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Africa Subsaharan

Fulani expansion war, a federal pet, by Ochereome Nnanna - Vanguard News

2025-04-23

A backgrounder on Nigeria's internal dysfunction.
[VANGUARDNGR]Before his sudden, mysterious death, former Head of State, General Sani Abacha, left us with an enduring, prophetic soundbite. He said: “If an insurgency lasts for more than 24 hours, then, know that government has a hand in it”. Way back on May 8, 2014, The Cable newspaper published a retweet of the late General’s daughter, Ms Gumsu Abacha, quoting exactly the same one-liner in response to Boko Haram “exploits”.

What would you say of the Fulani expansionism “insurgency” which has lasted 25 years? By “federal”, I do not necessarily mean the President Bola Tinubu administration, though it is also complicit as will be shown shortly. “Federal” here means the machinery of the Nigerian State, the ruling Establishment or dispensation, the power that be which produces and dictates to successive Federal Governments.

Since 1999, this power dispensing machine has produced five presidents – Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu, always making sure it does not fall into “wrong” hands. Only such mechanism could enact the magic of making Obasanjo president from jail, ensuring that no Northern candidate would stand against him. To the best of my knowledge, the Fulani wars of conquest started around 2001 in the Plateau area. Armed Fulani “herdsmen” were routinely massacring the indigenes to take over their fertile farmlands. The military, police, security and what have you, have failed to stop them despite several eye-service deployments.

But when the Tarokh people armed themselves and retaliated in May 2004, President Obasanjo declared a state of emergency and removed PDP Governor, Joshua Dariye, who was seen as encouraging his indigenous people to defend themselves. What did Dariye do later? He joined Muhammadu Buhari’s APC and helped the party capture the state in 2015. Buhari pardoned and released him from his 14-year jail conviction for allegedly stealing N2bn. Dariye could not beat them. He joined them, and was rewarded by Buhari himself, just as Adams Oshiomhole had promised all who join APC.

Lionhearted governors who were crushed became a lesson to others. Fight the State and pay for it; collude with the State against your people and be rewarded. When you see Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State running kitikiti-katakata to lick the toes of fellow governors from the North over the Uromi lynching, you know the fear the State exerts over occupants of powerful or lucrative positions.

When Buhari came to power in 2015, he saw himself as the Nigerian variant of Omar Al Bashir of Sudan, who armed Arab pastoralist militia, the Janjaweed, to conquer and annex the lands of black Sudanese, thus sparking the Darfur crises. Buhari was determined to make Nigeria the new home of his Fulani kinsmen from everywhere. He tried to enforce his Ruga grazing routes, water resources and Livestock Plan policies throughout the country, but these were stiffly resisted. Buhari then threw open the borders for armed Fulani and their families, especially the nomads from everywhere, to relocate to Nigeria.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, he and his powerful kinsmen used food and cement trailers and trucks to distribute armed Fulani youths in forests all over the Middle Belt and Southern states. It was clearly a well-organised operation aimed at forcefully grafting alien, violent Fulani elements among unwilling indigenous communities. They were camped in the forests where they killed people in their farms and harvested organs for sale. They kidnapped for ransom and used livestock to destroy farms. They flushed people out of their ancestral lands and occupied communities.

The Federal Government and its organs of security and coercion protected them from those seeking to defend themselves. They were promptly released when arrested by vigilante groups and handed over to the supposed law enforcement agencies. Government and (unfortunately, sections of the media) deceived the public, calling attacks on innocent Nigerian farming communities “farmers-herders clashes”. Government kept promising displaced people they would be restored to their ancestral lands but have now become permanent occupants of Internally-Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps. The invaders are settling down and renaming conquered communities.

The Federal Government refused to even acknowledge Fulani invaders as terrorists. Instead, they turned around to falsely slap that moniker on the Eastern Security Network, ESN, formed by the concerned diaspora Igbo through Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, to defend Igboland.

