Politic?

Nigeria's Colossal Failure

"[Rain is a creation from god]. Like saying the world is a sphere. If it runs contrary to the teachings of Allah, we reject it. We also reject the theory of Darwinism."
Boko Haram spokesman

"I will not get killed until my time comes. You broadcast the news and published it in your media outlets that you injured me and killed me and here I am."
"Oh tyrants, I'm in a happy state, in good health and in safety."
"If you want your girls, [kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls] bring back our brethren."
Abubakar Sheka, leader, Boko Haram

"Boko Haram is once again committing war crimes on a huge scale, exemplified by the depravity of forcing young girls to carry explosives with the sole intention of killing as many people as they possibly can,"
"This wave of shocking Boko Haram violence, propelled by a sharp rise in suicide bombings, highlights the urgent need for protection and assistance for millions of civilians ... Governments in Nigeria, Cameroon and beyond must take swift action to protect them from this campaign of terror."
Alioune Tine, Amnesty International director, West and Central Africa

"[All praise to Nigerian troops for] finally entering and crushing the remnants of the Boko Haram insurgents at Camp Zero [located deep within Sambisa Forest]."
"[The] long-awaited and most gratifying news of the final crushing of Boko Haram terrorists in their last enclave [has been achieved] the terrorists are on the run, and no longer have a place to hide."
"Further efforts should be intensified to locate and free our remaining Chibok girls still in captivity. May God be with them."
Nigerian President President Muhammadu Buhar, December 2016

A Nigerien soldier checks a building while on patrol in Duji

A Nigerian soldier checks a building while on patrol in Duji. Joe Penney, Reuters

According to the latest news out of Nigeria, its military has arrested over 400 people with Boko Haram, living on the islands of Lake Chad; among them jihadis, their wives and children in a two-week operation that wound up with the largest number of Boko Haram fighters arrested in northeast Nigeria in recent months. Yes, it's the very same Boko Haram, the Islamist hard-liners who proudly reject anything Western, from education to science. And no, it doesn't appear that Boko Haram was after all, entirely wiped out as Nigeria's president stated a year ago.

Boko Haram now associates itself with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, calling itself 'Islamic State West Africa Province'. In the Hausa language Boko Haram means 'Western culture is forbidden by Islam'. This does not reflect some new interpretation; it repeats in present-day language what the Koran itself forbids, so it is hardly surprising that Boko Haram's goal is the total Islamification of Nigeria, with the implementation of Sharia law. Nigeria is a hugely populous country in an extremely large geography.

It is comprised of a multitude of regions and various ethnic groups speaking 500 languages such as Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and Urhobo. Sunni Muslims dominate the north of the country while Christians represent the majority in the south. From its colonialist past English remains the common language. The country's geology is one of those in which nature invested great oil wealth. While the current president is Muslim, his predecessor was Christian.

Boko Haram jihadis rampage through towns and villages, ransacking them, torching them, killing the inhabitants, kidnapping women and children. They're not too given to selecting only Christians for their atrocities; Muslims too fall under their marauding attacks. Teens and even younger children make excellent fodder for re-education the Boko Haram way; they are indoctrinated into jihad and persuaded to join; no doubt the examples made of those who protest encourage the others not to.

Women and teens are used unsparingly as suicide bomber fodder; instructed to seek out crowded venues and detonate the explosives belts they're equipped with.Women and girls who have been kidnapped, raped, borne children and who have escaped with those infants are shunned by Nigerian society, by their own families, by their villages; held in suspicion and unconcealed disgust as belonging to Boko Haram.

According to UNICEF, the first half of 2017 saw Boko Haram deploy 83 child suicide bombers, 55 who were girls mostly under fifteen, and one teen-age girl who had a baby strapped to her back, along with a suicide belt.

At 186-million population, the country represents the world's third most populous. It is a corrupt society, with the various appointed governors there to enrich themselves not to represent the best interests of those they govern. The military is traditionally ill equipped and inadequately trained. Funding to ensure that soldiers have the arms required to match those of Boko Haram is scarce; the military elite is known to habitually siphon off needed funds.

A typical African country in so many ways. Since 2009, an estimated 20,000 Nigerians have met violent deaths at the hands of Boko Haram, with over 2.6 million left homeless. Over five million Nigerians are on the verge of starvation; once dependable crops growing on farmland now devastated by the conflict are a thing of the past. Conflict has left farmers unable to plant, let alone cultivate crops, for the last several years.