.
In 2013 US "sharply warned" Nigeria to show restraint in battling Boko Haram, that use of force will only "fuel extremism." Former Bush admin. Nigerian Amb. Campbell even in 2013 said Boko just a political problem.
5/17/2013, "Nigeria bombs Islamists, US sounds alarm," Reuters, by Lanre Ola, Maiduguri, Nigeria
sharp warning from the
United States to respect human rights and not harm civilians. Nigerian
warplanes struck militant camps in the northeast on Friday in a major
push against an Islamist insurgency, drawing a
Troops used jets and
helicopters to bombard targets in their biggest offensive since the Boko
Haram group launched a revolt almost four years ago to establish a
breakaway Islamic state and one military source said at least 30
militants had been killed.
But three days after President Goodluck Jonathan
declared a state of emergency in the northeast, U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry issued a strongly worded statement saying: "We are ... deeply
concerned by credible allegations that Nigerian security forces are
committing gross human rights violations, which, in turn, only escalate
the violence and fuel extremism."
The
United States is the biggest foreign investor in Africa's most populous
nation, notably in its energy sector, and buys a third of Nigeria's oil.
Washington "condemns Boko Haram's campaign of terror in the strongest
terms", Kerry said, but urged Nigeria's armed forces to show restraint
and discipline.
Nigerian
defense spokesman Brigadier-General Chris Olukolade said in a statement
that troops destroyed several Boko Haram camps and weapons stockpiles in
forests around Borno state, epicenter of the uprising and relic of a
medieval Islamic empire: "Heavy weapons including anti-aircraft and
anti-tank guns were also destroyed in the process," he said.
"The
special operations ... resulted in the destruction of much of the
insurgents' weapons and logistics such as vehicles, containers, fuel
dumps and power generators."
He
said the death toll amongst the insurgents would be verified during
mopping up exercises in the camps, including in the Sambisa game reserve
in Borno state. A military source said at least 30 insurgents had been
killed in one operation.
Nigerian
forces are trying to regain territory controlled by well-armed
militants in remote northeastern stronghold states of Borno, Yobe and
Adamawa, put under a state of emergency by President Goodluck Jonathan
on Tuesday.
The Islamists,
seen as the main security threat to Africa's top oil producer, have
been staging bolder attacks since last month, including one on the town
of Bama that left 55 dead.
Nigerian
authorities fear they are creating an enclave in remote border areas,
as al Qaeda linked militants did in the deserts of Mali before the
French forced them out in January.
But
previous efforts to crush Boko Haram have always proved temporary,
forcing them to dissipate into hiding places or across borders, where
they wait, regroup and then come back.
The military is already overstretched in the north, by operations against oil theft in the south and foreign missions.
More
troops arrived on Friday in the Borno state capital Maiduguri, where
Boko Haram was founded as a clerical movement opposed to Western
culture, but which after a military crackdown on it killed 800 people,
morphed into a full armed rebellion and forged ties with al-Qaeda linked
groups in the Sahara.
"I
saw more than 20 trucks loaded with soldiers fully kitted for battle
towards Marte. I wish them luck in ending this BH (Boko Haram) madness,"
resident Ahmed Ibrahim said.
A
day earlier, 11 trucks of police trained in counter-insurgency had
arrived in Maiduguri, security officials said. Mobile phone connections
to Borno and Yobe states were cut.
In
some parts of Maiduguri, and in Yola, the capital of Adamawa state,
traffic returned to roads and shops re-opened, as most military
operations took place in remote rural areas. Roads out of the city to
such areas were sealed off by soldiers.
MILITARY SOLUTION?
Thousands
of troops are involved in the offensive - the precise number is a
secret - an answer to critics who accuse Jonathan, a southern Christian,
of underestimating the severity of the crisis in the largely Muslim
north.
Several thousand
people have been killed since Boko Haram rose up in 2009 to try create
an Islamic state in a nation of 170 million split equally between
Christians, the majority in the south, and Muslims, mostly in the north.
