₦airaland Forum

Asari Leads Protest, Calls For Sovereign National Conference

Less than an hour after the Nigeria's labour unions called off the nationwide strike over the removal of fuel subsidy, Asari Dokubo, the leader of Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, NPVF, led thousands youths on a peaceful protest.

The protest which took place along some major streets of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Capital, was tagged "Operation Occupy Your Resources."

The protesters who were carrying placards lampooned the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress,TUC, and civil society groups for not protesting against systematic marginalisation of oil producing communities who have been crying over injustice and fraudulent depletion of their God given resources.

The placards read "Occupy Your Resources,Not Nigeria," "Sovereign National Conference Now," and "Why Not Occupy Nigeria When, Odi, Odioma, Gbaramatu were destroyed by the military?"

Others read: "Niger Delta Will Resist Any Attempt To Remove President Goodluck Jonathan", "When Ndigbos and Southerners were being killed in the North why did Labour lead a nationwide protest," "The Oil Subsidy Cabal Must Be Exposed,"etc.

Asari who was atop the roof of a Lexus SUV carrying the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force flag and other protesters caused a serious traffic jam along Ikwerre road.

They were followed in a measured distance by armed policemen drawn from the Rivers State Police Command in a convoy of about 10 troopers.

Asari had addressed his supporters at the Isaac Boro Park,in the state capital, on the need to be peaceful in their conduct during the rally.

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2012/01/16/asari-leads-protest-calls-for-sovereign-national-conference/

Nigerian Group Calls for Conference on Country’s Future
Anslem John-Miller of the Council of Ogoni Professionals says the conference will discuss Boko Haram and Nigeria's continued existence

James Butty
,
Photo: Reuters
A car burns at the scene of a bomb explosion at St. Theresa Catholic Church at Madalla, Suleja, just outside Nigeria's capital Abuja. Five bombs exploded on Christmas Day at churches in Nigeria, one killing at least 27 people, raising fears that Islamist Nigerians continue to express their repugnance at Sunday’s Christmas Day bombings of Christian churches which killed at least 39 people.

The Council of Ogoni Professionals in the United States is calling on President Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigerian National Assembly to convene a sovereign national conference immediately to discuss what they call Nigeria’s existence.

Anslem John-Miller, a member of the Council of Ogoni Professionals, says among other issues to be discussed will be the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bombings, and Nigeria’s continued membership in the Organization of Islamic Countries.

“It is clear that the insecurity problem occasioned by the bombings indicate that Nigeria is actually slipping into anarchy if that problem is not addressed,” he said.

John-Miller says there is no way that Nigeria, a multi-religious country, can be a member of the Organization of Islamic Countries.

“Boko Haram is saying that they want to Islamize Nigeria, and Nigeria is a plural state where you have religion in terms of Islam and Christianity, and you also have traditional African religions. So, how can you make a country where you have several religions, or at least two dominant religions, an Islamic state?” John Miller said.

He said Boko Haram’s spate of violence coupled with the attempt by some Nigerian states to impose Sharia Law have their roots in the decision by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida to make Nigeria a member of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC).

John-Miller says Nigeria should deregister from the OIC.

“Boko Haram is not just doing it for doing sake because Nigerian leaders have refused to address the major concern, and that is the fact that Nigeria is a member of Organization of Islamic Countries, a unilateral decision that was taken by Ibrahim Babangida during his tenure as head of state of Nigeria. Nigeria remains a member of that organization and that is wrong. Nigeria needs to de-register from that organization,” John-Miller said.

He also said Boko Haram’s campaign of violence is against the government of Christian President Goodluck Jonathan.

“This thing did not happen during the administration of [the late President Umaru] Yar’ Adua. It didn’t happen in the past. Why are they doing it now? This thing is politically motivated,” he said.

John-Miller criticized politicians in northern Nigeria for not openly condemning the Boko Haram violence.

He said Jonathan’s government needs to be forceful in dealing with Boko Haram.

“I think the government has been dealing with Boko Haram with kid gloves, and it is high time they declare these guys as terrorists. This is a terrorist organization and I am going to be appealing to the U.S. State Department to declare Nigeria as a country that is sponsoring terrorism,” John-miller said.

