A donor conference held in London yesterday raised $10 billion-YES TEN BILLION DOLLARS for humanitarian relief missions in Syria. It is remarkable that a group of nations can raise $10 billion in a day. Perhaps Africans should be accorded this gesture.

Make no mistake, this development is a step in the right direction as it shows when world leaders sit down together for a common goal a lot can be achieved. Since the “Aljazeera Inspired” Arab Spring of 2011, over 25,000 Syrians have lost their lives and millions more displaced, this relief efforts should have been done earlier, like they say- Better Late Than Never.

But what about Africa? What about Somalia where you have the largest refugee camp in the world? What about West Africa and Nigeria in particular, where over 20,000 civilians have lost their lives and two million people have been displaced, making them refugees in their own country.

The UN takes seriously the right of children, especially with quality education, yet the UN have done nothing besides the #BringBackOurGirls campaign to alleviate the sufferings of hundreds of Nigerian school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram and sold into early marraige, sometimes as sex slaves. After the Chibok kidnapping nearly a thousand Nigerian women and children have been abducted by Boko Haram yet besides verbal condemnation the UN did nothing- rather In a paradoxical twist the opposite has been the case. Yes there is corruption in most 3rd world militaries, yes the likelyhood on human right abuses in 3rd world militaries are far higher than those in first world militaries; but slamming a weapons embargo on a country battling islamic insurgency (alone) does nothing but serve as a crippling blow to that countries military campaign against terrorism. With no corresponding sanction or military action against the terrorist group to redress the tactical imbalance, it gives terrorist groups an advantage-this has been the case with Nigeria until recently. The dramatic turn around of fortunes of the Nigerian army against Boko Haram with flood of weapons aquired from Russia, Eastern Europe and China epitomises the favt that all Nigeria needes was arms to replarmsweapons lost to attrition in 6 years of fighting.

In 2013 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (we grew up hearing the name on radio stations every morning) stated that terrorism in Africa is still in its infancy and not YET as extreme as those in the Middle East hence the world should act swiftly before we have another “Middle East”. Of course this advice fell on deaf ears, one year later Africa’s deadliest Jihadi Group Boko Haram wins the coverted MEDIA AWARD for the deadliest terrorist group in the world, effectively knocking off ISIS from the number one spot. This did not go down well with other terrorist groups who cried foul play. The consequence? As of this writing we there are ISIS fighters in Libya- which in itself is fast becoming the fall back capital of ISIS as they get pummeled in Raqah Syria by a coalition of the richest and most powerful nations in the world. In West Africa we have Al-Qeada and its affiliates staging a comeback with several attacks in Burkina-Faso and Mali already. With terrorist groups competiting for influence in Africa the people of Africa are in for a rough ride.

There is no denying the fact that Africa is fast becoming the new scramble for Jihadi groups, it is already home to the deadliest Jihadi group in the world. Terrorism is alien to African culture; a decade ago the closest Africa ever got to terrorism was what they saw on television, today millions have beeen displaced and tens of thousands of lives lost because of a problem created by Irresponsible and reckless Western military adventurims (think Libya)in Africa. Should the West spend a third the amount of resources they spend in the Middle East on Africa in its fight against terrorism, Jihadi Insurgency will be defeated in a matter of months, because the very concept of suicide Jihadism is alien to its culture, the bulk of their fighters are not Africans but Middle Eastern.

The Middle East is arguably the richest region in the world. It is home to %80 of the worlds proven oil reserves, with countries like Saudi Arabia making $1 billion every 18 hours (before oil prices tumbled), or rich cities like Dubai, middle income countries like Turkey and Kuwait. By themselves they are more than capable of holding their own yet the UN spend billions of dollars in men and material in helping the region.

Unfortunately Africa has not that fortunate. In the past it was regional powers like Nigeria who compensated for the lack of global assistance by playing the big brother role in the region, spending $10 billion of its own money on military interventions in countries like Liberia and S-leon to bring back peace and democratic governance with little global recognition and appreciation. Today Nigeria bears the brunt of Islamic terrorism and can no longer play that role, coupled with lack of investment in its military (for political reason) the Nigerian military has until recently taken a beaten-and as a consequwnce West Africa has suffered. Its next door neighbors Cameroon and Chad are poor countries with little resources and can barely sustain protracted military operations.

If Syria why not Nigeria? Pound for pound Nigeria is a far more important and strategic country compared to Syria. It is the 6th most populace country in the world as well as the 4th largest democracy on Earth. It has Africa’s largest economy and accounts for a third of West Africa’s GDP. The economic and political survival of West Africa depends on Nigeria. If Nigeria falls it will bring down a dozen or more countries with it. Syria is hardly that strategic in importance.
To be candid, the incompetense and corruption of African leaders have brought nothing but untold hardship on its people. African leaders have failed its people and it is a shame. Africa’s natural problems have historically been economic and ethnic in scope-not terrorism. The violence and carnage caused by terrorism in Africa today is the net result of flawed Western policies and not bad leadership and corruption as Western pundits claim. The battleground of the war against terror is shifting from the Middle East to Africa at an alarming rate and it borders on criminal to suggest corruption and bad governance are the principal culprit. NATO’s military adventurism in Libya is responsibile for the rise of Boko Haram. Deposing dictators with no plan for post war reconstruction and governance in todays volatile world borders on insanity. The power vacum created by Western military adventurism will most certainly be exploited by radical groups, and in the case of Libya thousands of weapons from Libya’s arsenal found its way to Jihadi groups -including Boko Haram.

A fraction of the money raised for Syria will go a long way in alleviating the sufferings of innocent civilians displaced by war. A UN estimates say Africa needs an emergency funding of about $2 billion to provide humanitarean relief for refugees in Africa.

The $10 billion raised in a day should be lauded, it should also be replicated in Africa. With no International coalition to help poor African countries in its fight against terrorism it is only prudent for world leaders to at least make concerted efforts to help Africa with funds to help humanitarean relief efforts. Africa is part of the global community too. We may be dirt poor and badly governed, we may lack the economic and military capacity Middle Eastern countries have-we are still humans, Africa remains the cradle of civilisation. Africa’s rise in the not too distant future is certain....

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http://ourtimeiscome.com/2016/02/05/10-billion-raised-in-24-hours-do-the-same-for-africa/

Hope that money will be wisely spent.

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