This is very bad news.
Exerpt:
"Despite approving the sale to Nigeria, the U.S. is keeping up the pressure on Buhari's government to improve its forces' human rights practices and ensure accountability for violators, a U.S. official said." . . etc
"Despite approving the sale to Nigeria, the U.S. is keeping up the pressure on Buhari's government to improve its forces' human rights practices and ensure accountability for violators, a U.S. official said." . . etc
Keeping up pressure on Buhari's government? How does the US President and Congress do that? An African "Magnitsky" Act targeting Nigerian and other African rogues and human rights violators, inside and outside of government, has long been overdue. But no, the same forces and sentiments in the US that are very much receptive of stolen money are still in control in Washington DC, New York and London. Check out TEDx on this issue.
The people of Nigeria's north-east, otherwise known as Boko-Haram country, have been hardly in a position to properly articulate their harrowing experiences. More often than not it is concerned outsiders that make their case for protection against a rampaging and incompetent militaristic regime couched as a democracy. This may explain why every single diplomat starting from US's John Kerry makes a beeline for the Muslim north, their Sultan and governors in a barely concealed effort to strengthen ties with ONLY ONE SECTION OF NIGERIA. This is highly disruptive. We do not know which tendency the former British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair represents. However his latest involvement in the decades old Nigerian crisis, formented by Britain for its own interests, goes along the same lines.
Let it be stated clearly here that the terrible Boko-Haram infestation in Nigeria's north-east is a local manifestation, which if properly managed will remain local. However, the muslim Hausa-Fulani hegemony, historically entrenched, and stridently reinforced by Buhari coming to power is the one factor that will provide the deathknell of Nigeria. It is probably the same John Campbell at the Council of Foreign Relations that bemoaned that the regular claim that Nigeria is a giant, has potential, has been sounding rather stale for decades now. It is now off-putting. What exactly does one do with "potential"? The Western World's interest to keep Nigeria under Islamic rule has now turned to the ridiculous. That is why a member of the CFR will find the motivation to disinform readers by claiming that one of the major reasons for the Boko-Haram flare-up is, wait for it, THAT SOUTHERN NIGERIANS HAVE REFUSED TO INVEST IN THE NORTH. I wonder if he had Ndigbo/Biafrans in mind, a people whose major crime is that they invest TOO MUCH in the north. My response then was that mere attendance at a number of cocktail receptions at African embassies in DC does not make one an expert in African affairs. I still stand by that opinion.
It is with sadness that we note that in referencing the objections of Amnesty International and others, the author did not make even a passing comment on the Sheik Zakzaky affair in Zaria, North-Central Nigeria or the big elephant in the room, namely the IPOB/MASSOB led agitation for nonviolent separation from Nigeria and Buhari’s scorched earth response. The McClatchy Bureau must be aware of these developments. I wonder if they and their readers are waiting for another Bruce Myrock (circa 1968) to immolate himself in protest about suffering Biafrans, before they get it? The arming of a Buhari regime, that believes that it is the military arm of the Sokoto Caliphate, is definitely an ill wind. The US Air Force University has routinely included in its failed states projections the rapidly diminishing prospects of a stable, peaceful and united Nigeria, in its present configuration. One wonders the purpose of the exercise, undertaken with taxpayers' money, if no action is taken to correct or checkmate the excesses.
Arming Buhari with Embraer Tucano Attack Aircrafts does not in any way advance the cause of peace and stability in Nigeria. The case has already been made that Buhari will use same for the objective of subjugating Ndigbo. The Boko-Haram must be defeated by boots on the ground, by their own people, by persuasion, deradicalisation, good governance, devolution of power and sustained economic development. These are things that no Embraer Tucano attack aircraft can drop from the air.
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