John-Miller said Jonathan’s decision earlier this year to cancel elaborate 51st Independence Day festivities because of a threat from Boko Haram is an indication that the government is not ready to take on the Islamic sect
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Butty-Nigeria-National-Conference-Call-John-Miller-28december11-136297753.html

Nigeria: Arewa Youth Leader Advocates Sovereign National Conference
Yemi Bamidele
19 January 2012

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Ibadan — Worried by the raging resurgence of the Boko Haram Islamic fundamentalists, the National President of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Alhaji Yerima Shettima has declared that an urgent convocation of the Sovereign National Conference (SNC) is imperative to address fundamental issues confronting the country.

The Arewa youth leader bared his mind in Ibadan today on the occasion of the Ishrat 2012 Inter-faith symposium organised by the Shafaudeen in Islam Fidunya Wal'akhirat in collaboration with Centre for Religions Tolerance and Cooperation.

Alhaji Shettima, in his lecture entitled "Achieving Peace through Democracy - A Leadership Challenge" reiterated the crucial need for all segments in the country to sit down and dialogue.

"Call it Sovereign National Conference, National Dialogue or Constitutional Conference, we need to sit down together urgently to avoid Nigeria crashing," he said.

Commenting specifically on the recurring Boko Haram crisis in the Northern part of the country, the Arewa youth leader posited that "no religion allows killing". He however maintained that peace cannot be achieved without justice and equity just as he decried in strong terms the role of those he tagged "the Northern oligarchy" in the crisis.

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According to Alhaji Shettima, "the Northern oligarchy are not comfortable despite their abysmal failure to make the best use of their over 35 years of control of power in the country."

He noted with concern that the Boko Haram had been hijacked by political rivals as against the original principle of the group's late leader, Malam Yusuf advising that "the Federal Government should do everything possible to curb the excesses of the group because if it gets out of hand, it will be dangerous to contain."

Consequently, the Arewa youth leader re-emphasised the need for "a national conference that would make the centre less attractive and focus more on the empowerment of the Local Governments and the States to ensure the rapid transformation of the grassroots


http://allafrica.com/stories/201201191211.html

The US intelligence Knows the truth. Politicians are just playing politics.

US security report and intelligence network Know the truth. Politicians will always play politics

Rid your govt, security forces of questionable character •South-South, South-West leaders tell Jonathan •Want Boko Haram activities treated as treason •Harp on national conference
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Written by Idowu Adelusi and Dare Adekanmbi
Sunday, 22 January 2012

ShareEminent leaders of thought from the South-South and South-West regions of the country have tasked President Goodluck Jonathan to weed out people of dubious loyalty from his government and the security forces in the nation.

The leaders spoke against the background of the threat posed to national unity by the activities of members of the terrorist Boko Haram group and President Jonathan’s declaration that members of the sect had
infiltrated government and the security agencies.

They spoke in unison during the maiden meeting of the leaders and elders of the two regions held at the Efunyela Hall in Ikenne Remo, Ogun State home of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

The meeting started at about 12p.m. and went into a closed-door session from which it rose at about 4p.m, with the delegates emerging from the venue in an atmosphere of camaraderie characterised by back-slapping, hugging and throwing of banters.

Expectedly, the prevailing issues in the polity dominated discussions in the four-hour cross-fertilisation of ideas on how the ship of state would not founder and national cohesion endangered.

A communiqué entitled: “Strengthening the Unity of Nigeria issued at the end of the jaw-jaw and jointly signed by the leader of the South-South delegates, Chief Edwin Clark, and his counterpart form the South-West, Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi, reads as follows:

“The meeting was convened at the instance of the South-South leaders with a view to thanking the Yoruba people for their support towards the victory of President Jonathan at the last elections and to strengthen bridges of cooperation and to expand this bridge-building to other geopolitical zones of the country.

“The meeting condemned very strongly the terrorist activities of the Boko Haram sect, the increasing associated loss of innocent lives especially of Christians and Southerners and the threat the sect poses to the unity of our nation by its ultimatum to non-Northerners to leave the North.