The
violence has mostly happened far from the commercial hub Lagos or
political capital Abuja, and hundreds of miles away from oilfields in
the southeast, which has dulled a sense of urgency about it amongst
Nigeria's elites.
Beyond
the region covered by the state of emergency, gunmen stormed a police
station and a bank in Katsina state, the army said, a sign the offensive
could provoke violence by smaller militant cells across the north.
It was not clear who carried out the attack.
This
is not the first time planes have been used to quell an Islamist
uprising. In the 1980s, military leaders used air power to put down
religiously inspired protests in the north's main city of Kano, a
crackdown that left some 5,000 people dead, according to state media at
the time.
The emergency
affects semi-desert states of some 150,000 sq km (60,000 sq miles) along
Lake Chad - near borders with Niger, Chad and Cameroon - an area home
to around 10 million people.
Rights
groups are concerned the state of emergency will lead to more of the
abuses they have documented by Nigerian forces, and some commentators
are concerned that this pushes a political solution to the conflict even
further out of sight.
Kerry
said: "We urge Nigeria's security forces to apply disciplined use of
force in all operations, protect civilians in any security response, and
respect human rights and the rule of law."
Last month Jonathan floated the idea of an amnesty, but Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau rejected it.
"A
state of emergency appears to be a further step toward responding to
the crisis in the north through military rather than political means," a
former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria [in Bush administration] John Campbell, wrote in a blog.
"The brutality of the Nigerian security services appears to generate support for the Islamists.""
====================
Bush admin. Nigerian ambassador (2004-2007) defends Hillary Clinton re: Boko Haram, says Bush admin. didn't think Boko Haram was terror group either:
5/12/14, "Boko Haram Designation: John Campbell Flays Criticism Against Hillary Clinton," Leadership News (Nigeria), Abiodun Oluwarotimi
.
"Former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. John Campbell,
yesterday said that it was unfair to criticize former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton for not designating Boko Haram a terrorist group
organization.
John Campbell, a notable critic of President Goodluck Jonathan’s
administration, had served as the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria from 2004
to 2007 under President George W. Bush.
While reacting to criticisms against Hillary Clinton for not naming
the entire terrorist group a foreign terrorist organization, Campbell
said he and other experts on Nigeria had also opposed the designation
because Boko Haram was a “highly diffuse” group and the move could have
limited U.S. options in dealing with it in the future.
The State Department has since designated Boko Haram as a terror
group, and President Barack Obama has dispatched military advisers and
law enforcement personnel to help in the search for the girls after
Nigeria initially balked at asking for assistance.
But Campbell said that as the most populous country in Africa,
Nigeria is often reluctant to ask for international assistance but that
it must do so before the U.S. can step up its aid.
“For the U.S. to do anything, it requires the request and
acquiescence of the Nigerian government. Nigerians look to help, not be
helped, so this is a different set of circumstances for them,” he said.
The former US envoy to Nigeria said Boko Haram, which has threatened
to sell the girls into slavery, noted that the sect wanted to destroy
the Nigerian government because it was secular, stressing that it was
likely that the captives had been split up and taken to different
countries in Africa.
“It’s unlikely that all of them could be rescued,” he noted."
=====================
Nigeria's oil theft racket involves everyone: "crooked politicians, security forces, oil industry
personnel and oil traders....Officials and private actors disguise theft through manipulation of meters and shipping documents....Proceeds are laundered through banks and businesses in African states,
as well as the U.S., Britain, Switzerland, India, Singapore and the
Persian Gulf."...
10/18/13, "Nigeria's booming oil theft racket costs $1B a month," upi.org, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
"Royal
Dutch Shell is selling off four of its onshore Nigerian oil blocks
because of the constant theft of large volumes oil from its pipelines,
officials said.
