THE NATION WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2014
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COMMENTARY FROM OTHER LANDS
EDITORIALS
Female bombers?
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•Nigeria’s terror campaign has entered a new dimension
HE insurgency spearheaded by the militant Islamic group Boko Haram has entered an even more terrifying dimension with the appearance of female suicide bombers. In Kano, two young women detonated bombs at a Catholic church and a fuel station, killing themselves and several others in the process. They were aged 15 and 19 years, respectively. Also, a 10-year-old girl with an explosives belt attached to her was apprehended in the company of two men suspected to be Boko Haram militants on their way to Katsina State. The utilisation of young females as suicide bombers is a sobering realisation of the exact nature of the threat the Nigerian state is confronting. It can clearly be seen that Boko Haram’s tactics are evolving as its campaign of terror and intimi-
‘The utilisation of young female suicide bombers is an obvious response to increased security awareness and improved surveillance methods which have made it harder for male operatives to carry out their evil purpose. Young women are generally seen as less threatening, and their ability to wear the all-enclosing burka and hijab makes it easier to shroud their identities and conceal their deadly cargo’
dation spreads. First, there were the armed attacks and bombings of symbols of federal authority, such as police stations and military barracks; then there were the assaults on western educational institutions, followed by the mass murders and abductions of civilians. As its baleful influence has spread, the group has now taken to the act of claiming territory by raising its flag in areas it perceives as being under its control. The murderous activities of this group have involved a variety of methods: planting bombs in stationary vehicles or refuse dumps; ramming bomb-laden vehicles into buildings and checkpoints; using male suicide bombers with explosive belts. The utilisation of young female suicide bombers is an obvious response to increased security awareness and improved surveillance methods which have made it harder for male operatives to carry out their evil purpose. Young women are generally seen as less threatening, and their ability to wear the all-enclosing burka and hijab makes it easier to shroud their identities and conceal their deadly cargo. It is still difficult for many Nigerians to understand how anybody, much less young women, can willingly accept to kill themselves for a cause, no matter how noble it may seem to be. However, when it is realised that Boko Haram may in fact be tapping into an already-established tradition of terror, much of this mystification disappears. There are allegations that the insurgents may have entered into a strategic alliance with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on training and
the procurement of weapons. It is very likely that the methods of indoctrination used by the former on its own suicide bombers are being used to brainwash Nigerians. Already, there are speculations that the girls abducted in Chibok last April are either being readied for suicide bombings or have even been deployed in the next phase of Boko Haram’s campaign. Regardless of whether it is true or not, the possibility is too terrible to contemplate, and is yet another reason why the Federal Government must step up its efforts to rescue them. They have endured captivity for over three months; that is long enough for some to have succumbed to the blandishments of their captors. The evolution of the terrorists’ tactics is also a stark warning that Nigeria’s antiinsurgency operatives cannot afford to rest on their oars. This is a battle for hearts and minds, and as such, must be fought on multiple levels. Greater educational, employment and political opportunities must be provided for youths in the northeast to wean them away from the insurgents. Increased intelligence-gathering must be utilised in understanding insurgent strategies, anticipating attacks and identifying their bases. More efforts should be made in tracing the terrorists’ sources of funding and exposing those who are behind them. Above all, Nigerians must accept the battle against terror as their own and unite to fight it. Making baseless accusations against political opponents will not solve the problem, and will in fact embolden those who seek to use terror as an instrument of political policy.
A lying presidency • Why would the Federal Govt lie that it did not give money to the Chibok girls’ parents?
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HEN a country’s presidency speaks, its voice should be like that of the oracle. Its yes should be yes and its no, no. Unfortunately, the Nigerian presidency, like most other things and places characteristically Nigerian, is becoming notorious for lying. The latest of such lie from Nigeria’s seat of power has to do with the monetary gift reportedly given to the parents of the Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram on April 15, and those of them that escaped, when they visited the Presidency on July 22. To start with, it is quite shameful that it took the intervention of a teenage Pakistan girl, Malala Yousafzai, to wake President Goodluck Jonathan up to his responsibility on the abducted girls. But, the allegation that, in his attempt to obey the directive of the teenager, the President committed a presidential blunder by giving money to his visitors deserves more than a cursory attention. The matter has rightly been the subject of unending comments since the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners leader and former Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, tweeted that the Federal Government offered N100 million to the distressed Chibok parents. More disgusting is that since the issue was made public, the presidency has been giving Nigerians the impression that there is no iota of truth in it. Both the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati, and the Senior Personal Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, have denied that any money changed hands.
