How Nigeria can tackle Boko Haram -US strategic group

08:05 Africa, Boko Haram, Islamic, Militancy, nigeria, radicalization No Comments

Nigeria and other African countries facing Islamic militancy have been offered four options for tackling the conflict under an overarching objective of preventing further radicalisation of Muslim population.

The Washington- based African Centre for Strategic Studies, in its latest African Security brief made available to the Nigerian Tribune, identified better information on insurgents, local engagement, open dialogue with militants and targeted use of force as potent options in solving the insurgency

The brief, entitled: “Islamic Militancy in Africa`` noted that “there  is a need to gather in-depth knowledge and credible information on Islamic militant movements and the contexts in which they appear covering rhetorics of Islamic militants and local issues on which they are mobilising support.
“It should entail analysis that captures more than the immediate security dimensions but integrates historical, political, economic, and sociocultural perspectives with the goal of gaining nuanced and differentiated knowledge,” the report noted.

 The report, put together by Professor Terje Ostebo of the University of Florida, advised that rather than “branding all emerging demands as part of the radicalisation of Islam, a range of voices needs to be heard while grievances borne from under-representation, marginalisation, and alienation need to be acknowledged.

“This will often entail careful processes of confidence-building between governments and Muslim groups—across religious divides and among different ethnicities with a view to properly recognise such grievances and adopt more inclusive policies to enhance political participation and broaden citizens’ affinity with the state,’’ the report declared.

On dialogue with Boko Haram and others, the report advised that the goal should be to identify moderate elements and seek out avenues for negotiations that duly recognise the complexity of each context.
It, however, advocated targeted use of force against hardcore insurgents.

Culled from Tribune.com.ng

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BOKO HARAM: Why Gen. Buhari should lead the talk.

20:09 Boko Haram, nigeria, Security No Comments

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari

Let us respect the diverse opinions from the people, saying the government should not dialogue with the terrorist. Unfortunately, some of them are just politicians and not the authorities when it comes to the issue of counterterrorism policy. Most of them are fun of reminding us of the cliché "don't negotiate with the terrorists."

President Goodluck Jonathan understands better that the adversaries are unconventional, and so the approach for defeating them must be unconventional as well. We cannot defeat Boko Haram solely by force; there must be a blend of political, informational, military, economic, and socio-cultural approaches, in combination with foreign governments’ assistance, security forces, and populations.

There is no government dealing with terrorism that would not engage the rebels in a sort of direct or indirect talk to find a lasting solution.  If the American government could hold discussion with the Taliban in London, nobody should discourage the Nigerian government from talking to the Boko Haram. 

In addition, it is obvious that the government has weakened the Boko Haram sect and the federal government will be speaking at the discussion table from the point of strength.

For a country like Nigeria, where politicians never speak in one voice against terrorism; a country where Boko Haram has infiltrated most of our security apparatus as confirmed by the president; a nation with a porous border and poorly motivated security personnel; a country where corruption, poverty, injustice, extra-judicial killing and poor governance have been identified as part of the issues that ignited the rebellion.

There is no doubt in the fact that one of the immediate tactics to end the violence is dialogue while the long term strategy should be the building of strong security institutions and intelligence gathering capability to mitigate against the future occurrence.

Furthermore, the research has shown that conciliatory approach is more effective and potent as compare to the use of brute force against the terrorist. The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism published this finding, using the Israel/Palestine crisis as a case study.

The START reasoned that conciliatory tactics are more effective than punishment in reducing terrorism. In a research titled: “Moving beyond Deterrence: The Effectiveness of Raising the Expected Utility of Abstaining from Terrorism in Israel.” The researchers pointed out “that only conciliatory policy seems to reduce terrorism and that repression can sometime lead to more violence, the authors is not completely opposed to the use of repressive and punishment based strategies.”

In conclusion, as a retired senior military officer, Gen. Mohammad Buhari is a reservist of which the Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria can call upon him anytime for a national assignment. He is one of the living civil war hero and former military Head of State. I am sure Gen. Buhari will not want to see this country disintegrated as a result of Boko Haram insurgency. 

I strongly appeal to Gen. Buhari to show leadership and lead the discussion. It is high time to say no; enough of playing politics with the blood of the innocent Nigerians.

