul and another who voted against supporting the illegal fascist government in the Ukraine with their worthless dollars.
Sorry, I’m depressed about what the future has in store. You should be worried too. There were few spoke out against NAZI Germany. As few as there are now speaking out against US foreign policy.
BBC cf Sky News coverage
BBC low key and at bottom of home page.
Nigeria abductions: UK to send team
The UK is to send a small team of experts to Nigeria to help efforts to find 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militants.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27316182
Sky News top billing and OTT.
Sam Kiley on video on how to go about the rescue
Video: How Will The Nigeria Rescue Work?
Sky’s Sam Kiley explains the geography of the area where the girls were taken
Sky’s Sam Kiley explains how the international operation to rescue kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls might work, given the challenging geography of the region.
Plus
Boko Haram ‘Kill Hundreds’ In Nigeria Attack
A new attack in Nigeria’s north kills up to 300 as the UK sends a team of experts to help the hunt for 276 abducted schoolgirls.
http://news.sky.com/story/1256609/boko-haram-kill-hundreds-in-nigeria-attack
Plus
Jungle-Based Boko Haram Strikes With Impunity
The extremist group is committed to establishing an Islamic state in Nigeria and plagues the very city where it first began.
http://news.sky.com/story/1257006/jungle-based-boko-haram-strikes-with-impunity
No surprises to see a rather thoughtful piece by Craig hijacked by the “It’s all the fault of the West” crowd*, topped off by Phil above with his weak attempt at portraying Craig as some sort of neo-colonial throwback for merely working in Nigeria and enjoying the life and culture he saw there.
*I suppose it’s a sort of inverted racism in a way – Africans unable to do anything without Western agency.
The price of oil and the cost to the still beautiful planet.
Shell’s false claims on Niger Delta oil spills exposed
7 November 2013
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/shell-s-false-claims-niger-delta-oil-spills-exposed-2013-11-07
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_the_Niger_Delta
Come on anon, it’s not racism, inverted or otherwise. None of you chumps has any agency, where the World’s Only Superpower is concerned! We westerners do it to the Eurotrash too. We do it to the Brits most of all! Poor sods can’t wipe their ass without US permission.
Primer –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram
I wonder why some ideas like Nazism are *wholly* objectionable while other ideas like Islam are perfectly acceptable. I know that not all Muslims participate in violent crimes just as we all know that not all Nazis engaged in violence either. Puzzling, really.
If the crimes committed by Muslims *IN THE NAME OF ISLAM* over the last 100 years were instead committed by Christians or Scientologists in the name of their beliefs, surely we would be witnessing a completely different narrative about these incidents on this blog.
It is therefore a reasonable question to ask, why aren’t gangs of Buddhists, Christians, Falun Gong followers, Philatelists, Soccer players, Tap Dancers, Mimes or any other groups engaging in acts of political violence similar in method, frequency and scale to that of Muslims? What is it *EXACTLY* that inspires some Muslims to behave in this way? Or are these reports just an elaborate lie perpetrated by the sophisticated propaganda machines of the US, UK and Israel?
I thought Phil’s parody was hilarious. I guess I do sound a bit like that sometimes. I did consider including in the posting the time I caught typhoid. I was driven three hundred miles in the Land Rover unconscious most of the way, and declared dead shortly after I reached the hospital in Kaduna. That night, I was awoken by a cockroach nibbling the inside of my nostril. I was naked on a trolley in a corridor in pitch blackness – there was a power cut and the generator wasn’t working. There were no staff around. Three other trolleys with corpses were jammed against mine.
When they buried bodies at sea in the navy, they sewed them up in sailcloth and put the last stitch through the nose to be certain they were dead. At least they did in Nelson’s time. Apparently a cut inside the nose is the best way to wake up someone who seems dead. Don’t know if the Navy still do that – or if they still bury at sea. See – amazing what you learn on this blog! Thought I would write something for Phil that’s beyond parody
Jemand asks:
“What is it *EXACTLY* that inspires some Muslims to behave in this way?”
The Americans.
Same as those Christians who raped, murdered, maimed and destroyed livelihoods as they installed fascist juntas across Latin America.
