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Boko Haram Is Not The Problem By Jean Herskovits. by Gbawe: 1:26pm On Jan 03, 2012
"Jean Herskovits, a professor of history at the State University of New York, Purchase, has written on Nigerian politics since 1970".



http://saharareporters.com/article/boko-haram-not-problem-jean-herskovits


Boko Haram Is Not the Problem By Jean Herskovits
Posted: January 3, 2012 - 03:32


Jean Herskovits
By By 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.

[b]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.
[/b]
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.
Re: Boko Haram Is Not The Problem By Jean Herskovits. by Akwasi(m): 1:45pm On Jan 03, 2012
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.

Did it have to come from oyinbo for you guys to believe? The blog http://seeafrica..com/2012/01/freedom-of-religion-and-boko-haram-in.html has been saying this all along
Re: Boko Haram Is Not The Problem By Jean Herskovits. by houvest: 4:57pm On Jan 03, 2012
load of crap.
Re: Boko Haram Is Not The Problem By Jean Herskovits. by Rgp92: 5:00pm On Jan 03, 2012
Many people know this already. Next!
Re: Boko Haram Is Not The Problem By Jean Herskovits. by Gbawe: 5:26pm On Jan 03, 2012
Akwasi:

Did it have to come from oyinbo for you guys to believe? The blog http://seeafrica..com/2012/01/freedom-of-religion-and-boko-haram-in.html has been saying this all along

No but sometimes it is useful to get the opinion of a non-Nigerian, non-African and non-politician comentator. Boko Haram, today, is just one side battling the other side of the same evil coin. What they are fighting for is the office that gives them the opportunity to control Nigeria's vaste wealth for their own selfish use. It is only naive Nigerians who continue to take side because a look at the history of those involved show, without a doubt, that non particularly mean well for Nigeria. They all only want to perpetuate the system that concentrates so much power, wealth and patronage in the Presidency yet Nigerians gain nada year in year out.
Re: Boko Haram Is Not The Problem By Jean Herskovits. by sheyguy: 8:52pm On Jan 03, 2012
Above all this is a No. 1 citizen who is virtually only concerned with looking secure rather than being secure.
The writer shld know that Gej belongs to a political party with a presidency arrangement that forbids a southerner being in that sit as we speak. The north are angry and feel genuinely cheated.
GEJ has taken to the advice of IMF and has removed petrol subsidy, a move that does not favour the North.
Like in 1966 The North truly av a good reason to be angry, but they av chosen to express themselves in a barbaric way in some known instances, i hope this does not play out like '66 cos the south south folks may not find more favorable.

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