========================
Half of Nigeria's oil revenue has disappeared via theft and corruption:
April 2009, "Has globalization failed in Nigeria?" Yale.edu, Michael Watts
"Since 1960, over $600 billion in oil revenues has flowed into Nigeria’s
coffers; it represents an opportunity unavailable to much of the
developing world. These petrodollars could have been spent
productively, could have transformed agriculture, laid the foundation
for an effective public education system, provided much-needed
infrastructure. Yet, according to the World Bank, of that $600 billion,
$300 billion has simply disappeared into overseas bank accounts through
theft and corruption."...
.
===============================
"Public office is so lucrative that
people will kill to get it. Nigeria has 36 state governors, 31 of whom
are under federal investigation for corruption."
.
8/8/2013, "A country so corrupt it would be better to burn our aid money," UK Daily Mail, Michael Burleigh
"Nigeria is
not quite the most corrupt country on earth. But according to
Transparency International, which monitors international financial
corruption, it is not far off — coming a shameful 172nd worst among the
215 nations surveyed. Only countries as dysfunctional, derelict and downright dangerous as Haiti or the Congo are more corrupt.
In
theory, Nigeria’s 170 million-strong population should be prospering in
a country that in recent years has launched four satellites into space
and now has a burgeoning space programme.
Moreover, Nigeria is sitting on crude
oil reserves estimated at 35 billion barrels (enough to fuel the entire
world for more than a year), not to mention 100 trillion cubic feet of
natural gas.
It also
manages to pay its legislators the highest salaries in the world, with a
basic wage of £122,000, nearly double what British MPs earn and many
hundreds of times that of the country’s ordinary citizens.
No wonder the ruling elite can afford
luxury homes in London or Paris, and top-end cars that, across West
Africa, have led to the sobriquet ‘Wabenzi’, or people of the
Mercedes-Benz.
Yet 70 per
cent of Nigerians live below the poverty line of £1.29 a day, struggling
with a failing infrastructure and chronic fuel shortages because of a
lack of petrol refining capacity, even though their country produces
more crude oil than Texas.
And that poverty is not for want of assistance from the wider world.
Since gaining its independence in
1960, Nigeria has received $400 billion (£257 billion) in aid — six
times what the U.S. pumped into reconstructing the whole of Western
Europe after World War II.
Nigeria
suffers from what economists call the ‘resource curse’ — the paradox
that developing countries with an abundance of natural reserves tend to
enjoy worse economic growth than countries without minerals and fuels.
The
huge flow of oil wealth means the government does not rely on taxpayers
for its income, so does not have to answer to the people — a situation
that fosters rampant corruption and economic sclerosis because there is
no investment in infrastructure as the country’s leaders cream off its
wealth.
.
Given
the appalling levels of corruption in that nation, this largesse is
utterly sickening — for the money will only be recycled into bank
accounts in the Channel Islands or Switzerland.
Frankly, we might as well flush our cash away or burn it for all the good it’s doing for ordinary Nigerians."
=================================
7/5/12, "Mongolia’s task: avoid Nigerian resource curse," Reuters, Martin Hutchinson
"Current estimates are that more than $1 billion of oil per month is
stolen from the Niger Delta fields and corruption remains endemic even
under well-meaning President Goodluck Jonathan. Nigeria ranks 133rd on
the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index and 143rd on Transparency
International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. True, high oil prices
reversed 40 years of decline in living standards through 2000. And while
GDP growth is slowing, it’s still expected to run at 6 percent to 7
percent this year. But with inflation in double digits and government
expenditure budgeted to exceed revenue by 31 percent in 2012, Nigeria’s
situation is unstable."
.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Nigerian girls were kidnapped due to non-existent Republican Party. Pathetic Bush admin. also chose not to cite Boko Haram as terror group, Nigeria tried to fight Boko Haram in 2013 but Obama scolded them for doing so. GOP 'leadership' has access to microphones daily which it could use to save humanity but opts not to do so
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