“That the dastardly act of multiple bomb blasts carried out in Kano on Friday, 20th January, 2012 by the Boko Haram sect which claimed several innocent lives and property is totally condemned without equivocation and in the strongest term possible.

“In respect of the Boko Haram threat to national security, the meeting further urged the President not to hesitate to rid his government and the nation’s security forces of all persons of dubious loyalty and to treat the activities of the sect as treason and apply the relevant laws on the culprits and their sponsors,”

The leaders also reiterated the convocation of a national conference to address issues militating against the corporate existence of the country and as well produce a truly federal constitution that will guarantee a unified country.

On the deployment of soldiers in Lagos State, which has become a political football of some sort, and similar troops deployment in others cities and states of the federation, the meeting affirmed the sacrosanct nature of State Authority in dealing with security matters.

However, the meeting urged President Jonathan to review the deployment of military personnel in all affected areas in the country and where the circumstances so permit, direct the withdrawal of the soldiers from the streets to reduce tension and apprehension.

The meeting also urged the president to firmly prosecute the war against corruption without fear or favour so as to sanitise the country for sustainable growth and development of the economy.

“To this end, the meeting calls on all Nigerians not only to give maximum support and encouragement to the current efforts of President Jonathan in probing the activities of the fuel subsidy but also, to urge him to sanitise the entire oil and gas industry that has always created overnight briefcase billionaires at the expense of the masses,” the communiqué added.

It enjoined the president to commence steps at reducing the cost and size of governance branches of government.

The next meeting of the leaders will be held in the South-South region in April. A 10-member delegation from each of the zones was constituted and mandated to deliver the communiqué to the president.

In attendance at the meeting were Chief Edwin Clark; Senator Felix Ibru; the Obong of Calabar, His Royal Majesty, Dandeson Douglas; a former Petroleum Minister and Amanyanabo of Nembe, Dr Edmund Daukorie; Professor Saleba Mukoro; the Orodje of Okpe, His Royal Majesty Major-General Felix Mujakperuo (retd) a former Inspector General of Police, Sir Mike Okiro; Rear Admiral F.B.I Porbeni; Honourable Tunde Akogun; Dr B.K Adasen; Brigadier-General S. E Oviawe; Senator Bassey Ewa Henshaw; Chief Ayakene E. Whisky; Dr Emmanuel Efezuma;

Others include the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade as well as many royal fathers from the South West zone; Chief Ayo Adebanjo; Chief Gbenga Daniel; Sir Olaniwun Ajayi; Chief Reuben Fasoranti; Chief G.O.K Ajayi; Chief Olu Falae; Lieutenant General Oladipo Diya; Professor Oladapo Afolabi; Professor (Mrs) Adenike Grange; Cjief Akin Omojola; Senator Tony Adefuye; Senator Femi Okurounmu; Chief Dipi Jimilehin.

Also present were Professor Tunde Adeniran; Chief Shuaib Oyedokun; Chief Supo Shonibare; Chief Gani Adams; Rear Admiral Akin Aduwo; Professor Moibi Opeloye; Rear Admiral Femi Olumide; Senator Koforola Bucknor-Akerele; Dr Yemi Farounbi; Chief Oladosu Oladipo; Chief Pekun Awobona; Dr Kunle Olajide; Dr Olatokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu; Chief Abiola Ogundokun; Chief Ebenezer Babatope; Princess Bibi Sangodoyin

http://tribune.com.ng/sun/news/6188-rid-your-govt-security-forces-of-questionable-character-south-south-south-west-leaders-tell-jonathan-want-boko-haram-activities-treated-as-treason-harp-on-national-conference

