Good move for a start
Make we sidon look.

@Tomford and @Beaf

Thanks for answering my question on Sharia. That's potentially a land mine.

On the state of emergency powers/procedures, I believe section 305 of the 1999 constitution covers it.

i recommended the state of emergency in my post 2 days ago. It should have been across the states.

Good move for a start
Make we sidon look.

In selected LGAs? So d military administrators wuld nw bcum LGA chairmen or wat?

I think this is state of emergency on the undermentioned states by stealth.GEJ doesn't want to risk political capital by declaring outright SOE but by declaring SOE in certain LGA's he is indirectly eroding the powers of the governors in those respective states.Just thinking aloud

It is now very clear that we have a lilly livered president in power. Why on earth will be declare a state of emergency in some local government in the affceted Boko Haram states. How will this stop the ugly trend. The call for a state of emergency was to enable government take over full control of movement and executive functions in the state. Now what this partial declaration will do is to embolden the Boko Haram guys knowing now that the president is scared.
Failure to stamp your foot on the ground will be the greatest undoing of this government. I am sure it is this same lame duck service chiefs that will be recommending this rubbish idea to the president.Please let 2015 come lets get over this nightmare.

dmainboss:

In the midst of all these ignorant posts, you find some sensible few. The bolded explains GEJ's attitude so far. Whether he is right to act like that, i cannot say and would not defend it, but he would have prefered to solved things with dialog. You can also call it a naive stance and you might be right. But it is certainly not weakness. But he has begun to realise that is impossible in the Nigerian situation. Things are a lot more complex than what most of you post here. These guys work with security reports and know things you and I dont know. Most of you just talk like ruling a country is 1+1=2. There are very deep things you hear and see when you are in government. You cannot even mention them. So you only shake your head when you hear people making all kinds of comment.

Like someone said, everyone has become a security expert. In Nigeria, everyone is a coach. But only the coach sees the team training and only with such knowledge can you make good judgements. Some of you talking here, if they tell you only 1 or 2 secrets about Nigeria, you will faint. That is why you wont see military men, especially those above lieutement positions talking anyhow.

GEJ cannot just declare state of emergency anyhow. Declaring a state of emergency is a serious business. It has been the begining of many wars and coups. It is not childs play.

Talking about Boko Aram moving to other states. It doesnt work like that. A terrorist cell cannot just change base. It is not that simple. They have taking time to build trust in the communities where they live. They need to appear normal wherever they live. That is why is is not easy to move down south. By this state of emergency coupled with the closure of the borders, they will be somewhat incapacitated. But again, some of their structures already on the ground might still function but their capacity to grow will be greatly hampered.

Another misconception here is that BH can just spread their wings all over the country. It is not tht simple. What you are witnessing is a development that has span ten years or more. The warnings started going out that Al Qaeda was building a base in Nigeria since 2001, after sept 11. Succesive governments didnt take it serious. The truth is that this is not the regular BH that were wearing blue berets, This is Al Qaeda with a jihad mission but placating as BH.

The real people that can really stop this madness are the northen leaders. But they dont want to because they are more interested in politics. But it will soon bite them on their behind

Nothing is simple to u but BH has clearly shown that bombing any target for them is as simple as abc.There is dis mistaken notion that everytin about nigeria is complex& so we beat our heads looking for complex solutions when d simple ones wud av taclked d problem @less human,financial& material cost.Many people wish GEJ well,but just a few hrs into his announcement,wt d way this BH issue has bn handled all this while added to his reluctance to declare a SOE in plateau state wen. D sitauation warranted it mths ago,am beginning to av serious doubts if dis selected LGAs SOE will work.I still stand by my view that in d war against terrorism,u cannot afford to play politics of patronage which d pres has done.GEJ seems to av taken d first decisive move of his govt,this his new model of SOE had beta work,less failure may av an irreparable damage on his presidency

I didnt vote Jonathan in the last election but the guy is showing himself politically smarter than i thot.

He wont impose SOE outrightly on the affected states because he will ostracise himself from his political allies, However when the bombs fails to stop all of you led by one Tunde Bakare will march to the National assembly to force them to push him to put a blanket order on all the states Just like you did in the yaradua days. With this he can still maintain his rapport with his allies in those states when the boko haram wahala ends. Whether this move will be of full security benefit i dont know but i pray it will.