When Tinubu controversially won the 2023 presidential election, I consoled myself that Buhari the Fulaniser was out and Tinubu, being a Southerner, would check the Fulanisation agenda. It has also been wreaking even more havoc in the South-West, Tinubu's home zone. But we were in for a shock. After initially arresting and detaining Bello Bodejo, the leader of the loquacious and violent Miyetti Allah Kyautal Hore, Tinubu quickly released him when the Fulani elite threatened him. He even went ahead to create Federal Ministry of Livestock to appease them, thus fully resuscitating Buhari's Fulanisation agenda.

Tinubu holds on to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu even after releasing Fulani's Bodejo and Sunday Igboho of Yoruba Nation. Under Tinubu, the cuddling of Fulani herdsmen terrorism continues unabated, and so do the endless barrages of meaningless condolence messages and empty promises. The entire landscape is filled with cowardly governors and political leaders who sell out their people for political power and lucrative posts. At this rate, the indigenous people of Nigeria are doomed.

Retired Lt-General Theophilus Danjuma warned before (and has just repeated the warning) that the government is an enhancer of Fulani expansionism. ''They collude,'' he says. ''They will not protect you! Arm and protect yourselves''. Danjuma, a hero of the Nigerian side of the civil war, has written off the armed forces he once served and led. Who are we to believe otherwise? Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB and ESN have once again been vindicated, even by Danjuma!

Self-defence is the first law of nature. The ball is in our court.

Link

Africa Horn

Ethiopia, TPLF discuss ceasefire implementation

2024-03-13

[AFRICANEWS] Æthiopia and representatives from the regional state of Tigray held talks on Monday aimed at resolving the lingering issues about the implementation of a ceasefire agreement reached in November 2022.

The deal signed in Pretoria, South Africa helped end more than two years of deadly fighting.

Under the accord, the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) agreed to disarm, demobilize and to hand over heavy weapons to the federal army.

Æthiopia would in exchange scale up the provision of humanitarian assistance, remove the presence of foreign forces and fund the reconstruction of war affected areas.

But Tigray's leaders have accused Addis Ababa of reneging on the deal and refusing to implement key clauses of the understanding brokered by the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta are mediating the talks.

Fighting started in 2020 when TPLF fighters attacked federal troops stationed in Tigray, killing soldiers and stealing weapons.

Link

Africa Horn

Tigray and Amhara leaders reconcile in Ethiopia

2023-06-14

Remember them? Apparently they haven’t all starved.

[Garowe] After several months of animosity and cruelty within Æthiopia, the leadership of Tigray and Amhara have agreed to bury the hatchet for the sake of peace and development in the country, in what could boost efforts by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to reconcile the national and regional leadership.

During the Tigray war, Amhara forces were accused of working closely with the Æthiopian National Defense Forces [ENDF] to launch attacks in northern parts of the country, just before a truce was reached in Nairobi and South Africa under the stewardship of former presidents Uhuru Kenyatta and Olusegun Obasanjo.

Amhara regional governor Yilkal Kefale and Tigray’s interim leader, Getachew Reda, made the pledge during talks in Amhara's capital, Bahir Dar while observing the need to engage in state-building. The Tigray War ended in November after the signing of the historic agreement in Pretoria.

The two leaders said they would work towards re-opening road transport between Tigray and Amhara, which offers the shortest route between Tigray and Addis Ababa. Reda, a former minister in the government of Æthiopia, was the spokesperson of the Tigray People's Liberation Front [TPLF] before being picked as the interim leader.

Ahmed, who has been integral in pushing for economic prosperity, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 following his intervention to solve the standoff between Addis Ababa and Asmara which was several decades old. Since then, he has been struggling to fix internal issues necessitated by monumental changes.

Before assuming powers, Æthiopia was more of an authoritarian regime, which cut off several people from democratic space. Despite the internal challenges, Abiy Ahmed has been lauded for embracing democracy and inclusivity in his administration, leading to economic success.

Across the region, Æthiopia has been making headlines in the construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam along the Blue Nile, rattling Sudan and Egypt in the process. When the dam is fully functional, it is anticipated that it will be the main supplier of hydroelectric power across the Horn of Africa.

