Politics

Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has moved quickly to dismiss rumors making rounds on Social Media that Boko Haram has succeeded in contaminating chalks used in Ghana with the Ebola virus. Over the weekend in Ghana, fears went high when rumors appeared on Social Media that Nigeria’s militant group, Boko Haram has contaminated chalks for writing in schools with the deadly Ebola Virus to punish Ghana for involving in the multi-national task force set up by West African leaders to fight them. The rumor quoted its source from the FDA. The FDA is Ghana’s public body which is responsible for checking foods and drugs standards before it is sold to the public. It has nothing to do with chalks used in writing in schools and it is unclear why the circulators of the hoax message linked it to the FDA. The rumor added that two teachers have so far died after coming into contact with the contaminated chalks supplied by Boko Haram.

Regional leaders in West Africa have approved a joint military force to fight Boko Haram. Ghana is playing a lead role in the mobilization of the team. Deputy Chief Executive in charge of Food Safety Division at the FDA, John Odame-Darkwah said in a statement that the rumor being peddled by some unidentified unscrupulous people is absolutely false and is only meant to create public fear and panic. He appealed to the Ghanaian public to disregard the information and go about their normal routines. Mr Odame-Darkwah explained that the FDA has notified the security agencies to investigate the source of such misleading information, advising the public to desist from circulating such information which is capable of causing intense fear especially among schoolchildren in the country. “The public may visit the FDA website, www.fdaghana.gov.gh to verify the source of any circulation purported to be originating from the FDA,” he said.

Independent security experts said last month that some Boko Haram fighters might have been on Ghana’s soil. And the Ghanaian Interior Ministry responded that the country is ready to combat any surprise attack by the group in any part of the country. The United States intelligence report on Boko Haram in May 2014 said there is no indication of the group in Ghana but did warned the Ghanaian security services not to be complacent. Boko Haram six-year insurgency has intensified this year. The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said Boko Haram killed more than 4,000 civilians last year. Boko Haram is a Hausa language which translates to mean "Western education is forbidden" and it sees schools and colleges as a symbol of Western culture. It has vowed to eradicate such institutions and create an Islamic state in the north of the country.

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Feb.2015

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2 Boko Haram militants were arrested on Sunday morning in a market deep inside the district of Fotokol in the Logone and Chari Division. The arrests were made from intelligence gathered from 21 other militants detained earlier this week by the Rapid Intervention Battalion in the Tolkomari locality.  In another development, unconfirmed reports from the Far North region say some 25 Cameroonian hostages taken by Boko Haram have fled. Our military informant hinted that the Nigerian Islamic sect seems to be losing control of its fighters and proper coordination as the military offensive by the anti Boko Haram coalition continues.

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Ngwa Bertrand

23.Feb.2015

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The Nigerian army says offensive against Takfiri Boko Haram militants is continuing after the recapture of the northeastern town of Baga from the extremists. "The cordon and search as well as patrol of the localities continue while the offensive on terrorists is progressing in other areas of the theatre of the counter terrorist campaign," said General Chris Olukolade, a spokesman for the army, in a statement on Sunday. Soldiers who have been participating in Baga operation have discovered various types of arms abandoned by the fleeing terrorists in the town and surrounding areas, the statement said. On Saturday, Nigeria’s army said it had regained control of Baga from Boko Haram, which overran the town more than a month ago. The extremist group has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of Nigeria since the beginning of its operations in 2009. The five countries of Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Benin pledged earlier in February to deploy an 8,700-strong force to fight the Boko Haram militancy in the region around Lake Chad. 

Boko Haram in Nigeria is a child of Nigerian history and the impunity of Northern Nigeria’s Military establishment. Armed conflict is part of Nigeria history. It is also a business which has enriched many.  People including generations unborn learn from history. The savaged brutality meted on civilians and civilian objects in Nigeria pre-exist Boko Haram. These acts of impunity were some of the methods deployed by successive military regimes, most of them from Northern Generals to accede and sustain power. The ongoing slaughter by Boko Haram follows the same pattern which in 1966 led to the Nigeria/Biafra War. The underlying cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Southerners, mainly of the Ibo ethnic groups in the North was never comprehensively investigated, if at all.  There is no gainsaying that had the crimes been investigated, the result would have pointed to some powerful individuals within the Nigerian Military structure of Northern origin. For these, political power and control of the economy could only be attained through scapegoating communities whom they perceived as serious competitors.

