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Tuesday, May 20, 2014

More terrorism in Nigeria: And the British sent a malfunctioning aircraft!!

Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Folks, it is now certain that Boko Haram is geared up to prove to the world that it is in control of affairs in Nigeria and can hit and run at will. It goes where it chooses and does everything with impunity. Two huge bomb blasts occurred today in Jos, killing and maiming people, to confirm its notoriety! The day belongs to Boko Haram!!
We are told that 118 people were killed and many more injured in the busy market where the two blasts occurred. Too sad!!
The audacity with which Boko Haram is carrying out its terrorist activities in Nigeria is really frightening. There is enough reason to indicate that the Nigerian government doesn't know how to solve the problem.

And the sub-regional group, ECOWAS, is incapable of doing anything. Have you forgotten the news report that intelligence chiefs of countries constituting ECOWAS would meet in Accra this week to deliberate on how to fight Boko Haram? Ghana's President said so when he dashed to Nigeria slightly more than a week ago to talk-shop with the most incompetent President to have ruled Nigeria (Goodluck Jonathan---an apology of a leader; a caricature of a political leader!!).
He was in Paris, France, to join leaders of countries bordering Nigeria (Idriss Derby of Chad and Paul Biya of Cameroon who themselves are problems to which their citizens are yet to find solutions).
After wining, dining, and wenching, they emerged to say that they were ready to fight Boko Haram. How annoying? To fight Boko Haram with their mouths? As if their mouths were guns?
Now, Boko Haram has struck again to prove to them that they are nonentities and weaklings!!
The Nigerian government is particularly obnoxious at this stage. Its inability to deal with Boko Haram has added much fuel to the situation created by the 419 phenomenon to tarnish Nigeria's image everywhere in the world.
I have been confronted by people in the New York area (whom I had all along regarded as abysmally ignorant) about the kidnapping of innocent girls in Nigeria by African men which, to them confirmed their poor opinions about happenings in Africa. I had no way to disabuse their minds of such opinions because Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan disarmed me.
More than a month after the more than 200 innocent girls were captured and driven underground, the Nigerian government hasn't given any strong indication that it knows what to do to secure limb and property. The President isn't even touched by the daily demonstrations going on in his country by the parents and loved ones whose daughters are in captivity.
Yet, this same Goodluck Jonathan was at his eldest daughter's wedding to witness the obnoxious display of ostentation. How will he feel if one of the kidnap victims were his own daughter or grand-daughter? A callous leader he is, indeed!!
And he is in charge of Nigeria, which is behaving as if it has ceded control of the situation to outsiders. The United States is on the ground, trying to explore avenues for taking on Boko Haram. But as an outside force, it is not to be expected to weep more than the bereaved!!
Britain inserted itself into the issue only to come across as laughable because the aircraft that it sent to augment the force quickly developed technical problems and got incapacitated. Is that all Britain can offer at this stage to its former colony?
Britain cannot escape blame for anything happening in Nigeria today because it was the very imperial force that grabbed the landmass called Nigeria to establish its colony for extreme exploitation of resources. Don't forget the role of Mungo Park and the so-called Royal British Company or whatever that commercial entity was.
Britain used its wily ways through Lord Lugard's Indirect Policy to confuse the Africans occupying that part of the world, playing it safe in fear of the Sokoto Capliphate of Usman dan Fodio, yet hiding behind that same Caliphate to hit the heads of the Northerners against those of the Yorubas and Igbos in the south.
That Indirect Rule Policy worked very well for Britain as it served as the ideological panacea to its problems. Britain succeeded in exploiting the human and natural resources of Nigeria by playing the ethnic card to the blind side of Nigerians.
Britain favoured the North (because it saw how the people deferred to the Sultan and allowed themselves to be used for diverse religious, political, and economic purposes and gave the Emirs the authority to exercise power on its behalf).
No opposition to its authority (because the people invariably obeyed the Emir's orders without question) meant a blank check to suck Nigeria dry. (Michael Crowther has said a lot about this callousness).
In our time, that divide-and-rule spectacle has given rise to weird phenomena that Britain cannot extricate itself from. Yet, David Cameron and the British Establishment have receded to the background, giving the pride of place to the United States in this search for ways to fight against Boko Haram.
Boko Haram may be regarded as an extremist group, but it seems to derive its strength and viability from history.
Isn't it disgusting that Britain would send an aircraft to reinforce forces in Nigeria pitted against Boko Haram only for this aircraft to break down? It is an old and worn-out aircraft that cannot carry the burden imposed on it. A clear demonstration of the duplicity with which Britain deals with Africa.
Ironically, Britain gained more from its presence in Africa than the United States or any other. Why are the British so annoyingly stingy and callous in dealing with the African countries that supplied all the resources needed to boost its industrial revolution, missionary work, and many more?
Will Britain's decision to participate in efforts to eradicate Boko Haram turn out to be the eye-opener that Nigeria and other former British colonies need to know Britain in its true elements and how to relate to it?
At the end of it all, there is no doubt in my mind that both Nigeria and Britain have reduced their influence to absurdity and shouldn’t be surprised at the implications. But in it all, the Nigerian government comes across as useless and unworthy of being in office.
If this Goodluck Jonathan had been in charge of affairs at the eruption of the Nigerian civil war, there would have been no land mass left to be called Nigeria at the end of the exchanges. Wiped out into oblivion!! What does NIGERIA even mean beyond the River Niger whose name is appropriately given to its northern neighbor, NIGER? Can these Nigerian people not learn how to redeem themselves from the ashes of the horrible history that dogs them wherever they go in this world? An apology of sorts!!
I shall return…
·         E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
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