'Nigeria: the context for violence' (2006-2013)

[Dayuhan]

I know that US foreign policy towards Israel is heavily influenced by evangelicals.

The actual degree of influence is very much debatable. Lots of factors driving US support for Israel, difficult to say exactly how much influence any given one actually has.

What impact would these people have on US Africa policy if current Islamist inspired terrorism is presented as a struggle between Islam and Christianity for souls in one of the World's largest "mission grounds".

My guess would be none. There's a very strong resistance in the US to involvement in African conflicts, it's seen as a black hole from which no positive escape is possible. I doubt that the evangelicals could overcome that resistance, or even that they'd try very hard.

[KingJaja]

Seems like Boko Haram again. Later reports suggest two suicide car bombs. Quite worrying as Northern Nigeria seems to have no shortage of suicide bombers.

(Reuters) - A car bomb exploded in the north Nigerian town of Kaduna on Easter Sunday, killing several people, after security officers stopped the driver from approaching a church, witnesses and emergency services said.

"A suicide bomber in a vehicle was moving towards the ECWA Church and the All Nations Christian Assembly," said Tony Udo, a Kaduna resident.

"Security agents accosted and repelled him. While he was driving away, the bomb went off at Junction Road, near the Stadium roundabout, killing the bomber and some commercial motorcyclists," Udo told Reuters.

"The blast from the bomb also shattered the windows of the church, some nearby houses and vehicles parked nearby. The area has been condoned off by security agents," Udo added.

Nigeria has ramped up security across the largely Muslim north before the Christian Easter holiday because of fears of a repeat of attacks by the Islamist sect Boko Haram that killed dozens on Christmas Day last year.

One of the sect's Christmas Day bomb attacks in the north killed at least 37 people and wounded more than 50 at a church.

Boko Haram, a movement loosely styled on Afghanistan's Taliban, has killed hundreds this year in bomb and gun attacks that mostly target police, the military and the government.

The sect says it wants its imprisoned members released and sharia, Islamic law, applied throughout Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

In the remote northeast town of Maiduguri, Boko Haram's homeland, the military outnumbered the public on some streets on Sunday.

"Patrol is being intensified to forestall any breakdown in law and order," a spokesman for the joint military task force told Reuters.

In Nigeria's second biggest city Kano, where coordinated attacks in January killed 186 people, authorities deployed trucks of soldiers and a helicopter to try to prevent violence.

"I will stay away from church because we have been told by our pastor to be careful. We are afraid, everybody is afraid because we don't know when the next attack will come," said Jenifer Paul, a housewife in Kano.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/0...83705P20120408

[KingJaja]

CAN stands for Christian association of Nigeria. How significant is this statement? Very. It means that the Christian community will assume that the US government is allied with "Northern elements" sympathetic to Boko Haram.

There are two very prominent US friends of the Northern elite - John Campbell and Jean Herskovits and they are seen by the Christian community as (a) influencing US policy in Nigeria and (b) sympathetic to Boko Haram.

I think a wiser course of action for the US is to maintain a low profile (like the Brits) and allow Nigerians to sort themselves out. Telling the Nigerian people "what their problems are" or that "you understand the Nigerian situation better than they do" or "telling them how to solve their problems" openly was always going to backfire.

In the first place the US doesn't know jack about Nigeria and even less about its internal politics. Statements may be true, but politically uncalled for. The US hasn't learned the importance of keeping out of the internal politics of deeply polarised nations.

PRESIDENT, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor has said the association reject the views of the American govern-ment as expressed by its Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Mr Johnnie Carson, on Boko Haram.

CAN, in a press release made available to the Nigerian Tribune, said it rejected the reason being pedlled by the American government and some Boko Haram apologists in the North that poverty and injustice was the spark for the action of the sect members.

Insisting that Boko Haram was a product of extreme religious ideology, CAN said the kind of arms and ammunition in the hands of the sect could only be purchased by those with heavy financial power.

“A fair comparison of any other region with the North shows that the section of the North referred to by Carson has been the greatest bene-ficiary of the project called Nigeria.

“The north has been in leadership for the greater part of Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee and its greatest annoyance seems to be the displacement from this position, because this same section of the region believes that they are born to rule,” the release said.

http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/news...-on-boko-haram

[KingJaja]

For your information.