Trained in the School of the Americas.
A key feature of the training is horrific means of torture and merciless and extreme displays of violence, thereby causing much fear in the general population.
You can see it being used to great effect today by Mexican drug gangs. That keeps Ameria’s Ukraine nicely destabilsed.
““What is it *EXACTLY* that inspires some Muslims to behave in this way?””
The Americans.”
I’m almost sure Herbie is parodying himself here.
Grand piece, thanks. Have spread. Follow-up enviable too 🙂
Save us. No show without Michelle. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BnD8vbnCUAAFdTA.jpg
All reminiscent of the Malala anti-Taliban campaign.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2014/05/07/michelle-obama-nigeria-kidnapped-girls/8820621/
I just googled for news of Malala and this was the first item.
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/05/07/malala-yousafzai-girls-in-nigeria-are-my-sisters/
She is still in Birmingham.
Amanpour was speaking to BLiar enabling him to give another of his anti Islam rants 5.
s/be Amanpour was speaking to BLiar enabling him to give another of his short anti-Islam rants.
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2014/01/21/blair-amanpour-sickened-syria-torture-photos-pictures-gorani.cnn.html
posted May 2nd 2014
He refers to his bloody wars on Iraq and Afghanistan as ‘engagements’!
Trowbridge
“…like sending is top advisers to coordinate, and do with the kidnappers what the Nigerian government should be doing.”
______________
If “x” is what the Nigerian govt “should be doing” (but isn’t) then what is the problem with American advisers doing that “x”?
Hab; I notice you are more tentative on the Lead thread here and at Squonk. Why not cut loose and let everyone know how you feel?
Or, do you fear the ‘Lash’? Have the ‘couragee’ of your ‘convictions’ for goodness sake.
I have been saying for years that Abu Hamza was an MI5 agent.
I also have stated that Abu Qatada was ‘deported’ to Jordan to cheer on the British Jihadists as they crossed the border into Syria.
I have stated that Boko Haram was created by Western intelligence agencies right after 9/11, along with at least two dozen other ‘terrorist’ organisations.
I have stated that Malala Yousafzai is a contrived media caricature who is handled by her father, who again works for British intelligence.
Pure emotional manipulation on a grand scale. They are vile, they are your ‘government’.
Anon
7 May, 2014 – 10:28 pm
““What is it *EXACTLY* that inspires some Muslims to behave in this way?””
The Americans.”
“I’m almost sure Herbie is parodying himself here.”
Anon, don’t use words (like parody) which you know the meaning of not.
Dysfunction indeed. The graphic with five categories – Wealth Ethnic Health Literacy Oil – says it all.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16510922
~~~
Ajuba is in lockdown as the World Economic Forum on Africa meeting opens.
http://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-africa-0
Seeing what else is up for grabs no doubt.
BLiar has a recent piece on Nigeria from a Council for Foreign Relations stooge on his FF website. No irony. CFR=Albright, Powell, Rubin etc.
http://www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/blogpost/situation-report-nigeria
Mrs BLiar is empowering the Nigerian women ‘entrepreneurs’. So kind and totally altruistic of course.
‘In partnership with Visa, my foundation aims to address this gap, with a focus on Nigeria. Our project will result in 2,500 women becoming agents in the retail network of a leading financial services provider. As retail agents, they will bring branchless banking and mobile financial services to tens of thousands more women in Nigeria. Alongside the retail agent opportunities, the women involved will also benefit from training and capacity building support.
Our primary aim is to enable a greater number of women entrepreneurs to enter the electronic payment value chain in Nigeria – a sector that is set to grow tremendously in the coming months and years.’
http://www.cherieblairfoundation.org/new-mobile-financial-services-initiative-for-women-in-nigeria/
first, explain how come AP reported this (carried by Guardian & others as well). this is the same group of schoolgirls:
17 April: Australian: AP: SCORES of female students kidnapped by Islamic militants from a north-eastern Nigerian school are free, Nigeria’s military says.
Only eight of more than 100 students are unaccounted for, Major General Chris Olukolade said in a statement that gave no details.
