Tacit US Acquiescence To Impending Acts of Mass Atrocities In Niger Delta Region?

by Eze Eluchie,

Is the present belligerent posture of the Nigerian ruler towards the Niger Delta issue in any way traceable to the recent visit of US Secretary of State, John Kerry?

Were there any assurances given to Nigeria’s rulers by their august visitor that when Nigeria’s military starts killing Nigerian citizens with US supplied weapons that the US will simply look the other side?

The above twin questions becomes pertinent when one contrasts the dispositions and mannerisms of the ruling junta in Nigeria to activists in Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta region prior to and subsequent to Mr. John Kerry’s visit.

Prior to the visit, the Nigerian government had been appealing to all quarters for dialogue, sending all manners of emissaries to try and reach out to the various leadership of myriad activist elements and organizations in the Niger Delta region. As the date of the visit approached and thereafter, all such efforts at dialogue evaporated and was replaced with expedited and ferocious military build-up, militarization of the Delta region and a sudden fatalistic and threatening disposition and a military operation code-named ‘Operation Crocodile Smile’ – a crocodile, supposedly, only smiles when it has made a kill.

The Nigerian military has laid siege on the Niger Delta region. There is apprehension that buoyed by the visit of the US Secretary of State, a repeat of previous acts of mass atrocities carried out by the Nigerian State against its citizens in the Niger delta region (particularly the genocidal attacks on Odi, Bayelsa State in 1999 and Gbaramatu in Delta State in 2009),  might, once again, be in the offing.

An inkling as to how much tension the visit of Mr. Kerry has generated amongst divergent interest groups in Nigeria can be gleaned at from the fact that, in a most unusual development, the umbrella organization of Christians in Nigeria, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), issued a stringent Press Release expressing dismay at the skewed ethno-religious slant of the US Secretary of State’s itinerary and dispositions during his recent visit. Some Nigerians who feel threatened with the probably outcome of the Kerry visit have taken the added option of petitioning authorities in the US who they feel will have powers to prevent or forestall what appears to be a pending doom resulting from interferences from Mr. Kerry.

In the 15 months it has thus far been in power, the Nigerian government led by Muhammadu Buhari has shown an appetite to use excessive military force against its own citizens for merely expressing constitutionally guaranteed right to protest and express contrary opinion such as with the massacre of members of the Independent Peoples of the Sovereign State of Biafra (IPOB) in Aba (Abia State, South-east Nigeria),  and the mass killings of Shi’a adherents in Zaria (Kaduna State, North-central Nigeria) both in December 2015.

It is thus with a view to avoiding an imminent mass wastage of lifes to suppress agitators for equity, regionalism and restructuring of Nigeria, following the amassing of military personnel and firepower in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region by the Nigerian Government, that FREEMIND joins other people and organizations of goodwill, including the Chairman of the United States House of Representatives Sub-Committee on Judiciary, Congressman Tom Marino, to urge the Government of the United States, considering its obvious influence over the Buhari regime, to use its immense reach to ensure that the recent visit of US Secretary of State, John Kerry, does not get turned into a vague acquiescence for plans to commit mass atrocities against Nigerian citizens.

Picture: US Secretary of State and Nigeria’s ruler, Muhammadu Buhari during tgeh formers visit to Abuja September 2016.

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, Goofed In Nigeria

by Eze Eluchie,

By his itinerary and comments during his recent junket to Nigeria, United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, merely underscored the reasons why the Barrack Obama presidency has been such a catastrophic failure in the area of Foreign Affairs and International relations.

The slant in persons and locations visited and the underlining hypocritical advice (to Nigeria) to apply ‘diplomacy’ in dealing with terror are clear recipes for domestic disaster.

These were the same mannerisms and dubious mindsets which led the Obama administration under the Hillary Clinton tenure as Secretary of State to term Boko Haram a 'socio-economic reaction to economic marginalization' and thus refuse to treat BH as a Foreign Terrorist Organization - under such warped thinking, Al Qaeda and ISIS should be treated as mere affiliates of the Boys Scout movement!