With this move any right thinking northern leader had better talk to their rascals, cos the USA and NATO will step in  to support Jonathan if the north resists the forthcoming blanket state of emergency.

Either way you see it, its a win for Jonathan. I guess the gloves are finally off, he is been groomed by the west and the final showdown is here

I dey enta Jos early nxt year o!Maq this soldjas no com dey give pesin stress o!Bcuz I wan faji big tym

dmainboss:

In the midst of all these ignorant posts, you find some sensible few. The bolded explains GEJ's attitude so far. Whether he is right to act like that, i cannot say and would not defend it, but he would have prefered to solved things with dialog. You can also call it a naive stance and you might be right. But it is certainly not weakness. But he has begun to realise that is impossible in the Nigerian situation. Things are a lot more complex than what most of you post here. These guys work with security reports and know things you and I dont know. Most of you just talk like ruling a country is 1+1=2. There are very deep things you hear and see when you are in government. You cannot even mention them. So you only shake your head when you hear people making all kinds of comment.

here we go again. its really very simple, when u repeatedly display incompetence at your job, people will start second guessing you. and please spare us the bs of these guys are professionals. do i need to remind about october 1, when 'these guys' got advnace warning from mend that there would be a bomb blast and still failed 'because it was raining'

Like someone said, everyone has become a security expert. In Nigeria, everyone is a coach. But only the coach sees the team training and only with such knowledge can you make good judgements. Some of you talking here, if they tell you only 1 or 2 secrets about Nigeria, you will faint. That is why you wont see military men, especially those above lieutement positions talking anyhow.

same response as above, when the military men repeatedly fail at their job, people will second guess them. same reason why nigerians have all become experts on megawatts.

GEJ cannot just declare state of emergency anyhow. Declaring a state of emergency is a serious business. It has been the begining of many wars and coups. It is not childs play.

one year later and you are still spouting this lame line? what are you waiting for, the entire north to catch fire?

Talking about Boko Aram moving to other states. It doesnt work like that. A terrorist cell cannot just change base. It is not that simple. They have taking time to build trust in the communities where they live. They need to appear normal wherever they live. That is why is is not easy to move down south. By this state of emergency coupled with the closure of the borders, they will be somewhat incapacitated. But again, some of their structures already on the ground might still function but their capacity to grow will be greatly hampered.

after all your blather about coaching, expert , military men talking anyhow - you are doing just that. self appointed counter terrorism expert. or are you a member of BH?

Another misconception here is that BH can just spread their wings all over the country. It is not tht simple. What you are witnessing is a development that has span ten years or more. The warnings started going out that Al Qaeda was building a base in Nigeria since 2001, after sept 11. Succesive governments didnt take it serious. The truth is that this is not the regular BH that were wearing blue berets, This is Al Qaeda with a jihad mission but placating as BH.

see above . and please spare us the inane conspiracy theories.  earlier this year when it was drive by shooting in borno, none of you thought it was al qaeda. a far more logical answer has come from bh itself, there is more than one organization, but all are labelled boko haram.

would you have us believe that the entire  spate of bombings from december last year to date were orchestrated by al qaeda? how does your al qaeda angle tie in with the threatening sms messages from the only incarcerated bh member.

The real people that can really stop this madness are the northen leaders. But they dont want to because they are more interested in politics. But it will soon bite them on their behind

that actually sounds like gej, who does not want to rock the boat by declaring a full blown state of emergency and ousting the governors in the process

i expected him to declare a state of emergency in aso rock where more crimes are committed than any other part of the country.

cold:

I dey enta Jos early nxt year o!Maq this soldjas no com dey give pesin stress o!Bcuz I wan faji big tym

My broda, I will advise you to avoid Jos for the meantime. There is certainly going to be no faji in that city in the foreseeable future.

^^Na wa o!Wahala dey

Good one, but the emergency would have covered the entire states.

@oyb

Sorry, I dont respond to ignorant rants from partisan bigots. Not my thing, sorry! Try another lane.

