Friday, November 30, 2018

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Nigerian Left and the c

my friend bode ibironke that soyinka's choice of ogun was his vehicle for affirming african/nigerian/yorand imuba. when we read the analysis of the poem, below, it is striking how much the cockroach shared essential traits of ogun

hmmm

changes the reading a lot, doesn't it.n

and reading the poem strickly in close political terms narrows the possibilities, it seems to me

ken



kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

From: 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2018 1:35:55 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Nigerian Left and the c
 
Thanks for sharing. The critic may have been mistaken in the assertion that the Cockroach saw genocidal violence as necessary for the defense of Yoruba culture. Rodney observed that there was no record of genocide against the Igbo by their neighbors before colonialism and neocolonialism.

Biko


On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 11:27 AM, 'Oluwatoyin Ade-Odutola' via USA Africa Dialogue Series
<usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

"Conversation at Night with a Cockroach"

Karen Van Ness '92 (English 32, Spring 1990)

Soyinka discusses the problem of stopping violence in his poem "Conversation at Night with a Cockroach." The situation in Nigeria probably influenced this theme. The Nigerian Civil War, the election of 1965, and following riots, and the general corruption and violence that had plagued Nigerian politics all fit into the theme discussed in the poem. Soyinka structures the poem by means of a dialogue between a man and a cockroach. He gives the human speaker a voice representing his own; the speaker's statements can be assumed to be Soyinka's. The cockroach speaks for the encouragers of violence, it tells humanity to kill for profit and to continue the violence by using lies and treachery. The cockroach replies to the man's protest that too many have died by saying:

I murmured to their riven hearts:
Yet blood must flow, a living flood
Bravely guarded, boldly split

Much of the violence in Nigeria during the time Soyinka was writing was done in the name of lofty causes such as the preservation of Yoruba identity. The cockroach's argument represents these rationalizations for continuing violence. Soyinka finds these words "stale deception, Blasphemer's consolation." Soyinka suggests a force worse than anything humans could produce plagues his nation, thus he uses cockroaches to symbolize this evil. The human speaker claims "Not human attributes were these/that fell upon us". Both the man and the cockroach are aware that the violence is unstoppable due to the cockroach's actions and man's weaknesses. The poem opens with the man addressing the cockroach and lamenting the fact that all of his people's plans for peace have been ruined by the cockroach. The cockroach acknowledges its fault and laughs at the useless attempts by the humans to cleanse their land.

Half-way up your grove of union
We watched you stumble-mere men
Lose footing on the peaks of deities.

Man has given into and joined with evil, according to Soyinka. Although the human speaker condemns the cockroach's falseness, apparently many others have believed in it. A third voice which seems to be an impartial narrator enters the poem and describes

A round table, board
Of the new abiding-man, ghoul, Cockroach,
Jackal and broods of vile crossbreedings
Broke bread to a loud veneration
Of awe-filled creatures of the wild.
Sat to a feast of love-our pulsing hearts!

Soyinka's picturing of man at a love feast with cockroaches and ghouls shows his belief that man has compromised with evil, forming an unnatural, frightening alliance. After witnessing the corruption of the rulers and the nightmares of the violence in Nigeria, it might well have seemed as if man had aligned with some unnatural force.

Throughout the poem, Soyinka uses imagery and symbolism to express his ideas and emotions. In addition to the symbols of the image, Soyinka uses images of the land to help establish the ideas in the poem. The human speaker describes the land as

No air, no earth, no loves or death
Only the brittle sky in harmattan
And in due season, rain to waken the shurb
A hailstone herald to the rouse
Of hills, echoes in canyons, pastures
In the palm of ranges, moss horizons
On distant ridges, anthill spires for milestones.

This image brings out the desolation of the land as well as the mindset of its inhabitants. For example, the phrase "anthill spires for milestones" shows both the flat emptiness of the land and suggests that anthills may be made mentally into milestones. The poems ends when the cockroach

Spread its wings in a feeble sun
And rasped his saw-teeth. A song
Of triumph rose on the deadened air
A feeler probed the awful silence,
Withdrew in foreknowing contentment
All was well. All was even
As it was in the beginning

The most prevalent symbol in "Conversation at Night With a Cockroach", is of course, the cockroach. At once it brings up feelings of subversion, obstinate survival, and disgust, all of which are appropriate associations for the evil that it represents. Fire, another important symbol in the poem, stands for the attempt by mankind to purge the land of evil. The human speaker claims

In that year's crucible we sought
To force impurities in nation weal
Belly-up, heat-drawn by fires
Of truth.

