By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
Twitter: @farooqkperogi
When it emerged on Thursday that the hundreds of schoolboys that were abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, were released, I was so relieved that I gave the Buhari regime an unusual pat in the back in my social media updates.
“The release of the #KankaraBoys—I don't care at what cost—is one of the few bright spots of the Buhari regime,” I wrote. “It shows at least that the regime has learned from GEJ's lethargy and callousness when the Chibok kidnap happened. Instead of rescuing the girls, Jonathan and his officials quibbled over whether the kidnap actually took place—and helped fertilize unhealthy and unhelpful conspiracy theories. Some of the girls are still missing.”
But after my euphoria, I’ve been grappling with several troubling questions. I will highlight just six here:
1. Who really kidnapped the boys? Was it Boko Haram or so-called Fulani bandits? The initial suspicion was that they were kidnapped by the ever-present, nihilistic, and mercenary “bandits” who have been tormenting the northwest in the last few years—and who don’t seem to be animated by any overt religious ideology.
But Boko Haram, whose operations had been mostly limited to the northeast in the last five years, claimed responsibility for the kidnap. As Boko Haram experts have pointed out, it is rare for the group to claim responsibility for acts it didn’t commit. In fact, Boko Haram actually takes umbrage at being falsely associated with acts it didn’t commit.
The fact that the schoolkids appeared in a video pleading with the government to not deploy the military to find them and to discourage western education redounded to the evidence that they were in Boko Haram’s captivity, although some of the boys later told newsmen that “bandits” had told them to lie on camera that they were in Boko Haram’s captivity in order to aggrandize the abduction.
Or have “Fulani bandits” and “Kanuri Boko Haramists” merged? If so, that would be at once frighteningly ominous and socio-historically curious. It’s ominous because it would mean that the northwest and the northeast—and perhaps even parts of the northcentral—would be overwhelmed by unexampled terrorism in the coming months and years.
It would be socio-historically curious because the Kanuri and the Fulani are not only completely different people, they are—or used to be— “historical enemies.” Kanuris resisted Usman Dan Fodio's 19th-century Jihad because they said there was nothing about their Islam, which they'd embraced since at least the 9th century before even the Fulani, that needed Dan Fodio's "reform."
The tensile stress that the Kanem-Borno Empire’s repudiation of Dan Fodio’s jihad actuated has been somewhat resolved through a ritualized joking relationship between the Kanuri and the Fulani who now call each other "slaves" in lighthearted jest.
But although Muslim northern Nigeria is emerging as an ethnogenesis, i.e., a new ethnic identity forged from a mishmash of multiple identities, Kanuri people still take pride in having a political identity that is independent of the Fulani-inflected caliphate. A fusion of “bandits” and Boko Haram would unleash a game-changing terroristic blitz on Nigeria.
2. How many students were kidnapped? News stories about the release of the boys quoted Governor Bello Masari as saying that 344 boys had been released. But earlier reports had said the abducted students numbered a little over 500. One of the students who escaped from his captors also said more than 500 of them had been captured. He even said some of them had been murdered by their captors. So what’s the truth?
3. Who rescued the boys? The Katsina State government said their rescue was facilitated by Miyetti Allah. But the Nigerian military on Friday contradicted the Katsina State government and insisted that the Defence Headquarters’ “Operation Hadarin Daji” was singularly responsible for the release of the boys. Since both claims can’t be simultaneously true, one is a lie.
But note that Miyetti Allah appears have officially accepted that its members are responsible for the progressive deterioration of security in the country, according to the Vanguard of December 15, which quoted the group’s president, Muhammadu Kirowa, as saying, “We cannot continue to wallow in denial when it is a fact that majority of criminals arrested across the country are from within us, our kith and kin [who] have gone into this circle because of our sheer negligence.”
If the abductors are “Fulani bandits,” it would make sense that Miyetti Allah would be more helpful in facilitating the release of the boys than the military, which is notorious for being harder on peaceful protesters than on terrorists.