“The others have been freed this evening,” he said…
Mr Shettima told reporters that the insurgents arrived at Chibok government Secondary School for Girls wearing military fatigues and posing as soldiers – a common tactic used by the insurgents…
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/islamists-free-kidnapped-nigerian-schoolgirls/story-e6frg6so-1226887579471
also in the following: “The envoy added that the US had had a long-term security relationship with Nigeria, focused on Boko Haram. The relationship, he said, would continue after the girls are found and returned to their parents.”
8 May: ThisDayLive: US, Nigeria Iron out Modalities on Rescue of Chibok Schoolgirls
President Goodluck Jonathan
•America may use drones as China, France offer to help
•Michelle Obama, Angelina Jolie, Malala join other celebrities to condemn kidnapping…
However, despite the global outcry over the kidnapping and attempts to reunite the girls with their families, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) played the blame game yesterday, when it accused the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, of conspiracy and colluding with his state Commissioner for Education and the Chibok school authorities to set the country on the path of deception…
CAN Accuses Shettima of Conspiracy
However, a new twist to the abduction saga was introduced yesterday, when CAN pointedly accused the Borno State governor of conspiracy and colluding with his Commissioner for Education and the school authorities to cause confusion.
In a statement issued by the northern chapter of CAN, the body alleged that the abduction of the students by the Boko Haram sect was a premeditated plan orchestrated by the state government in continuation of its intimidation of Christians of northern Nigeria.
The statement, which was signed by its Secretary General, Prof. Daniel Babayi, and Public Relations Officer, Sunday Oibe, said: “Since the abduction of some female students in Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State, northern CAN has decided to be silent for some reasons. We decided that we will make statements when we have all the facts of the matter.”
CAN, however, alleged that the “smooth” abduction of the high number of pupils without any hindrance suggested some degree of conspiracy and culpability on the part of the state government, thus requiring it to provide some salient answers to the barbaric abduction of the innocent girls.
“It may interest Nigerians to know that we have fundamental questions which demand one million answers. Since the abduction of these girls over three weeks ago, has Borno State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, constituted any panel of investigation with a view to making its report public? Also, how did the 353 female students disappear from the school into the thin air?” the body demanded to know.
CAN also expressed concern over the state government’s decision to deliberately ignore several warnings by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) that Chibok was not secure for the conduct of examinations.
“Why did the Borno State Commissioner for Education, school principal, vice-principal and chief security officer, all Muslims, ignore the valid advice of WAEC on the security implication of writing exams in the school and the need to have a centre where the children’s lives would have been secure?
“How did Boko Haram carry over 200 students and their food stolen by these criminals from the school? Was it carried with a trailer? Why is it that since this issue came up, no single photograph of the abducted children has been made public by the school authorities?
“After all, they were preparing for exams and may have submitted their photographs. Where were the daughters of the principal, vice-principal and chief security officer when the abduction took place?” CAN asked.
CAN went further to express hope that this was not a political gimmick to carry out a political conspiracy against these daughters of Nigerians, future mothers of Nigeria and citizens who are leaders of tomorrow.
“These are the questions. We have done our investigations, we are begging the international community, we are begging the Federal Government of Nigeria and the press to ask these legitimate questions from the governor, Commissioner for Education, principal and CSO of the school, because Chibok is a predominantly Christian area…
Proffering a solution to the current nightmare, CAN said the governor and government of Borno State should and must, as a matter of urgency, stop playing politics with the lives of the children of other people, adding “They should produce those children without delay because they know their whereabouts.”
As a condition, the body demanded an explanation from the governor, Commissioner for Education, principal and CSO of the school on what they did and what they did not do that led to the ferrying away of the girls, who had gone to sit for their examination?
“How come that the parents of these children have not been able to come out to say anything? Are they saying that these children are orphans and do not have parents? We demand an explanation because from our investigations, the parents of these children are facing intimidation and threats from the government of Borno State.
“That is why they have not come out to speak. They are nursing their pains in silence,” CAN stated.
