Category: Nigeria

‘That Wretched Woman’

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This was certainly not the only ghoulish hate expressed by the Left after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, but is perhaps the most interesting. What “genocide” was Uju Anya blaming on Her Majesty? This was the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-70, when the southwestern part of the country sought to secede as “Biafra.” The main causes of this war were (a) conflicts between ethnic groups and (b) control of Nigeria’s oil wealth.

Why blame the Queen? It was under her rule that Nigeria, formerly a British colony, was granted independence in 1960 and, obviously, the British had an interest in the success of the Nigerian government. So the attempt to divide the country by the secession of “Biafra,” was something Britain opposed. Interestingly enough, the Soviet Union also supported Nigeria in this war, while Biafra was supported by France and the Chinese Communists. There is no doubt that the civilian population of Biafra suffered severely — more than half a million died — from the famine that accompanied the war, but genocide? Some scholars have questioned whether that term should be applied to Biafra.

As in all civil wars, including our own, those who inaugurated the conflict in Nigeria must be held responsible for the consequences. The idea that Nigeria, having only recently gained its independence, should just let “Biafra” go in peace — well, my Confederate ancestors thought the Yankees should have done the same, but they didn’t, did they? Having read the Hood-Sherman correspondence after the fall of Atlanta, I cannot say Sherman was wrong: “Talk thus to the marines, but not to me.”

In assessing what Anya calls Britain’s “bloodthirsty throne,” we must compare the rule of Britain in Nigeria to other European colonial powers. Was Britain’s influence in Nigeria worse that the influence of the Spanish, the Portuguese, the French, the Dutch, etc., in their respective colonies? Is Nigeria worse off today than Angola and Mozambique, colonized by Portugal? Or what about the legacy of Belgium in the Congo, or the Italians in Somalia? Scapegoating the Queen for what happened in “Biafra” more than a half-century ago strikes me as evidence of Professor Anya’s unbalanced mind. That she is employed by Carnegie-Mellon University (cost of attendance $78,140 a year, including room and board) speaks volumes of the decay of our academic institutions.




 

Feminism’s African Abortion Agenda

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If any white man were to say, “Women in Nigeria are having too many babies,” he could expect to be accused of racism. On the other hand, if you were to express concern that the high fertility rate in Nigeria (5.5 lifetime births per woman) is a major obstacle to “sustainable development,” you could expect to be called an expert:

Health watchers say although Nigeria has made bold efforts to achieve rapid economic development over the past four decades, among other factors, rapid population growth has affected the quality of life and made achievement of socio-economic development goals difficult.
While launching the roadmap on harnessing demographic dividend in the youth population, the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, expressed worry about the Nigeria’s fertility rate, saying with the youthful age structure of about half of the population under 35 years, the implication of such demographic realities for the country’s development may have consequences too grave to be ignored.
Experts estimate that the window of opportunity for demographic dividend occurs when the age of the young population and the older population is between 26 and 41 years.
Findings show that countries with higher fertility rate are unlikely to achieve desired levels of development across multiple sectors. But with a change in maturing age structure opens a window of opportunity across four sectors — health, education, economic and political.
In a research carried out by Dr Richard Cincotta, a political demographer associated with Stimson Center and Wilson Center in Washington DC on how Age Structure Change Can Benefit Development with statistical analysis using data from over 100 countries for a period of over four decades, it was found that countries with very youthful populations almost never attain high thresholds of development. Nigeria falls among these countries.
The research specifically found that Nigeria has only 1 percent chance of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal, SDG, target of reducing under-5 mortality to less than 25 deaths per 1,000 live births.
But experts say if the country invests more in reproductive health particularly family planning in areas with poor health indicators, then fertility levels may begin to decline more significantly, and children will be more likely to achieve better basic levels of health.

Far be it from me, of course, to tell Nigerian women that they are having too many babies, but this is just what “experts” are saying with their talk about the need for “family planning” in order to reduce Nigeria’s fertility rate to meet the “Sustainable Development Goal,” and warning of “consequences too grave to be ignored” unless this goal is achieved.

 

It so happens that my wife and I have six children, so that our personal fertility rate is even higher than Nigeria’s. If any expert tried to lecture me that our children are an obstacle to his “Sustainable Development Goal,” I’d tell him to go to hell and to take his goal with him.

Ah, but these cunning Malthusian “experts” have recruited feminists to assist them in their crypto-racist “family planning” projects.