God forbid.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/15/wole-soyinka-on-nigeria-s-anti-christian-terror-sect-boko-haram.html
The Butchers Of Nigeria
Jan 16, 2012 12:00 AM EST How a corrupt nation bred Boko Haram, the Islamic sect terrorizing the country’s Christians.
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  Over the past year, Nigeria’s homegrown terror group Boko Haram has escalated its deadly attacks against Christian and government targets, with the aim of establishing a Sharia state in the country’s north.
Nearly 30 years ago, in the largely Christian heartland of a multireligious Nigerian nation, and at that nation’s pioneer institution—the University of Ibadan—a minister of education summoned the vice chancellor and ordered him to remove a cross from a site dedicated to religious worship. Some Muslims had complained, he claimed, that the cross offended their sight when they turned east to pray.
The don’s response was: “Mr. Minister, it would be much easier to remove me as vice chancellor than to have me remove that cross.” Christians mobilized. A religious war was barely averted on campus. Today the Christian cross occupies that same spot, with the Islamic star and crescent raised only a few meters away. As I observed at a lecture several years later, there has been no earthquake beneath, no convulsions of the firmament above that space, no blight traceable to the cohabitation of that spot by Christian and Muslim symbols.
I evoked that occurrence when the latest torch bearers of fanaticism—a group called Boko Haram—emerged. I did so to draw attention to the fact that religious zealotry is not new in the nation, nor is it limited to the “unwashed masses” who have been programmed into killing, at the slightest provocation or none, in the name of faith. Unfortunately, far too many have succumbed to the belligerent face of fanaticism, believing that any form of excess is divinely sanctioned and nationally privileged.
Sectarian killings—numbered in the thousands—preceded Boko Haram, much organized butch-ery, sometimes announced in advance, always tacitly endorsed by silence and inaction, escalating in intensity and impunity. It was consciousness of the geographical expansion and the increasingly organized nature of the fanatic surge and its international linkages that compelled me to warn on three public occasions since 2009 that “the agencies of Boko Haram, its promulgators both in evangelical and violent forms, are everywhere. Even here, right here in this throbbing commercial city of Lagos, there are, in all probability, what are known as ‘sleepers’ waiting for the word to be given. If that word were given this moment, those sleepers would swarm over the walls of this college compound and inundate us.”