The Nigerian/Biafra War was a curse on the conscience of the nation but a blessing to the Northern Military establishment. Many of these Generals made fortunes from the war and took the opportunity to entrench themselves in power. Olusegun Obasanjo like Good luck Jonathan came to power during that period as a beneficiary of the sad spoils of death. They were considered outsiders or trespassers to their god ordained power. For this reason, the country had to be made ungovernable to prove them and any person outside the North unfit to defend the constitutional order, national cohesion and republican values.  Under these dire circumstances, the Northern Military establishment, their feudal and religious confederacy would step in and take back power through democratic or other means. This is the rationale of the unfolding drama in the general elections coming up soon.

The culture of impunity and unchecked state supervised criminality against civilians during military rule under the Northern Military establishment in Nigeria was unprecedented.  This is the culture of impunity that gave birth to claims for Sharia States in some Northern states and coordinated attacks against Christians in Northern Nigeria.  The sharia claims emerged only when Olusegun Obasanjo a Christian from the West was elected as the first democratic President of Nigeria after Military rule. The political motivation for this move using religion a lethal weapon was not lost on keen observers of Nigerian politics nor to the Southern Military establishment and politicians or even Obasanjo. The hidden hand of his military peers from the North behind these acts of destabilization was obvious. This did not happen during the military rule dominated by the Northern Military establishment so also the so-called Fulani herdsmen slaughter of Christians and burning of Christian Churches in the North and the Middle Belt.

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Ngwa Bertrand

23.Feb.2015

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Scores of the residents of Gamboru in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State have returned to the newly-liberated city to inspect damages and decide whether they can permanently return. People who had fled the town last year, crossed the border with Cameroon on Friday under military escort to inspect the devastation caused by the Takfiri Boko Haram group. Gamboru was recaptured from Boko Haram earlier this month by Chadian troops, who have joined the recently-formed multinational force to fight against the militants. Boko Haram had seized Gamboru in August last year, forcing thousands of its residents to flee across the border to the Cameroonian town of Fotokol, on the other bank of a river on the border between Cameroon and Nigeria. “We met a ghost town strewn with burnt vehicles, destroyed buildings and emptied homes,” said Kachalla Moduye, a former resident of Gamboru who had left the town after the Boko Haram attack, adding, “Many homes were burnt in the Boko Haram invasion and in the fighting to reclaim it by Chadian soldiers. Those that were spared were looted by Boko Haram in the five months they stayed in the town.” Gamboru has been under frequent attacks from the militants since 2009. The recapturing of the town came during the first operation of the 8,700-strong force that Nigeria and its immediate neighbors, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin, had pledged to create in early February in a bid to fight the Boko Haram militants. 

Separately, as Chadian forces were conducting sweeping aerial and ground operations, the Boko Haram militants prevented hundreds of residents from leaving a dozen villages in the nearby Marte district who were heading west from Gamboru. “They will not allow everyone to leave and threaten to kill anyone that attempts to flee,” said Maji Zaram, a villager who made it to Fotokol. Chad’s army pushed deep inside the Nigerian territory for the first time this week and bombarded the town of Dikwa near Boko Haram’s Sambisa Forest stronghold. The Nigerian army also announced on Thursday that its fighter jets had bombarded Sambisa Forest and the nearby Gwoza. Boko Haram militants took control of Gwoza in June 2014 and set up their base in the town. Nigeria’s military also regained the control of the nearby town of Monguno earlier this week. The violence fueled by Boko Haram militants, which started in 2009, has killed at least 13,000 people and rendered more than a million others homeless.

Boko Haram in Nigeria is a child of Nigerian history and the impunity of Northern Nigeria’s Military establishment. Armed conflict is part of Nigeria history. It is also a business which has enriched many.  People including generations unborn learn from history. The savaged brutality meted on civilians and civilian objects in Nigeria pre-exist Boko Haram. These acts of impunity were some of the methods deployed by successive military regimes, most of them from Northern Generals to accede and sustain power. The ongoing slaughter by Boko Haram follows the same pattern which in 1966 led to the Nigeria/Biafra War. The underlying cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Southerners, mainly of the Ibo ethnic groups in the North was never comprehensively investigated, if at all.  There is no gainsaying that had the crimes been investigated, the result would have pointed to some powerful individuals within the Nigerian Military structure of Northern origin. For these, political power and control of the economy could only be attained through scapegoating communities whom they perceived as serious competitors.

