Boko Haram, Afri-COM and The Girls

Whenever a government wants to get the people behind a plan it is usually best to draw attention to women and children. Girl children are even better. Indeed one of the ways that the “intervention” in Libya was sold to the public was by a false claim of Viagra fueled rapes by agents of the Ghaddafi regime. All the usual suspects fell in line and muted any left objection to what was clearly a civil war in which the US (and others) had taken sides with the rebels. Al-Qaeda be damned! We gonna get Ghaddafi for that Pan-Am flight! A similar plot is playing out in Nigeria.

Boko Haram has been acting a total fool in Nigeria for years. Prior to the kidnapping of the girls from school, they had been killing people (usually but not exclusively non-Muslims) by various means. The Nigerian state has been unable to stop their terrorist actions for some time. This of course is partially because the federal state has been weak and had allowed the northern areas to adopt Sharia law in an attempt to mollify Muslims who dominate that part of Nigeria.

Unfortunately as any student of history knows, there is no mollifying those Muslims who are determined to create a greater Caliphate and extract Jizya from those of us who refuse to submit. So not soon after the capitulation of the state, with “assurances” that non-Muslims would be exempt from Sharia laws, Boko Haram made its entrance.

Boko Haram, apparently meaning Western Education (Boko) is forbidden (Haram) is of the opinion that only Islamic education (whatever that is) is appropriate for Muslims (and supposedly non-Muslims). Never mind that these fellows run around with Kalashnikovs, a product of “western” education and invention. Never mind that the vehicles they ride around in are the product of “Western” education. Never mind that the foundations of “western” mathematics and geometry were built upon the work of Muslims who had re-discovered and improved on the work of earlier non-Muslim civilizations of north east Africa and the so called Middle East (algebra, current numbering system). I suppose it's not surprising that these kinds of things do not cause pause among the so called revolutionaries of Boko Haram.

One would think that if Boko Haram was so sure that Western Education was so plainly inferior to that of Islamic education (whatever that is) that they would not only set up schools in the areas in which they live, but they would also be building homes, paving roads, providing electricity (solar, geothermal, etc.), running businesses of all sorts and other related activities. After all, what better way to prove that one's ideology is superior to another than to actually build up your society with it? Of course the girls they kidnapped would not have to be kidnapped because the plain superiority of Boko Haram Islam would have been so plain as for them to WANT to go to Boko Haram schools, wed Boko Haram men and have babies with them. Nothing speaks louder to the failure of the ideology of Boko Haram, or any other group for that matter, than when they have to resort to force to get it's way.

So it is clear that Boko Haram is not new to Nigeria. Nor is the kidnapping of the girls from their schools the worst thing they have done (I'm of the opinion that being killed is far worse). So why is the US and it's people suddenly interested in what is going on in a remote northern corner of Nigeria? Well John Kerry was the honest one yesterday: Boko Haram is a security issue to the US.

Understand that the reason for all the interest by the US federal government in Boko Haram has everything to do with Al-Qaeda affiliates and the expansion of Afri-COM in order to secure US interests in the area. The people are being offered The Girls as a means of rallying around the continued US military expansion into Africa. After all who is against finding The Girls?

The other prong here is to make the Nigerian government look inept. Here at The Ghost we've pointed out many times that it is apparent that black folks the world over seem to need white supervision in their affairs. The IMF is needed to tell them how to run the economy. The UN is needed to tell them how to handle internal disputes. Previous colonial masters are needed to provide technical assistance and police. The Chinese needed to build stadiums.

The latest example of this being CAR, where the French are baby sitting the people and mediating that dispute. In one recent post of a video made by Vice one of the interviewers asks “where are the French when you need them?” Of course Africans of all stripes are to blame for this. If Jonathan Goodluck had a proper spine and sense of self-respect he would have called on Obama to instruct his staff to stop making negative commentary about the Nigerian government and acknowlege the difficulty in dealing with armed Jihadists. Surely the current entanglements that the US is involved in proves that.

Furthermore, Nigerians themselves would stop making public pronouncements about how bad their government is. Of course they will not because many Nigerians, like much of the world believe that their government is no good and that they need outside help. In other words we are witnessing, in full view, Nigerians admitting to the world that they are incapable of handling their own affairs.

Pretty shameful isn't it?

Boko Haram is of interest to the US because Nigeria has large oil reserves and as an OPEC member is of importance to the US (and Europe, and China). Though Boko Haram are in the north of the country which is not where the oil comes from (it's in the delta region), if Boko Haram causes enough problems then they may have an adverse impact on oil operations in that country (bombings, kidnappings, etc). So don't be fooled. It is not really about The Girls. It's about the Security. Believe Kerry when he says it.