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Africa Horn

Ethiopia parliament removes rebel Tigray party from terror list

2023-03-23

[Garowe] Æthiopia's parliament on Wednesday removed the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) from an official list of terrorist groups, a key step in the grinding of the peace processor following the two-year conflict in the country's north.

"The house has approved the decision to lift the TPLF's terrorist designation with a majority vote," the parliament said on Facebook.

The move will strengthen the November 2022 peace deal between the TPLF and the federal government, it said.

"It was remarked during the discussion of the draft decision that lifting TPLF's terrorist designation is indispensable to uphold the peace agreement held between the federal government and TPLF," it said.

The TPLF, which once dominated Æthiopian politics, was officially designated a terrorist organization in May 2021, six months after the war erupted.

During the brutal conflict, the TPLF briefly came close to marching on the capital but was beaten back by forces loyal to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Under the terms of the peace deal signed in South Africa's capital Pretoria, the TPLF agreed to disarm in return for the restoration of access to Tigray, which was largely cut off from the outside world during the war.

Since the deal, there has been some resumption of basic services and aid deliveries to Tigray, which has faced dire shortages of food, fuel, cash and medicines.

Access to the region of six million people remains restricted, and it is impossible to verify independently the situation on the ground.

The fighting has killed untold numbers of civilians, displaced more than two million and left millions more in need of humanitarian aid

.

Estimates of casualties vary widely, with the United States saying that as many as half a million people have died while Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
's envoy to the region, has said it could be up to 600,000.

Washington on Monday accused all parties to the conflict of committing war crimes but singled out Æthiopian, Eritrea
...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age...
n and regional Amhara forces for crimes against humanity, without mentioning the TPLF.

Æthiopia's foreign ministry in turn accused the US -- which has long regarded Addis Ababa as one of its major partners in Africa -- of adopting a "partisan and divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled...
approach".

Since the peace deal, communications, banking and electricity are slowly being restored to Tigray, with national carrier Æthiopian Airlines resuming commercial flights between Addis Ababa and Tigray's capital Mekele in December.

The conflict broke out when the TPLF attacked military installations, setting off a major offensive by Abiy's government with backing from Eritrea.

Link

Africa Horn

AU peace envoy: Over 600,000 people killed in Ethiopia's Tigray war

2023-01-18

[Garowe] At least 600,000 people were killed in Æthiopia's Tigray war which lasted for two years, a top mediator has said, which suggests that the number could be probably more should the final statistics get properly collated by credible data processors who would not hide any information.

Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
peace envoy to the Horn of Africa, noted that the brutal war was underestimated and could have cost further damage beyond imaginable heights had the parties failed to strike a truce. Those dead are both innocent civilians and members of security forces.

"The number of people killed was about 600,000," former Nigerian president and African Union envoy Olusegun Obasanjo told the Financial Times in an interview.

During the interview, Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Nigerian president, said the truce in Nairobi and Pretoria fundamentally, "stopped an average of 1000 deaths per day". The Æthiopian National Defense Forces [ENDF] was at loggerheads with Tigray People's Liberation Front [TPLF] after an attack at the Northern Command in 2020.

Also central in the negotiations was the former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta who worked closely with Obasanjo and the United States which largely facilitated the grinding of the peace processor. Both the US and the African Union [AU] have been instrumental in brokering the grinding of the peace processor.

Tim Vanden Bempt, who is part of a research group investigating civilian atrocities in Tigray at the University of Ghent, said Obasanjo’s 600,000 estimates might be roughly correct. Tigray was blockaded for long periods, making independent analysis of what went on, including how many people died, extremely difficult, say experts.

"Based on reports from the field, the number of dead could be somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 civilian casualties only — this from atrocities, starvation, and lack of healthcare," Vanden Bempt said. In addition, he said there were unofficial estimates of between 200,000 and 300,000 battlefield deaths, though these could not be accurately verified.

Credible reports also indicate that the war saw many civilians get raped with the perpetrators targeting both children and women. The ENDF was being backed by soldiers from Eritrea
...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age...
and Amhara regional militia, who are yet to completely withdraw and disengage from Tigray.