“We also reject a situation where they will turn our daughters to sex slaves of these criminals called Boko Haram. We have it on good authority that some of these children are being physically assaulted. Some of these children are being compelled to be wives of these criminals. If you want to marry somebody’s daughter, you must seek the consent of her parents and not to ferry under-age children and perpetrate a lot of havoc on them.
“The abduction of these girls seems to be a resurrection of what the Christian communities in northern Nigeria have been suffering for centuries in the hands of the emirs and imams regarding the forcible conversion and abduction of Christian girls.
“The Borno State government should be reminded that the fundamental human rights of these people should be respected and protected,” it stressed, insisting that the governor should provide an immediate explanation on what has happened to the girls.
CAN added that there is a limit to which Christians can tolerate all these abnormalities, alleging, “We suspect a conspiracy among all of these characters, including the governor, Commissioner for Education, principal and CSO, since none of the daughters of the teachers and principal was abducted.”
It said there was more to the abduction than meets the eye, maintaining that this was its position on the tragic incident…
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/us-nigeria-iron-out-modalities-on-rescue-of-chibok-schoolgirls/178067/
Mary –
One World Media Awards May 6 London – Winners
(BOTTOM) Special Award
WINNER: Premium Times – Nigeria
http://oneworldmedia.org.uk/winners
16 April: Premium Times: UNESCO appoints PREMIUM TIMES editor, (Musikilu) Mojeed, judge for World Press Freedom Award
Mr. Mojeed will serve on the 12-member Jury for an initial term of three years (2014 – 2016) and the appointment is renewable only once…
The members of the Jury also have assisted UNESCO in matters relating to media legislation, media ethics and the assessment of media in various countries.
A multiple award-winning journalist, Mr. Mojeed is a recent John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University. Before then, he was a Ford Foundation Fellow at The City University of New York’s [CUNY] Graduate School of Journalism where he obtained a Masters in Journalism.
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/158894-unesco-appoints-premium-times-editor-mojeed-judge-world-press-freedom-award.html
BBC World Service interviewed Mojeed yesterday, yet have documented nothing. however, i heard the interview and Mojeed was basically suggesting a Govt conspiracy in the kidnapping, due to the overwhelming corruption of the State, the military, etc.
I noticed that the Chinese premier is at the WEF meeting in Nigeria. That must rankle with the Western crims.
Li Keqiang Premier of the People’s Republic of China
Also the Diamond Geezer ex Barclays now Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Atlas Merchant Capital, USA
Kagame
Paul Polman Unilever
Shari Berenbach President and Chief Executive Officer, United States African Development Foundation (USADF), USA
Mark Suzman President, Global Policy and Advocacy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA
plus representatives from Accenture, McKinsey, World Trade Organisation, in the list. And not forgetting Gordon Brown in his capacity as ‘Chair, World Economic Forum Global Strategic Infrastructure Initiative; UN Special Envoy for Global Education’. No mention of his writing the cheques for BLiar’s wars or of his own war mongering.
More on Diamond. See how it’s done.
April 8, 2014
Bob Diamond raids Barclays for new Africa banking chief
By Andy Sharman
Bob Diamond, the ousted former Barclays chief executive, has raided the ranks of his former employer by poaching an ex-US marine to run his Africa-focused banking venture.
Atlas Mara on Tuesday appointed John Vitalo, Barclays’ head of the Middle East and north Africa, as chief executive, just two days after the London-listed cash shell clinched a controlling stake in the Development Bank of Rwanda.
A week earlier, Atlas agreed to buy Botswana-based lender BancABC and its controlling shareholder, ADC African Development Corporation, for $265m in cash and shares.
That deal, Mr Diamond’s first since being leaving Barclays under a cloud in 2012, marked a comeback for the divisive American investment banker. His reign as Barclays chief executive ended in an abrupt exit engineered by Bank of England governor Lord King, after Barclays was fined for manipulating the Libor interbank lending rate.
Atlas Mara, which listed last December, is hoping to tap the potential of sub-Saharan Africa, where only a quarter of the region’s 1bn or so people have bank accounts. Mr Diamond’s partner in the venture is Ashish Thakkar, the 32-year-old head of Mara Group, a $1bn conglomerate with business in 19 African countries.
