Nigeria's War On Terror - The Chadian Connection

by Eze Eluchie

In Central African Republic, the Chadian Army had to be booted out of the United Nations Peace Keeping Mission when it was discovered that Chadian soldiers were aiding the Seleka (Islamist) militia in perpetuating various mass killings and to fight against the authorities of Central African Republic (C.A.R.)

Prior to the Boko Haram attack on Baga, the Chadian Army contingent to the multi-national forces in Baga surreptitiously withdrew approximately 2 days to the BH attack on Baga, leaving the Nigerian troops totally outnumbered and ill-prepared for what was a premeditated assault on Baga by BH.

A great majority of BH terrorists captured or killed in their various engagements with the Nigerian military are of Chadian origin. The President of Chad, actively participated in and served as broker/host of ‘ceasefire negotiation’ between Nigeria and BH, negotiations which basically served to malign the Nigerian State and his Nigerian counterpart, whilst affording BH greater public relations mileage.

That this same Chadian Army is now sending a full battalion to ‘join the war against BH’ should be a clear source of concerned to all that the war against BH may be about to take a horrifying exponential escalation – Nigeria may now not only be fighting Islamist insurgents, but in addition, and as of now probably a national army.

Ordinarily, the Chadian military would not pose problems for their Nigerian counterparts – but when an Army is infused with an amorphous terrorist entity, the situation becomes without precedence and the rules of engagement quite murky. The situation for the Nigeria military is made more precarious when one considers the seeming willingness of some agencies to allege all manners of imagined and probable infringement of international conflict protocols against our military.

It gets worse before it gets better.

Picture: Chadian soldiers readying for a deployment.

Auschwitz, 70 years on - no lessons learnt.

by Eze Eluchie

As the world commemorates the 70^th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, one cannot but recognize the important role of memorialization and remembrances in keeping at bay the likelihood of a repeat of acts of mass atrocities and crimes against humanity.

The memory of the lives of the millions of Jews whose lives were put to a gory end by Nazi Germany forces continues to reverberate and speak their anguish and sufferings to mankind as a result of the efforts made to keep their voices and pain alive.

Unfortunately for humanity, despite the loud voices and sufferings emanating from Auschwitz, 70 years on, religious and national extremism in various parts of the world, make it glaring that we, mankind, have not sufficiently learnt from the past,  stoking the possibility of repeats of Auschwitz across the world.

From carefully crafted and well executed acts of genocidal ethnic cleansing against so-called minority ethnic groups in Nigeria’s Middle-Belt region, to the targeting of Jews in France; from the rise of extremist right-wing political parties across Europe to palpable racism in the United States; from vicious Islamist jihadist whose prime motive is mass murder and shocking all with their bestiality to increased warmongering amongst erstwhile arch-enemies in the Far-east; increase in widespread hatred against identifiable peoples, which gives rise to genocides and other mass atrocities, continues to rise exponentially giving notice to all who care to know, that sooner rather than later, an explosion will occur; that an Auschwitz will be repeated.

At whatsoever costs, we must all ensure Never Again!

Picture: Corpses of some of the over 1.5 million Jews murdered in Auschwitz in the background.

The media war of acrimony - perhaps more deadly than terror itself.

by Eze Eluchie

Would CNN’s Nic Robertson dare to ask United States soldiers in the 'battlefield' (who are not authorized to respond to such issues) questions about their formation and military preparedness and weaponry without the express approval of the commanding officers of such soldiers? Actual approval for such interviews actually has to come from the Defense Headquarters (Pentagon) in Washington DC. In the US, this CNN anchorman and those who cleared the interview session for broadcast would actually be facing serious charges that will ensure they spend the remainder of their years behind bars.

Is there any proof or confirmation that the person dressed in military uniform in the CNN video clip attached below is actually a Nigerian soldier?

Coming so soon after a well scripted documentary by Britain’s Sky News anchored by Alex Crawford which sought to portray the Nigerian military as unable to do what some its less endowed neighboring armies do with ease, and the regular taunts from the British Broadcasting Service gives the impression that some well oiled mechanisms is in place to use the media to undermine domestic efforts at tackling terror in Nigeria. This external scourge quickly and easily permeates into the domestic realm with some media outlets, out to score cheap political goals, gleefully rebroadcasting, as ‘news’, the jaundiced and unprofessional vomits from abroad.

The irony of the reportage of Nigeria’s efforts at tackling terror is further brought to the fore by noise of ‘war crimes’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ which fills the air, from these same media outlets, when ever Nigerian troops attain any measure of success against terrorist elements.

The contrast is mind-boggling. And its effect on the soldiers who are saddled with confronting the terror behemoth in the field will surely not be uplifting.

The reality is that fighting an insurgency on one’s home soil against an amorphous entity which thrives in mass murders and has access to seemingly inexhaustible stockpile of weapons through international terror networks is a challenge even the strongest of fighting forces will find stressful.  Worse still if you have well coordinated hawks ever ready to trumpet setbacks.

The Nigerian military will do best what it has to do. Let no one however be mistaken as to the wider implications of terror establishing a foothold in Nigeria or worse still succeeding in destabilizing our northern regions. As we often times fail to remember, extremist Islamist terror knows no borders and with their flair for cooperation and sharing information and assets amongst themselves, the Nigerian State and its peoples will certainly not be the only victims - in due course all will experience victimhood.

Video: Nic Robertson’s piece on CNN http://bit.ly/1whEZh5 

Picture: Nigerian troops in a door-to-door mop-up operation after liberating a town from terrorists

We are all Charlie Hebdo.

by Eze Eluchie

Terror attacks such as what happened earlier today at Charlie Hebdo helps one better understand why the State of Israel does what it does and is what it is, and why the West should have allowed leaders like Moammar Qhadaffi, Saddam Hussein and others in their mold who best understand their population to do what they best know how to do.

Do the deaths at Charlie Hebdo mean that the French Government of Francois Hollande is ineffective? Certainly not!

Do the senseless murders at Charlie Hebdo mean that Journalism should cease? Certainly not!!

Does the world have to tolerate terrorists, Terrorism and or those who seek to profit from them? Certainly Not!!!

If Oby Ezekwesili and her gang at #bringbackourgirls were French citizens, they would by now have started a #bringbackourjournalists ensemble to mock and criticize the French Government. In like manner, if Chidi Odinkalu who chairs the Human Rights Commission were French, he would be readying his arguments to buttress accusations of ‘crime against humanity’ and ‘war crimes’ against the Government in anticipation of the robust response French authorities will visit upon terror implicated in this most wicked of attacks. In like manner, anarchist elements who masquerade as opposition party in Nigeria would be throwing tantrums warning the government that any response against terrorists was an attack against their ‘regions’!

The world cannot and must not succumb to terror!

We are all Charlie Hebdo


Picture: An edition of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo