For The British Blacklist May 2014
http://www.thebritishblacklist.com/tbbsundayread-bringbackourgirls-problem-reaction-solution-shakara/
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A popular concept in western philosophy is that of the Hegelian Dialectic. Though explained in many forms, Hegelian Dialectics are commonly expressed as a three step process of logic and action designed to achieve (or inevitably resulting in) a particular outcome. In this information age, one of the most popular examples of this concept is expressed in this form:
PROBLEM: A situation manufactured in order to capture a people’s focus and engender a particular….
REACTION: Engaging the public in the consumption of a constant stream of information towards developing the need for a….
SOLUTION: A predetermined outcome designed by those who created or manipulated the circumstances of thePROBLEM in order to fulfill a particular purpose.
After 2 weeks of little to no coverage, the crisis of the 200 kidnapped girls of Chibok Nigeria has now become an issue of international concern. Ironically, the relentless coverage of the situation is chatracterised by the exceptionally sparse levels of concrete information concerning the kidnapping, the victims and their families. From inception, the kidnapping was reported as a suspect Islamist attack, possibly committed by Boko Haram – the Nigerian Islamic militant group whose name literally means “Western Education is sinful” . Boko Haram have since come out, on video proudly claiming responsibility for the event (three weeks after the kidnapping) .
Given that we are dealing with the kidnapping of such a large number of victims, it seems strange that many reports leading up to this video appeared to carry far more information on Boko Haram than it did the missing girls, their families, their images or indeed the 34-50 girls who were said to have escaped the “terrorists”. It was not until the 5th May that the BBC ran a report professing “The BBC has secured the 1st ever TV interviews with the Mothers in Chibok”. Though a welcome occurrence, one would imagine that 200 missing girls would amass a congregation of at least as many parents.Yet the coverage never seems to represent the sheer scale of the event in question.
With such ambiguity surrounding this tragedy, dismay, empathy and confusion began to rage in equal measure and whilst a #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign gained momentum in world wide protests, questions began being raised about the glaring omission and inconsistencies in the information. Many of the said questions were encapsulated in a screen shot of an instagram post by Kemi Richards. The post which circulated like wildfire inquired as to the lack of pictures and names of the young women, as well as the fact that in the information haze, Nigerian senators were reporting that the supposed fate of some of the kidnapped girls had resulted in them becoming victims of a mass marriage in the neighboring countries of Chad, Cameroon and Niger. “How come these senators know so much?”Richards asked whilst also querying the announcement that a sum of money had been given to each girl’s family, supposedly in response to this tragic event.
As a result, more and more people are beginning to wonder whether this whole kidnapping incident is a hoax. This question may be absolutely sacrilegious for some, but it is not uncommon in this day and age for a story to cause worldwide frenzy before being disproven. A prime example of this was the Kony 2012 saga that whipped up international campaigning and social media protesting on the back of some very faulty information to say the very least. Aside from this, the absolute ineptitude of Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigerian security forces triggered the call for international response, which inevitably focuses attention on Britain and America.
We live in a world that is largely aware of the fact that these two nations perpetrated the biggest war of a generation on the back of faulty, doctored and ‘sexed up’ information – a crime for which they have still not been brought to justice. The so-called “War or Terror” appears to have done more to facilitate western interests abroad, than to actually neutralize terrorist threats around the world; it has long been speculated that 9/11 was an inside job designed to justify this agenda.
Barack Obama however, was supposed to be “A Change you can believe in” and after running on what many interpreted as an anti war stance, since his inauguration Obama has involved America in more wars than ever before and has facilitated an unprecedented expansion of the USA’s Military Industrial Complex. Central and essential to this is AfriCom, the USA’s military high command which seeks to establish permanent bases on the Afrikan continent.
It has been edited since, but the AfriCom original 206 mission statement read:
“The United States Africa Command, in concert with other U.S. government agencies and international partners, conducts sustained security engagement through military-to-military programs, military-sponsored activities, and other military operations as directed to promote a stable and secure African environment in support of U.S. foreign policy.”
It should be noted though that this agenda has been on the table since the Bush administration. The former president often spoke of Afrika’s importance and famously specified the importance of the USA’s relationship with the West Afrikan nation when he famously stated in Oct 2000 “Vice President mentioned Nigeria is a fledgling democracy. We have to work with Nigeria. That’s an important continent.” The mis-classification could have been a mere slip of the tongue, or possibly a reflection of the magnitude of Nigeria’s importance under the gaze of “American interests”.
As the War on Terror expanded, more and more allusions began to frequent the mainstream media as to the rise of fundamentalist Islam in Afrika; Sudan and Nigeria being the primary areas of concern. But Bush had succeeded in developing a rather poor image of America and as a result Afrikan nations (with the exception of Liberia) we’re resistant to the establishment of AfriCom on the continent. Obama has succeeded where Bush couldn’t, however instead of “War on Terror”, Obama spoke of “Humanitarian Intervention”. It seems convenient, that the arrival of the “first Black President”, whose election inspired much celebration across Afrika, has facilitated a marked acceleration of the USA Military presence all over the Afrikan continent. On visiting Ghana in 2009 Obama stated:
“So I believe that this moment is just as promising for Ghana – and for Africa – as the moment when my father came of age and new nations were being born. This is a new moment of promise. Only this time, we have learned that it will not be giants like Nkrumah and Kenyatta who will determine Africa’s future. Instead, it will be you – the men and women in Ghana’s Parliament, and the people you represent.”
