President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
12-02-09 13:10
Fotokol (CAMEROON)
Nigerians have fled in droves to
neighbouring Cameroon to escape violence claimed by the Islamist Boko Haram group and revenge attacks by Christians. “Everybody is insecure in Nigeria. The fear is all-pervading,” said a Nigerian Christian priest,speaking on condition of anonymity, in Fotokol, a Cameroonian border town where dozens have taken shelter in the last few weeks. It is located about 100km from the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the bastion of the shadowy Boko Haram sect which has been blamed for a slew of terror attacks that have sowed panic in Africa’s most populous nation.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer, is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south. Boko Haram has claimed to be fighting for an Islamic state in Nigeria’s north, but its demands have varied.
“Many Nigerians like myself have fled their villages in the south. We feel secure in Cameroon,” the priest said in Fotokol. “That is why I am sheltered here,” he added. He has rented a house which is about 10 minutes by motorcycle to the nearest town in Nigeria, Gamboru Ngala, where he heads the local Catholic church.
Scores of bomb attacks
It is difficult to gauge the exact number of Nigerians who have fled to Cameroon as they cross the border illegally, but there are easily dozens sheltered here since the attacks and tit-for-tat ripostes by Christians.
Mahamat Tujani, a Muslim trader from Maiduguri, fled to Kousseri near Fotokol. “I abandoned my business and my family to seek refuge at the home of my cousin,” a Cameroonian, he said. “I escaped out of fear.” He hoped to return home soon, he said, “but if the killings continue, I will bring over my family members here”.
Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of bomb attacks in Nigeria’s Muslim-dominated north. It claimed responsibility for January 20 coordinated bombings and shootings in Nigeria’s second-largest city of Kano that left at least 185 people dead – Boko Haram’s deadliest attack yet. The August suicide bombing of UN headquarters in the capital Abuja which killed at least 25 people was also attributed to the group.
“When you scent danger, you must
escape,” the priest said. “Even in the Gospel, the Lord says the
moment you sense danger, you must escape. If you don’t it’s suicide,” he said.
“Return to God”
The priest said two Christians from the mainly Christian Igbo ethnic group were killed in Mubi in Adamawa state about three weeks ago. “When the other Igbos went to reclaim their bodies the Boko Haram struck and killed 29 others,” he said.
Sectarian violence has been rising since elections in July last year. He urged both Christians and Muslims to “return to God”. The priest said Muslims were also targeted by Boko Haram. Between January 28 and 30, three people – including a Muslim – were killed in Gamboru Ngala, Nigerian and Cameroonian police and medical sources said.
The priest was following an Africa Cup of Nations match on television at a bar, along with six other compatriots. In another room, eight other Nigerians sat, drinking.
AFP
How depressing. I hope some sort of provision is made for them. Its better they are internally displaced and catered for within Nigeria than to go to Cameroun
This is where THE F.G . should lay a heavy emphasis on getting our fellow Nigerians back to where they came from and also to lay an emphasis on providing security for these same people with material on asistance these are the very people that the F.G. needs to win over. NOT DISENCHANT.
The ever elusive beegeagle. Shon sir. This is Russellinfinity reporting for duty. I’m elated to find you on this turf. General, with the billions bugeted for defence this year, are we likely to see any acquisition of new airframes for the NAF? Since our CDS is from the airforce, why has the NAF not been “visionary” interms of platform acquisitions lately? It beats my imagination…to say the least.
The status quo regarding Nigerians fleeing to Cameroon is most depressing. This is nothing compared to what will happen if a full blown civil strife erupts. It’s going to be completely devastating for west Africa as a whole. Curtailing BH is a must. Failure is not an option.