A car bomb explosion at St. Theresa Catholic Church at Madalla, Suleja on December 25, 2011. It was one of five Christmas Day bombings at churches in Nigeria. , Afolabi / Reuters-Landov
Much play is given, and rightly so, to economic factors—unemployment, misgovernment, wasted resources, social marginalization, massive corruption—in the nurturing of the current season of violent discontent. To limit oneself to these factors alone is, however, an evasion, no less than intellectual and moral cowardice, a fear of offending the ruthless caucuses that have unleashed terror on society, a refusal to stare the irrational in the face and give it its proper name—and response. That minister was not one of the “unwashed masses.” He was, quite simply, the polished face of fanaticism. His prolonged career as secretary of the Universities Commission and minister of education inflicted on the nation a number of other policies of educational separatism that left a huge swath of Nigeria open to fanatic indoctrination.
Yes, indeed, economic factors have facilitated the mass production of these foot soldiers, but they have been deliberately bred, nurtured, sheltered, rendered pliant, obedient to only one line of command, ready to be unleashed at the rest of society. They were bred in madrassas and are generally known as the almajiris. From knives and machetes, bows and poisoned arrows they have graduated to AK-47s, homemade bombs, and explosive-packed vehicles. Only the mechanism of inflicting death has changed, nothing else.
This horde has remained available to political opportunists and criminal leaders desperate to stave off the day of reckoning. Most are highly placed, highly disgruntled, and thus highly motivated individuals who, having lost out in the power stakes, resort to the manipulation of these products of warped fervor. Their aim is to bring society to its knees, to create a situation of total anarchy that will either break up the nation or bring back the military, which ruled Nigeria in a succession of coups between the mid-1960s and the late ’90s. Again and again they have declared their blunt manifesto—not merely to Islamize the nation but to bring it under a specific kind of fundamentalist strain. Rather than act in defense of Nigeria’s Constitution, past rulers have cosseted the aggressors for short-term political gains. However, those who have tweaked the religious chord are discovering that they have conjured up a Frankenstein. Arrogance has given way to fear. The former governors of the northern states of Gombe and Borno wasted no time in issuing full-page advertorials in the media, apologizing to Boko Haram when the latter issued threats against them for their alleged role in the deaths of the group’s members at the hands of security forces in 2009.
They had precedent. It was in Nigeria, after all, that a deputy governor, later backed by his superior, pronounced a fatwa on a Nigerian citizen in 2002: “Like Salman Rushdie, [her blood] can be shed. It is binding on all Muslims, wherever they are, to consider the killing of the writer as a religious duty.”
That was the fallout from a beauty contest in Abuja that drew the ire of some Islamic extremists. Reacting to the mayhem, a female journalist had speculated that, were the Prophet Muhammad alive, he might have selected one of the contestants for wife. For that alleged blasphemy, hundreds, guilty only of innocently pursuing a living, were massacred by hordes of fanatics, who were mostly bused into the capital for organized violence. The president went groveling before the presumably offended elite.
It was the same governor of an impoverished state called Zamfara who unilaterally commenced the separatist agenda that turned parts of Nigeria into theocracies under a supposed secular Constitution. His whim was indulged, his political support was courted by the then-sitting president, obsessed with prolonging his tenure. The governor, now turned senator, was also caught as a serial craddle-robber. Challenged in the media, he boasted that the Quran was above the Constitution, and thus he was not subject to laws that criminalized Reproduction with underage children or, indeed, cross-border sex trafficking, of which he was equally accused. He was neither censured by his fellow senators nor placed on trial. His followers have taken their cue from his declaration, convinced that the greater the crime, the greater its deserving of immunity.
How many of the hundreds of cases of impunity need one cite, with their corresponding gestures of appeasement? Where does one begin? Can the Nigerian police or judicial records reveal how many were prosecuted when a man called Gideon Akaluka was beheaded, his head paraded on a stake through the streets of Kano in northern Nigeria, for allegedly desecrating the Quran? It turned out no such offense had been committed. Nor has there been a single arrest in the secondary school where an invigilating teacher, a Mrs. Oluwasesin, was stripped Unclad, beaten, and then “necklaced”—set on fire by students for allegedly “treating the Quran with disrespect.” Her real crime? She had confiscated a Quran—and, incidentally, a Bible as well—from cheating students during a paper on religious studies. How does one convey scenes where killers perform ritual recitations before or after the meticulous throat-slitting of schoolchildren, in the conviction that this carries the same potency of immunity as papal indulgences once did in the decadent era of Christianity? For decades, leaders of those communities remained mute or uttered pietisms. Now the foot soldiers have matured on the taste of blood. They understand the essence of power. Some have come to realize they have been programmed, used, abused, and discarded. Now they seek to exercise power and have turned on all, mentors and appeasers alike.
Nigeria is at war. The Somalia scenario nibbles at her cohesion. When we insisted that the nation had become a prime target of al Qaeda, the reply was that Boko Haram was a homegrown phenomenon—as if this were ever the question! The reality is that it has, inevitably, developed ties with al Qaeda and its borderless company of religious insurgency. Only a few have sown the wind, but that wind was fanned by the breath of appeasement. Only one choice remains: to ride, or else reap, the whirlwind.

. . .S’East, S’South leaders warn against military coup

From GODWIN TSA, Abuja

Friday January 13, 2012





The Elders and Leaders of the South-East and the South-South have warned against any undemocratic attempt to overthrow the government of President Goodluck Jonathan in the wake of the sustained nation-wide strike over the removal of fuel subsidy.
The group alleged that the current protest against the removal of fuel subsidy is a smokescreen to perfect the ploy to make the country ungovernable for Mr. President.

This has been a promise made publicly, by some politicians who lost out during the last presidential election. Led by elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, the forum however urged the Federal Government to start considering the idea of convening a national conference which it said would offer the component units of the country an opportunity to discuss solution to the fragile unity of Nigeria.

Clark, in a press conference after the South-South elders meeting, in Abuja, said all Nigerians are equal since Nigeria was founded on equal federating units, a reason he said the south-south condemned the turn of events in which a section of Nigeria, most especially the north feels that it owns Nigeria more than the other sections of the country. He said the recent development in Nigeria with the menace of Boko Haram and the threat to the government of the day by some faceless cabal have necessitated the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference for Nigerians to determine whether or not they want Nigeria to remain as a nation or face a break up.

