If (a very big if) there were such a Boko Haram organisation that had
operated in the US with such deadly effect in the days of "smoke em
out "George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the policy repercussions on such
a group would not be beyond anyone's imagination.
This is the alarming introduction to Boko Haram:
"Boko Haram, an Islamist religious sect, has targeted Nigeria's
police, rival clerics, politicians, and public institutions with
increasing violence since 2009. Some experts say the group should
primarily be seen as leading an armed revolt against the government's
entrenched corruption, abusive security forces, strife between the
disaffected Muslim north and Christian south, and widening regional
economic disparity in an already impoverished country. They argue that
Abuja should do more to address the issues facing the disaffected
Muslim north. But Boko Haram's suspected bombing of a UN building in
Abuja in August 2011 and its ties to regional terror groups may signal
a new trajectory and spark a stronger international response that
makes it harder to address the north's alienation."
"Rising Against the State
CFR Senior Fellow John Campbell notes that "the context of Boko Haram
is easier to talk about than Boko Haram itself." Injustice and
poverty, as well as the belief that the West is a corrupting influence
in governance, are root causes of both the desire to implement sharia
and Boko Haram's pursuit of an Islamic state, say experts. "The
emergence of Boko Haram signifies the maturation of long festering
extremist impulses that run deep in the social reality of northern
Nigeria," writes Nigerian analyst Chris Ngwodo. "But the group itself
is an effect and not a cause; it is a symptom of decades of failed
government and elite delinquency finally ripening into social chaos."
"In an August 2011 report, Human Rights Watch notes "corruption is so
pervasive in Nigeria that it has turned public service for many into a
kind of criminal enterprise. Graft has fueled political violence,
denied millions of Nigerians access to even the most basic health and
education services, and reinforced police abuses and other widespread
patterns of human rights violations."
An Amnesty International report (PDF) points out that the Nigerian
police force is responsible for hundreds of extra-judicial killings
and disappearances each year across the country that largely "go
uninvestigated and unpunished." Human rights advocates note that the
public executions of Boko Haram followers by security forces,
including the ones documented by this video (al-Jazeera), have yet to
produce a conviction. However, the government began in July 2011 to
try five police officers connected to Yusuf's killing and in August
2011 began the court martial of a military commander (DailyTrust)
responsible for troops that killed forty-two sect members during the
July 2009 uprising."
Plus the next excruciating fourteen paragraphs under the themes "The
North-South Divide" and
" Terror Ties and Policy Prescriptions"
http://www.cfr.org/africa/boko-haram/p25739
That none of the above is exaggerated makes it all the more a matter
of grave concern to all of us and the urgency of the sort of action
that is imperative.
At this stage, it is reasonable to assume, that like any other
competent Security organisation, the NIA and the Nigerian SSS have or
will succeed in infiltrating Boko Haram. The only other danger is that
independent infiltrators , independent of the government agencies but
with their own unique capacities, are capable of doing all manner of
horrendous acts and blaming it on Boko which then becomes a very
convenient umbrella under which name to operate.
It has been known that elsewhere some organisations were successfully
infiltrated or hijacked with their very leadership taken over by a
new leadership and advisers with the sole aim of leading in a
direction most favourable to the political agenda of the
infiltrators. With such evil forces assiduously at work, their most
nefarious purpose imaginable would be to foment the sort of discord
that could eventually lead to (Heaven forbid) the implosion (along
the well known cracks in North-South Christian – Muslim religions
fault-lines ) and thus the dismemberment of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria as we now know it.
http://www.thetimesofnigeria.com/TON/Article.aspx?id=3419
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/09/getting-serious-with-our-security/
Our own Don Pious:
There seems to be a lull right now. Let us hope that it is not the
calm before the storm....
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