The significance of the juxtaposition between two noted Pan-Afrikan leaders of the independence era and the Parliament of today should not be overlooked. It would not be proper to speak to the American Senate and belittle the significance of the their founding fathers. But this dichotomy speaks to the reality that Ghana, like most of Afrika is engaged in install “democracy” and unlike Afrikan Independence, today, democracy is an idea largely shaped in substance and in form by American ideals and interests. The war on Terror is all about spreading democracy.
The slight on Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah is even more significant when one considers the following letter written to President Johnson in 1964:
“There appears to be two conflicting establishments representing the United States in our part of the world. There is the United States Embassy as a diplomatic institution doing formal diplomatic business with us; there is also the C.I.A. organisation which functions presumably within or outside this recognised body. This latter organisation, that is, the C.I.A., seems to devote all its attention to fomenting ill-will, misunderstanding and even clandestine and subversive activities among our people, to the impairment of the good relations which exist between our two Governments.”
It is a matter of historical record that the CIA were instrumental in orchestrating the Murder of Patrcie Lumumba in 1961. The book “Confessions of an economic Hitman” (John Perkins, 2004) details how the CIA and NSA were able to use the IMF and World Bank to cripple the economies of Afrikan nations, partly by creating political unrest in various nations. It is not surprising therefore that today, there is much suspicion regard whether Boko Haram is in fact a CIA operation.
Prior to his Ghana speech, Obama gave the order for the killing of 3 of the so called Somali Pirates, The USA would go on to facilitate the Bombing of Libya in 2011, and the sending of ground troops to Congo, Uganda and other surrounding nations under the pretext of the Kony 2012 fiasco. USA troops are now on the ground in Nigeria and seemed to be welcomed by many Afrikans all around the world.
Journalist, Jumoke Balogun expanded upon this in an article entitled “Dear World, Your Hashtags Wont Help #BringBakcOurGirls”, in which she outlines the present history of American incursion into Afrika and the danger of this being sanctioned by the international community. I will not go over what she has sufficiently explained but it is noticed that since the American involvement, the saviour propaganda has come full swing with images of American Soldiers leading Nigerian troops, as well as the story of an apparent arrest of a Boko Haram leader, which featured an image of American soldiers escorting a man in handcuffs. It has since been revealed that this image was taken in 2013, in the Central Afrika Republic and is therefore totally unrelated to this situation.
That said I would like to touch on a very important aspect of this situation that seems thoroughly overlooked.
In 2006, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) picked up arms in opposition to decades of foreign Multi-Nationals (e.g. Chevron, Shell) exploitation of the oil rich region. The unscrupulous operations of these companies who extract more than 2million barrels of oil a day, has lead to a total degradation of the ecology of the Delta. A reported 7, 000 spills of 3 decades has made it almost impossible to farm or fish, destroying homes, displacing thousands and causing immeasurable harm to health and well being in the process
Opposition to this deplorable situation has seen successive Nigerian governments act unreservedly and brutally in the interest of these foreign companies, most notably with the execution of non-violent activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995 and the Nigerian Army assault on Bayelsa state in 1999, beautifully brought to life in Timaya’s early hit “Dem Mama”.
When various different organizations banded together in self defense to form MEND and began bombing oil refineries and kidnapping Multi-National employees, world awareness began to rise on this issue. The conditions were so deplorable that it was difficult (unlike with the so-called Somali Pirates) to write the freedom fighters off as Terrorists. Such a situation would have certainly been detrimental to British and American oil interests in the region, as it difficult to continue to siphon off the oil at the people’s expense in the midst of trying to paint a humanitarian image of yourself, with the entire world watching.
By the time 2010 rolled around Boko Haram are on the scene and no body is talking about the Niger Delta again. In fact there was even talk of brewing rivalries between MEND and Boko Haram in the form of some Christian vs Muslim war. Born in Bayelsa, Goodluck Johnathan’s ascendancy to the presidency in 2007 was seen as a possible opportunity to remedy the situation. Instead, London based Oil Company Eland Oil & Gas purchased 45% of Shells Oil interests in 2012, thus consolidating Multi-National control of the natural resource.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. American intervention in an Afrikan crisis has never lead to anything but the furtherance of “American Interests”. It seems to be a monumental error in judgment therefore to join the Nigerian government in masking their incompetence by welcoming the American Army with open arms. Wherever these young women are, I am sure all would want to see them safe and sound with their families, the number of unanswered questions still apparent in this situation opens the door for all manner of manipulation. Astute minds therefore must prevail in reaction to the entire situation.
Furthermore, the media choosing this tragedy as its focus should not guide us to forget about the many other crises that exist in Nigeria in particular, and Afrika in general. It is therefore imperative, that Afrika finds its own solutions, rather than simply sanctioning the solutions provided by those who created and manipulated the problems in the first place.
…and to quote Jumoke Balogun [edited]:
If you must do something, learn more about the amazing activists and journalists like Benga Sesan, Chioma Chuka, and Oby Ezekwesili just to name a few, who have risked arrests and their lives as they challenge the Nigerian government to do better for its people within the democratic process. If you must tweet, tweet to support and embolden them; don’t direct your calls to action to the US government who seeks to only embolden American militarism. Don’t join the American government and military in co-opting this movement started and sustained by Nigerians.
To read Jumoke’s full article in click here
article by @ShakaRaBKS for the british blacklist