Northern Elders Visit Borno, Say Northerner Must Emerge President in 2015

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) yesterday insisted that the presidency should be shifted to the region in 2015 general elections, as a mark of equity and justice.

Secretary of the NEF, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, made the remarks when he led other members of the forum on a courtesy visit to Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima at the Government House in Maiduguri.

Abdullahi, a one-time Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, insisted that by 2015 the North will no longer misuse its right of producing the president as it did in 2011, blaming such failure to the connivance of some state governors of the region. Add a comment

30 Minutes After Emergency Rule Declaration Boko Haram Kills Borno CAN Secretary

Barely 39 minutes after President Goodluck Jonathan imposed a State of Emergency on three states of the North, the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, reacted by killing the Borbo State Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Faye Pama Musa.

Reverend Musa was shot and killed at his residence in Maiduguri, Borno state.

Breaking News: Jonathan Imposes State of Emergency on Boko Haram States

In a broadcast to the nation at 7pm today, Tuesday the 14th of 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan declared a State of Emergency on some states in Northern Nigeria in response to the escalation of violence and terrorist activities occasioned by the violent Islamic sect, Jam'atu Ahlis Sunnah L'dda'awatih wal-Jihad, otherwise known as  Boko Haram.

The states in which the emergency has been declared are Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. The President directed the Chief of Defence Staff to ensure that member of the armed forces do everything, within the rules of engagement of the armed forces, to crush the rebellion in those states.

Full transcript of the President's speech below; Add a comment

A Northern activist of Southern Kaduna origin, John Dan Fulani, has said that if Professor Ango Abdullahi and his Northern Elders Forum (NEF) start a war with the South over 2015 they should expect that Southern Kaduna will fight against the North if they allow war break out. Add a comment

There is a Plot Against the North and Muslims-Boko Haram

... Claims responsibility for Baga, Bama attacks

... Shows video clips of kidnapped women, children

By Mohammed Aminu in Sokoto with agency report

One of the leaders of the Boko Haram sect, Aliyu Tashaku, monday  ruled out going into talks with the federal government unless it met its condition for peace.

Speaking during an interview on the Hausa service of Radio France International (RFI), monitored in Sokoto, Tashaku said the federal government would need to convince the sect of its sincerity of purpose by releasing  Boko Haram members in detention and ordering security agents to stop further arrests.

The conditions given by Tashaku, which were reaffirmation of earlier ones that the sect had given to embrace dialogue, came against the backdrop of the release of video clips by the insurgents, showing  women and children the Boko Haram had kidnapped in retaliation for the arrest of its members' wives and children. Add a comment

For An End Game for Boko Haram, Spend Those Trillions on Education.

By Pat Utomi
 
As Albert Einsten once said “We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”. The challenge of terrorism and ostensibly faith and cult based intolerance, partly manifested in the Boko Haram insurgency, that we face in Nigeria was created at the level of ignorance. I have heard  truly scholarly discussions and even in the last month at the CVL Faith and tolerance conference, the Chaplain of the University of Lagos House of Assembly spoke passionately about Islam as a religion of peace and one not opposed to Western education. That being the case the only solution is to fight ignorance with knowledge.
 
The top commanders of Boko Haram are not doing anything new. They do not believe that Boko or Book is Haram. If they really did would they be using Western weapons to fight? Would they be using Western media such as YouTube and other social media to communicate with journalists? Of course not. Malam Shekau was almost caught last year when he visited his wife in Kano and he escaped with the aid of a fast car, another fruit of Western Education. Thus it is safe to say that he and his top commanders are not against Western Education. Besides some of the leaders of the group are known to be University graduates. It would seem that they are revolutionaries in Boko Haram, whose goal is to overthrow the current establishment in Northern Nigeria just like their compatriots did in Somalia and their strategy in doing that is to take advantage of the massive illiteracy that is the bane of the Northern population. Add a comment