The crucible may stand for the elections of 1965, the first free elections held in Nigeria in several years, or it may stand for the combined attempts to purify Nigeria. The cockroach picks up on this symbolism and states

You lit the fires, you and saw
Your dawn of dawning yield
To our noon of darkness

The election failed to halt the corrupt practices of the ruling party and ended in riots that were to develope into the Biafran War. One of the most striking symbols in the poem is "a mine/ Of gold-filling the teeth of death". This image refers to the perpetuating of violence for personal gain by Nigerian leaders.

Thus Soyinka's poem "Conversation at Night With a Cockroach" paints a bleak picture for mankind. Soyinka finds the actions of mankind to be worthy of cockroaches, not men. The fact that the conversation is at night as suggested by the title furthers the idea that humanity is lost in darkness. Soyinka shows no solution to the problems he presents, probally because he had seen the same cycles of violence repeated over and over again. He sums up his resignation to disaster in the prayer of the men in the poem: "May Heaven comfort you;/ On earth, our fears must teach us silence."





On Thursday, November 29, 2018, 9:59:22 AM EST, 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:


Strange to know that, instead of writing a rejoinder, some leftists who suffered from what Lenin diagnosed as an infantile disorder wanted to beat up Comrade Eskor for challenging them to go beyond armchair leftwing communism and engage in the national democratic revolution. 

Yet no leftists threatened to beat up the military dictators for suspending the constitution and ruling by decree. Some even rallied behind the military during the genocide against the Igbo under the petty bourgeois ideology of national defencism. 

Soyinka said it best in his dialogue with the Cockroach poem which ended when the left wing and the right wing of the Cockroach spread to carry the pest away.

Biko



On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 5:07 AM, Chido Onumah
<conumah@hotmail.com> wrote:






Regards,
Chido Onumah

Coordinator, African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL: www.africmil.org)



--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Posted by at No comments:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: War against Boko Haram

Ai never tell you finish:

To Boko Haram we could preach peace and love , understanding and reconciliation not war...

Re- Melanin : An interesting essay by Miles : Blackness

This was very funny - in this case no pathetic fallacy with regard to a perceived illness : " if someone is thinking about his illness, that it is a healthy thing, that is only a sign that his illness is more forcible and needs a healing, a treatment , as soon as possible "


On Saturday, 1 December 2018 00:43:36 UTC+1, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:

Prince of peace

I had better try to steal some of their thunder: In anticipation of an avalanche of protests from both the weak and the strong Buharists like me, let me clarify that for me, at the time of writing what I wrote, it was something like a pathetic fallacy matching the sheer helplessness of the commander-in-chief - the supreme commander Buhari & the Naija military in their perennial fight against Boko Haram and that Brother Buhari was not visibly " looking so frail so weak and ill, swaying in the wind while standing at that podium"; on the contrary as we can see him inspecting the guard of honour here, he was looking efficient, at home in his natural domain, stronger and more self-confident than ever , if anything, with added melanin to his facial features. It's a good mantra: melanin !

Re- this Professor Jibrin Ibrahim paragraph and the paragraph after it (All the more poignantly bearing in mind that the overwhelming majority of Boko Haram victims are innocent fellow Nigerian Muslims, other fellow human beings, fellow Christians and Muslim and commander-in-chief could also preach the non-violent option and make the direct appeals that should not only be the option of the ulema) : Hum Allah

" The damage from the mass communication of Boko Haram ideology must therefore be counteracted and minimized. The clergy has an important role in challenging and deconstructing Boko Haram's ideology. Already, (M)any ulema have criticized the religious ideology of Boko Haram in numerous sermons and books, articulating robust theological refutations of Boko Haram ideology by highlighting the many Qur'anic verses, Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as doctrines and tenets in the traditions of Islamic learning that are clearly opposed to violent extremism. The challenge is getting this narrative to the millions of poor uprooted youth who see no viable future for themselves in Nigeria's current trajectory of poor governance, corruption, collapse of the educational system and lack of jobs."