Should the estimates stand, then the deaths could be slightly higher than the deaths in Ukraine and Russian wars, or, the tally could overtake the number recorded in the Colombian war which left thousands of people dead and others critically injured.

Daniel Bekele, Æthiopia’s human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
chief, said casualty estimates should be treated with extreme caution. "We will probably not be able to know the full number of casualties," he said. "We need to be cautious about overly exaggerated corpse count estimates by all sides."

The war left critical infrastructural projects destroyed, with telecommunication, hospitals, banking, and electricity suffering the most. The country has activated normality in most areas including the resumption of daily flights to Tigray's major towns including the capital Mekelle.

"I believe we have gone beyond the point of no return," said Obasanjo. "I believe the guns are silenced." He asked the Æthiopian parliament to declassify Tigray People's Liberation Front as a terrorist organization to help reduce political temperatures that have been in top gear over the last three years.

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Africa Horn

Egypt welcomes peace deal between Ethiopian government and Tigray movement

2022-11-05

[ALAHRAM] The Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Ahmed Abu-Zeid welcomed on Thursday an agreement on cessation of hostilities inked between the Æthiopian government and Tigray movement after peace talks that lasted for ten days.

In a press statement, Abu-Zeid wished that the agreement would bring about permanent peace in Æthiopia and give the Æthiopian government and people an opportunity to remove the effect of disputes and to reconstruct social stability.

He asserted the importance of boosting peace, stability and security in Africa, especially in east Africa.

Abu-Zeid expressed Egypt’s thanks and appreciation to the High Representative of the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
(AU) for the Horn of Africa, to former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo, to the members of the AU High-level panel for the Æthiopian Peace process and to members of the AU group of wise men for the efforts they made to help the conflicting parties reach this agreement.

He also thanked the President of South Africa and the South African government for hosting the agreement’s talks.

On Wednesday, the Æthiopian government and Tigray movement announced that they had reached a truce, mediated by AU, following a round of talks in South Africa led by AU special envoy former president Obasanjo. This agreement comes after a two year civil war that caused a humanitarian crisis.

Link

Africa Horn

UN to evacuate families of international staff from Ethiopia

2021-11-24

[AlAhram] The United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
will evacuate family members of international staff from war-torn Æthiopia, according to an official document seen by AFP Tuesday, as rebels claim to be advancing closer to the capital.

An internal UN security order asked the organization to "coordinate the evacuation and ensure that all eligible family members of internationally recruited staff depart from Æthiopia no later than 25 November 2021".

The order came as La Belle France became the latest country to advise citizens to leave Æthiopia, following similar advisories by the US and the UK in recent weeks as the fighting between federal forces and Tigrayan rebels edges closer to Addis Ababa.

"All Frenchies are formally urged to leave the country without delay," the French embassy in Addis Ababa said in an email sent to French citizens.

Embassy staff were taking steps to facilitate citizens' departure by booking seats on commercial flights and would "if necessary" organise a charter flight, the email said.

Northern Æthiopia has been wracked by conflict since November 2020 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into the Tigray region to topple its ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner promised a swift victory, but by late June the TPLF had regrouped and retaken most of Tigray including its regional capital Mekele.

Since then the TPLF has pushed into the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions and this week claimed control of Shewa Robit, just 220 kilometres (135 miles) northeast of Addis Ababa by road.

Some TPLF fighters were believed to have reached Debre Sina, roughly 30 kilometres closer to Addis Ababa, diplomats briefed on the security situation said.

A communications outage in much of the conflict-hit zone has made battlefield movements difficult to verify.

The government has not responded to requests about the status of Shewa Robit.

The African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
's special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo, is leading a frantic push to broker a ceasefire, but so far there has been little concrete progress.

On Monday Abiy seemed to cast doubt on the prospects of a peaceful solution, announcing he was heading to the front "to lead the defence forces".

