₦airaland Forum

With the world’s gaze focused on Paris last week, militants from Boko Haram destroyed the town of Baga and several neighboring villages in northern Nigeria, killing up to 2,000 people and displacing thousands more. On Saturday, at least another 16 people were killed when extremists strapped a bomb to a girl who may have been as young as 10 and then detonated it in a crowded marketplace.

You’d expect Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to condemn the carnage inside his country, particularly after he called last week’s massacre at a French satirical newspaper a “dastardly terrorist attack.” But you’d be wrong: Jonathan has yet to acknowledge that any of the Boko Haram attacks even took place.On Monday, a spokesman for the Nigerian defense ministry said the death toll from the Baga massacre had been “exaggerated” and said the government’s own count put the tally at 150. Other groups are working toward a solid tally, but the Nigerian government has a long history of underestimating and downplaying the prevalence of Boko Haram.Jonathan, who has been widely criticized for his failure to defeat the group, is up for re-election on Feb. 14, when he will face Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim northerner running on a platform of increased security.

On Sunday, Nigerian archbishop Ignatius Kaigama told the BBC that the West hasn’t done enough to counter the extremists. But it was Jonathan who ordered the cancellation of a Pentagon program designed to create a special battalion capable of beating back Boko Haram. The United States had been training Nigerian fighters, but hadn’t been arming them because of earlier human rights violations by the Nigerian army, including mass killings and rapes.Jonathan’s administration and his supporters have tried to blame the West for Boko Haram’s rise, rather than taking responsibility for the group’s growing threat. But that’s a harder argument to make now that even top United Nations officials are demanding action. On Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office said the secretary-general was “appalled” by the Baga attacks and warned that Boko Haram threatens the stability of the entire region. Leila Zerrougui, the U.N. envoy for children and conflict, arrived in Nigeria Sunday to meet with government leaders and local partners in Abuja before traveling further north to meet with displaced children and their families. The U.N. was unable to confirm whether or not she would meet with Jonathan, but a spokesman told Foreign Policy her six-day trip was planned prior to Saturday’s attacks and that tackling Boko Haram is at the top of her agenda for 2015.

Rona Peligal, deputy director of the Africa division at Human Rights Watch, told Foreign Policy that while Boko Haram’s alleged use of a young child as a suicide bomber this weekend is especially gruesome, this is not the first evidence of Boko Haram turning to children to intensify their attacks. The schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok last spring were not only sexually abused but “were forced to serve as decoys for Boko Haram and engage in harming other people,” she said.

And it doesn’t help that on the other end of the battle, children are also being used to try to slow the group down.As the Nigerian army continuously fails to respond to the group’s attacks, children are increasingly joining the Civilian Joint Task Force, a vigilante group battling the extremists in the north. And HRW has reported that when boys recruited by Boko Haram are caught by security forces, they are often abused or killed, regardless of their age. Some witnesses told HRW that Muslim children are regularly targeted by Nigerian security forces and then disappear into secret prisons for years at a time. According to some former detainees, the conditions in holding cells have led to hundreds of deaths from dehydration, hunger, and abuse.

Nigeria’s neighbors, including Chad and Cameroon, have also suffered from Jonathan’s inability to beat back Boko Haram. On Monday, the Cameroonian military reported that Boko Haram launched the second attack against a Cameroonian military base in just two weeks. Monday’s strike targeted a base in Kolofata, 10 kilometers from the Nigerian border. Previous assaults on Kolofata have included the kidnapping of the deputy prime minister’s wife, who was rescued in an operation in June that left at least 12 Cameroonian security personnel dead.

Cameroonian government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary said in a televised statement that the Cameroonian military lost one soldier but killed 143 militants in Monday’s attack. When militants attacked a more vulnerable Cameroonian military base in late December, the Cameroonian government was forced to respond with airstrikes.

Schools near the Nigerian border in both Chad and Cameroon have preemptively closed to protect students targeted by Boko Haram, whose name translates roughly from the Hausa language to “Western education is forbidden.”

And while there was a momentary outburst of support for Nigeria in the aftermath of the Chibok kidnappings, very little has been done to guarantee the safety of those suffering under the group’s violent crusade in the north — or to try tackling the problem at its root, by arming troops to fight the terrorists.