 

You see, it’s about women’s rights and reproductive health:

Melinda Gates announced [in July 2017] at The Global Family Planning Summit in London, that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will increase its funding for family planning by 60%, providing an extra $375 [million] over the next four years. About $250 [million] of this money will be used to fund services for teenagers.
Her move is a welcome initiative following President Donald Trump’s reinstatement earlier this year of the ‘the global gag rule’ which prohibits U.S. funding to international NGOs if they advise on or provide abortion services as part of their wider family planning and contraception services. In May this year, Trump also decided not allocate any funding for international family planning in his proposed budget.
At the summit in London, Gates spoke openly of the recent moves by the US: ‘This is a difficult political climate for family planning,’ she said. ‘I’m deeply troubled, as I’m sure you are, by the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts.’ . . .
[C]utting these funds will leave a huge hole in the money available. In real terms this means less money to fund family planning services that give women control over when and if they have children. It means huge cuts to basic contraception services for over-populated communities across the world who cannot afford larger families, a lack of abortion services for rape victims of war and abuse, and more women than ever dropping out of education to look after children. . . .
[T]he Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is joining forces with the UK’s Department for International Development, and the UN Population Fund to provide modern, voluntary family planning to women in the world’s poorest countries across Africa and Asia. The UK has pledged to provide an average of £225 million per year until 2022.

Billionaires (and their wives) believe women in Nigeria (and other of “the world’s poorest countries across Africa and Asia”) are having too many babies. If they can’t get “family planning” money from American taxpayers, they’ll just throw another $375 million at it. Never mind, of course, what that kind of money might accomplish if it were spent to help poor Americans in, say, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago or St. Louis.

No, no — “We must stop those Nigerians from having so many babies,” is the essence of Mrs. Gates’s thinking. She is “deeply troubled” about the babies who won’t get aborted because of President Trump’s policies. Population-control fanatics like Mrs. Gates think of themselves as humanitarian philanthropists, even though the policies they advocate would more accurately be described as anti-human and misanthropic.

P.J. O’Rourke once described the mentality of the “overpopulation” crisis types as “Way Too Many of You, Just Enough of Me”:

Going around the poor parts of the world shoving birth-control pills down people’s throats, hustling them into abortion clinics, and giving them prizes for getting sterilized is to assume that those people don’t want babies as much as we do, that they won’t like those babies as well as we like ours, and that little brown and yellow babies aren’t as good as the adorable, pink rich kind. . . .
Fretting about over-population is a perfectly guilt-free — indeed, sanctimonious — way for “progressives” to be racists.

Defenders of the “Global Family Planning” agenda would, no doubt, claim that they are only trying to improve the lives of Africans by spending money to make sure there are fewer African lives to improve: “Abort your babies, because the experts say it’s good for you!”

You’ll excuse my skepticism toward Mrs. Gates’ allegedly feminist concern for the “reproductive health” of African women, but I’m a white man, and if I endorsed this agenda, I might be accused of racism.



 

 

Sri Lankan Immigrant, 22, Stabbed to Death in Germany by Nigerian Refugee

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Death by “diversity”:

A 22-year-old woman, only identified as Soopika P, died from her injuries early on Saturday morning after she was attacked in the early hours in the German town of Ahaus, close to the border with the Netherlands in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. . . .
Chief Prosecutor Martin Botzenhardt said: “She died shortly thereafter in the hospital. The background to the crime is still unclear.
“A large number of stab wounds were found in the upper body and neck. The considerable blood loss inevitably led to the death of the young woman.”
Local media reports said woman had been stabbed in the head multiple times. . . .
Soopika, who had moved to Germany from Sri Lanka with her family, had lived in Ahaus for a number of years and had wanted to work with children after having had experience working in youth welfare.
According to reports, she was very popular, had many friends and loved playing keyboard and violin in her spare time.
Police chief Herbert Mengelkamp who is investigating the attack said that a Nigerian man was suspected of having carried out the killing. . . .
And prosecutor Botzenhardt confirmed: “A 27-year-old asylum seeker from Nigeria had been trying to develop a relationship with the 22-year-old woman in recent weeks. He is suspected of having killed the woman. This is why the Münster public prosecutor’s office has applied for an arrest warrant on a charge of manslaughter.”

The fugitive suspect was apprehended in Switzerland:

The Nigerian was arrested Tuesday at a train station in the Swiss city of Bern after a Europe-wide arrest warrant was issued for him after he fled Ahaus where the murder occurred. Chief prosecutor Martin Botzenhardt said, “Only yesterday, the prosecutor’s office ordered the European-wide call for arrest on the basis of the existing national arrest warrant. Today’s arrest of the suspect in Switzerland is a quick success,” Swiss paper Blick reports. . . .
The case of Soopika’s murder is just the latest of a number of murders of women who have worked with asylum seekers. The most famous case in Germany was that of Maria Ledenburger who was raped and killed by a 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker on her way home. Like Soopika, Ladenburger also volunteered her time helping asylum seekers.
A similar murder also occurred in Sweden last year when a Somali migrant stabbed asylum centre worker Alexandra Mezher to death in a home for underage migrants.

