US blacklists Boko Haram as terrorist group

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau

The United States on Wednesday designated Nigeria's radical Islamist Boko Haram network and an offshoot known as Ansaru as terror groups, bowing to months of pressure to act. The groups have spread terror in northeastern and central Nigeria and are blamed for thousands of deaths as they battle to set up an Islamic state.

"These designations are an important and appropriate step, but only one tool in what must be a comprehensive approach by the Nigerian government to counter these groups," the State Department said.
The shadowy groups' insurgency has claimed many lives since 2009 and triggered concern over its potential to spread across the porous borders in the region.

A new UN report released Wednesday said more than 37,000 people have fled the region since the Nigerian army launched a crackdown on the militants in May. White House advisor Lisa Monaco said the decision cuts "these terrorist organizations" off from US financial institutions and allows any assets held in the United States to be frozen.

Nigeria welcomed the decision and expressed the hope that the United States would step up intelligence cooperation. "We salute the US government for its effort in partnering with Nigeria to rout out terrorism," Justice Minister Mohammed Adoke told AFP in Abuja."We hope that with this development that the Boko Haram menace will soon become a thing of the past."

In July, the State Department offered a $7 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, but raised eyebrows by stopping short of designating the group as a foreign terrorist organization. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki explained it had taken time to blacklist the groups because "Boko Haram is a decentralized and factionalized organization with a loose command and control structure." The United States, she added, had "worked over the years ... to deepen our understanding of the organization."

While Washington believes Boko Haram and Ansaru remain "primarily" Nigerian organizations, "both these groups have links to AQIM," she added, referring to Al-Qaeda's north and west African affiliate.

Another State Department official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the Washington believes AQIM had helped with training and limited financing of Boko Haram. Despite Abuja's welcome for the designations, Washington has also voiced concern about a heavy-handed crackdown by Nigerian military forces, insisting that human rights should be protected.

 

'Western education is sin'

Both groups were officially designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations which bars any Americans from assisting them as well as freezing any assets in the United States.

President Barack Obama met Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and urged him "to pursue a comprehensive counter-terrorism approach," Monaco said.

Roughly translated, Boko Haram means "Western education is sin," and the insurgents have been blamed for a series of bloody attacks on schools, killing dozens of children. An earlier version of the group -- known then in local reports as the "Nigerian Taliban" -- was formed in 2004 and is now believed to have a number of different factions, with differing aims.

Local and Western analysts have long argued that improving living conditions in the mainly Muslim north holds the key to curbing the insurgency. Boko Haram is blamed for indiscriminate attacks in Benisheikh, Nigeria in September 2012 in which some 160 people were killed, and was also said to be behind the suicide bombing of a UN building in Abuja in August 2011.

Ansaru has focused attacks on Nigerian military and Western targets, kidnapping several foreigners. They are believed to have been behind the kidnapping of a French family seized on the border of Cameroon and Nigeria in February and released in April.

Representative Chris Smith, who chaired a hearing Wednesday on Boko Haram, welcomed the designation, which some US lawmakers have long sought. "What these murderers have brought to Nigeria and surrounding countries is misery and death with no redeeming outcome," he said.

Dilemma over Boko Haram Amnesty: What northern Governors can do

Amid the dilemma created by the rejection of amnesty for members of Boko Haram by the leadership of the Islamist group, Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State wants other avenues explored to curb the group’s insurgency.

Specifically, Aliyu, who is also the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, says he and his colleagues are in the position to tackle the security challenges in their respective states. “We should not wait for the Federal Government to start the process of making peace with Boko Haram. We must stop the blame game of saying `it is Abuja’ (that should end the insurgency), because Abuja is only to complement the efforts of the state governments while the actual decision and the mobilisation of the people rests with the state governors”, he said.

The Federal Government had set up a committee to advise it on the desirability or otherwise of amnesty for the Islamist group which the leadership rejected, saying it was government and not it that needed amnesty.
The Federal Government action came on the heels of the calls for amnesty for Boko Haram by some eminent Nigerians, including the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, to end the group’s insurgency campaign in the North.

Aliyu, speaking, yesterday, at the 24th Forum of the Speakers of Northern States Houses of Assembly, said there might have been international dimension to the Boko Haram insurgency,  stressing that while the proposed amnesty is good, it is not the final solution. He explained that there was the need to explore other avenues, including the enactment of laws that will enable people contribute to their communities to engender lasting peace , harmony and security in the country.

The governor absolved President Goodluck Jonathan on the security challenge in the North and argued that state governors are in the position  to tackle the challenge in their respective states because they have been empowered by the Constitution to do so. Aliyu commended the president for the establishment of the amnesty committee on Boko Haram.  He urged Nigerians to support Jonathan to succeed in this effort at finding lasting solution to the insecurity confronting the nation.