But these denials run counter to the claims of the beneficiaries and the Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), the group representing the Chibok people in Abuja. According to the group, the Federal Government gave the parents and the escaped girls only N22.4million and not N100million. In other words, ‘there is no smoke without fire’, as they say. The money, according to KADA, was brought by the senior special assistant to the president on special duties to the hotel where the visitors lodged, who told the girls that the government had sent them N100, 000 each. Sixty-one of the 122 parents who came got N200, 000 each; while 51 others got N100, 000 each. Because the calculations were wrong, the remaining 10 parents left empty-handed. Predictably, it was the distribution of the money that led to a row among the affected parents, with some of them complaining that they had been shortchanged by the community’s leaders. “I was not able to go to Abuja; they chose some people from among us. Some received N100,000, some received N200,000, some received N300,000. Those of us in the village were given N7,000. This is not a thing of joy. What we want are our girls to be brought back home”, one of them reportedly said. It is extremely baffling why the Federal Government resorted to telling a blatant lie, like the one it told the nation and the international community that it knows where the abducted girls are. It is a pity that, through the negligence and incompetence of the government, these
girls have spent over 100 days in Boko Haram captivity without the slightest hope that they would ever be brought back to reunite with their parents. Yet, all we hear often from the President is that “we know where the girls are, and we will bring them back to their parents soonest”. When we remember that President Nixon of the U.S.A. resigned in 1974 to stave off impeachment because he lied to the American people in what has become known as the ‘Watergate scandal’, we should view with all seriousness the lie by the Presidency this time around. It is one lie too many. Or, could it be that some officials, as usual, profited from this filthy lucre? The Presidency owes Nigerians an explanation on this untoward and fraudulent denial of the undeniable.
‘These denials run counter to the claims of the beneficiaries and the Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), the group representing the Chibok people in Abuja. According to the group, the Federal Government gave the parents and the escaped girls only N22.4million and not N100million. In other words, ‘there is no smoke without fire’, as they say’
Where is human rights in the Africa summit?
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HE UNITED STATES’ unfocused lens on a rising Africa may sharpen a little beginning Monday. The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, which gathers nearly 50 African leaders in the capital, will feature important discussions on security and development. But the key emphasis will be on investment in Africa; the White House is convening chief executives and African heads of state to hammer out promising deals. “The fact is that we have reached an inflection point for the new Africa,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry declared to young African leaders last week. Africa is indeed home to the seven of the 10 fastest growing economies of the past decade. But it’s also home to at least 16 countries with a broken or deteriorating human rights record. Three of those countries — Eritrea, Sudan and Zimbabwe — were not invited to the summit because they were not in good standing with the United States. But in a push for inclusiveness, the Obama administration invited at least 13 other strongmen. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, the longest-serving non-monarch in the world, will likely be in attendance. He’s allegedly jailed and tortured political opponents, including an Italian businessman named Roberto Berardi who was to testify in the United States about corruption by Mr. Obiang’s son. Mr. Berardi has been “severely beaten and flogged by guards, [and] held for lengthy periods in solitary confinement,” Human Rights Watch reported. Another likely attendee, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, had his anti-gay law struck down on Friday but still enforces his public order law, which is used to shutter media organizations and detain politicians. Mr. Museveni’s police reportedly killed at least 49 people with impunity in two separate protest crackdowns in recent years. The inclusion of these leaders would have been understandable — and perhaps productive — if human rights were centrally placed on the agenda. No African leader would refuse an invitation to the White House even with a summit prominently featuring human rights. Yet the topic is wholly sidelined through all three days of conferences. There’s no doubt a purposeful, diplomatic choice was made to deny human rights its own session, while topics like wildlife trafficking receive their own. The idea, as national security adviser Susan E. Rice says, is that “in each of the sessions, there will be some very straight talk and give-and-take.” The White House argues that human rights will weave itself into discussions, especially in the Civil Society Forum and the leaders’ session on governance. But like all uncomfortable topics, human rights will likely be pushed to the back-burner while more agreeable issues like “civic innovation” and managing “transnational threats” take precedence. The result is a tangential, pro forma chat on human rights that does little to pressure African leaders to change. It’s a wasted opportunity to advance a core U.S. national interest of breaking some African countries out of a cycle of repression. This isn’t fingerpointing; it’s addressing one of Africa’s challenges to sustained growth. As President Obama said to the Ghanaian Parliament in 2009, “Governments that respect the will of their own people, that govern by consent and not coercion, are more prosperous, they are more stable and more successful.” An administration that began with such a hopeful message has now abandoned it in its most consequential engagement with the continent. – Washington Post
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