In the News: Boko Haram: Igbo boycott meeting with Borno govt

Nigerian News article on the Boko Haram situation and the effect on and perspectives of the igbo (also referrred to as Ndigbo) people  from the Vanguard Newspaper.

Boko Haram: Igbo boycott meeting with Borno govt

On January 13, 2012 · In News Vanguard

BY NDAHI MARAMA, Maiduguri

Igbo people in Maiduguri have expressed disappointment with the Borno State government over its alleged nonchalance towards the welfare of victims of Boko Haram Islamic sect attack in the state.

The people boycotted a meeting between the government, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, and other southerners residing in the state on the incessant killing of non indigenous people by the sect’s members, Monday, claiming that government was not serious with their plight.

This is coming as Igbo Youths Movement, IYM alleges that the endless killings of Ndigbo in the north was meant to provoke the people and draw them into ‘’the fray,’’ adding that this ‘’portends great danger to the continued survival of Nigeria as a corporate entity.’’

The statement entitled, ‘’Pushed to the wall’’was signed by the President of IYM, Evangelist Elliot Ukoh and made available to Saturday Vanguard yesterday.

Meanwhile, the rejection of the tripartite meeting by the Igbo followed the feelings among southerners in the state that the government had not done enough to protect their lives and property.Some Igbo who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, ‘’We are not happy with this government, because since the killing of our people in their shops and churches started, nobody has been paid any compensation, even as Muslims are being compensated.

Just last week, Gov Shettima paid N89m compensation to Muslim victims. He also gave out N100m to the family of late Ba Fugu, the father in-law to late leader of Boko Haram, Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf. So we felt we are not relevant in the state.We have no business with Shetima as we have lost confidence in him. He is only concerned with the plight of the Muslims.”

Efforts to contact the Special Adviser to the Governor on Community Relations, who is also an Igbo, Mr. Kester Ogualli on telephone proved abortive as his GSM line was switched off.

Vanguard covered the first session of the meeting before journalists were asked to leave the venue to enable the state governor and the two bodies interact. Those in attendance included the Chairman of CAN, Rev. Yuguda Mdurvwa, his Secretary, Rev. Fai Pama and few leaders of the Yoruba community.

However, following threats to life by the Boko Haram, the Joint Task Force, JTF, “Operation Restore Order” in Maiduguri, the state capital has imposed a curfew on Maiduguri metropolis and Jere Council areas beginning from 5pm to 7am each day.

A statement by the Commander of the JTF, Major General Jack Nwaogbo, which was signed on his behalf by the Field Operations

Commander, Col. Victor Ebheleme advised members of the public to comply, as anyone who violets such order will be dealt with according to the Rules of Engagement

Nwaogbo added that, by the JTF’s directive, security agencies had been empowered to fish out Boko Haram adherents, supporters and other criminal elements hiding under the cover of the group.

The JTF however, advised law abiding citizens to go about their normal businesses within the time available to them, even as those on essential services were advised to identity themselves properly to the security agents.

The statement further enjoined members of the public to make use of the following GSM Hotlines, 07085464012, 08154429346 and 08064174066 to report issues of security to the JTF, as any information received would be treated with utmost confidentiality.

Speaking at the Monday meeting, Governor Shettima had explained that the purpose was to interact with CAN and the leadership of other minority tribes/communities on the possible means of protecting their lives and property in the state.

But according to the IYM boss, Evangelist Ukoh, ‘’The calculated decision by Boko Haram sect and their hidden sponsors to disintegrate Nigeria has gone on with it’s attendant blood letting for much too long.

The frightening silence of Northern leaders has got to the breaking point. Lord Fredrick Lugard’s idea of a Nigeria he forcefully almagamated in 1914 has got to the point of severe survival test by Boko Haram, it is doubtful if the centre can hold.

We’ve been told severally by globally respected writers that this house has fallen. We’ve also been told both by Late Ghadaffi and the C.I.A that we would disintegrate. We have had faith that we could manage but Boko Haram and their sponsors think otherwise.