Also the challenge of providing relief from poverty in that most destitute area inhabited by "the largest number of poor people in the world, the greatest number residing in the North East and North West.", the killing fields of Boko Haram

Summun Bukmun Umyun


On Friday, 30 November 2018 17:01:40 UTC+1, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:

"That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you " ( It's alright ma )

A very sad day indeed to read this genocidal statement :

"He added that the elimination of the insurgents from the face of the earth would not be compromised by his administration"

Did Buhari actually say this? Yes he did. I just checked here his long, winding, lacklustre, rather academic speech, he himself looking so frail so weak and ill, swaying in the wind while standing at that podium repeating the main mantras a couple of times, statesman-like in content for sure, but not more , about his government's responsibility, ( yes we all know that) but neither eloquent nor forceful or inspiring like Churchill - President Buhari' merely reiterates (with apologies) the necessity of providing security for the citizens of Borno state and the rest of Nigeria., the exact words that we have heard him say on a few dozen earlier occasions since the very start of his presidency on May 29, 2015...

Are there no other creative approaches for coming to peace terms with Boko Haram – apart from wanting "to eliminate them from the surface of the earth" ? Amnesty? Exchange of prisoners? Some kind of negotiations? How many are they anyway?

As Professor Jibrin Ibrahim so insightfully points out, " Winning the war is however virtually impossible if we are unable to address the conditions that led to the insurgency in the first place "

There are other questions such as from where do Boko Haram get their members, weapons, financing and logistic support ? Can Boko Haram's motivation be downgraded?

In September, 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan said, "Boko Haram is everywhere, in the executive arm of government, in the legislative arm of government and even in the judiciary. Some are also in the armed forces, the police and other security agencies. Some continue to dip their hands and eat with you and you won't even know the person who will point a gun at you or plant a bomb behind your house."

At which time military brass Buhari was giving the impression that " piece of cake" within a few months of his presidency, Boko Haram would be a thing of the past. That has not happened. What does he intend to do differently? I wouldn't be happy either if some military brass in Israel were to declare that they were going " to eliminate Hamas from the face of the earth"

Buhari did declare war on Boko Haram a long time ago when he took over as commander-in-chief of the military and he he still hasn't "won" the war; so what has been taking him so long ? And now when it's just a few weeks to the presidential elections once again he wants to assure Nigerians and the outside world that he is going to " complete the task" - but when?

He doesn't sound either convinced or convincing...

Meanwhile, Chad – Israel relations appear to be moving forward and security cooperation is obviously on the agenda

Buhari, Buhari, where - what are his priorities? Here there's a lot that had better remain unsaid..


On Friday, 30 November 2018 14:11:05 UTC+1, jibrinibrahim891 wrote:

Winning the War against Boko Haram

Jibrin Ibrahim, Friday Column, Daily Trust, 30thNovember 2018

On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari declared that the war against Boko Haram is a "must win" so that Nigeria can forge ahead in its quest for even development and national stability. He added that the elimination of the insurgents from the face of the earth would not be compromised by his administration just as the safety and security of all Nigerians in any part of the country remains sacrosanct. The comments were made in Maiduguri while opening this year's Chief of Army Staff annual conference.

The context of the speech is the escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency with a growing number of attacks on military formations and the routing of our soldiers on many occasions. In a sense, the mission of the President was to raise the morale of the troops and encourage them to step up the fight against the insurgency. It was in this context that President Buhari praised the Nigerian Army's efforts that have led to the dislodgement of insurgents from areas hitherto viewed as their strongholds, the continued process of rescue of abducted persons and the return of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their homes. Normalcy, he assured the troops and Nigerians is gradually returning to the North East. I believe very few Nigerians would agree with this conclusion of the return of normalcy.

