he says he sees no evidence of plans to Islamise the country by Boko Haram and yet the Islamic terrorist group has called on the President to embrace Islam as its condition for stopping its activities.
Another demonstration of the group's broader goals beyond what the writer here describes as the ambition of 'perfecting Islam' is Boko Haram's campaign to move all Christians from the North, using recurrent large scale murders through bombs and machine gunning of worshipers in churches, during Sundays and on Christmas day, as a method of persuasion.
Secondly,the effort to link Boko Haram and Niger Delta militancy by claiming that Boko Haram is motivated by social justice in the name of aspirations to equitable resource control is conjectural but is presented as fact. The Niger Delta militants clearly and consistetly stated that they were struggling for fair resource allocation. Boko Haram has never made such claims.
Thirdly, in his description of how El Kanemi was able to protect Borno against the incursions of the Sokoto Caliphate he mentions only Al Kanemi's ideological debate with the Sokoto warriors on the grounds of attacking a fellow Islamic state.
It looked unlikely to me that the Sokoto Caliphate, the agents of the Fulani Jihad that reshaped what is now Northern Nigerian Islam in its own image through both military force and ideological propagation in their literature, such as the books of Uthman Dan Fodio, the warriors who gained ascendancy by conquering other Islamic states, would be deterred purely by ideological correspondence.
The Wikipedia essay on Al-Kanemi, referencing various scholarly works on the subject, describes Al Kanemi as waging his war "against Sokoto not only with weapons but also with letters as he desired to thwart dan Fodio's jihad with the same ideological weapons"
Is it not more accurate, therefore, to describe the war against Boko Haram to be ideally both military and ideological, if one is to adapt El-Kanemi's example?
Secondly, he states that the monarch of the then Sayfawa dynasty in Borno voluntarily withdrew from rulership in orer to allow Al-Kanemi take over the state and protect it against the jihadists.
That again, looked unlikely to me, that a ruler would surrender his position to a person being called in to assist against an invasion.
The Wikipedia essay on Al-Kanemi states that the Sayfawa ruler ' called for the help of Al-Kanemi to repel his Fulani opponents' and ' rewarded [him] with control over a Bornu province on the Western march' and 'becoming both the voice of Bornu in negotiations with Sokoto, as well as a semi independent ruler of a trade rich area with a powerful military'.
The article aserts that the Sayfawa ruler remained on the throne with the help of Al-Kanemi- 'Dunama was deposed by his uncle in 1809, but the support of al-Kanemi brought him back to power in 1813' and the essay on the Kanem-Bornu empire states that the Al-Kanemi dynasty gained complete control of Borno during a civil war : 'Sayfawa mais remained titular monarchs until 1846. In that year, the last mai, in league with Ouaddai tribesmen, precipitated a civil war. It was at that point that Kanem's son, Umar, became king, thus ending one of the longest dynastic reigns in regional history.
Do these qualifications affect significantly my view of the value of his contribution?
What I would say is that I very much admire his efforts to present the crisis as one that is best addressed through a range of approaches.
What I am uncomfortable about is his ignoring Boko Haram's stated goal of imposing an Islamic vision on the nation, his trying to argue a resource control agenda for Boko Haram when the group has never presented such an agenda for itself and his relating his summations to an improbable version of Islamic history.
He demonstrates some of the blind spots recurring in presentations by numbers of Northern Nigerians on the problem.
thanks
toyin
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Daniel Elombah <elombahperspective@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 2:10 PM
Subject: [Nigeria360::Live] What Jonathan needs to do after amnesty for Boko Haram – Prof Alkali
To: "NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com" <nigerianworldforum@yahoogroups.com>
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From: Daniel Elombah <elombahperspective@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 2:10 PM
Subject: [Nigeria360::Live] What Jonathan needs to do after amnesty for Boko Haram – Prof Alkali
To: "NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com" <nigerianworldforum@yahoogroups.com>
What Jonathan needs to do after amnesty for Boko Haram – Prof Alkali
http://elombah.com/index.php/special-reports/15366-what-jonathan-needs-to-do-after-amnesty-for-boko-haram-prof-alkali
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Daniel Elombah
Phone: +44-7435469430
Every Nigerian that has something important to say, says it on www.elombah.com
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http://www.USAfricaonline.com
1st African-owned, U.S.-based professional newspaper published on the internet.
------
CLASS ... The social events and profiles glossy magazine for Africans
in the U.S. and North America. It's the 'Ebony' magazine for the African
professional class across the U.S., north America and the Diaspora
http://www.Classmagazine.tv
-----
-PHOTOWORKS.tv
Our community's photos mega-site of your special events, weddings, anniversaries, etc
http://www.PhotoWorks.tv
.
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