THE SECOND NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR
Part of the problem of arresting the group in its horrific campaign has been the denial of vocal voices from Northern Nigeria about the stated aims and character of the group and the relationship between these and prominent social attitudes of religious extremism that have persisted for decades in Northern Nigeria.
One of these denials is the recent declaration by an ethnic Northerner to the effect that there is no evidence Boko Haram has stated its goal as being to divide the country along religious and ethnic lines,a suprising declaration since the group's goal of creating such division is obvious from abundant news reports of the group's stated aims and evident methods. He challenged me to post news reports presenting the group's determination to divide Nigeria along religious and ethnic lines. I present the report below.
The war against Islamic extremism and terrorism must be fought on multiple fronts, military, psychological and others. People need to be convinced of the utter poverty of what they represent. Part of this fight is to strip away the claims of the group as motivated primarily by social factors beyond their control, such as poverty. Nigeria will never be at peave until Northern Nigerian Islamic culture can coexist peacefully with the rest of Nigeria, without the regular pogroms directed against Southerners and Christians in the North, of which Boko Haram is the most extreme example to date.
As writer and social activist Wole Soyinka was the first to point out, the culture of excusing such horrors by various people, particularly from Northern Nigeria, has enabled that culture of religious extremism and religiously motivated murder to grow by providing fertile ground for the worst kinds of religious extremism and sense of political entitlement.
It is vital in this war to note that, as demonstrated by their public actions and pronouncements, many in Northern Nigeria do not identify with Boko Haram . Some Northerners have been assassinated by the group for working against them. Boko Haram holds the region in a grip of terror.
Those who state that Nigeria will never be the same again and that the country is on the brink of being divided, and may split in 2015, the next Presidential election year, are very correct. Nigeria, however, MUST NOT surrender the North to Islamic and political terrorists and other extremists. Such a surrender will be a betrayal to the masses of the North, members of whom also paid the price for Nigerian unity by fighting and dying in the Nigerian Civil War, whatever might the contradictions of such a unity. The Northerners are also victims of these vampires and the readiness of the group to kill anyone in their way, including ethnic Northerners and Muslims, even as the group focuses on mass murders of Christians, Southerners and agents of the Nigerian state, of any religion and ethnicity, makes it clear that they have only terror and tears to offer. They have already devastated the economy and society of the North, a system which was described as worse off than the rest of Nigeria before this crisis and which, under the best conditions, would take at least a decade to recover from the current hell.
Secondly, having an extremist Islamic state next to anyone's border is a recipe for crisis. Ideologically fanatical states are a menace to their neighbours and the world as they keep trying to expand their borders and sphere of influence.
The Boko Haram threat is a wake up call to Nigeria to begin to deal decisively with the poison of Islamic extremism. Boko Haram must be crushed militarily, no matter how long it takes. The public, particularly within Northern Nigeria, musty be fully educated about the nature of the poison the group is offering- a one way ticket to the most violent repression and routine murder as a tool of stifling dissent, even within the Islamic state they want to create.
Here are some of the abundant news reports from different parts of the world that demonstrate the goal of Boko Haram to divide Nigeria along religious and ethnic lines
The first set of reports deals with the Boko Haram January 2012 ultimatum to Christians and Southerners to leave Northern Nigeria in 3 days or face death and for Northerners and Muslims to leave the South
The second set of reports deals with revelations by captured Boko Haram leaders who revealed the group's agenda of to Islamising the entire country
A.. The Boko Haram January 2012 ultimatum to Christians and Southerners to leave Northern Nigeria in 3 days or face death and for Northerners and Muslims to leave the South
Americas
USA
1.CNN
Islamist militants in Nigeria warn Christians to leave north within 3days
2. US Congressman Tom Tancredo's website
From Asia
Asia general
China
3. Nigerian Militant Sect Gives Christians 3 Days to Leave Northern Part [of the Country]
English.news.cn 2012-01-02 18:50:49
Africa
Nigeria
4.Boko Haram Gives Southerners 3-Day Ultimatum To Leave Northern Nigeria
5.Explosions rock Maiduguri,Damaturu as Boko Haram 'ultimatum' expires
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| Boko Haram claims responsibility for three blasts in Maiduguri and Damaturu, cities under a state of emergency. |
"Abul Qaqa, who claims to be a spokesman for Boko Haram, said the group was behind the Damaturu and Maiduguri bomb attacks. His claims could not, however, be independently verified.
"We are responsible for the bomb blasts in Damaturu and Maiduguri this evening," he said in a phone call made to the AFP news agency.
"This is a response to the expiration of the ultimatum we gave to southerners to leav
| 7. BBC 's summation of Boko Haram's anti-Christian Jihad Nigeria attacks: 'Boko Haram bombed my church 16 March 2012
John Nubrim is visibly traumatised after fleeing the north-eastern Nigerian town of Maiduguri following attacks by the militant Islamist group, Boko Haram.
"Only God knows how I escaped from that Maiduguri. They bomb over there. They burned my shed. All my property, all my things, are there," said the young electronics trader, before letting out a short scream.
"My parents, my brother and one of my sons died there."
He is one of almost 2,000 people from the largely Christian south to take advantage of a free bus service provided by elders from the south-eastern Igbo community, in response to a threat for southerners and
Christians to leave the mainly Muslim north.
About 100 people have been killed in a series of attacks on churches and Christians across the north.
At a camp for the displaced in Imo State, a woman told me:
"I went to church. They bombed there. I went inside the bush. I stayed there for three days."
I asked if her husband knew she was here.
"He died there," she said.
B. Revelations by captured Boko Haram leaders who revealed the group's agenda of Islamising the entire country
1. Nigeria: Our Plans to Islamise the Country - Qaqa, Sokoto 2. Boko Haram plans to take over North –FG Also posted at
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