This story on it’s own, really is depressing and shameful. But,I have to disagree with jimmy, the government, moving nigerians to there different states of origin just officially polarises the situation, makes tribalism official and makes president gej a sectional leader. If i may ask, where would the northern christains be taken to? We have the right to live in anypart of the country we choose. We need to fight boko-haram with a winning collective mentality ( nt sectional, go 2 your place of origin first mentality). If we are always swayed by foreign media reports, to say that the situation is hopeless, what does that make us? I’m not saying the report is false, but we should not base our conclusion with primary emphasis on this foreign media report. Boko-haram is a home grown problem, which requires a home grown solution. The federal government is handling the problem with as much urgency, as seen in the 2012 budget( over 6 billion usd for security). Let’s just wait and see.
If you ask me, Henry, the caption amounts to a bit of a stretch insofar as it creates the impression of a massive displacement of persons. The writer sounded like Borno has been emptied of its human content. That is far from being the case.
Be that as it may, whatever our FG need to do, they must remember that TIME is of the essence. Drawing from everything that we can muster, we have provided clear and verifiable solutions to the equipment needs of the military without compromising quality or punching power.
Even the Westerners outsource the construction of super tankers, merchant vessels and oceanliners to shipbuilders in Singapore and Korea, so the quality of their products is not in doubt. The construction of hulls, basic navigational equipment and the installation of engines on them is not an incredibly complex maneouvre anyway. That is why a country such as Indonesia which is no less inclined to the acquisition of qualitative platforms is getting 40 metre platforms constructed for as little as $7m in-country and later having them fitted out with C802 missiles. There is nothing which our 58metre missile craft from France or Germany would do that those Indonesian missile craft would not. They even constructed two of the 122 metre 8,800 ton Makassar-class LPDs for $75m right inside Indonesia.
It is all about the difference between labor-intensive production in the Far East and capital-intensive production in the West. The Israelis stand in between to bridge any gaps in the quality of onboard operating systems.
Some of the less fancied customers are making tremendous strides but the negative commercial propaganda emanating from competitors makes it difficult for people to think outside the box. Nobody, against the backdrop of supposedly inferior detection systems and countermeasures, has explained to us HOW an unfancied Chinese-made Song-class submarine managed to pop up in between warships of a well-guarded American flotilla.
That said, we have seen the details of hardware acquisitions intended for the intelligence community – advanced jamming and countermeasure systems, satellite-interfaced surveillance and security systems – $467m. We expect that such a comprehensive acquisition of contemporary hardware systems shall be undertaken on behalf of our Armed Forces.
Let us step away from token gestures and do something comprehensive once and for all.
Here is where we are coming from
* Two Mk.3 corvettes and two 32 metre vessels delivered in 1973
* Two 36metre vessels delivered in 1974
* Two 32 metre vessels delivered in 1976
* Two Mk.9 corvettes, two 36 metre vessels and two tank landing ships delivered in 1977-79
* One MEKO 360 frigate and six 58 metre missile craft in 1981-82
* Two Lerici-class mine countermeasure vessels in 1988
MORE – we took delivery of our first-ever frigate NNS Nigeria(later renamed NNS Obuma) from Holland in 1965 and took delivery of a second frigate, NNS Aradu, in 1982 – seventeen years apart. Is it not clear that we are taking too long to find a new-build and potential replacement for the NNS Aradu, thirty years after she was commissioned.
For heaven’s sake and coming from where we are, is it not obvious, on the evidence of the foregoing, that we are SLEEPING on the job as things stand? We probably now have enough gunboatsand landing craft to be able to handle riverline warfare in Nigeria and in the marshlands of Senegal’s Casamance region, Bushrod Island in Liberia, Lungi Island in Sierra Leone and in the Bakassi Peninsula of Cameroon simultaneously.
We NEED capital ships for the Navy, light observation/attack helicopters and deep strike FGA jets for the Airforce and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles for the Army. We are taking too long to get and that is my point. Bureaucracy was made to serve governments, not governments to be wound down to snail pace by bureaucracy.
MR HENRY
WELCOME point of clarification The way I wrote it was not clarified, i meant the f.g. should ensure that wherever the were DISPLACED from NOT there STATE OF ORIGIN. I as A REDNECK would never advocate the F.G relocate my fellow nigerians displaced from one part of Nigeria to another part i advocated that the f.g should bring them back to the place they were displaced /fleeing from and provide additional security and assistance.