The Nigerian/Biafra War was a curse on the conscience of the nation but a blessing to the Northern Military establishment. Many of these Generals made fortunes from the war and took the opportunity to entrench themselves in power. Olusegun Obasanjo like Good luck Jonathan came to power during that period as a beneficiary of the sad spoils of death. They were considered outsiders or trespassers to their god ordained power. For this reason, the country had to be made ungovernable to prove them and any person outside the North unfit to defend the constitutional order, national cohesion and republican values.  Under these dire circumstances, the Northern Military establishment, their feudal and religious confederacy would step in and take back power through democratic or other means. This is the rationale of the unfolding drama in the up coming election.

The culture of impunity and unchecked state supervised criminality against civilians during military rule under the Northern Military establishment in Nigeria was unprecedented.  This is the culture of impunity that gave birth to claims for Sharia States in some Northern states and coordinated attacks against Christians in Northern Nigeria.  The sharia claims emerged only when Olusegun Obasanjo a Christian from the West was elected as the first democratic President of Nigeria after Military rule. The political motivation for this move using religion a lethal weapon was not lost on keen observers of Nigerian politics nor to the Southern Military establishment and politicians or even Obasanjo. The hidden hand of his military peers from the North behind these acts of destabilization was obvious. This did not happen during the military rule dominated by the Northern Military establishment so also the so-called Fulani herdsmen slaughter of Christians and burning of Christian Churches in the North and the Middle Belt.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

22.Feb.2015

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The United States has announced that it will support the Cameroonian army secure equipment to fight Boko Haram. The US that has reportedly prevented its long time ally, Nigeria from procuring arms said via its embassy in Yaoundé, that the Obama administration arrived the decision following its commitment geared towards countering the jihadists around the globe. The boss of the US diplomatic mission in Cameroon His Excellency Michael Stephen Hoza was quoted by Reuters as saying “My government is working on a logistic pipeline of material that will enhance Cameroon's ability to defend itself from Boko Haram". 

Boko Haram in Nigeria is a child of Nigerian history and the impunity of Northern Nigeria’s Military establishment. Armed conflict is part of Nigeria history. It is also a business which has enriched many.  People including generations unborn learn from history. The savaged brutality meted on civilians and civilian objects in Nigeria pre-exist Boko Haram. These acts of impunity were some of the methods deployed by successive military regimes, most of them from Northern Generals to accede and sustain power. The ongoing slaughter by Boko Haram follows the same pattern which in 1966 led to the Nigeria/Biafra War. The underlying cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Southerners, mainly of the Ibo ethnic groups in the North was never comprehensively investigated, if at all.  There is no gainsaying that had the crimes been investigated, the result would have pointed to some powerful individuals within the Nigerian Military structure of Northern origin. For these, political power and control of the economy could only be attained through scapegoating communities whom they perceived as serious competitors.

The Nigerian/Biafra War was a curse on the conscience of the nation but a blessing to the Northern Military establishment. Many of these Generals made fortunes from the war and took the opportunity to entrench themselves in power. Olusegun Obasanjo like Good luck Jonathan came to power during that period as a beneficiary of the sad spoils of death. They were considered outsiders or trespassers to their god ordained power. For this reason, the country had to be made ungovernable to prove them and any person outside the North unfit to defend the constitutional order, national cohesion and republican values.  Under these dire circumstances, the Northern Military establishment, their feudal and religious confederacy would step in and take back power through democratic or other means. This is the rationale of the unfolding drama in the election coming up.

Details

Ngwa Bertrand

21.Feb.2015

Hits: 1188

The Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram has released 158 hostages, mostly women and children abducted during an attack on the village of Katarko in Yobe state deep inside Nigeria. The 158 hostages were captured in Katarko, some 20 kilometers from the regional capital of Damaturu. Those released reportedly spent three weeks in captivity.  Boko Haram has often practiced mass kidnappings during the six years of insurgency in Nigeria.

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Ngwa Bertrand

20.Feb.2015

Hits: 2892