Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram…ONLY the Nigerian Government can place a bounty on him
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of Nigeria...Where exactly is Shekau, Mr President?
IGP M.D Abubakar…My friend, where is Shekau?
President Barack Obama…Nigeria is not Pakistan.
The African situation is such that anyone with a sense of history cannot help, but weep uncontrollably like Rachel of Ramah who wept such that she could not be comforted because her children were no more. Why is it that Africans don’t learn from history despite all that had befallen them-they who are the precursors of civilizations having had their great and self-dependent civilization destroyed by the forces of invaders from the East (Arabs) and the West (the Caucasians) have refused to learn anything, not even after the invasion which led to the destruction of the African civilization culminating in the early dispersion of the race Southward to colonialism, neo-colonialism and later globalization which still places them at a great disadvantage compared to the rest of the world.
It is heart-rending to see that a continent so blessed, the most blessed of the continents of the world in all things imaginable, yet has allowed herself to be consigned eternally (?) to the Beautiful Gate. Africa’s very pathetic situation is such that one is sometimes pushed to a point of extremity to ask a seeming foolish question: What’s the point of independence in the continent if every nation State in the continent has to rely on the very forces that had conspired to bring the continent to her knees for everything under the earth despite the self-dependent nature of her civilization. It is an indisputable fact that every up and coming civilization has had to depend on Africa’s resources for their boom, survival and continuity, whereas Africa, the owner of these resources lays prostrate by the pool of paralysis.
In the 21st century, it is not hard to discern that the same band of conspiratorial plunderers, expropriators, destroyers of its civilization are covertly and overtly making a comeback scrambling for its resources as ever. This heightened interest in Africa began at the close of the 20th century. As in the past, the interested parties again are the traditional invaders-the Arabs and the West and lately China. But the tempo of the 21st century scramble for Africa rose sharply with the inauguration of the Africa-China relationship on November 5, 2006 which saw 48 African rulers, not leaders, gathered in China in what was termed Africa-China Alliance. Since then the West which sensed it had lost Africa to China became jittery and began its panicky measures of re-engaging Africa in what they like to trumpet when it pleases them as the new alliance of co-equals in contradistinction to the erstwhile master-servant-relationship or the Headmaster-pupil relationship. In turning to the East, Robert Mugabe whom the West loves to hate succinctly captured Africa’s romance with China thus: “Since the sun has set in the West, we now turn to the East where the sun rises.” Whilst the re-engagement with Africa by the West is coming through aid, commerce, and grudgingly through skills, service and technology transfer, the Arabs as in the days of old has been through violence in the name of jihad aimed delusively at Islamization of the continent using the worn out and very trite expression/vision of Muslim Ummah and through the instrumentality of “Sharia Creep”. In doing violence to Africa, the Arabs as usual are using foolish and gullible young Africans brow-beaten by Africa’s bestial economic systems which have in every respect fuelled abysmal corruption level in the continent leaving many young persons of African ancestry disillusioned, disenchanted and extremely frustrated to the point of wanting to avenge the wrongs and having been turned into walking volcanoes found Islamist extremism an ideology to embrace and as the very conveyor of that vengeance which often manifests in terror activities as found in Somalia, the then Sudan (Darfur), South Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria (Boko Haram,and Ansaru, etc), the so-called Arab Spring which of course started in Tunisia in North Africa and spread to other countries of North Africa and then jumped to the core Arab states and afterwards some peripheral Arab States.
Other stupid Africans being used by the Arabs are politicians, emirs and other traditional rulers whose ancestors were responsible in selling Africans into slavery!
Not surprising, the China-Africa Alliance which trumpeted equality at its inauguration is gradually laying the foundation of modern apartheid in Africa such that Chinese like the colonialists of old now treat Africans-the providers of resources for its effervescent economy as hewers of woods and fetchers of water. In Nigeria, I hear they already have Chinese Village. But if you wonder how the Chinese in Nigeria are treating Nigerians, then you need to take a geometrical leap to the colonial days or apartheid South Africa of old! Besides, from my observatory, I can seen China as she treats Africa like a baby or suckling ever needing pap from its mother and if the mother must achieve some modicum of peace, the feeding bottle must always remain in the mouth of the baby so as to allow the mother in this case China engage in the real activities of carting away its resources to build her economy to take her jobless children off the streets, whilst myriads of young Africans are daily sent to the streets where the agents of Arabs do recruit them for the destruction of Africa through terrorism.
