Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - boko haram again

"i get what has been said about the failures of the government, and resentments toward it; the corruption, the army, its brutality. but it seems that borno state is the center of BH activities, and not so much elsewhere. why is this the case?"

- Ken Harrow

Borno State has borne the brunt of BH's criminal activities but they have struck elsewhere, most notably in Abuja, Kano and Kaduna, where scores have died with nothing but wretched whimpers from the "government" to use that term loosely.

I imagine it is a capacity issue, so they are focusing their rage where their resources are. In any case, huge swaths of the North East are ungovernable, there will not be elections in those areas.

These are all academic of course, nothing wrong with such ruminations. I prefer a practical structural approach to all these: Why are things the way they are? It is simple. There have been little or no structural changes in governance and management in Nigeria since the white man gave us back our countries. I am data-driven, look at how our educational institutions are run, our police, our army, etc, they are largely relics of an ancient precolonial times built by colonial masters who knew they were not here to stay (unlike say, South Africa, where I would give anything to own a place in Soweto even in the height of apartheid, have you been to my village, Ken? Black on black apartheid! Nonsense). Our intellectuals, writers and politicians are mostly lazy thieving bullshit artists who talk up a good game but detest the hard work of actually doing something. They need to be held accountable. Where did all that money go, where? If we had a real army, a real police force in Borno State, BH would be praying in their temples, who wan die? We spend billions every year on "intelligence agencies" but my son's smartphone has more intelligence than all of the bs in those "agencies." The money has been looted; by all and sundry, bipartisan even. And they come here to preach probity and bs.

Let's police ourselves, let's hold ourselves accountable and people flee behind sweet words. We are not going to build a nation from constant talking. Wait, Ken, watch, I will ask a simple question: WHAT happened to the funds released to meet ASUU's demands for improved tertiary education? Who is holding them accountable? Good luck trying to be reasonable. This is so wrong on many levels.


- Ikhide

> On Jan 11, 2015, at 10:24 AM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
>
> i get what has been said about the failures of the government, and resentments toward it; the corruption, the army, its brutality. but it seems that borno state is the center of BH activities, and not so much elsewhere. why is this the case?

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