Abuja — Minister of State for Defence, Mrs. Olusola Obada, yesterday confirmed speculations that weapons stolen from Libyan armoury have found their way to Nigeria.

In the dying days of the regime of Libyan leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, the armoury was looted and some sophisticated weapons were reportedly stolen.

There had been unconfirmed reports that some of the looted weapons, which included surface-to-air launchers, had found their way into Nigeria and might be part of the Boko Haram armoury.

Obada, speaking in Abuja when a delegation of the National Defence University of Pakistan visited the Ministry of Defence, confirmed the report but expressed confidence that Nigeria is at peace with all countries of the world and, therefore, free from any form of external security threats, especially from its immediate neighbours.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201204110266.html

[Chowing]

Boko Haram puts a three month window on bring down Goodluck and the government. Could this be an empty threat? Not sure that many Nigerians would take it as such.

Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram also Jama’atu Ahl-Sunnati Lil Da’awati Wal Jihad intends to bring down the government and "devour" President Goodluck Jonathan within three months, its purported leader said in his second al Qaeda-style video

http://elombah.com/index.php/latest-...n-three-months

[KingJaja]

In three months they are going to attempt something very dynamic. If they pull it off, it gets very interesting and dangerous.

1. Any attempt on the life of Jonathan by Boko Haram will be interpreted as an attempt by the Northern Muslim elite to terminate his regime. There will be horrible reprisal attacks.

2. Jonathan is an Ijaw from the Niger Delta and is quite close to Niger Delta militants (he helped broker the last cease fire). Expect Nigeria's crude oil production to be affected if he is harmed.

3. For all their noise and violence Boko Haram is yet to cross the River (Niger) - i.e. they haven't posed a direct threat to Southern Nigeria, yet. If they do this, they would have crossed the River. Crossing the River means that all bets are off.

[KingJaja]

Suicide bombers kill eight yesterday in coordinated attacks on media houses. Two attacks at Abuja and Kaduna.

The media yesterday got a taste of the violence in some parts of Nigeria. Eight people died and 14 others were injured in a suicide bomb explosion at THISDAY office in Abuja and Kaduna where a building housing the newspaper as well as The Sun and Moments was attacked.
In the accident, three people died and two were injured. A suspect was arrested.
The bomber was among the casualties of the Kaduna incident.
The bombing also destroyed 10 vehicles and left the Press Hall badly damaged.
The once beautiful edifice became a shadow of itself - shattered windows, broken walls and shredded copies of part of today’s edition.
The imposing gate leading to the devastated Press Hall that houses the company’s Goss Community printing machine was destroyed.
The staff gate was severely damaged and partly burnt. The generator beside the gate was burnt. A part of the fence by the gate collapsed, felling a tree.
The wreckage of the suicide bomb vehicle was buried inside the devastated Press Hall. Policemen and aid workers were battling to retrieve it.
The newsroom was in tatters – upturned tables, smashed seats and crushed computers.
All the glasses in the building, including doors, were shattered. Parts of the roof were blown off with no ceiling left hanging.
The premises was strewn with pieces of shrapnel from the bomb laden vehicle and broken glasses.
A crater, which must have resulted from the impact of the blast, was seen about two meters from where the SUV was lodged. Parts of the wall of the building from where the car entered the premises caved in.
The huge loss drew tears from many workers and sympathisers. For about six hours, business was brought to a halt at Jabi Motor Park , the bustling transit station opposite the THISDAY office.
Islamist sect Boko Haram last night claimed respionsibility for the bombings. It threatened to target other journalists.

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/201...ia-houses.html

I watched snippets from the Southern Nigeria economic summit. It seems that the political leadership and people of that part of Nigeria are of the firm conviction that Boko Haram is a tool by Muslim politicians from Northern Nigeria to destabilise the Jonathan administration and thus position themselves for the presidency in 2015.

I don't think the risk to Nigeria is the presence of Al Qaida, the risk is in the reaction to Boko Haram. This is Africa, and if the rest of Nigeria gangs up to "punish the North" for permitting the presence of Boko Haram, it will not be pretty.

Right now, I am hearing a lot that gives me cause for worry. Muslim Northerners, understandably are extremely worried. There is a lot vitriol on the airwaves. People are blunt in their assessment of who they view as the "problem of Nigeria".

The Jonathan administration is weak and weak administrations tend to deflect blame on others.

Dangerous times.