Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - U.S. strikes ISIS in Nigeria after Trump warnings on Christian killings - The

Cornelius

a quick response

finding info

again i suggest reading what a broad spectrum of nigerians are saying would help one better understand the situation

facebook and i expect twitter are indispensable on this

nigerian news media are also priceless. sahara reporters is astute on this

locating terrorists

even i toyin adepoju know roughly how to find out where the terrorists are if i am bold enough 

they are not really hiding

there are videos of them emerging from their bases to attend efforts to pacify them through dialogue with various communities

a governor of one of the northern states has been reported as stating he knows where they can be found

the governor of buharis own katsina state once dialogued with them-with pictures taken of the event-but later declared that they were rogues with no ideology and even though they were fulani like himself they were thieves and murderers and no more 

that marks two governors who publicly stated they know where they are

sheik gumi, who has been advocating for them also has held photographed meetings with them

the above refers to the arm of brigandage organised largely by violent fulani and targeted at extortion, kidnapping and massacre-who were once called bandits 

so the doomsday image of ''considerable  civilian and infrastructural collateral damage [with ]American bombs falling over Nigeria like rain,  Nigerian flesh and blood breaking down, super javelin missiles hitting and obliterating or sometimes missing their targets and causing further collateral damage  -loss of Nigerian life, limb & property''is not realistic

As for the arm of Fulani terrorism known as the Fulani militia, whose central zone of operation has been the Middle Belt but were enabled by Buhari to fan out across Nigeria, they subsist primarily through political support.

Eliminating them requires simply a policy of zero tolerance and dealing harshly with anyone, such as Mitetti Allah who supports them.

Their locations I expect are also not difficult to find out across the country since they are not socially integrated, to the best of my knowledge.

the middle belt

in a short post like the one i did i did not need to mention the middle belt because they have suffered most from terrorism by violent fulani. their own hope is likely to be that help will be extended to them to help deal with their own problem particularly since the killing of christians narrative is a way of framing their own problem  but their problem is even more politicised than that created by the assortment of criminal groups different from those operating outside the guidance and protection of miyetti allah

the muslim north

the muslim north is conflicted/divided on how to deal with the terrorism problem from the various ethnically northern criminal groups bcs of identity issues-the framing of the ''christian genocide'' narrative in the light of the fact that christians are second class citizens in the muslim north, the rhetoric of northern muslim leadership who are generally less than decisive in relation to ending terror in the region or are even enablers of this terror through their utterances-from boko haram to the more recent ''banditry'' to the fulani militia

the south

southern orientations on this subject are unified, as far as i can see. the existential threat and the national crisis is clearly understood.

islam and terrorism in nigeria

terrorism in the muslim north or emerging from it is explicitly islamic with boko haram and iswap, whose goal is the establishment of a kind of islamic state.

it is inexplicitly islamic with other criminal groups whose primary identity  might be that of soldiers of fortune but who are also muslims. their islamic religion is significant bcs it could lead to or has already led to a convergence between the islamic terrorists and their own efforts.

this religious identity also creates confusion in the muslim north, with people like sheikh gumi once referring to boko haram as ''our brothers'', along with similar expressions of identification with terrorists from the region from the 2011 boko haram escalation to the present.

the sokoto strike

i suspect that most northern muslims will be puzzled by the rationale for the location of the strike although one view states the lakurawa terror group is located in the region. the level of suffering from terrorism in the north generally, by muslims and non-muslims, is so huge that cautious expectations might be the most common reaction to the us/nigeria military alliance. 

who is a terrorist?

terrorism in nigeria's north and middle belt  is represented by sustained campaigns of massacre in order to force subjugation, internal colonization and control of resources such as  dispossession of the land of communities by repeated massacres; by systemic kidnappings and financial inflows through ransom from those kidnappings; by repeated attacks on places of worship.

this more organized form of terrrirism in reinforced by the radicalization and arming of fulani herdsmen, once peaceful but the activities of a good no of whom have now become a synonym for murder, extortion, destruction of farmlands' a situation creating a bad name for those fulani herdsmen who dont fit this profile.

the fulani dynamic

at the core of the terrorism problems emerging from the north is the weaponization of the  trans-national and islamic identity of the fulani, employed by extremist fulani as a cover for terrorism.

the fulani jihad created a kind of islamic identity in the muslim north that has created difficulties for the full integration of the region into the idea of a secular nation.