The emergence of a Southern Christian President has finally brought to the fore, the folly of a section of Nigeria who believes they are born to rule. Their inability to accept stark reality that Nigeria belongs to all and their desperation for power has brought the nation to its knees.

The endless slaughters of Southerners and the calculated attempt by Boko Haram to draw Ndigbo into the fray portends great danger to the continued survival of Nigeria as a corporate entity.

The calculated attempt to provoke reprisals by deliberately killing Ndigbo in the North, designed to bring the government down will only result to a very bloody civil war, the kind not experienced in Africa before now.

It is time for good men and women to stand up and save Nigeria.

The South East leaders are under intense pressure to authorize reprisals. There is a limit to our ability to hold on for continued tolerance and endurance.

The people of the South-east are surprised that Nigerians are only interested in fuel price, nobody is talking about the Ndigbo that are being slaughtered daily in Northern Nigeria. In churches, during town-hall meetings, in buses on their way home and even passer-bys.

The key problem is the unworkable unitary structure and desperation to occupy centre. Half-witted ignoramuses cannot set agenda for us. We will not play into their hands.

Politicians who used empowerment and emboldened Boko Haram have already lost control.

Those who think we will not fight back may not be right. We will decide when and how. It is not in our character to kill helpless women and children.

The endless slaughtering of Southerners and the calculated attempt by Boko Haram to draw Ndigbo

The calculated decision by Boko Haram sect and their sponsors to disintegrate Nigeria has gone on with it’s attendant blood letting for much too long.

Giving a DAMN.

Note: this is a post on the horrors of Muslim extremism. It is NOT for the faint of heart. It is very intense and very disturbing.

My father sent me an email with an op-ed news article affixed to it. He’s not in the habit of doing so but something about this particular story struck him and he had to share the story. After reading it, I also felt the need to share. So here it is. Please note, before you read this that I am not anti-moslem, and this is not something that I say lightly. My family has been and continues to be persecuted by radical muslims. I remember as a child, hiding in a central room in my own house, with all the lights turned off during Ramadan, praying that the moslem rioters would think we had gone and leave our home alone. A pregnant woman that went to my church was walking home from the bus stop to meet the 6pm curfew set to protect the Christian and non-moslems, when she was accosted by by these radicals. She was still alive when they cut into her stomach, removed the fetus, hacked it to pieces and then set into her. That same night my sister came within inches of losing her life when she fell asleep on the couch in the living room, and the rioters threw rocks into our home. We had to be evacuated to a part of town that was protected by the government– the university. For the longest time, I was unable to understand how there could ever be peace between Moslems and non-moslems, if they (the moslems) are rewarded for making our lives a living hell and killing us. I didn’t understand how my classmates and friends could be absolutely pleasant while we were in school together and then later that day bring their brothers and fathers and male family members to my doorstep to destroy and kill my family in the most inhumane ways possible. Even my pets were not safe from their hatred, I had three dogs poisoned. Most times that feels like a long time ago, sometimes that feels like yesterday. When I read the news article, if felt like yesterday. My parents moved back to this town, and my mother is a pilot there. A few years back, a moslem colleague switched out her plane for an identical one that was in the workshop to be fixed and while she was flying with three students, the engine (single-engine craft) cut out and they crash-landed into a cornfield, narrowly missing a ravine that for sure would have killed them. In spite of all this, I do not hate moslems. I have and will continue to have moslem friends who unfortunately are also marred by these events. Nobody wins. Everybody loses.

However, I remain appalled, and heartbroken about the things that are done in the name of Allah. I can’t pretend to have an answer, some witty response or solution to this deplorable state of affairs. In fact I am tempted to do nothing, to say nothing, lest I offend, or I provoke a reaction in kind. But something must be done. What? I don’t know. What I do know is that I can’t be silent and I mustn’t be quiet, not for the victims. To do that, would be to say that they have died in vain and to say that they do not matter. But they matter and their families matter, and today and tomorrow and the next day, my heart breaks for the parents who lost their children, the children who lost their parents, the loved ones who must deal with this nonsensical loss of their families and their beloveds. So I am sharing this story, not knowing where it will lead to and what will come of it, but to stand up and acknowledge that I am one of the lucky ones, to acknowledge that there is an evil and to say that these people died and somebody out there gives a damn. I give a damn.