4. Was ransom paid before the boys were released? The Katsina State government said no ransom was paid. It said it used moral suasion to persuade the kidnappers to release the boys. But in a rare moment of clarity on NTA on December 18, Muhammadu Buhari talked of the “settlement of the abductors.”
We all know that “settlement” means under-the-table payment in Nigerian English. I have read online rumor mills that said the abductors were “settled” with up to $4 million. While the figure may not be accurate, the government has a history of giving enormous financial war chests to terrorists.
On May 6, 2017, for instance, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Buhari regime delivered “a black duffel bag containing €2 million in plastic-wrapped cash” to Boko Haram for the release of 82 of the Chibok girls that were abducted in 2014.
Since ransom payment is a counterproductive and unsustainable security strategy, what is the government doing to ensure that this doesn’t happen again?
5. If the government can identify, negotiate with, and pay abductors, why can’t it apprehend them? If Miyetti Allah has admitted that its members are responsible for the mounting insecurity in the country and has even assisted with negotiations for the release of the abducted schoolboys, why is the group not treated, at the very least, like a “group of interest” by security forces?
Why are #EndSARS protesters, supporters, organizers, and financiers the victims of murder, bank account freezes, and continual harassment by the government while terrorists, abductors, and a self-identified association that facilitates the work of abductors featherbedded?
6. Finally, in the Kankara abduction saga, agents of government emerged as the most vicious purveyors of transparently fake news. Garba Shehu, Buhari’s spokesman, said on December 15 that “contrary to all the fake rumors [so even rumors can be “fake”?] flying around, only 10 students were kidnapped from the school in Kankara.”
Abike Dabiri also prematurely said on her verified Twitter handle that the kidnapped boys had been released. When she was called out, she lied that her Twitter and Instagram handles had been hacked, implying that it was a hacker who posted the false update.
But anyone who is malicious enough to hack anyone’s social media account won’t post from the same device and location as the original account owner and would post something more vicious than sterile government propaganda.
Since the regime, particularly its chief lying officer Lai Mohammed, is obsessed with stamping out “fake news,” what is the punishment for its agents that shared literal fake news, although Garba Shehu has apologized for his?
The absence of unambiguous answers to these queries is the biggest driver of conspiracy theories about the abduction. People who disagreed with my initial social media update claimed that the abduction was contrived to lend unearned veneer of competence to the Buhari regime.
This is, of course, silly conspiratorial reasoning. Had the regime been unable to rescue the boys, Buhari would have been justifiably excoriated for incompetence and insensitivity, which are his trademarks. In fact, he was accused precisely of that in the six days that the boys were in captivity. But having rescued them, the regime is now being accused of staging the kidnap.
Praiseworthy as the saving of the boys from captivity is—from the perspective of a parent—the fact that questions and mutually contradictory claims from the same government linger on after their rescue is more evidence of incompetence than a conspiracy.
Farooq:
We have not seen the end of this. Whether they are bandits or Boko Haram or MA, they will strike again:
Expect more.
TF
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' Miyetti Allah has admitted that its members are responsible for the mounting insecurity in the country and has even assisted with negotiations for the release of the abducted schoolboys, why is the group not treated, at the very least, like a “group of interest” by security forces?' FK.The simple answer is: Ethnoreligious solidarity . Buhari was quoted on Liberty Radio in July 2014 that an attack against Boko Haram was an attack against the North. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gAr77wWNms. His refusal to change the incompetent service chiefs, his raproachment with the Boko Haram terrorists through the funny reintegration programme and settlement, of the terrorists with millions of dollars when negotiating the release of kdnappened school children, , his attempt to whitewash Abacha as a saint, despite all evidence to the contrary, the defense of past military regimes, the massive ongoing corruption under his watch (eg Ganduge dollars and Malami unresolved issuies), and his nepotistic appointments are all indications of his ethnic irredentism and religious bias. These attributes will haunt the country until he exits the political space in 2023, hopefully.Femi
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Toyin Adepoju The Genius,
We have been here before, many times. You love bearing false witness.