this tension is reinforced by the political dominance of the primary beneficiaries of the jihad,  the fulani leadership, who were so placed because the religio-ethnic character of the jihad.

a good no of the most powerful voices of the fulani leadership use terrorism in the north as a means of advancing politico/religious/ethic agendas. other fulani voices do not challenge them.

these range from Muhammadu Buhari once declaring that the war against Boko Haram is war against the North, to Miyetti Allah Fulani Socio Cultural Organization severally justifying massacres by Fulani militia as the Buhari govt gave political cover to them and violent Fulani herdsmen, to the Fulani professor who, in the face  of Fulani militia massacres in the Middle Belt declared that Benue belongs to the Fulani by right of conquest and more.

the trump factor

trump's intervention makes the manly holes in the nigerian govts approach to terrorism more glaring as scrutiny by nigerians  intensifies and the govt could be pushed into addressing the issue decisively. 

in that context, the US terrible record in Gaza and in some other parts of the world and trump's personal contradictions becomes secondary for many.

terrorism and nigerian politics

tinubu's two major challenges are economics and security, with security being the more deadly on account of its implications for the integrity of the nation.

his legacy is already in serious trouble. 

    terrorism in the north

if he makes good progress on the northern terrorism crisis he will escape being seen in the south as a pawn of or enabler of the designs of northern muslim extremists. a good no of northern muslims will also appreciate freedom from terror.

        terrorism in the SE

the SE also has a terrorism problem implicated with politics in a different way from that of the north. decisively addressing that problem without alienating the SE and while demonstrating sensitivity to the sense of alienation from nigerian identity expressed by many from the region will be a historic achievement.

         economics

if he is able to positively  change the economic fortunes of nigerians, he would have reshaped the current image of him as an economic suffering creator.

political projection

these two achievements, if well projected by his political team, will give him a good chance of reelection outside manipulating the electorate by formenting inter-ethnic conflict- a key strategy of APC Lagos- and outside opaque electoral procedures, a major problem with his earlier election as President.

thanks

toyin 

On Sat, Dec 27, 2025 at 6:13 PM Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:

Oluwatoyin, 

As the King James Version puts it,

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish."

( Tehillim 1) 

Re - US airstrikes on Nigerian targets 2025

What you are saying ,that  "This cooperation with the Americans is one of the best things he has ever done, particularly if it works" would have sounded infinitely more agreeable if it could have been accurately reported as  - at the invitation of Tinubu, after due consultation with Muslim and Christian leaders, "This cooperation of the Americans is one of the best things he has ever done particularly if it works."

Let's be brutally honest. There was your Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar fresh from talking sweet talk in Burkina Faso, to get the plane and the detained Nigerian soldiers released, and in this clip , very proud of himself about talking with the big boys, " I spoke with Marco Rubio - extensively " ( "for about 30 minutes ") It should be interesting to listen to a recording of that telephone conversation, to put everybody at ease as to exactly what was said, what was agreed, etc. 

"But decisive efforts to wipe out terrorism would do much for him in the South and would do so much towards getting him a second term" ( Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, political analyst, Ifa philosopher and soothsayer ) 

Do you believe that Trump & Tinubu will "wipe out" terrorism in Nigeria (at considerable  civilian and infrastructural collateral damage of course) well before the next Nigerian Presidential Elections scheduled for February 2027, or will the wiping out, guns ablaze, American bombs falling over Nigeria like rain,  Nigerian flesh and blood breaking down, super javelin missiles hitting and obliterating or sometimes missing their targets and causing further collateral damage  -loss of Nigerian life, limb & property would significantly contribute to getting dear Tinubu re-elected? I don't think so . If anything, that very first surprise attack, without any prior warning, that Christmas Day bombing of targets in Sokoto the heartland of Islam in Nigeria must have succeeded in alienating the majority of right-thinking Muslims in Sokoto and elsewhere  in the country. 

But what do I know? I have just read right through , maybe for the third time, St Peter of Damascus : A treasury of Divine Knowledge and Twenty-four Discourses with an emphasis on the section on section X: Humility wherein occurs this understanding:

  

"Again, he who knows that he is a mutable creature will never maintain a high opinion of himself; he will recognize that anything he may have belongs to his Creator. You do not praise a pot on the grounds that it has made itself useful; you praise its maker. And when it is broken, you blame whoever broke it, not its maker."