So party politics come first right? otherwise how come it is difficult to declare state of emergency in the whole state? so because they are PDP governors they are untouchables.

I just read on the sun newspaper and the nation news websites of how the president wept in madalla, at the site of the bomblast. It just goes to show that the president is also human and is not insensitive towards the plight of nigerians. I'm sure the president had, and is doing all in his power to have a strangle hold of boko-haram. When terrorists struck america, the whole nation stood by there president, it was that support that gave both bush and obama the courage to carry on the search and eventual death of osama. If we in nigeria, irrespective of tribe, religion or what ever can also give our president 50 percnt of the support the americans gave to there presidents ( not all of them approved of the approach, yet in support it was unanimous), boko-haram by now would only exists in history books and lessons. Happy new year all.

@ henry get ur facts right what support can we give to the hatted fool that said "NIGERIANS SHOULD LIVE WITH THE BURDEN OF SUICIDE BOMBERS" what support does he need the mofo is the the president for Christ sake and he cant handle this even if he s not smart enough he shld consult people and not spend 1b on food i need when they start calling for his resignation he ll realize those fooling him dont want him as the president in the first place he came out sometimes in his stupidity that he knows the bokoharam the guy is just confused he ghat no clue and its annoying that BH in their stupidity are attacking innocent nigerians y cant dey attack those senators and top govt pple then these morons stealing our moni ll know what a common man feels

dmainboss:

@oyb

Sorry, I dont respond to ignorant rants from partisan bigots. Not my thing, sorry! Try another lane.

good riddance. don't go spreading your bs n any thread i'm on, apologist for incompetence. you pdp apologists aways come with that paternal govt knows best bs, we know moe than you bcause we are older bs, then when called out on your 'knowledge', you start whining about partisan bigotry.

U NL are just posting non sense, gej is the best patient president nigeria is having, do u know why he waited this long he needed supreme court to authenticate his election as president so that nobody ill use anything to pull him down knowing fully well majority of the judges are from the north & can turn the heat around when he start dealing with their blood lust leaders who has helped them to get to their position. He knows that there are some big weight that are financing them & would stop @ nothing to disgrace him out of office. Do u people ask urself withing the space of 4 days he has called heads of security meeting twice which has never happen before. In sun paper of 31st dec 2011 he told boko harams it's fight to finish, he's not telling the foot soldiers this message but their sponsors. Watch what ill happen senator ndume ill soon have friends.

At last Mr. president rising to the challenge.

http://www.5slate..com

@demoise, if you call your president a stupid, hatted fool and clueless and whatever other name, But in truth( no insult meant), you are the fool. In the last election, he got 22 million votes, so why could you not sway nigerians, who inturn would have swayed other's from voting for him, in last years elections. If you where so sure he is stupid, clueless, a slowpoke etc, etc. It would have been really easy for him 2 loose. So pls, what facts am i not getting right.

Happy for action to douse the tension
Just hoping there wont be relaxing time
The evil men may just resort to keeping their gun powder dry
The government should use enormous intelligence gathered so far to pin the sponsors
The released Senator should even be rearrested & kept till his colleagues are apprehended
To all those whose only arsenal is abusing GEJ, especially those who wont suggest way out I say
Shameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Declaring state of emergency is no solution
If the emergency is declared in a selected area, and the bombing menace spreads to other parts of the country,what will the declaration serve?
It is better to tackle the problem from the root to forestall further occurence.
How did the Boko Haram enter the country and massively build up their weaponry under the nose of the Police, Army, Navy, Airforce,SSS, NSA and the other numerous security & intelligence outfits in the country. These are the security lapses we should be addressing.
How did the OPC, Niger Delta Militant Groups and other tribal armies come about their massive stockpile of weapons which are illegal?
When Boko Haram entered Nigeria in 2002 and set up a base in Maiduguri, in which direction was the Customs, immigration and the military base in that area looking that it took them 6 years to entrench themselves before launching their bombing campaigns?
Changing and reshuffling security chiefs dont work.The FG has to take decisive steps to address the problem

This man is so stupid, and don't know what Nigerians are still doing with her government.
State of Emergency in selected LGAs is nonsense in place of declaring in all terrorized states. what are the emergency plans so as not to add more suffering to the life of the already suffered citizens.
So sad that our government can't protects his people, and not even a sure guarantee for us.