“It has been an exciting few weeks for Atlas Mara,” said Mr Thakkar.
Mr Diamond said of Mr Vitalo: “I couldn’t imagine a better leader for this group.”
He added: “I have worked with him over many years. He is a business builder, deeply knowledgeable in the critical areas of technology and risk and he is trusted by his colleagues and clients.”
Mr Vitalo joins Atlas Mara after a five-year stint as Middle East and north Africa chief executive of Barclays. Before that, he was based in Johannesburg and ran Absa Capital, a Barclays-controlled pan-African investment bank.
He joined Barclays in 2002 from Credit Suisse First Boston, where Mr Diamond had been vice-chairman and head of global fixed income and foreign exchange. Mr Vitalo has also served in the US marine corps.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b71b9acc-bee5-11e3-8683-00144feabdc0.html#axzz316nhixPg
Premium Times itself has no mention of winning the One World Media Award. it’s articles have very few comments, so it’s hardly a popular website, as BBC made out yesterday. however, some interesting stuff in this piece, & some equally interesting comments.
7 May – Premium Times: Ola’ Audu: Security officials confirm ‘over 100 people’ killed by Boko Haram in Gamboru, Borno
“We want Zannah, who hardly visits Borno State, talk more of his constituency to make sure he backs his spurious claims with facts.”
Top security officials in Borno State on Wednesday confirmed that over 100 civilians were killed by suspected members of the Boko Haram in Gamboru, Borno State.
The terrorists stormed the area, a border community between Nigeria and Cameroon, on Monday night using improvised explosive devices, IEDs, armoured personnel carriers, rocket propelled grenades, and other dangerous weapons.
The senator representing the area in the National Assembly, Ahmed Zannah, had on Tuesday told the BBC Hausa Service that over 300 people were killed in the attacks…
However, top security officials in Borno State, who confirmed the attack, disputed the figures quoted by Mr. Zannah.
The security officials said the actual casualty figure was “over a hundred’, and accused the senator of celebrating Boko Haram attacks and killings in his constituency.
A top security official who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES in Maiduguri said Mr. Zannah’s disposition towards the activities of the Boko Haram is gradually becoming questionable “and we in the security circle are beginning to get uncomfortable with his stance”…
“We want Zannah who hardly visits Borno State, talk more of his constituency to make sure he backs his spurious claims with fact, because these are human lives we are dealing with here, for God sake,” the official said.
The official suggested that Mr. Zannah was complicit in the attack by claiming to have been contacted by his constituents even if the attack took place in areas where telecom network was non-functional.
“The figure we have at hand presently is over a hundred and here we have someone who is in Abuja granting interviews on international media over an incident that took place barely five hours and quoting figures,” he said.
The official also accused the senator of not cooperating with security officials in tackling the Boko Haram insurgency…
“Why is the senator always the first to raise alarm on attacks?” quizzed the senior security source. “Every time he comes up with claims, he would quote outrageous figures, even before the aid workers and security operatives on ground get the correct casualty figures. It is his kinsmen that are perpetrating these killings and instead of him coming out as a patriot to assist us with credible information that would end this problem, all he does is running to the media and quoting figures, as though it was the soldiers or the police that were are attacking, killing people”.
Mr. Zannah and security officials in Borno have a history as regards the Boko Haram.
In October 2012, the then Joint Task Force, JTF, in Borno said it arrested a major Boko Haram leader, Shuaibu Bama, at a senator’s house in Damboa Road, Maiduguri.
The senator turned out, as reported by PREMIUM TIMES, to be Mr. Zannah; with the suspect described as his cousin.
A few days later, the senator was questioned for over 9 hours by the security agencies for his alleged link to the Boko Haram.
He had then claimed that he was being persecuted for accusing the military of extrajudicial killings…
FROM THE COMMENTS:
COMMENT: The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) presidential candidate in the 2011 election, Maj-Gen. Mohammadu Buhari, has described the war against the Boko Haram sect as injustice against the North.
Buhari spoke as “Guest of the Week” on Hausa programme of Liberty Radio, Kaduna.