Slogans about “diversity” are no substitute for good policy.

(Hat-tip: Weekly Flyer at Gab.)

 

Boko Haram and the Jihad in Africa

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The #BringBackOurGirls Twitter hashtag — online activism about the plight of girls abducted by Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria — has been embraced by numerous celebrities, including Alyssa Milano. This situation has gained worldwide attention and highlights a reality that American media have in recent years deliberately ignored: The persistent menace of violent Islamic jihad in sub-Saharan Africa.

If the news of the Boko Haram abductions was shocking, it was because the American media have been so busy promoting the Obama administration’s narrative that, since the death of Osama bin Laden, the threat of Islamic terrorism has essentially ended. This narrative is politically convenient for Democrats, but as with most such narratives, it’s a gigantic lie. There are still many millions of Muslims in the world who hate us and want us all dead, and many of them are willing to take up arms to accomplish that goal.

Today, First Lady Michelle Obama will highlight the Boko Haram abductions in the weekly White House radio address, and I guarantee you in advance that the words “Muslim” and “Islam” will not be part of her script. American news media are willing accomplices in this dishonest propaganda, habitually referring to Boko Haram as “militants” or “rebels” (not terrorists, you see) and, as to the religious orientation of Boko Haram, they might as well be rogue Episcopalians for what you could gather from most media reports. Meanwhile, in Nigeria . . .

Damning testimonies gathered by Amnesty International reveal that Nigerian security forces failed to act on advance warnings about Boko Haram’s armed raid on the state-run boarding school in Chibok which led to the abduction of more than 240 schoolgirls on April 14-15.
After independently verifying information based on multiple interviews with credible sources, the organization today revealed that the Nigerian security forces had more than four hours of advance warning about the attack but did not do enough to stop it.
“The fact that Nigerian security forces knew about Boko Haram’s impending raid, but failed to take the immediate action needed to stop it, will only amplify the national and international outcry at this horrific crime,” said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International’s Africa Director, Research and Advocacy. . . .
Amnesty International has confirmed through various sources that Nigeria’s military headquarters in Maiduguri was aware of the impending attack soon after 7:00 p.m. on April 14, close to four hours before Boko Haram began their assault on the town.
But an inability to muster troops — due to poor resources and a reported fear of engaging with the often better-equipped armed groups — meant that reinforcements were not deployed to Chibok that night. The small contingent of security forces based in the town — 17 army personnel as well as local police — attempted to repel the Boko Haram assault but were overpowered and forced to retreat. . . .

Read the rest. When the terrorists — oops, I meant to say militants — are better armed than the army, you’ve got a problem.

But where are the feminists who made #WarOnWomen and #RapeCulture into such trendy phenomena? Why aren’t feminists sounding the alarm about the dangers Islamic jihad poses to girls and women worldwide? Because our so-called “feminists” in America are merely the handmaidens of the Democrat Party, promoting whatever phony “issues” will help elect more Democrats and, as such are part of the same propaganda operation where the Obama administration and its media enablers refuse to call Boko Haram what they really are: Islamic terrorists. And just in case anyone is naive about what doctrines of the Prophet these rapists with AK-47s are imposing on their young captives, Phyllis Chesler is here to enlighten you:

On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram . . . captured three hundred Christian and Muslim Nigerian schoolgirls to become their sex and domestic slaves. The Muslim fundamentalists swooped down upon them as they were learning in a “forbidden” government secular school. . . .
The world media calls this a “kidnapping” in Nigeria. It is not a “kidnapping.” It is the face of Jihad, the way of Jihad. Boko Haram are not holding these girls for ransom, they are not willing to return them for money. They already view the girls as their God-given booty, and as sale-able property. . . .
The Christian girls will be raped, converted to Islam, and then, like the Muslim girls, “married” to one of their captors. Some will be trafficked into the sex trade, which is pandemic throughout Africa and the Muslim Middle East. . . .
Please understand: Boko Haram are the Nigerian Taliban. Like their Pakistani and Afghan counterparts, they oppose education for girls and would rather marry and impregnate them instead — for Allah’s sake.

Schoolgirls are being raped in the name of Allah and Mohammed, and there was ample warning of the danger: I wrote about Boko Haram in December 2012 (“Islamists Target African Christians“) and in January 2014 (“Islam’s Terrorist African Caliphate“).

But the Democrat-dominated media won’t mention Islam and won’t call Boko Haram “terrorists” because, so far as our journalistic establishment is concerned, the real enemy are always Republicans.