Ludicrously, China is building this, building that – I mean all sorts of things (infrastructure) using materials of the basest quality including exporting its inferior manufactured goods to Africa, whereas this same China in her dealings with the West use materials of the best quality in compliance with international standards!
Also, the United States of America and Britain in re-engaging Africa have too not surprising are still toeing the old path of master-servant, master-slave, king-subject relationships barking at Africa at will and threatening to withdraw aid if she fails to abide by their “instructions” and “directives” regarding such things as gayism amongst many, many others. As in the olden times, when it comes to dealing with Africa, the words “diplomacy and “persuasion suddenly disappear from their political dictionaries. Diplomats from these nations treat African States with utter disrespect as they constantly meddle with the internal affairs of their host countries failing to recognize these African States as sovereign nations as they seek always to teach and tell them what to do. In recent times, I have had to remind America that Nigeria is a sovereign State and not her colony or a trust territory in which she has been mandated by the United Nations to look after her. For example, during the recent Baga exercise in which the Nigerian authorities are doing their best to root out the Boko Haram menace, it was reported the U.S. had sent its team all the way from America to probe the purported human rights violations arising from what they termed “extra-judicial killings” in the former fishing community, which incidentally, this writer had carried out major investigations on desertification, mega dams and massive irrigation projects as they affected the ecology of Northern Nigeria including traditional agriculture and live stock farming. America and Britain only resorted to issuing press statements after the publication of my scathing article. Whilst this hyper-hypocrisy is to be condemned in its entirety, the pertinent question to ask at this juncture is not only where were America and Britain when Christians and Igbos of the same country Nigeria were being butchered and just how many civilians had been killed and are still being killed in their so-called campaigns in Iraq and Afgahnistan? Guantanamo Bay?
Just while one was about to heave a sigh of relief that America particularly, has allowed common sense to prevail, to my embarrassment, and not to the embarrassment of other compatriots including the President of Nigeria Mr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the Inspector-General of Police M.D. Abubakar who both should hang their heads in shame as they were all behaving like excited tilapias in a village river when America placed a bounty of $7 million dollars on Abubakar Shekau the leader of the murderous sect Boko Haram, meaning anyone who could give information leading to his arrest would definitely smile to the bank with such a bonanza! Such disregard for the sovereignty of the Nigerian State is as embarrassing as it is amusing. Amusing especially, because I refuse to believe from this side of the Atlantic that the Inspector-General of Police, his boss the President of Nigeria Mr Jonathan together with the other bunch of good-for-nothing security chiefs who often boast as strategists and about their so-called unparalleled intelligence expertise do not know where the ring leader of the murderous Boko Haram sect is being quartered right now and shielded by all those who created it in the first place to do battle with their Southern Nigerian compatriots.
Before someone gets me wrong, let me hasten to add that I’m a believer in internationalism and the co-operation of nation States, but decency and mutual respect of nation States require that such things as placing a bounty on a street urchin who had been groomed by politicians of a country like Nigeria with vested interest should be left for appropriate authorities in an oil rich- Nigeria to so do. Better still, if as it has been found that the people in government in Nigeria are not only morally bankrupt, but destitute of ideas, the best the US could have done was to suggest to the authorities of an oil-rich Nigeria to place a bounty on the monster, especially where Uncle Sam is not treating an oil-rich Nigeria as her colony. In all honesty, it seems to me in going ahead with this unwarranted benevolence, Obama’s America will be robbing Peter-its hardworking taxpayers to pay Paul- in this case oil-rich Nigeria.
What all compatriots who like excited school boys and girls jumping from one end of the Niger and Benue Rivers all because America had announced such a political magnanimity do not know is that by that highly political philanthropism America is simply saying: “Thou fools, you simply cannot solve such simple and basic threat to your national security, yet you call yourself a nation; America is telling the Government and people of Nigeria what they ought to have done long ago and to the shame of the IGP, it is a serious indictment on him on how for so long he has remained politically clueless as to the whereabouts of Abubakar Shekau. If an ant crosses Jonathan’s path and the next cry by him and his so-called security chiefs is to put a call through to Washington-a sort of SOS to Obama, Africa’s new Headmaster, what then is the purpose of Nigeria’s independence? If an earthworm courses through Mali and the Malians start calling for help from France, again, the question is: What’s the purpose of Malian independence?
