Our conditions for peace, by Boko Haram
…celebrate low-key 51st Independence
BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI & NDAHI MARAMA
ABUJA— Members of the Jaamatus Ahlus Sunnah Lid Daawatis Wal Jihad, a.k.a. Boko Haram yesterday celebrated the inability of the Federal Government to celebrate the nation's 51st independence anniversary at the Eagle Square owing to threats by the group and the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), to bomb the nation's capital city if the celebration went ahead.
Members of the sect have also restated their determination to continue to unleash terror on government and its security forces, should the federal government refuse to meet their earlier demands.
It will be recalled that after the federal government announced that the celebration will be low keyed and denied insinuations that the low key celebration was due to fear of MEND or Boko Haram, there was a military and Police parade inside the Presidential Villa, with foreign ambassadors, High Commissioners' and Chief de missions present at the villa to celebrate Nigeria's 51st Independence anniversary.
Vanguard was told by security sources, that they have intelligence reports indicating that members of the Boko Haram sect celebrated their ability to restrict the independence anniversary to Aso Rock rather than the national ground, Eagle Square, where such occasions are usually held.
Former Chief of General Staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe; Chief Imam National Mosque, Ustaz Musa Mohammed and the President Christian Association of Nigeria, Bishop Ayo Oritsejafor during the exchange of Presidential Guards as part of events to mark the 51st National Day Celebrations at the State House, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida.
Incidentally, security measures put in place following the threats of the two groups are still in place and will remain for days as security agencies feel, both groups especially Boko Haram were put at bay because of the heavy security presence and checks going on in the FCT.
According to the source, "we have not rested since last Thursday and there is no indication that we would rest soon because we may be deceived that they have had a change of mind to attack. So the security cordons will go on until we are satisfied the risk threats have reduced".
Meanwhile, spokesman of the group, Abu Qaqa in an email message sent to newsmen written in Hausa language yesterday said that "the country would not have peace until there is 100 per cent implementation of Sharia law in the country as enshrined in the holy Quran as well as immediate release of all our members who were detained and in the custody of security agencies for no just cause".
He said the group was not satisfied with the report of the Presidential committee on Security in the north on possible negotiation with the federal government, adding that the members were even surprised that the committee told the world, that they have had a meeting with the sect in the course of their investigation, insisting that no committee ever sat with the group.
He dismissed the recommendation of the committee on the involvement of the Sultan of Sokoto, Emir of Bauchi or Abubakar Giro in the negotiation talk saying, "all these people are not respected by the sect members, and could not mediate for them".
Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen yesterday shot and killed an Igbo butcher in broad daylight at the popular Baga Road Market. There was also a reported incident of an explosion at the same Baga Road which claimed two lives while some were seriously injured. Following these incidents, most shops in the market remained closed.
Wassa, you're looking for trouble o, as we say in Nigeria. Don't you know that there was no slavery--Arab or African-- in Africa before the evil white man came and forcefully carted away millions of Africans to work his plantations in the New World? Where were you when pan-Africanists or pan-AfriKanists were arguing that Africans didn't enslave other Africans and that slavery was unknown in precolonial Africa? Where were you when someone argued that what existed in precolonial Africa was not slavery and that Africans didn't even have "slave" in their vocabularies? Please bring yourself up to speed with the pan-African orthodoxy on slavery in Africa before you come here to tell some uncomfortable truths. You may get more than you bargain for.I believe you're talking about the famous or infamous diary of Hamman Yaji, one of the most predatory and prolific slave raiders and merchants of the Adamawa hills in Africa. He operated in a relatively small region. Do you know how many Hamman Yaji's there were? Do you know that it was not only Hamman Yaji who kept a grisly record of his exploits as a professional slave raider and merchant? And I am talking only about the Nigeria/Cameroon axis. Have you read some of the canonical texts of the Sokoto Caliphate, especially the Infakul Maisuri, and their accounts of slave raids, domestic slavery, and plantation slavery in the vast empire? Geez, I wonder who were being enslaved in these sites--maybe they were Martians. And the enslavers? Maybe they were blue-eyed white Caliphate leaders! We're not even talking about other parts of West Africa, where slave raiders of all kinds proliferated all the way to the late 19th century (two new books bear witness to this 19th century surge in slavery in the Gold Coast and there are several more works that document this, some of them written by our own erudite historian of Ghana, Kwabena Akurang-Parry). East Africa, had its infamous Tippu Tip, and the list goes on.On Boko Haram, the Professor is partially right that there is a "state vs. people" element in the crisis. The movement is angry at the Nigerian state (which it sees as an obstacle to the achievement of its goal of Sharia and and an Islamic state (whatever they mean by that) and attacks its symbols. It desires the replacement of Northern Nigeria's secular state authorities with Islamic political institutions. However, the group also attacks innocent civilians, crowds, markets, christian clergy, churches, and moderate Islamic clerics. So, you're absolutely right that Boko Haram is, at its core, an ideological and religious movement seeking an ideological