The Obama administration appears intent on exporting its cohort with proponents of extremist Islamist philosophies across the African continent – consorting with the Buhari regime which rode into power in Nigeria on the back of Boko Haram terror attacks and meetings with Islamist leaders in Nigeria some of whom (such as Mr. Sa’adu Abubakar alias Sultan of Sokoto) had within the past few days asserted that ‘Christians commit wicked acts such as crimes against humanity’, as Kerry did during his last visit, without even trying to understand or meet the victims of Islamist extremism in Nigeria, ultimately is a disservice to the United States and hurts US interests and image.

If Mr. Kerry's visit is indicative of what a President Obama's visit would have looked like, then Nigerians of goodwill should be celebrating the failure of Obama to visit Nigeria throughout his tenure.

http://thenationonlineng.net/can-faults-kerrys-visit/

Picture: US Secretary of State, John Kerry with his primary host during his recent visit to Nigeria, ruler of Nigeria’s Fulani Muslims, Mr. Sa'adu Abubakar alias Sultan of Sokoto.

“800 Boko Haram Terrorists Surrender in Nigeria” – tell that to the marines

 by Eze Eluchie,

The announcement by Nigeria’s Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar, that over 800 Boko Haram terrorists have ‘voluntarily surrendered’ to government forces serve to  crystallizes the reality (even to the most optimistic) that the entire Boko Haram facade was a political charade.

800 Boko Haram terrorists voluntarily surrender to Nigeria Government forces? I guess the Muhammadu Buhari-led junta and our Defence authorities should share this unique experience with Western powers who are forever trying to contain ISIL, Al Qeida, Al Nusra, Hamas and other extremist Islamist terror organizations – one does not need to be a soothsayer to predict that both Barack Obama and his French counterpart and virtually all the leaders in the European Union states would give an arm and a leg for the trailblazing strategy which these characters ruling over the Nigerian contraption adopted to get their erstwhile extremist Islamist jihadist to ‘voluntarily surrender’.

Really? Is the world to applaud this remarkable feat and just wish away the fact that these terrorists were the same bunch who massacred so many, beheaded hundreds, bombed Christian places of worship killing and maiming several thousands in the process; bombed and destroyed the United Nations main office building in Abuja killing several UN personnel and guests in that dastardly attack; and committed other acts of mass attrocities including the Chibok ‘abductions’?

To sweeten the announcement, General Rabe Abubakar further pronounced that the ‘repentant terrorists’ were in a camp in Gombe waiting to be ‘deradicalized’! De-radicalization in Nigeria? Wow! Presumably, the ‘experts’ who were undertaking this ‘deradicalization’ process may have an inkling to what radicalized the repentant terrorists in the first instance.

Following from past treatment meted out to these ‘voluntarily surrendering terrorists’, it would be expected that these ‘ex-terrorists’ will be absorbed either into the Nigerian Military or relevant Government agencies where their terror experience will be adequately put to use – the ‘ex-terrorists’ will be absorbed into these government institutions at an appropriate rank befitting their experiences.

As beneficiaries of terror entrench themselves into governance in Nigeria, and coming soon after the charade of the Chibok ‘abductions’ gets further exposed, the world should ready itself for more absurdities. It is however pertinent that justice, at the international level, be ultimately served to avoid a repeat of this loathsome conduct elsewhere in the world. 

Clearly on the issue of justice for the victims, Nigerian authorities have by their pronouncements and actions shown a clear unwillingness and or inability to prosecute widespread systemic harms occasioned identifiable segments of its population– a veritable criteria for the immediate intervention of international adjudication mechanisms over the harms caused by the politicization of terrorism under the guises of 'Boko Haram'.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/08/8000-boko-haram-members-voluntarily-surrender-military/

Picture: Some BH operatives probably moving to ‘voluntarily surrender'