What really I can see from America’s point of view is to start treating Nigeria like another Pakistan where at will it enters her territory with drones and snipers unannounced, but will Nigeria at such a time still remain as excited as they are now because America has promised a bounty?
Africa and Africans to me appear so helpless that often when there is a challenge/crisis they don’t first attempt to explore and exhaust local/national and then continental help, and as a last resort seek outside help- help outside Africa. At individual level, I have had to challenge the so-called activists from Africa when they come over here to seek pounds to feed their lavish lifestyles in the guise of looking for solution or seeking help if they had discussed “this very matter” with their counterparts in other African nations and the answer had always been a resounding “NO!” On my part each time I have received a “NO!” from them I have always blasted and blasted them before those who had gathered round them after their spurious lectures asking how they could contribute to their “cause” and letting them know so far they had not first sought solutions to them first, in their countries and then continentally, but had to rush down to the West to come and disgrace their countries and Africa, and indeed, all persons of African ancestry, they had merely rush down here for pounds sterling!
The excuse Nigeria and other African nations often give regarding terrorism is that it is new. But all serious nations and continents since the 9/11, 2001 had planned ahead of time as to how to meet the new threats whenever it arrived on their shores. Nigeria particularly, cannot claim I have not been warning them since 1989 about religious wars, and by extension, Africa. In fact, during the 9/11, it was reported America traced a Nigerian who was connected with the plot to Kano and then in my capacity as Chairman Editorial Board of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc I had warned the Nigerian State of the aftermath and what would eventually come with a strong emphasis that no nation could survive religious war. I ran a series of articles for eight weeks entitled: The pain in a region of my soul: They have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Yet when the United Nations Headquarters in Nigeria was bombed on August 26, 2011, former Police Commissioner Zakari Biu , said like a baby: “I did not know they would get there.” Also, I remember during the Madrid bombings of 2004, I wrote an article as a Columnist published in the City University of London’s Department of Journalism website called: City-side warning the whole wide world how terrorists would not spare critical infrastructure of nations and warning what was afoot was actually a global jihad and not just a one off vengeance against the occupation of Muslims lands by the West as often trumpeted by the monsters. Again, during the Malian coup de’tat of 2012, in fact, the very week the coup took place, I wrote an article calling on the African Union to act fast as the forces of Islam had already made a comeback to Africa, calling first, for the dislodgement of the coup plotters and then a continental approach to fighting terror, beginning at regional levels and subsequently setting up a continental counter terror squad. What is more, since the Boko Haram menace, I have been providing the Nigerian authorities with leads as to their whereabouts and how to root them out in a 12-hour operation, so the excuse that terror is new is not tenable.
In fact, since the 9/11, any nation and any individual that does not know emphasis has shifted from Climate Change to security is living in another Planet. What is more, in a globalised world, if a disaster/tragedy occurs in a part of the globe, the stupidest question to ask is: “Will it ever happen in my/our own corner of the globe?” The wise question ought to be: “When will it happen in my/our corner of the globe?”