Oludare Ogunlana

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Defining Role for Academic Community in Combating Terrorism in Nigeria - Abimbola Adigun

13:28 Boko Haram, nigeria, Oludare Ogunlana, Polytechnic Ibadan No Comments

An appeal has gone to the members of the academic community to join hands with the federal government in the fight against terrorism and other crimes in Nigeria.

Mr. Oludare Ogunlana, a Counterterrorism Expert made this assertion on Thursday, 21 June 22, 2012 while delivering a paper on the Security Challenges in Nigeria and the role of Education in Combating the Menace.” The public lecture in honor of Dr. James Ojebode was organized by the Federation of Oyo State Students Union at the Assembly Hall of the Polytechnic Ibadan.

The Chairman of the forum, Dr. Adebayo Adewusi, former Commissioner of Finance in Lagos challenged all the participants to support the government in an effort to make Nigeria a peaceful place to live. He identified corruption as the number one threat to Nigeria development and call on the young people so speak and act against the evil of corruption in our society.

Comrade Olusegun Olaleye, a member of the Oyo State House of Assembly also called on the government to adopt an open ended policy to tackle the problem of terrorism in Nigeria. He identified the weak law enforcement and failure of intelligence as part of the major problem that the federal government must address in order to effectively mitigate against terrorism in Nigeria

Participants

The guest lecturer, Oludare Ogunlana said the freedom and liberty of every Nigerians is under attack because of the operation of the terrorist organization in Nigeria and there is a need for everybody to cooperate with the government to combat our current challenges.

He explained further that the country’s security must be a responsibility shared across our entire Nation. It must cut across our Local, State, and Federal governments, faith-based, academic community, and the Civil Society organizations, and businesses must be partners in securing the Homeland

“No country, no community, and no person is immune to the impact of disasters. However, disasters can be and have been prepared for, responded to, recover from, and had their consequences mitigated to a certain degree,” said Ogunlana.

The policy makers at all levels are advised not to overlook the role the Academic community can play to restore peace and sanity to Nigeria. He claimed that “the strategy towards combating this menace is far beyond the security of guns, gates and guards” but the Nigerian political leaders must understand the dynamic, ideological driven insurgency presently going on in the form of terrorism.

According to Ogunlana who was former President of the National Association of Nigerian Students said “the nation is going through another phase of security challenges and perhaps the most difficult trouble after the end of the civil war in 1970. Everybody is in fear, including those who are supposed to be in charge of our security.”

He called on government to spread the dividend of democracy to people because the cause of some of the problem of insecurity in Nigeria is as a result of poverty, injustice and leadership failure.  He further explained that no amount of killing can stop crime and terrorism without addressing the fundamental factors, which gave birth to terrorism and other crimes in our society.

Ogunlana Speaking to the media after the event

“The widespread believe that the terrorist enemy is finite in quantity and destructible in the near term; without looking beyond “Boko Haram” and to recognize the multiplying form that the jihadist threat is taking represents a serious failure of vision.”

He concluded, saying that “the military approach alone cannot bring about the desire solution except we include the role of education in term of; Leadership Training, Public Enlightenment, Promotion of Higher Education in the National Security and Emergency Management Studies Program to strategically meet the nation’s demand for a cadre of professionals to carry out Nigeria’s National Security imperatives over the long term during the 21st century

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Boko Haram Leader adopts Osama Bin laden Styles, Justifying Terror Acts on Video; Are BH members Muslims?

11:59 Boko Haram, nigeria, osama bin laden, terrorism No Comments

The Boko Haram released a video recently, saying Christianity is paganism and ready to force Islam on the entire nation.

The group claimed responsibility for all the attacks against Christians and security personnel in Nigeria, including the Christmas day bombing. However, people should know the terrorists only use religious beliefs to recruit their followers. Islam is a veritable platform and tool in Northern Nigeria.

We must realize that religious terrorism is not terrorism in the name of religion. It is not terrorism against another religion. It is sacramental terrorism.

Victim of Terror - Islam against killing of women in children

The series of attacks by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda against the United States was partly motivated by religious convictions. This group believes the terrorist act is justified because they interpret the Koran as condoning such acts against nonbelievers of their faith. This is a wrong interpretation of Koran because  Islam never preached violence. That is why we are, saying they are not Muslims but mass murderers.