Nonetheless, I join the President in commending the selfless sacrifices of most members of our Armed Forces engaged in numerous operations in thirty-two out of the thirty-six states in the country. All Nigerians are distraught at the loss of life of so many officers and men of our security agencies. The President acknowledged the recent operational losses in the northern part of Borno, particularly in Jilli, Arege and Metele. A controversy has emerged between the media and the army on the casualty levels emanating from the attacks. After a long period of silence, theChief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, on Wednesday said only 23 soldiers were killed in the Boko Haram attack on Nigerian Army 157 Task Force Battalion at Metele. Reporting from the media have however revealed that at least 118 soldiers were killed during the November 18thattack at Metele. The Army only issued its first statement on November 24, following widespread media coverage and growing anger of Nigerians at the growing strength of the insurgency. The statement from the army merely acknowledged the terrorists had struck again in Metele and threatened social media users to desist from circulating false information. Meanwhile, some of the names of the fallen officers and men have been researched and revealed and even their photographs have been circulating in the social media. Clearly, the approach of the armed forces is to minimize the loses and their media units have been castigating those talking of high casualty figures as unpatriotic. The fact of the matter is that both for the communities concerned and the armed forces involved, there is knowledge about the high casualty rates and that knowledge has been filtering back.

The greatest concern for all of us should be the concordant reports about the degraded arms, equipment and supplies of our troops. If the insurgents are scoring points, it must be because they are developing relative advantage vis-à-vis our troops and that's what needs to be addressed. Refusing to admit loses, denying them or minimizing the numbers does not help the situation. The real threat to success in defeating the insurgency is the developing war economy in which resources for fighting the war are diverted by some unscrupulous officers. 

Winning the war is however no easy matter. Asymmetrical warfare is very difficult to win because the insurgents can hide and strike almost at will. Winning the war is however virtually impossible if we are unable to address the conditions that led to the insurgency in the first place. Today, Nigeria finds itself in the frightening position of having the largest number of out of school children in the world, 13,2 million. At the same time, we now have the largest number of poor people in the world, the greatest number residing in the North East and North West. The war could be ended militarily but given the social conditions in the country, new fronts could easily re-emerge. Ending the war would also require extensive and intensive work developing and popularizing counter-radical narratives, so that potential recruits into violent extremism are dissuaded. The damage from the mass communication of Boko Haram ideology must therefore be counteracted and minimized. The clergy has an important role in challenging and deconstructing Boko Haram's ideology. Already, any ulema have criticized the religious ideology of Boko Haram in numerous sermons and books, articulating robust theological refutations of Boko Haram ideology by highlighting the many Qur'anic verses, Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as doctrines and tenets in the traditions of Islamic learning that are clearly opposed to violent extremism. The challenge is getting this narrative to the millions of poor uprooted youth who see no viable future for themselves in Nigeria's current trajectory of poor governance, corruption, collapse of the educational system and lack of jobs.

The effort to construct and publicize narratives against violent extremism should not be restricted to religious narratives only. The tragic consequences of violent extremism against the innocent are an important theme around which powerful counter-radical narratives can be articulated to respond to Boko Haram's ideological construction of its own victimhood and struggle for justice. One way to do so is to publicise the horrendous consequences of violence on the lives of specific individuals who have been victims of Boko Haram attacks, which have traumatised people in so many different ways. Video recording of survivors' testimonies should be massively aired. Similarly, the grave potential of radicalisation to escalate into violence should be amply illustrated, so that potential recruits are exposed to the terrible effects of violent extremism on fellow human beings. Winning the war against Boko Haram is a medium-term agenda that has to go far beyond the military component we have been focused on. Meanwhile, the first step is indeed raising the capacity of the armed forces to continue to degrade the fighting capacity of the insurgents.   

 

 


Professor Jibrin Ibrahim
Senior Fellow
Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja
Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Posted by at No comments:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: War against Boko Haram

Prince of peace

I had better try to steal some of their thunder: In anticipation of an avalanche of protests from both the weak and the strong Buharists like me, let me clarify that for me, at the time of writing what I wrote, it was something like a pathetic fallacy matching the sheer helplessness of the commander-in-chief - the supreme commander Buhari & the Naija military in their perennial fight against Boko Haram and that Brother Buhari was not visibly " looking so frail so weak and ill, swaying in the wind while standing at that podium"; on the contrary as we can see him inspecting the guard of honour here, he was looking efficient, at home in his natural domain, stronger and more self-confident than ever , if anything, with added melanin to his facial features. It's a good mantra: melanin !

