This should not be the beginning of a new clash of civilisations in a
Nigeria which has produced illustrious leaders and scholars such as
Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio.
The question that Nigerian Intelligence is surely asking is who is/are
the brain/s behind Boko Haram's escalation in terrorist activity, not
just within what has so far been traditionally, their local area of
influence ( geographically speaking) – and not just against the
educational authorities who want to impose Western Education on them,
but now also expanding their frontiers and according to this news item
with all it's propaganda value, Boko Haram is now waging a war against
the United nations for their alleged role in "the oppression of
believers" ? From humble local beginnings to declaring war on the
world organisation? Internationalizing their struggle?
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/31/nigeria.bombing/
Obviously, the Brain behind Boko Haram expanding their scope must
have the intention of destabilising the country. That is certainly a
consequence of their actions. The Brain behind the terror activities
surely does not think that by such dastardly acts Boko Haram will be
left alone and in peace? This escalation smells like part of a much
more sinister political agenda and conspiracy theorists will be quick
to place these local events in a global context. Next we will be
asking about the likelihood of international networking, who is
financing Boko Haram and from where are they getting their weapons and
explosives?Locally? From abroad? This news of arms shipment was
serious enough.
In my opinion, dialogue with Boko Haram is still preferable to a war
of Genocide and extermination of a people and their ideology and
looking even a little further afield, I'm sure that unlike the
bloodthirsty, peaceful Goodluck Jonathan the Christian also believes
that all Nigerian innocent, legally armed or unarmed citizens have to
be protected from terrorist violence and in the security context,
going that extra mile for more dialogue is preferable to the
recklessness of plunging Nigeria into the unforeseeable consequences
of yet another civil war which could start in this small way and no
one knows , if things got out of hand – NO ONE KNOWS what it could
lead to or how it could end. It could certainly escalate on all sides
(North vs. South) should it seem that the Government and its Military
is using excessive force in targeting Muslims – and that perception
has the potential to guarantee the beginnings of a religious war which
could de-stabilise Nigeria down to its foundations.
Terrorist violence against unarmed innocent citizens should not be
tolerated. So the UNESCO Building and other possible targets should
be protected / defended and at the same time, in my humble opinion,
with just a little patience – but acting quickly - the strategy could
be to give a serious invitation to dialogue – to convene a
conference and invite not only Nigerian Muslim luminaries but also
give the event added importance by involving some of the heavyweights
in the OIC for example and in that regard it should be a good idea if
someone like Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow – the former Director-General of
UNESCO is invited as one of the delegates to any proposed dialogue
between the Boko Haram's ideological leadership and proponents of the
value of education. Since resistance to Western education is Boko
Haram's centre of gravity, and apparently the reason for their
existence, the axis of the discussion or negotiation could start with
the importance of knowledge and education in Islam and the prophet of
Islam's well known tradition/ hadith about the value of knowledge,
according to this hadith: "seek knowledge even if you have to go to
china",
M'Bow and UNESCO:
Perhaps objections to Western education is not even the main cause but
only one of the symptoms of something deeper that's causing their
unhappiness with the way things are.......
On 1 Sep, 09:50, kayode ketefe <kayodeket...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> UN House bombing: A sect at war against
> the rest of humanity
>
>
>
> KAYODE KETEFE
>
>
>
> There are
> lot of tragedies in the land. The evils are so pervasive now that the nation is
> on brink of despair. We have the latest terrifying attack by the Boko Haram
> terrorist group on the United Nations complex in Abuja, which housed 26 UN
> agencies and in which 23 members of UN staff, lost their lives and many other
> injured; the flood in Ibadan, coming on the heels of a similarly deadly one in
> Lagos, in which about 32 people died, the outbreak of fresh "war" in Jos, which
> as at the time of writing this piece, has claimed 20 lives, 50 vehicles and led
> to internal displacement and human misery. The problems are legions!