Link

Africa Horn

Nigeria’s ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo has traveled to Ethiopia to mediate in the conflict between the government and the northern Tigray region

2020-11-17

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

#Nigeria’s ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo has traveled to #Ethiopia to mediate in the conflict between the government and the northern Tigray region, says his spokesman.https://t.co/qJf3HsmdYT
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) November 16, 2020

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Africa Subsaharan

Boko Haram exploits in Gwoza: The inside story

2014-08-24

[SUNNEWSONLINE] "Sincerely speaking, my people, including the traders and other businessmen and women, have been prevented from travelling to Maiduguri to buy industrial and household goods for sale to customers in my chiefdom with an estimated population of 655, 000 in 11 wards and other border communities with Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
Besides that, there is no blessed day the Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
gunnies will not kill 7 to 15 residents on these three roads that had already been blocked and taken over by krazed killers. My people have been prevented from going to work on their farmlands last year; and even the limited cultivated farmlands with harvests, including my 350-hectre farmlands and orchards at Jaje village, were seized by the bully boyz last Octoberâ�� Therefore, I am pleading, and will continue to beg the Military, Police and other security agencies in the state to take emergency action on the three blocked and taken-over roads in Gwoza council area. If my people flee to Cameroon, leaving me alone in this palace, who will I rule, as their traditional and religious leader in this chiefdom?"

Those were the words of the late Emir of Gwoza, Alhaji Idris Timta, in April, this year, in his "Save Our Soul" SOS, letter to the Federal Government and all the security agencies in Borno State.

But by May this year, about one month after crying out, the late emir was sent to his grave, by the same people-Boko Haram, he had cried to security agencies, to save his people from.

And even after his death, the bully boyz appear not done yet with the town, surrounded by several hills. At the last count, the town, Saturday Sun's investigations reveal, has been seized by the krazed killers, with the late emir's son, who is now the new emir, fleeing to safety.

Before the emir's date with the bully boyz in May this year, one of his sons, who was the District Head of Takumbari, in Gwoza Council area of the state, was also killed last year by the krazed killers.

To show their current control over the town, the bully boyz have appointed a spiritual leader, known as Ameer, for the town. The Ameer, who now sits on the emir's throne, and holds court regularly, right inside the palace, Saturday Sun's investigations further reveal, is a native of Gwoza.

Gwoza, for whatever reason, Saturday Sun recalls, has always been a centre of attraction for the krazed killers, since 2004, when they first invaded Borno State, then on the auspices of the "Nigerian Taliban."

The group first struck in Yobe State in December 2003, precisely December 22, a day after, according to the then governor, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim, they had promised to leave the state. The group equally struck again on December 31 2003, in Yobe State, while on their way to Borno State on a New Year day, when they engaged in a gun duel with military personnel drafted to the border town between Borno and Yobe states, a situation that left two of the members dead.

The group's first strike in Borno State, Saturday Sun further recalls, was recorded on Tuesday, September 21, 2004, when the group invaded Bama and Gwoza towns, in Borno State, where the Area Commander-in-Charge of Bama, Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Ismail Sirajo, was brutally murdered.

But after about four days of shootout between them and a combined team of Army and mobile coppers then, the group was subdued, losing about 40 of its members in the process.

The operation, carried out during former President Olusegun Obasanjo's second term in office, was supervised at the time by the current chairman of the Police Service Commission, retired IGP Mike Okiro, as DIG, in charge of Operations, under the then IGP Tafa Balogun.

Why is it then difficult for the Army to rout the bully boyz from Gwoza, considering the fact that the late emir had raised the alarm on the group's occupation of parts of his territory before his death?

Although, the Army is yet to issue any statement since the bully boyz occupied major parts of Gwoza formally, about two weeks ago, a highly placed personality from the area told Saturday Sun: "We are at a loss, as to what is happening. No one can really say, we can only continue to guess."

"Remember that the governor once came up to speak on the need to equip and motivate our soldiers so that they can confront these criminals headon. His call was misconstrued. But recent events and statements from both the Presidency and the Army have further vindicated the governor.

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Africa Subsaharan

PDP members shun fund-raising for Boko Haram victims in Enugu

2014-08-14

[DAILYPOST.NG] Members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, over the weekend, boycotted a fund-raising organized in Nsukka Enugu State to rehabilitate about 1000 indigenes of the area, who were forced home as result of the Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
insurgency in some northern states.