You are now bearing false witness against thy neighbour Baba Kadiri, when you claim falsely “Salimonu is a terrorist ideologue” and that “The only person left of defenders of Miyetti Allah and of Fulani herdsmen terrorism on this group is Salimonu Kadiri”
In my view, he should take you to court and you should pay damages - through the nose, for the first calumny.
To begin with, at no time whatsoever has Baba Kadiri been “defending” Miyetti Allah and our Brethren the Fulani Herdsmen in the normal sense that you would like us to believe. Baba Kadiri has consistently challenged your defective allegations whenever Miyetti Allah and Fulani Herdsmen have been falsely accused by your monomaniacal self and the monomaniacal likes of you on your part have been unable or reluctant to present any incontrovertible, incriminating evidence to support or justify your spurious accusations.
Secondly, as you can see, currently, Baba Kadiri is obviously not “the only person left of defenders of Miyetti Allah and of Fulani herdsmen terrorism on this group” - Cornelius Hamelberg feels honoured to appear valiantly by Baba Kadiri’s side, asking the same sort of questions. As the Quran, the Holy Book of the Miyetti Allah and the Fulani Herdsmen Brethren who you accuse, puts it:
“Produce your proof if ye are truthful!”
So, dear Adepoju the onus - burden of proof is on you.
Jesus puts it even more pertinently to the liars who lie without batting an eyelid:
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Whereas, you and other Islamophbes want to make ISLAM, “Miyetti Allah and Fulani herdsmen” your convenient scapegoat for every bloody crime committed in the country,
the fact is that there’s a plurality of bad actors stirring up the mess – it’s not only some Boko Haram, and alleged “Miyetti Allah and of Fulani herdsmen” doing all the evil which you accuse them of doing without any basis/ evidence whatsoever. As you well know, the fact is, there are both identified (other than “Miyetti Allah and of Fulani herdsmen” and unidentified bandits throughout the federation, kidnapping people and requesting fabulous sums as ransom. Here’s one of the latest of such cases : Nigerian bishop kidnapped, Catholics pray for his safety
(I just cautioned Okey Ndibe to go easy, about this: “Dear Okey, Brave soul, it's great to know that you are home in the thick of things, undaunted. As you know, you would fetch a handsome ransom. So, at all costs you have to stay safe, away from the looters and kidnappers who are in the same category as the Covid mutations.”
A few years back Samuel Zalanga put brakes to my plans for visiting Kaduna when he reported to this forum that some people approached him up there are said that for, 1, 000 Naira, they could eliminate for him, anybody that he didn’t like…
Please pay attention to what Oga Falola himself has pointed out here .
It reminds me of what Ojukwu said in that interview by Stella in the now defunct West Africa - Ojukwu was asked “Why does the military take over?” He replied: “For Profit.”
When Baba Kadiri complains that the funds budgeted and allocated for the purchase of weapons etc to fight e.g., Boko Haram have been diverted to private pockets, Ojukwu’s answer “For profit” also makes a lot of sense.
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Toyin Adepoju,
I'm sorry. A malicious disposition, a suspicion, an accusation, even a reasonable explanation is not a proof.
Baba Kadiri has previously dispensed with all that you have ever come up with, with regard to Miyetti Allah and our Brethren, the much-maligned Fulani Herdsmen. Baba Kadiri has ably dispelled all the darkness from your darkest corners. The theme is, innocent unless proven guilty. It’s all in the archives. You yourself search and you shall find. He doesn’t have infinite time at his disposal to be repeating himself for your pleasure/ displeasure when he has more worthwhile matters to attend to.
It’s plain for all the wrongfully accused to see that you are an undisputed genius when it comes to making specific, spurious accusations without evidence or proof to support your vile accusations.
You may well ask, “What does Cornelius Ignoramus know about genius?” And you may be right, because Cornelius Ignoramus has only read about some of them in Harold Bloom’s book, “Genius” – and just because you are one of the genius folks doesn’t mean that you are right about the subject matter we are discussing in this thread or that you are always right about everything.
