Boko Haram For Fulanisation, Islamisation Of West Africa – Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the aim of the terror group Boko Haram is for the “Fulanisation” of West Africa and Islamisation of Africa.

Mr. Obasanjo said this on Saturday in a keynote address at the 2019 Synod of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), held in Oleh, Isoko South council area of Delta State.

He urged an immediate and more aggressive approach by the federal government in dealing with the current challenge of insecurity across the country due to the activities of Boko Haram and ISIS.

According to him, government should seek the opinions of all Nigerians that matter on the security situation and then proceed to bilateral, multinational, regional, continental and global levels for assistance s as to make the country safe for the citizens and residents.

Obasanjo said about the two terror groups, “They have both incubated and developed beyond what Nigeria can handle alone. They are now combined and internationalized with ISIS in control.

“It is no longer an issue of lack of education and lack of employment for our youths in Nigeria which it began as, it is now West African fulanization, African Islamization and global organized crimes of human trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking, gun trafficking, illegal mining and regime change.

“Yet, we could have dealt with both earlier, and nip them in the bud, but Boko Haram boys were seen as rascals not requiring serious attention in administering holistic measures of stick and carrot.

“And when we woke up to the reality, it was turned to industry for all and sundry to supply materials and equipment that were already outdated and that were not fit for active military purpose.

“Soldiers were poorly trained for the unusual mission, poorly equipped, poorly motivated, poorly led and made to engage in propaganda rather than achieving results.

“Intelligence was poor and governments embarked on games of denials while paying ransoms which strengthened the insurgents and yet governments denied payments of ransoms. Today, the insecurity issue has gone beyond the wit and capacity of Nigerian Government or even West African Governments.”

He added, “Government must appreciate where we are, summon each group that should make contributions one by one and subsequently collectively seek the way forward for all hands on deck and with the holistic approach of stick and carrot.

“There should be no sacred cow. Some of the groups that I will suggest to be contacted are: Traditional rulers, past heads of Service Chiefs (no matter how competent or incompetent they have been and how much they have contributed to the mess we are in), past heads of paramilitary or organizations, private sector, civil society , community leaders particularly in the most affected areas, present and past governors, present and past local government leaders, religious leaders, past heads of states, past Intelligence chiefs, past heads of Civil Service and relevant current and retired diplomats, members of opposition and any groups that may be deemed relevant.

“After we have found appropriate solution internally, we should move to bilateral, multinational, regional, continental and global levels. With ISIS involvement, we cannot but go global.

“Without security and predictable stability, our development, growth and progress are in period.

“Let me hasten to add that we must be at the appropriate seat at the table of international discourse, deliberations, agenda and action.”

Meanwhile, a study has emerged from the International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels, Belgium based NGO committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflicts, on how the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), is allegedly trying to form a ‘jihadist proto-state’ in northern Nigeria.

“The crisis in north-eastern Nigeria is about more than the military balance of power, as underscored by the support ISWAP has won by creating a proto-state providing a measure of governance and services.

“ISWAP poses a particular challenge to the Lake Chad states because it represents more than aggressive fighters, rumbling pickups with mounted guns or proclamations of the caliphate’s rebirth. It is filling a gap left by decades of poor governance and neglect in the region. It has cultivated stronger ties with local residents than Boko Haram ever could by helping recover lost cattle, settling disputes over grazing and fishing rights, fending off rustlers, providing care to expectant mothers in rural areas, and imposing swift if terrible justice upon criminals, sometimes including when they are ISWAP members.

“ISWAP is often cruel and arbitrary, even with civilians whose support it ostensibly seeks to gain. But for now, in the eyes of many locals, what it has to offer is often better than what came before,” the report said.

According to the study SWAP is “expanding across Africa’s Sahel region as well, where jihadi groups like al-Qaeda have been affiliated with Latin American drug cartels seeking to move narcotics into Europe and beyond.”

Quoting Egypt’s state-run Ahram Online, it added, “The vast Sahel-Sahara region, which spans Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, has become home to such terrorist organizations as the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA), Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Islamic State group (or Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, ISGS) and the Macina Liberation Front (MLF).

The ICG advised the federal government to minimize the sect’s appeal by “improving governance and public services.”

To make inroads in the fight against terror, “authorities will need to demonstrate that they can fill gaps in governance and service provision in areas of weaker ISWAP influence,” the report said.