All acts of terrorism are motivated by the achievement of a certain goal. This goal may be related to some type of change—social, religious, or political. Although most people can agree that using violence as a means of coercion is wrong, a terrorist's mind is able to rationalize violent acts against innocent people as furthering their cause. Terrorists believe that they are justified in performing the violent act in order to accomplish a more important religious, social, or political change.

The group threatens to continue revenge attacks over the killing of Muslims in some parts of Nigeria. 

Global Agenda brings the English translation to you below. Please read and tell us what you think.

“Greetings to you and greetings to fellow muslims and thanks be to God. This is a message to Goodluck and to the CAN president. Alhamdullahi, we are known as Jamatu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-jihad which some people derogatory term as Boko Haram. We have said all that needs to be said and everyone has seen what the security personnel have done to us. Everyone has seen why we are fighting with them. We hardly touch anybody except security personnel and christians and those who have betrayed us.

Everyone knows what Christians did to Muslims, not once or twice. Why I have come out to explain myself is because of the explanation Jonathan and the CAN president gave on us, including the various versions people give about us that we are like cancer (a terrible ailment) in this country called Nigeria. No, we’re not cancer, neither are we evil. If people don’t know us, God knows everyone. Everyone knows what happened to our leader. Everyone knows what wickedness was meted out to our members and fellow muslims in Nigeria from time to time in Zango kataf, Tafawa Balewa, Kaduna, villages, Lanngtang, Yelwa shendam.

Different things were meted out to muslims in this country. Everyone knows that democracy and the constitution is paganism and everyone knows there are some things that God has forbidden in the quran that cannot be counted, even western education! We have stopped everything apart from saying we should stay on the path of truth and peace and live right in the sight of God. There, we will have peace and that is what we have been preaching and because of that they said we should be killed and our mosques destroyed.

We decided to defend ourselves and God has said if you follow him, he will give you strength! That is why Jonathan, you should know that this is beyond your power. It is not our doing but that of God. It is beyond you. Wallahi, what you are saying is like you have not started saying anything! Before God created the earth, he knew what was going to happen and he has promised in the holy book that he will help his religion. It is beyond your power. What you see has been happening, God allowed it because you have refused to follow him and you have betrayed his religion. That is why Jonathan, this is beyond your power – yes, If a few in your Government say nice things about us, it is not surprising – it has happened many times – our hands are open! Anybody that says he will not follow God, even if he loves us, God has not said we should love such a person. God has said we should show such person the right path and embrace such person, you Christians should know that Jesus is a servant and prophet of God. He is not the Son of God. This religion of Christianity you are practicing is not a religion of God – it is Paganism. God frowns at it. What you are practicing is not religion.

Aside that, you Christians cheated and killed us to the extent of eating our flesh like cannibals; you did all you wanted to us. We are trying to coerce you to embrace Islam, because that is what God instructed us to do. Even at that, without provocation, you slaughtered us and took our wives and humiliated us. Now, you CAN president, you come out to say your people should come out and do whatever they want to do! Any right thinking person knows what you mean, any right thinking person knows what you are saying. This is why as leader of this sect, I tell you to repent and to you Christians, repent! This path we’re taking is God’s path.

Fellow muslims, understand us, our objective is not to kill or humiliate or steal. This explanation has become necessary, even if i don’t explain, i can decide to keep mute because the person i love to know me like this is God. I have no objective than to help the religion of God, that is all i can explain. But if you want further explanation, we have tapes you can listen to and know our objectives. This is also my message to the President of Nigeria, Jonathan, who has come out to say negative things about us and also a lot of harm to us – God has given us victory and we have done what we want to do. This is almost 11 years our members are being killed. Anything people want to say or do, we say enough is enough!

We serve God and we do not harm anybody, but anybody that looks for our trouble, we will face such person or persons. We follow the tenets of the Quran and anybody that thinks he can fight God, should not think his prayer or praying in the mosque can save him. Any muslim that cheats and hides under the cloak of religion, if we know such person, we will not hesitate to eliminate him. Yes, I am saying so because it does not take 5 minutes to kill just as we are being killed. We follow the teachings of the Quran. This is what God has told me to explain. Allhamdulillah”

What are you thinking?

credit: translation culled from the www.nigeriansfornigeria.com

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