P.S. There is a picture that is attached to this story. It is very gruesome and horrific and for that reason I have not posted it here on the main page but there is a link to the picture, if you have the stomach for it.  Again I do not do this to be sensational but to make sure that there is a record of these lives that were lost.

P.S.S. Oh and this story is about Nigeria.

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In The Name of Allah

On Saturday, the 8th of January 2011, a Luxury bus departed Maiduguri en route to Lagos.  As the bus approached The City of Jos from Bauchi, the bus was stopped at roadblock.  Gunmen entered the bus and ordered all Muslims off the bus.  These gunmen proceeded to set the bus ablaze with all remaining passengers inside.  Most of the victims in the bus were from the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria, both The East and The West all heading south.

[Picture Omitted of Bodies of burned victims from the Maiduguri-Lagos bound bus]

What was their crime?  None!  Did they deserve this?  In the name of Allah they did!  An open declaration of war was made by Jama’ atu ahlus on the 28th of December 2010 after four bombs were exploded in The City of Jos, along with bombs going off in The City of Kano and The City of Maiduguri.  Abu Muhammad, Abubakar bin Mohammad Shekau stated,

“I want to tell the Muslims in this country and the whole world that they need to know this is a war between Muslims and non-Muslims… this is not a tribal war, nor is it similar to the wars of the pre-Islamic era, it is nor a war for financial gains, it is solely a religious war.  We did not start this war so it would end in one week, or one month or one year.  Only when we are completely annihilated and nobody chooses to continue with our struggle may be that could be the end. Or we establish a system where religion has the final say or religion determines everything, that will be the end of this war… “We are ready for anyone willing to face us, whether it is a group of people or even the government because we know who supports us, God the Creator of the universe, Allahu Akbar.  Therefore, we are warning every Muslim who believes in the religion of Islam that he should never help a non-Muslim in this war.  If he helps any non-Muslim and in so doing, a fellow Muslim suffers due to that, he should know that he is a dead person.”

Since Jama’atu Ahlus made this declaration of war, a bomb was exploded in Abuja followed by another in Jos.  This most recent atrocity is only affirmation of the stated objective and implementation of the war.

In all of these atrocities, our government has done its best to suppress all this information.  Most Nigerians are unaware that this bus burning incident sparked off more fighting in The City of Jos since Saturday and continued into Monday.  The predominantly Igbo neighborhoods and business in Jos were attacked in conjunction with the bus burning, leaving the city in chaos.  Have you heard this information anywhere in the media?  I guess not!

This image speaks to the continued suppression of the truth from Nigerians by the state.  Many atrocities, such as this have taken place, but the state has confiscated the cameras, which have documented such atrocities.  Most of the witnesses to these events from our presidents, governors, state security, NGOs’, and a few others are never allowed to divulge these secrets in the name of holding Nigeria together as one nation.

The real casualties are never reported.  When the numbers are given, the government always disputes the numbers because we have no documentary evidence.  Apparently, they must fear if we really know the extent of the atrocities, people would begin addressing the battle we are already in.

There comes a time when a nation and it’s people must decide and determine what their destiny and legacy to their posterity and the rest of the world shall be.  Nigeria has found itself at that cross roads.  We must decide if we are willing to accept and allow genocide to continue, terrorism to continue, oppression of the masses by use of the state apparatus to continue, suppression of the truth by government to continue, and destruction of the hope of Nigeria’s heart and soul, it’s people, to continue.

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CAVEAT: I can not confirm the details or accuracy of this story. But what I am certain of is the reality of these atrocities, because I too have been on the receiving end. Whether or not this incident took place or the telling of the story is accurate or not, the fact that it could have taken place and the fact that incidences like it continue to take place, should give everyone pause. When will it be enough?