What can we see happening on the soil of Nigeria now? I think we are not sleeping. Let us wait for the aftermath of the move!

[b]In Nigeria, Boko Haram Is Not the Problem- American Professor

[/b]Prof. Jean Herskovits

http://economicconfidential.net/new/features/865-jean-herskovits

GOVERNMENTS 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 northeast 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-organized, 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 Gen. Carter F. Ham, the commander of the United States Africa Command, warned that Boko Haram had links to Al Qaeda 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 responsibility for attacks. Remarkably, the Nigerian government and the international news media have simply accepted what he says.

In late November, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Homeland Security issued a report with the provocative title: “Boko Haram: Emerging Threat to the U.S. Homeland.” The report makes no such case, but nevertheless proposes that the organization be added to America’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. The State Department’s Africa bureau disagrees, but pressure from Congress and several government agencies is mounting.

Boko Haram began in 2002 as a peaceful Islamic splinter group. Then politicians began exploiting it for electoral purposes. But it was not until 2009 that Boko Haram turned to violence, especially after its leader, a young Muslim cleric named Mohammed Yusuf, was killed while in police custody. Video footage of Mr. Yusuf’s interrogation soon went viral, but no one was tried and punished for the crime. Seeking revenge, Boko Haram targeted the police, the military and local politicians – all of them Muslims.

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.

Instead, approximately 25 percent of Nigeria’s budget for 2012 is allocaated for security, even though the military and police routinely respond to attacks with indiscriminate force and killing. Indeed, according to many Nigerians I’ve talked to from the northeast, the army is more feared than Boko Haram.

Meanwhile, Boko Haram has evolved into a franchise that includes criminal groups claiming its identity. Revealingly, Nigeria’s State Security Services issued a statement on Nov. 30, identifying members of four “criminal syndicates” that send threatening text messages in the name of Boko Haram. Southern Nigerians – not northern Muslims – ran three of these four syndicates, including the one that led the American Embassy and other foreign missions to issue warnings that emptied Abuja’s high-end hotels.

And last week, the security services arrested a Christian southerner wearing northern Muslim garb as he set fire to a church in the Niger Delta. In Nigeria, religious terrorism is not always what it seems.

None of this excuses Boko Haram’s killing of innocents. But it does raise questions about a rush to judgment that obscures Nigeria’s complex reality. Many Nigerians already believe that the United States unconditionally supports Mr. Jonathan’s government, despite its failings. They believe this because Washington praised the April elections that international observers found credible, but that many Nigerians, especially in the north, did not.

Likewise, Washington’s financial support for Nigeria’s security forces, despite their documented human rights abuses, further inflames Muslim Nigerians in the north. Mr. Jonathan’s recent actions have not helped matters. He told Nigerians last week, “The issue of bombing is one of the burdens we must live with.” On New Year’s Eve, he declared a state of emergency in parts of four northern states, leading to increased military activity there. And on New Year’s Day, he removed a subsidy on petroleum products, more than doubling the price of fuel.

In a country where 90 percent of the population lives on $2 or less a day, anger is rising nationwide as the costs of transport and food increase dramatically.

Since Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999, many politicians have used ethnic and regional differences and, most disastrously, religion for their own purposes. Northern Muslims – indeed, all Nigerians – are desperate for a government that responds to their most basic needs: personal security and hope for improvement in their lives. They are outraged over government policies and expenditures that undermine both.

The United States should not allow itself to be drawn into this quicksand by focusing on Boko Haram alone. Washington is already seen by many northern Muslims – including a large number of longtime admirers of America – as biased toward a Christian president from the south. The United States must work to avoid a self-fulfilling prophecy that makes us into their enemy. Placing Boko Haram on the foreign terrorist list would cement such views and make more Nigerians fear and distrust America.

*Jean Herskovits, a professor of history at the State University of New York, Purchase, has written on Nigerian politics since 1970. She contributed this piece to New York Times a day after President Goodluck Jonathan removed fuel subsidy in Nigeria.

As I earlier said, now they expand their evil acts to Kano