Nigerian Tribune (January 4, 2012): Headline: Boko Haram is not Nigeria’s problem - US don: ‘Government and newspapers around the world attributed the horrific Christmas Day bombings of churches in Nigeria to Boko Haram, a shadowy group that is routinely described as an extremist Islamist organization based in the North-East corner of Nigeria. Indeed, since the May inauguration of President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the Niger Delta in the country’s South, Boko Haram has been blamed for virtually every outbreak of violence in Nigeria.
But the news media and American policy makers are chasing an elusive and ill-defined threat; there is no proof that a well-organised, ideologically coherent terrorist group called Boko Haram even exists today. Evidence suggests instead that, while the original core of the group remains active, criminal gangs have adopted the name Boko Haram to claim responsibility for attacks when it suits them.
The United States must not be drawn into a Nigerian “war on terror” –rhetorical or real – that would make us appear biased toward a Christian president. Getting involved in an escalating sectarian conflict that threatens the country’s unity could turn Nigerian Muslims against America without addressing any of the underlying problems that are fueling instability and sectarian strife in Nigeria.
Since August, when General Carter F. Ham, the commander of the United States Africa Command, warned that Boko Haram had links to Al Queda affiliates, the perceived threat has grown.
Shortly after General Ham’s warning, the United Nations’ headquarters in Abuja was bombed, and simplistic explanations blaming Boko Haram for Nigeria’s mounting security crisis became routine.
Someone who claims to be a spokesman for Boko Haram – with a name no one recognizes and whom no one has been able to identify or meet with – has issued threats and statements claiming responsible for attacks. Remarkably, the Nigerian government and the international news media have simply accepted what he says.
It was clear in 2009, as it is now, that the root cause of violence and anger in both the North and South of Nigeria is endemic poverty and hopelessness. Influential Nigerians from Maiduguri, where Boko Haram is centered, pleaded with Mr. Jonathan’s government in June and July not to respond to Boko Haram with force alone. Likewise, the American ambassador, Terence P. McCulley, has emphasized, both privately and publicly, that the government must address socio-economic deprivation, which is most severe in the north. No one seems to be listening.’
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE (January 3, 2012): Front page: BOKO HARAM ORDERS SOUTHERNERS TO LEAVE NORTH:
‘Dreaded Islamist group, Boko Haram, has issued a three-day ultimatum to Christians in the North to leave the zone. The group’s spokesman, Abul Qaqa, who has spoken in the past on behalf of the group blamed for scores of attacks, said he was giving southerners living in the North a three-day ultimatum to leave.
“We find it pertinent to state that soldiers will only kill innocent Muslims in the local government areas where the state of emergency was declared,” he told journalists in a phone conference late on Sunday.
“We would confront them squarely to protect our brothers.”
Speaking in Hausa language, Qaqa said “we also wish to call on our fellow Muslims to come back to the North because we have evidence that they would be attacked.”
In the North-eastern city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, residents reported increased patrols on Monday. Soldiers had been entering homes in search of weapons and bombs, they said.
After the searches, soldiers told residents to report any unusual behavior or abandoned vehicles which may contain planted bombs.’
Niger Delta won’t retaliate Boko Haram attack:
‘Meanwhile, the Niger Delta militia will not retaliate the incessant bombing of churches and its people who live in the northern part of the country by the Boko Haram sect.
The Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, said this while responding to the recent attack on a mosque in Sapele, Delta State, on Monday.
He said that in spite of the very provocative antics of the Boko Haram sect, the Niger Delta would not record any form of reprisal attacks on northern or Islamic targets.
According to him, the recent bold security measures taken by President Jonathan will, in the coming days, curb, totally, the activities of the sect.
Kuku, who was speaking with correspondents in Lagos, insisted that the reported attack on a mosque in Sapele was an isolated case and should not be seen as a reprisal attack.
“The President has said it all; what Boko Haram is doing is pure terrorism. What the sect is doing has nothing to do with Islam, neither can anyone say the sect is propagating a northern agenda. It is terrorism, pure and simple. The wicked activities of Boko Haram are affecting both Christians and Muslims. The bombs they have been throwing have been killing northerners and southerners,” the presidential adviser said.
He stated that the Niger Delta region of the country did not have any reasons whatsoever to attack northern or Muslim targets, adding, “beyond the declaration of a state of emergency on certain parts of states in the North, where the Boko Haram sect is very active, I am very much aware of other unprecedented security measures that have been put in place by His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan. Based on what I know as a presidential adviser, I can confidently tell Nigerians that the days of Boko Haram are numbered.”
He said that the successful management of the Presidential Amnesty Programme had restored relative peace in the Niger Delta, promising that the gains attained in the zone so far would be seriously consolidated in the new year.
Kuku said that in the New Year, the Federal Government would doggedly pursue infrastructural development in the Niger Delta. “Yes, the amnesty programme has brought peace to the Niger Delta; it is, however, time to utilize the conducive atmosphere in the region to tackle infrastructural decay, environmental degradation, pollution and gas flaring in the zone. We must now prevent those situations in the Niger Delta that bred agitation and militancy in the first place. That is the focus of the Federal Government now.”
Kuku disclosed that the Presidential Amnesty Office in the New Year would send a minimum of 12,000 transformed Niger Delta ex-agitators to either schools or vocational training centres within the country or abroad.
“The 2012 budget of the Amnesty Programme targets the reintegration of a least 12,000 ex-agitators. I am determined to pursue and possibly exceed this target. In the New Year, we shall search out even more creative ways to consolidate peace, safety and security in the Niger Delta,” Kuku said.’
