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Not as though the recession that struck the world over is over, but I wonder how it has affected people who used to frequent this forum. I don't expect to find out much because most people are too proud to admit to tough times, especially (I think) within groups where person-to-person competition for excellence (and perhaps pre-eminince) is historically inculcated. I don't want to know if people are winning or losing but I do wonder what they are doing to avoid falling victim to troublous economic times.
___________________ The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves... Posts: 795 | From: Valle del Sol, AZ | Registered: Nov 2004
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I think people who used to frequent this site have experienced a bit of "burn-out" as regards the "forum" experience of discussing pertinent current events. I know this is true because any other time there would be a flood of comments about the so-called Boko Haram muslim extremist sect which is apparently responsible for recent bombings in Yobe and Borno states that killed dozens of innocent persons. Instead there seems to be little interest in commenting on what this means for Nigeria in terms of intra-national as well as international reaction.
I personally don't know much about this sect or what their goals and intentions are except for wanton murder, but here (this site) is where I could have learned all there is to know about these people if there was still a willingness to share information and centralize a study of a group that, because of their thirst for blood, is likely to have a significant impact on Nigerian politics in general. What a pity those days are now gone.
___________________ The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves... Posts: 795 | From: Valle del Sol, AZ | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Those days are gone indeed! However, I think you should have started a topic headlined with boko haram, and I will bet that folks will respond. These are hard facts: the elements that made up the boko haram are multifaceted, even though terror is their unifying cardinal attribute. You may be astonished, but the fact is that the original boko haramist were a groups of bigots (islamic fundamentalist) lead by one late Mohammed Yusuf, who was killed in the police custody after he was arrested in 2009 by the military for alleged terrorism and rebellion against the state (those are the boko with some sort of religious coloration in the mould of the Afghan and Pakistani taliban). His sect were dispersed after his death and there was no more boko haram in Nigeria, just as the maitasine terror sect of old was silenced by the Nigeria military. The current upsurge of terror in the north of Nigeria is been fuelled and sponsored by the established political elites that includes former heads of state, former vice Presidents, technocrats, and serving/retired top military officer, all of whom of the moslem north of Nigeria. They are the political boko haram (parasites) engaged on a proxy war of terror in other to regain political power. The idea is to intimidate the current president and seize power from him by force of arm, exploiting the idea of mass murder of innocent people to make the President look weak and incapable of leading a state in the eyes of the world... Now, my personal take is that if boko's terror continue unabated as the case is, it will somehow quickening the division of Nigeria - As such, I have kept my fingers crossed because I believe that the crap of a country is about to be scrapped with the first drop of bomb anywhere in the south of Nigeria by the boko terror.
posted
This is why we are hopeful that the charade called Nigeria will soon be dissolved. Read and make your own verdict:
Boko Haram throws bomb at gov�s convoy �We�ll crush criminal elements -Jonathan �Enough is enough -COAS �Senate in closed session | Print | E-mail Written by Leon Usigbe and Chris Agbambu, Abuja, with Agency Report Wednesday, 16 November 2011
ShareA bomb targeting a police vehicle in the convoy of Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State and two other blasts rocked Maiduguri, but no casualties were reported, police and residents said on Tuesday. The blast occurred on Monday when suspected members of the Boko Haram sect threw a bomb at the police vehicle on the road from the Maiduguri airport.
The governor was returning from Abuja and was being welcomed by supporters along the airport road, following his victory in a legal challenge to his electroal victory in April.
�There was a blast targeted at one of our vehicles, but it did not hit its target,� Borno State Commissioner of Police, Mr Simeon Midenda told AFP. "It was a mild explosion. Nobody was killed or injured.�
Midenda said a second explosion targeted a military checkpoint around the Abbaganaram area of the city on Monday evening.
�The assailants detonated a bomb by the roadside around 7.30 p.m. in order to attract the attention of JTF military Joint Task Force,� he said.
�When the JTF heard the blast, they went to the scene and the Boko Haram members started firing indiscriminately and the JTF members fired back. At the end of the day, the assailants fled.�
Residents also told AFP a third explosion also occurred at Zajeri, a suburb of the city.
�I was in my shop when I heard a loud blast around 7.50 p.m. I hurriedly locked myself inside the shop. After about an hour, I came out and did not see anybody," Musa Jalo, a tailor in the area, told AFP.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday vowed not to leave any hiding place for criminal elements, whose activities are causing death and destruction in the country as he assured families of victims of recent bomb attacks that justice would be served on those who perpetrated the attacks.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Presidential Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, he also spoke on the need to forgive and grant relief to criminals who are manifestly repentant.