Re- this Professor Jibrin Ibrahim paragraph and the paragraph after it (All the more poignantly bearing in mind that the overwhelming majority of Boko Haram victims are innocent fellow Nigerian Muslims, other fellow human beings, fellow Christians and Muslim and commander-in-chief could also preach the non-violent option and make the direct appeals that should not only be the option of the ulema) : Hum Allah

" The damage from the mass communication of Boko Haram ideology must therefore be counteracted and minimized. The clergy has an important role in challenging and deconstructing Boko Haram's ideology. Already, (M)any ulema have criticized the religious ideology of Boko Haram in numerous sermons and books, articulating robust theological refutations of Boko Haram ideology by highlighting the many Qur'anic verses, Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as doctrines and tenets in the traditions of Islamic learning that are clearly opposed to violent extremism. The challenge is getting this narrative to the millions of poor uprooted youth who see no viable future for themselves in Nigeria's current trajectory of poor governance, corruption, collapse of the educational system and lack of jobs."

Also the challenge of providing relief from poverty in that most destitute area inhabited by "the largest number of poor people in the world, the greatest number residing in the North East and North West.", the killing fields of Boko Haram

Summun Bukmun Umyun


On Friday, 30 November 2018 17:01:40 UTC+1, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:

"That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you " ( It's alright ma )

A very sad day indeed to read this genocidal statement :

"He added that the elimination of the insurgents from the face of the earth would not be compromised by his administration"

Did Buhari actually say this? Yes he did. I just checked here his long, winding, lacklustre, rather academic speech, he himself looking so frail so weak and ill, swaying in the wind while standing at that podium repeating the main mantras a couple of times, statesman-like in content for sure, but not more , about his government's responsibility, ( yes we all know that) but neither eloquent nor forceful or inspiring like Churchill - President Buhari' merely reiterates (with apologies) the necessity of providing security for the citizens of Borno state and the rest of Nigeria., the exact words that we have heard him say on a few dozen earlier occasions since the very start of his presidency on May 29, 2015...

Are there no other creative approaches for coming to peace terms with Boko Haram – apart from wanting "to eliminate them from the surface of the earth" ? Amnesty? Exchange of prisoners? Some kind of negotiations? How many are they anyway?

As Professor Jibrin Ibrahim so insightfully points out, " Winning the war is however virtually impossible if we are unable to address the conditions that led to the insurgency in the first place "

There are other questions such as from where do Boko Haram get their members, weapons, financing and logistic support ? Can Boko Haram's motivation be downgraded?

In September, 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan said, "Boko Haram is everywhere, in the executive arm of government, in the legislative arm of government and even in the judiciary. Some are also in the armed forces, the police and other security agencies. Some continue to dip their hands and eat with you and you won't even know the person who will point a gun at you or plant a bomb behind your house."

At which time military brass Buhari was giving the impression that " piece of cake" within a few months of his presidency, Boko Haram would be a thing of the past. That has not happened. What does he intend to do differently? I wouldn't be happy either if some military brass in Israel were to declare that they were going " to eliminate Hamas from the face of the earth"

Buhari did declare war on Boko Haram a long time ago when he took over as commander-in-chief of the military and he he still hasn't "won" the war; so what has been taking him so long ? And now when it's just a few weeks to the presidential elections once again he wants to assure Nigerians and the outside world that he is going to " complete the task" - but when?

He doesn't sound either convinced or convincing...

Meanwhile, Chad – Israel relations appear to be moving forward and security cooperation is obviously on the agenda

Buhari, Buhari, where - what are his priorities? Here there's a lot that had better remain unsaid..


On Friday, 30 November 2018 14:11:05 UTC+1, jibrinibrahim891 wrote:

Winning the War against Boko Haram

Jibrin Ibrahim, Friday Column, Daily Trust, 30thNovember 2018

On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari declared that the war against Boko Haram is a "must win" so that Nigeria can forge ahead in its quest for even development and national stability. He added that the elimination of the insurgents from the face of the earth would not be compromised by his administration just as the safety and security of all Nigerians in any part of the country remains sacrosanct. The comments were made in Maiduguri while opening this year's Chief of Army Staff annual conference.

The context of the speech is the escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency with a growing number of attacks on military formations and the routing of our soldiers on many occasions. In a sense, the mission of the President was to raise the morale of the troops and encourage them to step up the fight against the insurgency. It was in this context that President Buhari praised the Nigerian Army's efforts that have led to the dislodgement of insurgents from areas hitherto viewed as their strongholds, the continued process of rescue of abducted persons and the return of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their homes. Normalcy, he assured the troops and Nigerians is gradually returning to the North East. I believe very few Nigerians would agree with this conclusion of the return of normalcy.