He pointed out that the insecurity issue should be seen as a collective fight, and called on all Nigerians to be honest and sincere in the discussion of the critical national issue. The governor told the Speakers:  “As Nigerians of northern extraction, you should articulate and aggregate the needs of your people which should form the basis of negotiation with the polity of Nigeria.  You should also have a strong position in the negotiation process because this culture, once established, will reduce the pressures being mounted on the leadership particularly at the centre”.

“I therefore urge you and your Forum to go back to the grassroots to forge more enduring relationships with the people to understand their needs and aspirations. We need such liaison and interface to bring the people and government together to check the mounting insecurity in the North and other parts of the country,” Aliyu stated.

He called on lawmakers to concentrate on their constitutional duties of law making, appropriation, exposing corruption, inefficiency in the management of public funds and oversight function while allowing the executive and judiciary to carry out their duties.

Earlier, the acting Chairman, Northern Speakers Forum, Hon. Aminu Musa Habib, commended Aliyu for creating the atmosphere for a harmonious and cordial working relationship between the three arms of government in Niger State.

According to him, “this is what it should be if our democratic ideals should be allowed to survive and grow like other developed democracies in the world”. Habib noted that the Forum was established with the sole aim of advancing legislative views about democratic governance in Nigeria, with special attention on the interests of the North.

`Amnesty rejection ridicules govt’

Meanwhile, a House of Representatives member from Plateau State, Mr. Bitrus Kaze, says the  rejection of  amnesty by Boko Haram ridicules the Federal Government. He also warned that if the rationale behind the offer is an attempt by Jonathan to court the North for his political ambition, he would be disappointed. Kaze, who represents Jos South/Jos East Federal Constituency, in a statement in Jos, yesterday,  wondered why the president would offer amnesty to an unrepentant group which has continue to kill innocent Nigerians despite the offer.

“President Goodluck Jonathan must not sacrifice the security and well-being of innocent citizens in a bid to court regional political patronage. I am unable to see any motivation for rewarding unrepentant killers other than an attempt to please their mentors, who in the long run will never support President Jonathan’s political ambition anyway”, he said.

“In my honest view, granting amnesty to remorseless and unrepentant terrorists is the weirdest policy ever contemplated by any government in the history of Nigeria. “The pro-amnesty pronouncements and efforts so far by government have been completely rubbished by the intended beneficiaries of the programme themselves; they have continued in their uncurbed destruction of lives and properties of innocent Nigerians virtually on a daily basis.

“It is indescribably sickening that the merchants of death have since declared their innocence and have instead offered amnesty to President Jonathan’s government. The rejection of amnesty by the Boko Haram terrorists has completely exposed the fact that the real motive of the advocates of their amnesty is anything except the security and well-being of Nigerians.

“I am not sure any government has suffered so much ridicule since Nigeria’s independence. Our national pride and sovereignty is being eroded by inconsistent statements and policies which are antithetical to our security and collective well-being.”

Ribadu begs Boko Haram

Also, yesterday, the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commissioon, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu,  appealed to Boko Haram to accept the amnesty offer by the Federal Government. He stated this in Ikenne while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after he condoled with the matriach of the Awolowo family, Mrs. HID Awolowo, on the death of her son, Oluwole.

According to Ribadu, who was accompained by a former Aviation Minsiter, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, and a former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Aliyu Moddibo, the activities of the sect had cost the nation fortunes.

“The Federal Government should not rest in its peace moves despite foreseen stumbling blocks.
“It is very sad when I heard that the Boko Haram sect rejected the amnesty offer, but that does not mean government should relent in the move.  My view from the onset is that we should pursue the direction of dialogue and not close any door against peace”, the former EFCC boss said. “From now, the feelers and body language of the sect are not encouraging, but that does not mean we should abandon or give up.

We should pursue the direction of peace.

“I urge the Federal Government to continue in the line and direction of looking for a way of addressing and stopping this. ” I am also making a direct appeal to those  involved to know that they are destroying their own people. They must understand that what they are asking for -Nigeria’s Islamisation – has not worked anywhere in the world and it will not work in Nigeria. What do they want to gain from these senseless killings. In the name of God, let them stop.”

Fani- Kayode, also talking to journalists, condemned the Federal Government’s attitude to the security of the people of the country.

He accused government of failing to protect lives and properties, noting that about 4,200 innocent souls had been lost since about two years ago. He described the administration as an incompetent and irresponsible one, adding that the government is weak in its efforts to consider amnesty Boko Haram .

Source: Vanguard