aim. This ideological aim is a broad rubric housing claims about social justice, religious purity, anti-Western umbrage, and return to "true Islam" and "true Sharia." Therefore, I agree with you that Boko Haram is not exactly in the same mould as the Niger Delta militancy, which, as far as we know, has no religious or ideological component. Because of this absence, it was relatively easy to buy off the militants from their struggle with promises of better treatment, reform, jobs, and development. Such a strategy will not work with Boko Haram or will have only limited success--perhaps separating the diehards from the reformable ones. The ideological/religious genealogy of the movement links to the penetration of Wahabi-Salafist Islam into Northern Nigeria in the 1980s' and to the democratization of Al-Qaida's template of implacable, intolerant, fundamentalist, and radical Islam. Terrorism is s tool for achieving this Salafist agenda. So, to simply regard Boko Haram as another manifestation of the familiar state vs people conflictual model, as the professor does, is to misunderstand the group's ideology, history, and mission.--
On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 7:16 AM, Wassa Fatti <wassafatti@hotmail.com> wrote:This is interesting, but the Professor's historical historical record of slavery is faulty: "400,000 Africans forcibly carried away as slaves" is inaccurate assertion. Infact the amount of Africans that died on land and in the sea for refusing to be enslaved is more that this figure. Let the Professor count in the millions to get a figure closer to the truth. Secondly, if he's talking about slavery in Africa, which one is he referring to? The European slavery for sure. What about the Arab slavery which started before the European adventures; there was also the African enslavement of Africans in the later 19th century throughout the entire continent which was intensified during the process of Isalmization of Africans. Let the Professor check the record of Hassan Yaji of Nigeria, who was so brutal in his slave raids that he was killed by the British colonisers. This trend of African slavery continued up to the 1930s/1940s. In addition, the Professor did not include the African slaves that were exported to India, China and Indonesia or to the Arab world. I would like to advise him to check the records of African slavery in Senegal, North Africa, Central Africa, Ethiopia and all the way down to the East coast of Africa, including Mozambigue, Zanzibar and the Comoro Islands for example.If Boko Haram is not a terrorist movement, what is it? If they are liberators, who are they liberating and what is their ideology? Boko Haram as far as Africa is concern, is a backward movement whose ideology is based on the Salafist ideology of the 12th century. Can the Professor elaborate further please.Wassa.> Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2011 13:59:11 -0700
> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A Professor's view of Boko Haram
> From: great.arc@gmail.com
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>
> "Between 1450s and 1850s, over 400,000 Africans were forcibly carried
> away as slaves. Today, if a slave ship of one million capacity berths
> at the Apapa Port and calls for those who want to go voluntarily to
> the United States and United Kingdom on slavery, the ship will not
> take one hour to be filled."
> - Dr. Osisioma Nwolise
>
> Read on:
>
> Boko Haram Not Terrorist Group – Don
> A crime management expert and acting Head, Political Science
> Department, University of Ibadan, Dr. Osisioma Nwolise, has said Boko
> Haram is not a terrorist organisation.
> Rather, the university don described the group as a liberation force
> in the mould of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta,
> the Oodua Peoples Congress that came as a result of a 'state-people
> conflict' and struggle for social justice.
> Nwolise spoke while presenting a paper titled 'Nigeria at 51: Where is
> the life more abundant for the masses?' at a public lecture and award
> ceremony to mark the nation's 51st independence anniversary organised
> by the Centre for Good Governance in Africa at the Conference Centre
> of the university on Friday.
> The HOD, who taught Terrorism Management at the National Defence
> College for five years, however admitted that a thin line separated
> terrorism and liberation struggle.
> Nwolise said, "It is not everybody that uses terrorist tactics that is
> a terrorist."
> He regretted that the life abundant which Nigerians were promised by
> nationalists at independence had remained elusive.
> He said, "Between 1450s and 1850s, over 400,000 Africans were forcibly
> carried away as slaves. Today, if a slave ship of one million capacity
> berths at the Apapa Port and calls for those who want to go
> voluntarily to the United States and United Kingdom on slavery, the
> ship will not take one hour to be filled.
> "It shows the extent our post-independence political rulers have
> devalued our lives."
> The programme coordinator, Adefemi Johnson, said while it was
> noteworthy that President Goodluck Jonathan had finally made up his
> mind to carry out power sector reforms.
> He, however, urged Jonathan not foot-drag on the decision because
> uninterrupted electricity was critical to the economy.
> He pointed out that the country could not afford to carry on with
> business as usual, as had been done in the last 51 years and called
> for commitment on the part of the political leadership towards the
> socio-economic development of the citizens.
> The Director-General of National Space Research and Development
> Agency, Abuja, Seidu Mohammed; the Chairman, Offa Local Government
> Council of Kwara State, Mr Saheed Popoola; and others received African
> Symbol for Quality Leadership award at the event.
>
> --
>
> Ayo Abiola
> skype: abydayjee
> Ontario, Canada.
>
> Faith in God gives meaning and purpose to human life...
> Earth's great treasure lies human personality and service to humanity
> is the best work of life"
>
> --
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There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
---Mohandas Gandhi
There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
---Mohandas Gandhi
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