THE NATION TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 2013
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NEWS
Hezbollah and tomorrow
• Suspected Hezbollah agents in Nigeria during their apperance in court
revolution in Nigeria. The leader of the student group was Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, a firebrand Sunni turned Shia religious extremist who was first influenced by the works of Sayyd Qutb, the intellectual force behind Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and whose ideas form the basis of al Qaeda’s ideology today. Remarkably, Zakzaky switched sides and became an adherent of Shia Islam, encouraged by Iranian funding and training, both religious and military. Since becoming the leader of the IMN in the mid-1980s, Zakzaky has had numerous confrontations with the government, including being imprisoned for nine years. From 1981 to 1984, for example, he was jailed for sedition and for declaring
he would recognize no governmental laws or authority except those of Islam. Fast forward three decades, and Zakzaky is the patriarchal spiritual leader of Shiites in Nigeria, much like Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was in Iran. When he addresses his followers, Zakzaky typically sits under a big portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini and wields rhetoric akin to that of Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah. The subject of his speeches are what you might expect – heated vitriol aimed at Jews and Israel, in which he portrays Jews as infidels who should be wiped off the map by Allah. In 1998, for example, the Shiites of Nigeria, under Zakzaky’s leadership, observed Jerusalem Day, mirroring Khomeini’s introduction of a day
for expressing solidarity with the Palestinians. He also talks about social justice in Nigeria and building support for Iran’s policies in Africa. “Iran’s objectives are to establish a local power base to exert influence over the national government and to act against Western interests,” argues Abel Assadina, a senior Iranian diplomat who defected in 2003. Certainly, under Zakzaky’s leadership, the IMN has provided Hezbollah-style military training to hundreds of Nigerians in camps throughout Northern Nigeria. And although the group has yet to launch an attack, it is surely not unreasonable to expect an attempt at some point. As Muhammad Kabir Isa, a senior researcher at Nigeria’s
Ahmadu Bello University, told the BBC: “when you embark on military drills, you are drilling with some sort of anticipation. Some sort of expectation.” And the IMN’s propaganda effort also bears a striking resemblance to that of Hezbollah. The movement has had a thriving newspaper, al-Mizan, for more than two decades. In addition, it has also begun broadcasting its own internet-based Hausa radio station, Shuhada, on the country’s main air waves, similar to Hezbollah’s radio station, AlNour. IMN also has plans to start a new TV channel, a move reminiscent of Hezbollah’s al-Manar. Isa has described the movement as “a state within a state.” But this does not mean that IMN is isolated
•Governor Obi presenting the SUVs’ keys to the Chairman, Anambra State Traditional Rulers Council and the Obi of Onitsha, Obi Alfred Achebe...yesterday
The governor said his administration has concluded plans to pick the Internet bills, micro-soft and other subscriptions for three years to give his successor a breathing space to settle down. Speaking further on the gesture
to royal fathers, Obi said the choice of INNOSON manufactured vehicles is to tell Nigerians that with an auto manufacturing company in the state, they need not search elsewhere.
He said that INNOSON vehicles have been unofficially adopted as brand for the state government, promising to patronize the firm for the next set of official vehicles. On the source of finance for the
projects, the governor said it was mainly from the money he attracted to the state. Using the education sector as an example, he said that the budget was N3 billion, but that by the end of the year, N13 billion
from Nigeria. Indeed, Zakzaky has reportedly worked to ensure that his members are recruited into the army, the police force and the state security establishment. Of course it is true that however much inspiration he likes to draw from images of Nasrallah, he lacks the Hezbollah leader’s battlefield experience. And he also does not have Nasrallah’s resources – Hezbollah has recently dispatched thousands of fighters to back the alAssad regime in Syria. Yet the recent arrest of alleged Hezbollah operatives, and a stash of weapons, so far from home raises troubling questions about what Zakzaky’s network might be capable of – and what exactly he has planned.
would have been spent. He told stakeholders at the parley that his administration would have successfully laid the foundation for revolution in the state by the end of his eight-year administration. At the meeting were royal fathers, community and religious leaders as well as presidents and chairmen of town unions. He urged the principals to take a cue from the managers of schools returned to missionaries. In his remarks, the Chairman of the Anambra Traditional Rulers Council, Obi Alfred Achebe, described what the state has witnessed under Obi as unprecedented. The monarch said he was particularly thrilled not by the vehicles, but by the revolution in schools which he noted, would benefit children. He assured the support of traditional rulers for what he described as renaissance of learning taking place in the state. In his own remarks, Umuoji monarch, Igwe Cyril Iwueze, thanked the governor for paying due attention to all sectors. Admitting that the Obi-administration has brought revolution into governance, Igwe Iwueze said that after witnessing billions given to churches to rehabilitate schools returned to them, it was encouraging witnessing the extension of the same gesture to public schools.