You have conveniently partitioned Nigeria into North and South , and in the process where does the Middle Belt belong? Furthermore,  don't we have to differentiate between the South West and the South East ? Didn't Peter Obi garner 95 % of the votes in his beloved ethnic enclave, Anambra? Yes, indeed he also did as reported, whisper  in  the ear of his Big Pentecostal Daddy Oyedepo " It is a religious war " and you think that as part of that war should Nigeria's Bola Ahmed Tinubu & wannabe Emperor Donald John Trump succeed in "wiping out terrorism" there will peace in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as a result of which  all the Igbos of the South East and everywhere else  and the Muslims of the North and South will vote for Bola Ahmed Tinubu?

First of all, can you say that the terrorism in Nigeria is "Islamic" ? The cattle rustlers, murderers, ransom kidnappers , wanton looters , 419 criminals  etc are all Muslims? 

Please be careful about how you answer . It does appear that Trump is hell-bent in believing that he a pedophile Epstein-beleaguered champion of Christianity is waging a war of extermination of "Islamic terrorism" which he accuses of being guilty of "Christian genocide" in Nigeria…

BTW,  I don't think that a hale and hearty Trump will still be in office by 7th February 2027,  secondly 

On Saturday, 27 December 2025 at 14:51:14 UTC+1 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

Why?

As far as I can see Southern Nigerians are over the moon on this strike and want more.

Its in the Muslim North that people are conflicted between bringing to an end the terrorism that tortures them particularly and the context and method in which this is done.

Without APC propaganda or/and manipulations, it's unlikely Tinubu would continue beyond a first time given abrasive economic policies and bad optics.

But decisive efforts to wipe out terrorism would do much for him in the South and would do so much towards getting him a second term.

This cooperation with the Americans is one of the best things he has ever done particularly if it works.

Southerners have been spreading the view that he is either captive to or is in league with Fulani extremists and Imperialists,the foot soldiers and civil society advocates of this terror.

Proving them wrong will be one of his most significant political accomplishments.

There will be interesting developments going forward.

Thanks 

Toyin 

On Sat, Dec 27, 2025, 12:49 AM Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:

This will most probably cost him his presidency. For a surety, continuing along this trajectory, he is not going to win the 2027 Presidential elections , no matter how much he could be propped up by Uncle Trump...

On Friday, 26 December 2025 at 22:11:43 UTC+1 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

The Nigerian govt described itself as working with the Americans 

On Fri, Dec 26, 2025, 9:07 PM 'Patrick Effiboley' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

In a principle basis, can state/country enter a territory of another state in the name of fighting terrorism without the agreement of the latter?

Dr Emery Patrick EFFIBOLEY

Maître de conférences, Histoire de l'Art

Chef, Département d'Histoire et d'Archéologie, Université d'Abomey-Calavi, Bénin

Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Wits University, RSA,(2014-2016) 

www.researchgate.net/Profile/Emery_Effiboley

 

Le vendredi 26 décembre 2025 à 17:15:43 UTC+1, 'Victor Okafor' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> a écrit :

Why the choice of North western targets in Nigeria? Is the North West, rather than the North east, the main source of the scourge of Boko Haram/Islamic terrorism all these years in Nigeria?

Can someone enlighten us about these questions?

Sincerely,

Victor O. Okafor, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Africology and African American Studies

Eastern Michigan University

Coordinator,  Alpha Esquires Black History and Cultural Identity Series

Email: vok...@emich.edu

https://www.emich.edu/aaas/faculty/v-okafor.php

https://www.facebook.com/DAAASEMU/

Tel: 734.487.3463 

Food for Thought: 

"I myself do not judge a man [or a woman] by  the color of his [or her] skin. The yardstick that I use to judge a man [or a woman] is his [ or her] deeds, his [her] behavior,  and his [or her] intentions. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth. And, every time you let someone stand on your head and you don't do anything about it, you are not acting with intelligence and should not be on this earth—you won't be on this earth very long either." -- Malcolm X.

On Fri, Dec 26, 2025, 4:12 AM Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

U.S. strikes ISIS in Nigeria after Trump warnings on Christian killings - The Washington Post

https://apple.news/APaWS_L5KQ9e3NfmCG1G45Q

Get Outlook for iOS

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