Nonetheless, I join the President in commending the selfless sacrifices of most members of our Armed Forces engaged in numerous operations in thirty-two out of the thirty-six states in the country. All Nigerians are distraught at the loss of life of so many officers and men of our security agencies. The President acknowledged the recent operational losses in the northern part of Borno, particularly in Jilli, Arege and Metele. A controversy has emerged between the media and the army on the casualty levels emanating from the attacks. After a long period of silence, theChief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, on Wednesday said only 23 soldiers were killed in the Boko Haram attack on Nigerian Army 157 Task Force Battalion at Metele. Reporting from the media have however revealed that at least 118 soldiers were killed during the November 18thattack at Metele. The Army only issued its first statement on November 24, following widespread media coverage and growing anger of Nigerians at the growing strength of the insurgency. The statement from the army merely acknowledged the terrorists had struck again in Metele and threatened social media users to desist from circulating false information. Meanwhile, some of the names of the fallen officers and men have been researched and revealed and even their photographs have been circulating in the social media. Clearly, the approach of the armed forces is to minimize the loses and their media units have been castigating those talking of high casualty figures as unpatriotic. The fact of the matter is that both for the communities concerned and the armed forces involved, there is knowledge about the high casualty rates and that knowledge has been filtering back.

The greatest concern for all of us should be the concordant reports about the degraded arms, equipment and supplies of our troops. If the insurgents are scoring points, it must be because they are developing relative advantage vis-à-vis our troops and that's what needs to be addressed. Refusing to admit loses, denying them or minimizing the numbers does not help the situation. The real threat to success in defeating the insurgency is the developing war economy in which resources for fighting the war are diverted by some unscrupulous officers. 

Winning the war is however no easy matter. Asymmetrical warfare is very difficult to win because the insurgents can hide and strike almost at will. Winning the war is however virtually impossible if we are unable to address the conditions that led to the insurgency in the first place. Today, Nigeria finds itself in the frightening position of having the largest number of out of school children in the world, 13,2 million. At the same time, we now have the largest number of poor people in the world, the greatest number residing in the North East and North West. The war could be ended militarily but given the social conditions in the country, new fronts could easily re-emerge. Ending the war would also require extensive and intensive work developing and popularizing counter-radical narratives, so that potential recruits into violent extremism are dissuaded. The damage from the mass communication of Boko Haram ideology must therefore be counteracted and minimized. The clergy has an important role in challenging and deconstructing Boko Haram's ideology. Already, any ulema have criticized the religious ideology of Boko Haram in numerous sermons and books, articulating robust theological refutations of Boko Haram ideology by highlighting the many Qur'anic verses, Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as doctrines and tenets in the traditions of Islamic learning that are clearly opposed to violent extremism. The challenge is getting this narrative to the millions of poor uprooted youth who see no viable future for themselves in Nigeria's current trajectory of poor governance, corruption, collapse of the educational system and lack of jobs.

The effort to construct and publicize narratives against violent extremism should not be restricted to religious narratives only. The tragic consequences of violent extremism against the innocent are an important theme around which powerful counter-radical narratives can be articulated to respond to Boko Haram's ideological construction of its own victimhood and struggle for justice. One way to do so is to publicise the horrendous consequences of violence on the lives of specific individuals who have been victims of Boko Haram attacks, which have traumatised people in so many different ways. Video recording of survivors' testimonies should be massively aired. Similarly, the grave potential of radicalisation to escalate into violence should be amply illustrated, so that potential recruits are exposed to the terrible effects of violent extremism on fellow human beings. Winning the war against Boko Haram is a medium-term agenda that has to go far beyond the military component we have been focused on. Meanwhile, the first step is indeed raising the capacity of the armed forces to continue to degrade the fighting capacity of the insurgents.   