Please, let’s be fair. This is not lashon hara: I’m sure that if you were wrongfully accused of murder, kidnapping, rape, you would do your very best to defend yourself and to clear your good name, right?
We are not talking about any of the cases that are certified instances of Fulani Herdsmen and other Nigerians engaged in internecine disputes, committing violent crimes which they themselves have either owned up to, or verdicts of guilty based on overwhelming evidence that’s beyond any dispute or any reasonable doubt.
But, we are talking about /disputing your own specific accusations based on speculation, and it’s easy to speculate, sometimes wrongfully accusing the innocent : A 419 scam is perpetrated on some poor farmer in the South of Sweden and Nigerians (a more inclusive and by far a more extensive category than the Miyetti Allah Brotherhood) includes Tony Adepoju as a prime suspect, since 419 is a Nigerian trademark and that line of reasoning is supported / satisfied by the basic syllogism you find in the Duck Test : it quacks like Adepoju : It must be a Nigerian! Adepoju is a Nigerian, therefore Adepoju is guilty. Q.E.D.
What you ask in that your first paragraph is but a rhetorical question. For the kind of proof that is required are we to turn to the less than omniscient Professor Google to “confirm” the existence of Olodumare ? Turn to Professor Google and then to British Intelligence ( MI5) and their sexed-up report , first to confirm the existence and then the non-existence of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction?
In that regard, I still swing with the bard who sang,
I - Don't put my faith in nobody, not even a scientist.
And by “ various international terrorist watch agencies”, I suppose that you and they (Baba Google) would like to include the likes of the Islamophobe known as Robert Spencer and his “Jihad Watch”
Dear Adepoju of testicular fortitude, the unfounded worst you have said so far is that “Miyetti Allah is the terrorist arm of Buhari's govt.”
You should count yourself lucky to be still alive and living in Nigeria, a democracy, that’s why you have the temerity to say that “Miyetti Allah is the terrorist arm of Buhari's govt.”
On your pilgrimage to pray or bathe in the Jordan River, when you get to Ben-Gurion Airport just say something like “The IDF is the terrorist arm of the Netanyahu Government” and after the Shin Bet have whisked you away, you will be praying to General Buhari to please come and save you from what’s about to happen to you. Make a similar kind of statement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and shortly afterwards you will not be able to feel any pain.
We are not talking about any of the cases that are certified instances of Fulani Herdsmen and other Nigerians engaged in internecine disputes, committing violent crimes which they themselves have either owned up to, or verdicts of guilty based on overwhelming evidence that’s beyond any dispute or any reasonable doubt.
Good to know you admit that Fulani herdsmen are engaged in these atrocities and have owned up to them.
You continue:
''But, we are talking about /disputing your own specific accusations based on speculation, and it’s easy to speculate, sometimes wrongfully accusing the innocent.''
Please help identify and
refute these speculative accusations by Adepoju. Thats all you need to do.
Its not enough to denounce Adepoju's declaration that Miyetti Allah is the terrorist wing of Buhari's govt, a case Adepoju has been making for years.
I have correlated Buhari/Fulani herdsmen/Miyetti Allah to Sudan's Bashir and his use of the janjaweed against the South Sudanese.
I have related this alliance to the controversial role of Hezbollah in Lebanese history.
I have described it as demonstrating ethnic supremacist delusions relatable to the Islamic jihad of Uthman dan Fodio, which, even though partly projected in terms of Islamic revolution, was to a large extent a drive of ethnic imperialism in creating a monarchical Fulani ruling class that subsists till today.
You need to demonstrate why these claims of Adepoju's which he has severally argued based on contemporary history represent speculative thinking rather than analysis based on empirically evidential unfolding realities.
Feel free to use any sources you wish, since the most powerful information source in a world globalized through digitalization is not good enough for you.
You might have done first hand research on the subject.
You might have extensively studied first hand explorations of the subject.