In a communiqué issued after the meeting, the forum condemned in its entirety what it described as unprovoked killings and destruction of property and the ultimatum given to Christians and southerners to leave the northern parts of Nigeria as this is against the spirit, content and intent of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.“That in the event the present crisis degenerates to a point of unmanageable catastrophe as that is clearly the intention of the patrons and sponsors of the present imbroglio, we wish to state unequivocally that no section of this country can escape the ugly outcome of the ensuing crisis as it would do no one any good.

It is their resolve that “if any part of the country feels that it is time for us to rethink the basis of our unity as a country, we wish to state our preparedness to sit with other Nigerians to renegotiate the basis of our continued existence as a country.
“That we wish to remind Mr. President of the sacred constitutional duty of protection of lives and property he swore to uphold and call on him to take every necessary step to safeguard the lives of all Nigerians who in the belief of one united Nigeria are merely seeking means of livelihood in parts of the country other than their home states.

“That while we commend the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the continued maintenance of peace and security in the country, we hereby state unequivocally that any attempt at undemocratic change in the country will be fully resisted. Any such perpetrator shall have no country to preside over.“That we appeal to organized labour, civil society groups and government to embrace dialogue to bring the current pains of Nigerians to an end as soon as possible.”

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2012/jan/13/national-13-01-2011-002.html

, Nigeria is already disintegrating – Soyinka
On January 25, 2012 · In News , Email4
By Prisca Sam-Duru
LAGOS — Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, said, yesterday, that despite the fact that there is no formal break up of the country, the nation was already disintegrating due to the refusal of the government to embrace national dialogue.

Soyinka said this while speaking on “The quest for justice, tolerance and non-violent change” at a presentation highlighting Dr Martin Luther King jr and the American civil rights movement, organised by the Public Affairs Section of the US Consulate General in Lagos at the Freedom Park, Lagos.

According to him, “the presidential system of government is totally unfitted to the governance of Nigerians. The legislators have become a bastion of corruption while the system operational in the country encourages corruption.”

Soyinka, who maintained his stance on Sovereign National Conference as panacea to salvaging Nigeria from total collapse said: “We can even remove the word sovereign, there is need for national dialogue because if we don’t have a national dialogue, we will have monologues. Public detonators are monologues, Boko Haram is a hyper active secession by their expelling people in some states, purging it of the people who they believe don’t share their ideologies.


Dr.Joe Okei-Odumakin, Prof.Wole Soyinka and Past.Tunde Bakare during A Town Hall Meeting by the Save Nigeria Group and Allies in Lagos
“Zamfara State, during the last tenure of government, led in declaring itself a theocratic state and had some other states joining. Those are monologues. Despite loss of lives and traumatisation, the cravings for the emancipation of Blacks were a remarkable struggle on the part of the American civil rights as their struggle for justice, peace and equity paid off.

“What we have now is not a constitution because it was handed over to us by a bunch of neocolonialists in military uniform; they worked out that constitution. So, we need a single constitution binding all major issues in the country.”

Soyinka, who noted that the recent industrial action by civil societies and Labour was a necessary struggle for justice and prosperity, also cited the Nigerian civil war as a clear case of quest for justice and equity on the part of Biafrans, pointing out that although he is not strictly pro-Biafra, he was against the injustice meted on Biafrans since it is morally right to want to secede.

He also recounted the degradation that existed during the segregation of Blacks not only in the Western world but here in Nigeria during British rule which regrettably, he argued, is still existing among Nigerians.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/01/nigeria-is-already-disintegrating-soyinka-2/

There is so much jaw-jawing. What we need is an action towards the realisation of the SNC, Sovereign National Conference. This thread is intended to be a catalyst to that. Please post any material you can lay hands on that has been made in favour of the SNC as well as your views about it. Also we can discuss modalities for the conference and address the fears of those scared about it. Hopefully it will get to the powers that be and enable the Federal and states houses of Assembly to pass an enabling law for it.

SNC today. Avoid tears tomorrow

The beginning of the end of Nigeria as we know it.

Arrest is not the issue. Where is Kabir Sokoto and others formerlly arrested including the late leader Yusuf? Jailing is not even the issue.Many jailed BH adherents broke jail sometime ago. The will to banish BH especially by the north is the key. Once BH loses their sympathisers in the North, there will be no easy source for funding, recruitment, hiding and escape.