 

 


Professor Jibrin Ibrahim
Senior Fellow
Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja
Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Posted by at No comments:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Call for applications - Eiffel Scholarship - PhD Programs - Scholarship & Career

Posted by at No comments:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Hong Kong Fellowship Sheme - Scholarship & Career

Posted by at No comments:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Future of Humanity Institute Scholarships, Oxford University - Scholarship & Career

Posted by at No comments:

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: War against Boko Haram

"That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you " ( It's alright ma )

A very sad day indeed to read this genocidal statement :

"He added that the elimination of the insurgents from the face of the earth would not be compromised by his administration"

Did Buhari actually say this? Yes he did. I just checked here his long, winding, lacklustre, rather academic speech, he himself looking so frail so weak and ill, swaying in the wind while standing at that podium repeating the main mantras a couple of times, statesman-like in content for sure, but not more , about his government's responsibility, ( yes we all know that) but neither eloquent nor forceful or inspiring like Churchill - President Buhari' merely reiterates (with apologies) the necessity of providing security for the citizens of Borno state and the rest of Nigeria., the exact words that we have heard him say on a few dozen earlier occasions since the very start of his presidency on May 29, 2015...

Are there no other creative approaches for coming to peace terms with Boko Haram – apart from wanting "to eliminate them from the surface of the earth" ? Amnesty? Exchange of prisoners? Some kind of negotiations? How many are they anyway?

As Professor Jibrin Ibrahim so insightfully points out, " Winning the war is however virtually impossible if we are unable to address the conditions that led to the insurgency in the first place "

There are other questions such as from where do Boko Haram get their members, weapons, financing and logistic support ? Can Boko Haram's motivation be downgraded?

In September, 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan said, "Boko Haram is everywhere, in the executive arm of government, in the legislative arm of government and even in the judiciary. Some are also in the armed forces, the police and other security agencies. Some continue to dip their hands and eat with you and you won't even know the person who will point a gun at you or plant a bomb behind your house."

At which time military brass Buhari was giving the impression that " piece of cake" within a few months of his presidency, Boko Haram would be a thing of the past. That has not happened. What does he intend to do differently? I wouldn't be happy either if some military brass in Israel were to declare that they were going " to eliminate Hamas from the face of the earth"

Buhari did declare war on Boko Haram a long time ago when he took over as commander-in-chief of the military and he he still hasn't "won" the war; so what has been taking him so long ? And now when it's just a few weeks to the presidential elections once again he wants to assure Nigerians and the outside world that he is going to " complete the task" - but when?

He doesn't sound either convinced or convincing...

Meanwhile, Chad – Israel relations appear to be moving forward and security cooperation is obviously on the agenda

Buhari, Buhari, where - what are his priorities? Here there's a lot that had better remain unsaid..


On Friday, 30 November 2018 14:11:05 UTC+1, jibrinibrahim891 wrote:

Winning the War against Boko Haram

Jibrin Ibrahim, Friday Column, Daily Trust, 30thNovember 2018

On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari declared that the war against Boko Haram is a "must win" so that Nigeria can forge ahead in its quest for even development and national stability. He added that the elimination of the insurgents from the face of the earth would not be compromised by his administration just as the safety and security of all Nigerians in any part of the country remains sacrosanct. The comments were made in Maiduguri while opening this year's Chief of Army Staff annual conference.

The context of the speech is the escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency with a growing number of attacks on military formations and the routing of our soldiers on many occasions. In a sense, the mission of the President was to raise the morale of the troops and encourage them to step up the fight against the insurgency. It was in this context that President Buhari praised the Nigerian Army's efforts that have led to the dislodgement of insurgents from areas hitherto viewed as their strongholds, the continued process of rescue of abducted persons and the return of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their homes. Normalcy, he assured the troops and Nigerians is gradually returning to the North East. I believe very few Nigerians would agree with this conclusion of the return of normalcy.