Do help us. Many wish to understand what is happening.
thanks
toyin
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Toyin Adepoju,
Even as a great armchair terrorism expert, you are not alone or even original about the prejudiced perceptions that you have listed out in this thread, concerning Shehu Usman dan Fodio, in my humble view, the greatest Nigerian that ever lived, concerning Brother Buhari, MIyetti Allah, Fulani Herdsmen, Boko Haram. Your extreme distinction – also in my view an act of folly, is your penchant for attributing each and every atrocity or act of terror to our Brethren, the Fulani Herdsmen. it’s especially distasteful that you say that the are the terrorist wing of the Buhari Administration.
The experts and the non-experts know that the military wing of HAMAS is the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades; I wonder what kind of adjunct the Nigerian Military is to the Buhari Government, according to Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness!”
Have you ever thought of setting up an anti-terrorism school, or undergoing the necessary training before declaring yourself the operational head/chief anti-terror ideologue and commander-in-chief of Nigeria’s anti-terrorism Brigade?
With all my heart, I wish you well. I don’t doubt your sincerity, your determination, your passion.
Among the many dubious speculations that you have contributed to this forum, true to form, the only speculative accusation possibly, currently in the making in your paranoid imagination is the equally absurd idea most probably gestating in your mind that it was certainly some omnipresent, itinerant Fulani Herdsmen backed by Miyetti Allah that sneaked into Owerri with their cows and then kidnapped the Bishop of Owerri a few days ago and are now asking for a few hundred thousand dollars ransom money otherwise they are going to dispatch the Bishop to paradise or to the other place without any further delay.
Your anti-terrorism position on these matters will stand you in good stead when you are applying for a scholar’s scholarship visa to the United States. With such anti-terrorism and Islamophobic credentials, Homeland Security will not place you in quarantine or on a list of potential terrorists. After that near miss by would-be Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab alias “Omar Farooq al-Nigeri”, I guess Homeland Security has been a bit nervous about potential terrorists from Nigeria being let in to the country. Of course, a Boko Harami will not be beating his chest saying “My name is Boko Haram, my niyat is to obtain a sound Western Education at Harvard!” Indeed, even Lucifer is reputed to have been an angel of light, and everyone knows that the serpent in the garden, was too clever by half. In the art of war, deception is at top of the agenda; personally I do not think that thou doth protest too loudly.
Please continue. Cheers! Happy New Year!
In his day of despair President Goodluck Jonathan said “ Boko Haram is everywhere!”
To be more precise,
“In September, 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan said, “Boko Haram is everywhere, in the executive arm of government, in the legislative arm of government and even in the judiciary. Some are also in the armed forces, the police and other security agencies. Some continue to dip their hands and eat with you and you won't even know the person who will point a gun at you or plant a bomb behind your house."
I anticipate that sitting in your balcony where you are sitting presently in Lagos, tucked well away from harm’s way, you will keep on grinding your anti-Buhari, anti “Northern-hegemony”, anti-Miyetti Allah – Fulani Herdsmen axe for as long as you breathe. You have been[CH1] regurgitating these same points ad nauseum, ad infinitum, no end in sight or perhaps the only end you have in sight is the light that you hope to see at the end of the tunnel of terror and so far, the only tangible light / ray of hope in this thread is Femi Segun resting his case with this Parthian shot:
“Can you hear the President saying it is only God who can deliver us from terrorists barely two weeks after his Chief of Army Staff said it will take more than twenty years to defeat Boko Haram? What does this tell us?”
It’s a Sherlock Holmes question to Watson. As far as I am concerned
If Mr. President has indeed said that it is only God Who can deliver us from terrorists – and indeed from the Corona Virus, then I’m inclined to agree with him. It’s variously known as bitachon in the Hebrew Faith and tawakkul in al-Islam: I have often heard the expression “ God helps those who help themselves…”
I hope that some bandits don't kidnap you and you get to understand that they are neither Boko Haram nor Fulani Herdsmen when they request members of USA Africa Dialogue Series to contribute to your ransom - or else!
You should then expect Baba Kadiri and me to be among the heaviest contributors as you pen your memoir about the days you spent in captivity....
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