None of the politicians serving under the platform of the PDP attended the event.

In a remark, Mr Willy Ezugwu, Secretary-General, Conference of Political Parties, CNPP, said it was unfortunate that the politicians abandoned their people when they needed help most.

Ezugwu expressed surprise that not even one elected person in Nsukka zone found it expedient to come for the fund raising, even when they received invitation early enough.

"It is unfortunate that those the people elected failed them at this very difficult moment. None of then found it worthy to come and contribute towards rehabilitating these victims; they did not even sent any representative.

"In 2015, these same people will come and look for our votes; it is so bad", he lamented.

He added that "We have to give these our people a sense of belonging to enable them feed, take their children to school as well as find something they will do to earn a living. No amount is too big or small to help in rehabilitating them".

Earlier, Prof Osita Ogbu, Ex-Economic adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, urged the victims of Boko Haram insurgency not to loose hope.

Ogbu, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics, University of Nigeria Nsukka, commended the organizers. noting that it would go a long way in giving hope to the victims.

He applauded efforts of the federal government towards fighting the insurgency and urged Nigerians to continue to give government and security operatives required maximum support.

Earlier in a remark, the chairman of planning committee of the fund-raising, Mr John Ezema said that "it is no longer news that activities of Boko Haram in the country have claimed so many lives as well as property worth billions of naira.

"Most of them here today have no accommodation; they cannot feed their families because they lost their bread-winners to Boko Haram terrorists.

"They are our brothers and sisters; so they need our help now".

Narrating his ordeal, one of the victims, Mr Johnson Attah, in a emotion laden voice disclosed how all his shops and a house in Maiduguri were set ablaze.

He said he came home with only one shirt and one pair of trousers.

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Africa Subsaharan

Obasanjo: Nigerian leaders should reach out to Boko Haram

2013-01-18

[EDITION.CNN] Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has said more could be done to reach out to the orc Islamist group Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
to find out what leads it to carry out acts of violence.
Ollie was the previous president but one before Goodluck Jonathan. I believe he might have been the first to complete a term in office, but I could be mistaken about that.
In an interview with CNN, Obasanjo suggested the current government should adopt a dual-track approach rather than just cracking down on the group.
It takes a politician to see room for negotiation with a group that regularly shoots up churches.
"To deal with a group like that, you need a carrot and stick. The carrot is finding out how to reach out to them," he said. "When you try to reach out to them and they are not amenable to being reached out to, you have to use the stick."
Okay. They're not amenable to being reached out to. Now what're y'gonna do, Ollie?
Obasanjo said President Goodluck Jonathan
... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
was "just using the stick" in his efforts. "He's doing one aspect of it well, but the other aspect must not be forgotten."

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Africa Subsaharan

Obasanjo condemns Nato action in North Africa

2011-09-03

[Daily Nation (Kenya)]

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo used a private visit to Sierra Leone to condemn international action against Libya's Muammar Qadaffy.
...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland...
Mr Obasanjo, who was in the country as a special guest of President Ernest Bai Koroma who has himself consistently refused to openly take side on the Libyan conflict, questioned the rationale behind resorting to violence in efforts to bring about change in Libya.

"It would have been sensible if peace between Qadaffy and his people had been negotiated instead of having to resort to causing more damage that would take so much to repair," the former Nigerian leader told a presser at State House in Freetown at the end of his visit.

Nigeria was among the first few African countries to endorse the National Transitional Council rebels as 'legitimate' representative of the Libyan people.

Despite his opposition towards the treatment of the former Libyan strongman, Mr Obasanjo saw the North African crisis as a message for fellow African leaders.

"North Africa has given a lesson to all of us," he said. "The first lesson is that the apparent economic progress is not enough to satisfy the yearning of the people for they want to have a feeling of fulfillment, and choice."

Mr Obsasanjo, however, added that changes in any country and in the world, particularly in Africa, must be left in the hands of the people, as revolution from outside might not immediately bring lasting peace to a country.

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