Nonetheless, I join the President in commending the selfless sacrifices of most members of our Armed Forces engaged in numerous operations in thirty-two out of the thirty-six states in the country. All Nigerians are distraught at the loss of life of so many officers and men of our security agencies. The President acknowledged the recent operational losses in the northern part of Borno, particularly in Jilli, Arege and Metele. A controversy has emerged between the media and the army on the casualty levels emanating from the attacks. After a long period of silence, theChief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, on Wednesday said only 23 soldiers were killed in the Boko Haram attack on Nigerian Army 157 Task Force Battalion at Metele. Reporting from the media have however revealed that at least 118 soldiers were killed during the November 18thattack at Metele. The Army only issued its first statement on November 24, following widespread media coverage and growing anger of Nigerians at the growing strength of the insurgency. The statement from the army merely acknowledged the terrorists had struck again in Metele and threatened social media users to desist from circulating false information. Meanwhile, some of the names of the fallen officers and men have been researched and revealed and even their photographs have been circulating in the social media. Clearly, the approach of the armed forces is to minimize the loses and their media units have been castigating those talking of high casualty figures as unpatriotic. The fact of the matter is that both for the communities concerned and the armed forces involved, there is knowledge about the high casualty rates and that knowledge has been filtering back.

The greatest concern for all of us should be the concordant reports about the degraded arms, equipment and supplies of our troops. If the insurgents are scoring points, it must be because they are developing relative advantage vis-à-vis our troops and that's what needs to be addressed. Refusing to admit loses, denying them or minimizing the numbers does not help the situation. The real threat to success in defeating the insurgency is the developing war economy in which resources for fighting the war are diverted by some unscrupulous officers. 

Winning the war is however no easy matter. Asymmetrical warfare is very difficult to win because the insurgents can hide and strike almost at will. Winning the war is however virtually impossible if we are unable to address the conditions that led to the insurgency in the first place. Today, Nigeria finds itself in the frightening position of having the largest number of out of school children in the world, 13,2 million. At the same time, we now have the largest number of poor people in the world, the greatest number residing in the North East and North West. The war could be ended militarily but given the social conditions in the country, new fronts could easily re-emerge. Ending the war would also require extensive and intensive work developing and popularizing counter-radical narratives, so that potential recruits into violent extremism are dissuaded. The damage from the mass communication of Boko Haram ideology must therefore be counteracted and minimized. The clergy has an important role in challenging and deconstructing Boko Haram's ideology. Already, any ulema have criticized the religious ideology of Boko Haram in numerous sermons and books, articulating robust theological refutations of Boko Haram ideology by highlighting the many Qur'anic verses, Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as doctrines and tenets in the traditions of Islamic learning that are clearly opposed to violent extremism. The challenge is getting this narrative to the millions of poor uprooted youth who see no viable future for themselves in Nigeria's current trajectory of poor governance, corruption, collapse of the educational system and lack of jobs.

The effort to construct and publicize narratives against violent extremism should not be restricted to religious narratives only. The tragic consequences of violent extremism against the innocent are an important theme around which powerful counter-radical narratives can be articulated to respond to Boko Haram's ideological construction of its own victimhood and struggle for justice. One way to do so is to publicise the horrendous consequences of violence on the lives of specific individuals who have been victims of Boko Haram attacks, which have traumatised people in so many different ways. Video recording of survivors' testimonies should be massively aired. Similarly, the grave potential of radicalisation to escalate into violence should be amply illustrated, so that potential recruits are exposed to the terrible effects of violent extremism on fellow human beings. Winning the war against Boko Haram is a medium-term agenda that has to go far beyond the military component we have been focused on. Meanwhile, the first step is indeed raising the capacity of the armed forces to continue to degrade the fighting capacity of the insurgents.   

 

 


Professor Jibrin Ibrahim
Senior Fellow
Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja
Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
 
Vida de bombeiro Recipes Informatica Humor Jokes Mensagens Curiosity Saude Video Games Car Blog Animals Diario das Mensagens Eletronica Rei Jesus News Noticias da TV Artesanato Esportes Noticias Atuais Games Pets Career Religion Recreation Business Education Autos Academics Style Television Programming Motosport Humor News The Games Home Downs World News Internet Car Design Entertaimment Celebrities 1001 Games Doctor Pets Net Downs World Enter Jesus Variedade Mensagensr Android Rub Letras Dialogue cosmetics Genexus Car net Só Humor Curiosity Gifs Medical Female American Health Madeira Designer PPS Divertidas Estate Travel Estate Writing Computer Matilde Ocultos Matilde futebolcomnoticias girassol lettheworldturn topdigitalnet Bem amado enjohnny produceideas foodasticos cronicasdoimaginario downloadsdegraca compactandoletras newcuriosidades blogdoarmario arrozinhoii sonasol halfbakedtaters make-it-plain amatha