AMINU ABUBAKAR/AFP
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/12/nigerias-president-prefers-to-see-no-evil-speak-no-evil/

Mogidi:
And when Timipre was gov he made sure electricity was available.

abdussalam:
I'm also a serving corp member like you. I blog about youths seeing opportunities in as they advance their careers irrespective of environment. I published these 11 ways to make money as a corper. Check it out: http://ibnamoo.com/make-money-as-a-corper/


Cc: Styca, Xfire, jarushub,Trenditee, Taye4christ, Noordean LogoDwhiz, Positivist, Parasitic, Rockmyworld, Goldpeas et al.

goldennugget:
Some posts, like this one, are just ridiculous. You don't need to do any of those to succeed after college.

Abdussalam:
By this time in the next two years or so, you would have been rounding off your undergraduate programme. If you want to be sure you had prepared for life after campus, you’ve got to start these right from now! This is actually based on the notion that you’ve already taken a decision on what you want to be in future. As you get ready for that priced time regarded as ‘final year’, here are the top ten things you should consider doing ahead of then.

Participate in Career Advancement Events:  They are many around. From conferences to seminars, workshops to symposia and from competitions to contests, from grants to scholarships, the list is endless. It only takes discerning minds to identify one. In line with your future aspiration most especially, it is important you attend such career advancement events. Use career advancement websites or google, ask a professional in the field to keep a tab on upcoming career advancement events ahead.

Earn the trust of others: Are you the cunning type? Do you possess some character that could portray you as a dishonest person? It’s high time you started getting rid of such characters. People around you are watching you. News of your good character or otherwise would spread to a place you never imagined in the nearest future. You’d better turn a new leaf today before it’s too late!

Volunteer: Volunteering involves you providing services to people based on your skills or expertise at little or no cost at all. The world is in need of helpful people and such people should be sure that their effort is not in vain. It is important to note that volunteering could even increase your chances of getting a job. In an age when work experience is one of the pre-requisite to get a job, your volunteering experience would be helpful. For example, consider using your leadership and organisational skills, editing, writing, publicity, ICT, social media, medical and child caring skills. Give to the society voluntarily and you would succeed!

Mop up your social media: Watch what you post on the social media. Your first job might be lost as a result of one status update in the same way another could get you a job right before you graduate. Remove that gangster picture of yours. Be equally careful of those who tag you in their status updates, especially if such wouldn’t present you in a good light. If it requires you ‘unfriending’ or ‘blocking’ such people, please do! Be as modest as possible in your posts. There is no crime talking about religion, politics, ethnicity, gender or other topics of diverse views. But if you must, you should thread the path with high level of intellectuality based on facts and avoid maligning other people indiscriminately.

Study Smartly: Studentship isn’t all about working hard to get the highest of grades but studying smartly. Smart studying emphasises you understanding the course content beyond examination situations. More often than not, most students read just to pass exams. Yours should be an exception! Irrespective of what the course is, it important you can apply its contents beyond examination situations. You don’t want to open your over five hundred page engineering textbook when asked to determine solution to a mechanical fault!

Learn some skills: A skill-based personality is the ideal professionally-prepared personality. Go beyond the lectures to learn new skills applicable in the industry generally. It is possible that that step could place you above your peers in future. Skills learnt should be however relevant to contemporary times. Your skills are your selling points!

Engage in fruitful journeys: Before you decide on embarking on any sojourn as a student, weigh the benefits. Ask yourself what you stand to lose by not participating as much as you consider what you stand to gain. You don’t want to found in the midst of street urchins nor would you want to be caught in the web of some controversy betraying your sparkling good character.

Get yourself a mentor: Career mapping comes to play here. Your career should be plan-based. You would need a trustworthy professional in the field to be your mentor. He is more likely aware of current trends relating to achieving career success. He can easily help you in material and technical support where necessary. Your mentor should be your adviser in making professionally-inclined decisions. There is no need for an aspiring lawyer having a physician as his mentor. Choose your mentor wisely!

Start practicing before graduating: Do you want to be a teacher? Start acting as one directly or indirectly. Clinch with a professional in your field of choice and request being his assistant/intern Don’t expect to be paid since you are not yet a graduate. They could consider paying you if they have the resources to cater for that. You know what? Practice makes perfect!

Be prayerful: God is the one who makes our plans materialise. Whatever we have in stock can only be successful combining dedication with prayer. There are stories of dedicated people who yet failed. That’s as a result of lack of God’s blessings in their acts. Think God first!

People generally see tertiary institution life as being full of freedom. Yes, it is! Everybody is free to do whatever they wish. Why not do something personally worthy of reverence and reference against the future? Choose to do something beneficial for yourself. Your future starts now!

Source: http://ibnamoo.com/10-things-you-should-do-before-your-final-year/