But let us for the purpose of this argument grudgingly accede to oil-rich Nigeria that because terrorism activities are relatively new she is not equipped to deal with it. This is when a wise and serious nation seeks the sort of co-operation with another nation such as the US without necessarily compromising its sovereignty, national integrity, national standards, national character and national principles by way of training and not by provision of equipment because an oil-rich Nigeria must not cheat on America by asking for assistance in terms of money and actual equipment as she has the money to procure all the equipment including surveillance helicopters at least 10 in each of its 36 States and then go on to install CCTV cameras in public places as I have been suggesting to them since 2009, amongst many other advice. After all, the ill-gotten wealth at the disposal of President Jonathan and his medicated-face house wife who likes to delude herself with the prefix Dame is such that a nation of 60 million people can budget with such wealth illegally at their command by not borrowing for about at least 10 years. Can Washington now see why it is tantamount to defrauding the ordinary Americans by promising such largesse on behalf of oil-rich Nigeria, where 110 million of its 150 million population live on less than $1.00 per day? If Washington has forgotten, Jonathan has ten private jets in his Presidential fleet! Again, if Washington has forgotten, Pentecostal pastors in Nigeria own jets bought with the money they had defrauded their flocks in the name of tithes and offerings collected on behalf of ‘God’! In case, Washington has forgotten, States Governors in Nigeria own private jets and hire Chopper Helicopters at thoroughly obscene sum of money and they fly like hawks in the sky making chicken of those who voted them into office. Yet in case, Washington has forgotten America’s Forbes has just said the 25th richest person in the world is a Nigerian. So my dear Obama and dearest America, please keep your money because Nigeria can sort out herself as far as offering a bounty is concerned. But come to think of it, why does anyone think such benevolence is necessary when both the President of Nigeria and the country’s Inspector- General of Police know where Shekau is being shielded by the Hausa-Fulanis of Nigeria the initiators /creators of Boko Haram and treated him like a Head of State! And if truly, truly both of them and their cohorts who pass for security chiefs do not know about the whereabouts of Shekau since 2009, they have no business remaining in office a second longer!
Uncle Sam, hang on a minute! If you for whatever reason refuse to classify Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization which Boko Haram really, really are, why are you offering a ransom on their ring leader? This is the ONLY time you might be right in offering such a bounty without disregarding the sovereignty of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and its people. But if after you have read this article of mine and you decide to have a change of heart by classifying BH as a FTO, although you might now be legally right to place such a ransom on the ring leader of the sect, you will yet be morally wrong to make good such a gesture in actuality because you are taking what belongs to the children to give to some people else and this is not fair on the ordinary Americans.
The type of co-operation that Nigeria needs at this time as far as fighting terror is concerned is training and information sharing across the Atlantic, for Nigeria has got the resources in superabundance to sort herself out as far as fighting terror is concerned. And I should dare say, excepting the deep-rooted ethnic politics, regionalism and religious bigotry which reign supreme in Nigeria far above patriotism and unalloyed patriotism to fatherland, it seems to me Nigeria has security chiefs that can root out Boko Haram in a 12-hour operation, but the whole show having been politicized beyond measure, the so-called security chiefs have been running around like a headless chicken flapping their ‘wings’ everywhere and jumping aimlessly like a kangaroo, thus giving the murderers the upper hand and eventual victory. Even the so-called exploits in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno are not code-named, so how do they do comparative analysis of the success and otherwise of this very campaign and the many, many, many that lie ahead. But will someone out there use their heads and code-name this as Operation BAY (Borno, Adamawa and Yobe) or Operation ABY (Adamawa, Borno and Yobe) or Operation YAB (Yobe, Adamawa and Borno) or Operation Dragon or Operation Spit Fire or Operation Wild Donkeys?
And continentally speaking, there has to be sub-regional and continental co-operations to push back the forces of Islam and the Sharia-Creep in the continent. Such co-operation as having West Africa Counter Terror Squad (WACTS), East Africa Counter Terror Squad (EACTS), North Africa Counter Terror Squad (NACTS), Central Africa Counter Terror Squad (CACTS), South Africa Counter Terror Squad (SACTS) and a continental body to be known and called: Africa Counter Terror Squad (ACTS) with each holding a security summit as soon as possible culminating in a continental body to be known and called: Africa Security Summit (ASS), whilst the regional summits will be West Africa Security Summit (WASS), East Africa Security Summit (EASS), North Africa Security Summit (NASS), Central Africa Security Summit (CASS) and last, but not the least, South Africa Security Summit (SASS).
At international level, I’m by this platform proposing a Trans Atlantic Alliance Against Terror (TAAAT) or United Nations Counter Terror Organization (UNCTO) or United Nations Counter Terror Force (UNCTF) and the adoption of 9/11 as World Counter Terror Day (WCTD). But in the war on terror, the world may be able to scale down the scourge the day young Muslims the world over summon the courage to tell their Imams, Sheikhs and all those who might attempt to radicalize them the three-letter abbreviation: D.I.Y (Do It Yourself)!
God bless Nigeria, God bless America and may the Almighty God bless all the nations of the world and their peoples.