He said special treatments were given to the Niger Delta militants by the Federal Government, while the Boko Haram members were being killed daily and their houses demolished.
The former Head of State said he was not in support of the emergency rule declared in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states because President Goodluck Jonathan failed from the onset in addressing the nation’s insecurity.
Buhari said the security challenges confronting the country started in the Niger Delta where he alleged that politicians desperate to retain their positions recruited youths and armed them to win elections by force.
He said: “What is responsible for the security situation in the country is caused by the activities of Niger Delta militants.
COMMENT: Until the security services weeds out spies in their midst who give out preempt informations to Boko Haram, the total destruction of these bunch of mentally retarded will remain elusive.
COMMENT: Security operatives should stop chasing shadows.Their Duty is to protect lives property.In a situation where a whole town is under attack for hours without counter response from the military is questionable!
COMMENT: The reality and fact is Shekau and his Boys exist, are killing people, and are located in a particular region of the country. Lets deal with that first in a decisive manner, then we can talk about the other conspiracies. I am sure by the time we get rid of Shekau and his boys, the support behind the whole thing will be exposed.
COMMENT: Zannah and Ndume belong to the same category of rats spilling the blood of their people by covertly supporting terrorism by night, and playing the victim by day to the international community. Goodluck may be incompetent and corrupt, but northern elders need to ask themselves some soul searching questions about the monsters in their assembly causing mayhem in Nigeria because of their brand of politics.
COMMENT: let northern CAN explain firt to Nigerians why their leader Jerry Gana released Mohammed Yusuf from SSS Detention first. Not once but twice.
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/160351-security-officials-confirm-100-people-killed-boko-haram-gamboru-borno.html
btw not only do we have US, UK, France & China offering to help but we Aussies are claiming we need to help too.
balkanise Nigeria? why not. that seems to be the general plan, except for EU/NATO?
O/T Patrick Haseldine has created a petition urging Ban Ki Moon to investigate the deaths (murders?) of two important UN representatives, Dag Hammarskjöld and Bernt Carlsson. If the good men in the UN are allowed to die without questioning the circumstances the world will end up being run by a bunch of gun-slinging cowboys. Please sign and spread.
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/United_Nations_SecretaryGeneral_Ban_Kimoon_Investigate_the_deaths_of_UN_Officials_Dag_Hammarskjold_and_Bernt_Carlsson/
Thanks Oddie. One wonders where all the high tech weaponry described there is coming from and who the suppliers are.
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The credentials of Premium Times.
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/about
O/T Get quite tired of people cherry-picking which assassinated UN Representatives to investigate the murders of.
Former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was appointed Kurt Waldheim’s Special Representative on November 11, 1980 to help bring about a settlement to the growing Iraq-Iean War, thanks to Security Council Resolution 478, and he was assassinated on February 28, 1986 by the Anglo-American Iran-Contra plotters for doing so.
It was a consequence of this unnecessary, and counter-productive murder that Carlsson was murdered by the plotters when the cover-up of the Stockholm murder was unraveling by disputes among the plotters.
In short, Washington and London should be required to investigate these murders because they caused them rather than just calling upon their current stooge at the UN to investigate just bits and pieces of them.
Wall Street connected western multi-national oil corporations have been practicing the policy of ‘divide and rule’ among Nigeria’s Muslim north (51%) and Christian south (42%) for decades. In the past, the western vultures have assassinated Muslim government leaders to bring pro-West military regime changes. Last month, Nigerian went into ethnic frenzy; killing each other and burning mosques and churches.
However, something strange happened on January 1, 2012 – when country’s Christian President Goodluck Jonathan lifted fuel subsidies as demanded by the IMF, leading to doubling of petrol prices overnight. As result mass protests began immediately, uniting both Muslim and Christian communities. On Friday, Muslims held 1 Million March Occupy Ojota for Friday prayers.
Nigerians have viewed the fuel subsidies as their only benefit from the nation’s vast oil wealth, and many people lack any real trust in the government after years of deeply rooted corruption. Most of Nigeria’s 160 million people live on less than $2 a day.
http://rehmat1.com/2012/01/14/poverty-unites-nigerian-muslims-and-christians/