Can anyone provide more information on BILIE. When do they meet and where? please send to houvest@hushmail.com.

Powerful. I hope UN and the world are paying attention.

What has the army got against Massob? Assuming it was a premptive measure to stop reprisals in the East, why kill  non-violent people. This is really uncalled for. and serious push on MASSOB buttons

A prayer point not an issue to be politicised please.

I am still waiting for the honourable governor and his so-called security(BH defenders) to name these killers since they say it is not BH.

I was utterly amazed when I went through the ten-point agenda of Occupy Nigeria and saw no mention of Boko Haram, insecurity and violence. It was like pissing on the graves of BH victims. This was the main reason the protests was DOA, Dead on arrival.

However we expect the North to show more outrage at BH activities if they are not condoning it or supporting them than just issue statements but this call by a Seriki is a good first step to a Northern show of angst.

Explosive.If it is true that the Northern States are financing BH through monthly payments, then the end of BH is not in sight but the end of Nigeria as we know it is.

Haha. All the people who used to call these SW leaders useless and elevate king Tinubu as Lord and denigrate mama as HIV are falling over themselves here to get in a punch to the SE. They conveniently forget that the SS and SE met before this one and also issued a joint communique. I just dey laugh.

mikeansy:
Boko Haram are blowing people up in the name of Islam and then the Muslims amongst us are deploying surrogates who are not Hausa-Fulani Muslims to speak on their behalf?

That simply looks like standing on the fence on the issue, tacit support or half-hearted denounciation.

The essence of denouncing an organisation like this is the symbolism it provides and makes the point that BokoHaram views are not shared by the local population. If the very people BokoHaram claim to represent will rather deploy surrogates, who do not fit into the demographics of people BH claim to represent, to denounce BH? Then that tells any sane mind out their that may be the Hausa Fulani muslims are in support of BH.

You make a lot of sense. Arewa needs to do more than send a certain Anthony to make this kind of statement to be taken seriously

Even as I hear of further attacks in Bauchi and environs, I would like to call on this sect and its leaders to consider that they will perhaps have more success in advancing their cause of enthroning Shari'a law if they pursue it through non violent means. Again, they have the option of carrying out a plebiscite in Northern Nigeria to determine if their agenda is a popular agenda and if so to work, with the Legislature to explore the possibility of constitutional amendments to reflect the thinking of their part of the country. They could also explore the option of living in a confederated Nigeria or if it pleases them then they could be excised from Nigeria. But this killing is definitelybnot the way and must be stopped. PU
http://www.facebook.com/Utomi

Even if this ACF statement were sincere why is it coming so late in the day and after Kano has been bombed and the residential zone of the Kano elites threatened? Does it mean that ACF is divided between the Pro and the Anti-BH groups? The signals from ACF about BH to southerners is very unclear and it will be wise for southerners to stray on the side of caution and regard ACF as pro-BH untill proven otherwise.

It has emerged that the Islamic sect known as Boko Haram wrote an open letter to the people of Kano in 2011 predating the recent bombings that took place in the ancient city on Friday. NaijaPundit brings you the letter and its translation below,

Meanwhile, Abul Qaqa, who claimed to be the spokesman of Boko Haram, in a phone chat with journalists in Kano, claimed that the attacks were in response to the refusal of the Kano State government to release fellow terrorists arrested in the state.

He said they were forced to resort to the attacks after an open letter sent in 2011 to prominent people in the state was ignored.

The Friday attacks from Boko Haram has upset the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) which has issued a statement disowning the sect. ACF frowned at insinuations in some quarters that northern religious and political leaders were discretely supporting the Boko Haram Islamic sect in its bombing activities in the country, pointing out that the fact that the sect has its bases in the north does not mean that northern leaders support them.

ACF, which spoke through its national publicity secretary, Mr Anthony said, that there was no society without deviants, adding that Boko Haram should be regarded as such.
http://www.naijapundit.com/news/boko-haram-s-letter-to-the-people-of-kano

The momentum for this call for SNC needs to increase. GEJ needs to heed it now and set the nation on a dialogue starting by february.

This call for SNC needs to be amplified daily