Jonathan called on those who had chosen to live on the fringes of the law to change, in order to facilitate their re-integration and rehabilitation, warning that those who undermined the state should be prepared to face the full wrath of the law.
Jonathan reassured Nigerians who had lost relatives to the crimes that the government would bring the perpetrators to book, saying that �we share in your pain. We stand united, as we confront the inhumane actions of the misguided few who seem determined to violate the core values of tolerance and peaceful co-existence. We shall fight and defeat that evil.�
Speaking on his vision for the nation�s justice administration system, the president said he believed the cycle of justice should include forgiveness and relief for those that were repentant.
Jonathan said it was partly for this reason that the constitution provided for the presidential advisory committee to assist the president in the exercise of the prerogative of mercy. He congratulated members of the committee and expressed confidence in their ability to carry out their assignment.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Azubuike Iheji-rika, at an interactive session on Tuesday, warned the troublemakers wasting innocent lives to stop it.
The Army chief said the earlier the civil populace understood the military, the better, because they were human beings like other Nigerians and did nothing different except with the uniform that differentiated them from others.
In his remark, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin, said if the Armed Forces did not have the support of the civil society, then all the internal security operations were wasted.
Also speaking on the Jos crisis, Petinrin said because of polarisation of ethnicity among the people, nobody had come to explain to them the need to live together, adding that until they started understanding each other, their trouble would never end.
Speaking on the occasion, the Senate President, David Mark, represented by the chairman, Senate Committee on Defence and Army, Senator George Sekibo, said the importance of civil military relations in a democracy was underscored by former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who said �the importance of sustaining democracy has compelled the need for better civil-military relations, which has been frosty, full of suspicion and mistrust.�
In his address, the Chief of Civil-Military Affairs, Army Headquarters, Major-General Bitrus Kwaji, noted that the Nigerian military had been involved in governance of the nation for over 30 years, adding that though it had helped to preserve the corporate existence of Nigeria as a nation, it had, however, created an image problem for the army.is not yet an accused person on pages of newspapers and on the television is not good. It is difficult to convince an average person that one who has been so paraded has not committed any offence.�
While talking about injunctions against law enforcement agents, the CJN said �the guilty are afraid and when a man who has abused the public trust reposed in him feels the heat of the approaching long arm of the law, he rushes to a judge with flexible conscience, who makes him untouchable to the law enforcement. It is another obstacle to the struggle to uproot corruption in this country.�
The CJN, therefore, called on lawyers to take a position on issues which, he said, constituted a blot on the criminal process, adding that their voices would be heard and change would be made for the better.
He also drew the attention of the participants to the prisons where fellow human beings were reduced to the barest level of humanity, adding that the time was ripe to include a provision for suspended sentence in the criminal procedure code and the criminal procedure law.
Posts: 35 | From: Canada | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I hate to say it, especially when so many millions of people are directly affected, but the governmental levels within Nigeria are so laughable that it embarasses me...and I'm not even a citizen.
As for Boko Haram, it may indeed become the weak link in the U.S.'s relationship with Nigeria. Obviously the American policy makers are aware of the ethnic divisions and tensions in Nigeria but have been content to buy oil from who ever controls it regardless of right. If through terror and violence the Boko Haram is able to incite large numbers of Muslims to commit violence and ultimately influence the government, I think there may finally be a change in attitude for U.S. policy makers. They may already have projected an attitude change as is common for countries who look ahead 10 to 20 years and try to anticipate future events.
At the same time, they will be very cautious in what they actually do because Nigeria has such a large population and any significant de-stabilization could have far reaching consequences not only for West Africa but Africa as a whole. Like a stumbling(perhaps drunken) giant, Nigeria could easily trample its neighbors' gardens. Therefore countries like the U.S. will do everything they can to prop it up until diminishing returns dictate otherwise, Boko Haram considered. A peaceful split is the only humane and sane way of guaranteeing peace in the region.
Ok. Why do I mention America so much when it comes to the disintegration of Nigeria. Because a very large part the money Nigeria operates on comes from there. The U.S. buys most of its oil from Nigeria. It has a vested interest in keeping the flow of oil going smoothly, never mind Nigeria's internal affairs. Only when elements of terror become entrenched in the Nigerian population will it stand up and take notice. Even then it will continue to support the current regime (or for that matter Ali Baba and the forty thieves) so long as they claim to be fighting the war on terror.
___________________ The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves... Posts: 795 | From: Valle del Sol, AZ | Registered: Nov 2004
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