>
> The
> latest unprovoked and mindless attack came as utter surprise, because even in
> times of war, attack on UN operatives is forbidden.
>
> The
> United Nations institution is a symbol of the collective humanity, its advent
> as an offshoot from the ashes and rubbles of the World War 11 underscores its
> peculiar status as a rallying point of peoples of the world. The horrendous
> holocausts of the World War made the entire world to unite, it its aftermath,
> and with one voice make that indelible exclamation-"Never again!"
>
> The
> UN is an institutional monument of that global covenant for a new era of civility
> and peace; for a new world where entire human race would unite to fight common
> enemies in the form of diseases hunger, natural disasters etc.
>
> The
> organisations has over the years helped to maintain peace
> between warring factions in enclave ravaged by civil wars, it has
> sent peacekeepers into areas plagued with internal strife, oversee elections in
> many lands to ensure fairness and democratic stability, it has also waged
> un-relented wars against hungers and diseases in many parts of the world.
>
> An attack
> on an institution like the U.N. is therefore an attack on human civilisation.
>
> The
> UN Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro, who rushed to Nigeria in the
> wake of the attack was closed to tears, she said "This was an attack on a
> working community that was helping the people of Nigeria. I feel absolutely
> shattered by what I see: the debris, the destruction, the signs of ordinary
> life devastated by terrorists.
>
> . "Such
> attacks will neither deter us in our work, nor win any new sympathizers to whatever
> cause might be the motivation."
>
> That
> is just the clincher, whatever must have inspired the decision to bomb the UN
> House, it is a terrible miscalculation on the part of the group, it is
> tantamount to declaring war against the rest of humanity.
>
> It should,
> by now, be obvious to any discerning persons that the Boko Haram sect is being
> sponsored by some undercover powers with far more sinister intent. Some have
> fingered the Al-Qaeda group while other have looked inwards and pointed to some
> local potentates, who had earlier promised to make the country ungovernable if
> President Goodluck Jonathan won the Presidential election.
>
> President
> Jonathan who described the latest bombing as a "barbaric, senseless and
> cowardly attack" has also promised to prevent recurrence and bring
> perpetrators to book. A lot would have to be done if this would be achieved.
> First, our law enforcement apparatus are not skilled in the pre-emptive
> strategies as a methodology of crime fighting.
>
> Their
> conventional modus operandi may prove ineffective in tackling the problem as
> this requires the employment of first rate intelligence gathering capability
> and employment of Information and Communication Technology forensically to
> track the activities of potential perpetrators.
>
> Furthermore
> our security outfits, like the Police the Custom, the State Security Service
> and the Nigerian Intelligence Agency-which has the
> responsibility of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence operations- need to work in a
> purposeful synergy to get the needed result.
>
> The
> battle can be won; after all pulling off a successful suicide terror operation
> is not an overnight thing. It requires considerable planning. To start with,
> even if the bombs are manufactured in Nigeria, a large percentage of the
> requisite raw materials would still need to be imported and the actual
> production would still have to take place, not in the space, but in terrestrial
> physical environment.
>
> The
> bombings were not done haphazardly, but strategically with careful choices of
> targets to ensure maximum impact and devastation, both physically and
> psychologically.
>
> All
> these would have to be carefully planned and planning process must involve
> communication by one form or the other.
>
> There
> is also need to recruits "martyrs" who would have to be brainwashed almost to
> the point of insane delusion that killing of innocent people is a piety to God.
>
> The law
> enforcement agents, should therefore, develop strategies to able to penetrate
> into the plot at all these different stages of the operation.
>
> One
> pattern has emerged in the operations of Boko Haram, it seems to have
> proclivity to attack institutions that constitute the symbols of law and order,
> peace and harmony. The attacks on the Police Headquarters and the UN palpably
> illustrate this, this may help the security agents to gain insight into the
> thinking process of the brains behind the terrorist sect with a view to predict
> and pre-empt its future operations.
>
>
>
>
--
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