@ jimmy, taken!!!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We as nigerians are yet again stuck at a bottleneck. This is a point were all our collective hardwork, intelligence, natural resources, human resources, investment climate,hopes and dreams, dissipates.
For some reason, the translation from POTENTIAL great nation to great nation is still not taking place. Therefore, we must focus on these “bottleneck” points. We must shine some light on these inexplicable inefficiences in the system. And hopefully, wisdom and understanding would come from that.
For me, Beegeagle’s blog has been a great platform to do just that. While our issues are mostly military related, any keen observer of nigeria would tell you that the military woes are but a symptom of a greater nigerian disease.
So, you can interchange the military with education, sports, justice system, politics, health care etc. And you will be telling the same story.
So, thanks to the global village created by the internet, this blog is shining the necessary light on all manner of issues. It’s well run by mr. beegeagle, a man with the knowledge of an encyclopedia. I thought I was well read until I stumbled upon his daily nuggets of wisdom on this blog.
There are also passionate well informed nigerians with perspectives from all over the globe, nigeria included. But for us to progress, we need more bloggers like XNUR44. Those with insider information.
Police officials, members of the armed forces (top to bottom), legislators, technocrats and all other nigerians IN THE KNOW. We are calling for patriotic nigerian whistle blowers and NOT SPIES.
Like the American system of govt. we are trying to emulate, all information must be open for public discussion, except that which is deemed CLASSIFIED by the government.
In conclusion, with the expenditure of the 2012 defense budget at had, all hands must be on deck. Mr. beegeagle has broken down the weapon prochurement process AND MADE IT SIMPLER THAN PRIMARY SCHOOL ENGLISH. Therefore, gross overspending, ineffective platforms and all other bogus set backs should be UNACCEPTABLE.
Clear articulation as always, Doziex.
Well, you have to read posts line by line henceforth, Doziex. The people from all facets of the security forces, ranking ones at that, who you seek are all around you – albeit anonymously and properly disguised. Some are a lot clearer about the fact that it is an insider’s view which they offer, others make oblique allusions to being a part of some of these high-profile operations when they tell you how euphoric the feeling is where they are.
As Beegeagle’s Bloggers get more familiar with each other, a lot of networking shall take be taking place right here. People just want to know that they are not dealing with anyone but who they say that they are.
Let me give you one great example. On account of our modest exertions at some web forum as it concerns our national security and defence, I was invited by someone who I have never seen or met till date to a brainstorming session on security applications of our UAV and satellite alignment.
The chap who extended the invitation assured one that the event would be attended by the creme of the defence and security sector and it would be nice to interact with one on all facets of national security. The dude is topnotch as far as the project implementation of these strategic projects and was on ground in China for the launch of our fourth satellite – the security-intensive NIGCOMSAT-1R. Before then and going back to 2003, we had launched NigeriaSat1 and in August 2011, the pair of NigeriaSat-X and NigeriaSat-2 went into orbit.
Guess what, I could not attend the November 2010 event because I was due to take my uncle back to my home state after his return from extended medical care in the United States on that same day. But we are firmly in contact still.
Before that respected fella reached out to us, he had been reading us just like many more people have on Beegeagle’s Blog. Today, it is IMPOSSIBLE to google ANYTHING which pertains to the Nigerian Armed Forces, Police, SSS or civil and defence intelligence and not find a referral pointing you to this blog. They KNOW too well about the existence of the blog and as confidence-building grows, the outcomes which you seek shall emerge.
To be sure, the guy who invited me to the highest-level retreat had been following our analyses and offering for over three years before he made that offer.
I believe as patriotic Nigerians it is necessary for all and sundry to contribute without embarrassment to the defence and security of our dear nation NIGERIA;the procurement and the R&D(research & development) department of the MoD Abuja need to be restructured for a total transformation to take place in the defence sector.