UPDATE: Dana in the comments informs us that my prophecy was correct — no mention of Islam in Michelle Obama’s radio address about the Armed African Girl-Rapers of Unknown Motive.

 

What Kind of ‘Militants’ Are They?

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Probably radical Lutherans, I’d guess:

For two weeks, retired teacher Samson Dawah prayed for news of his niece Saratu, who was among more than 230 schoolgirls snatched by Boko Haram militants in the north-eastern Nigerian village of Chibok. Then on Monday the agonising silence was broken.
When Dawah called together his extended family members to give an update, he asked that the most elderly not attend, fearing they would not be able to cope with what he had to say. “We have heard from members of the forest community where they took the girls. They said there had been mass marriages and the girls are being shared out as wives among the Boko Haram militants,” Dawah told his relatives.
Saratu’s father fainted; he has since been in hospital. The women of the family have barely eaten. “My wife keeps asking me, why isn’t the government deploying every means to find our children,” Dawah said. The marriage reports have not been confirmed officially, and rely on eyewitnesses.
The 14 April abduction of the girls — students aged between 16 and 18 who were sitting a physics paper at their school, one of a handful in troubled Borno state that had opened specially for final exams — shocked a nation inured to violence during a five year-insurgency. . . .

You see we’re now four paragraphs into a story about these girl-raping “militants” who have fought a “five-year insurgency” in Nigeria, and yet there is not a word to indicate what the “Boko Harm militants” are all about. Spoiler alert: You can read all the way through the Guardian article and never get even a clue that Boko Haram is also known as “The Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad” (Jama’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-da’wa wal-Jihad), a terrorist organization founded by Mohammed Yusuf in 2002, which “seeks to establish a ‘pure’ Islamic state ruled by sharia law.”

So, 250 teenage schoolgirls are kidnapped and reportedly forced into Islamic “marriage” to their terrorist captors — a practice justified by reference to the Koran and other Muslim teachings —  and these violent girl-rapers are just “militants,” you see.

“It’s unbearable. . . . The abduction of our
children and the news of them being married off is
like hearing of the return of the slave trade,” said
Yakubu Ubalala, whose 17- and 18-year-old daughters
Kulu and Maimuna are among the disappeared.

Thanks, Militants of the Religion No Liberal Dares to Name!

 

Islam’s Terrorist African Caliphate

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Will America stand idle while this happens?

Islamist militants stormed a village in remote northeast Nigeria on Monday, torching houses and spraying them with bullets in an attack that killed 18 people, witnesses said.
The latest Boko Haram assault, on Sunday night, came hours before Nigeria’s four top military chiefs handed over to fresh commanders in a ceremony on Monday.
President Goodluck Jonathan announced the reshuffle of his entire military leadership last week in a bid to reinvigorate the fight against the insurgents.
“Most of those who survived the attack have fled the village as they do not know if they will be attacked again,” said Bulama Ibrahim, the chief of Alau Ngawo village, which was attacked sometime after 10 p.m. on Sunday. . . .
The village lies in remote northeastern Borno state, the epicenter of the insurgency and relic of Nigeria’s oldest medieval Islamic caliphate, which once prospered from trans-Saharan trade routes passing though the largely Muslim north.
Boko Haram is fighting to re-establish an Islamic kingdom in northern Nigeria, breaking away from the largely Christian south. Its fighters have killed thousands of people since they launched an uprising in mid-2009.

Just another 18 people killed by terrorists whose ambition is to forcefully take over Africa for a worldwide Islamic caliphate.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

 

Islamists Target African Christians

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Pamela Geller today highlights the atrocities against Christians in Nigeria attributed to the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram.

Boko Haram “has killed hundreds in its campaign to impose Sharia law” since 2010, the BBC reports, describing the latest attacks:

The violence comes on the same day that the Pope — as part of his Christmas Day address — prayed for harmony in Nigeria, lamenting what he called “savage acts of terrorism” that frequently target Christians.
The head of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Yobe, Idi Garba, told AFP that many worshippers at [Evangelical Church of West Africa] “are still missing”.
“I have been informed that six bodies have been recovered,” Mr Garba said.

CNN reports:

At least 12 people died in northern Nigeria when attackers raided two churches during Christmas Eve services, police said.
One assault occurred at the Church of Christ in Nations in Postikum, in Yobe province. Gunmen attacked worshipers during prayer, killing six people, including the pastor, and setting the building on fire.
Worshipers also were attacked at the First Baptist Church in Maiduguri, in Borno state. A deacon and five church members were killed.
They were the latest strikes against Christians in the region. More than 30 people died in a wave of Christmas Day attacks in the north last year, blamed on Boko Haram, a militant group that has targeted Christians and Muslims it considered insufficiently Islamist.

When America is weak, evil is strong. Evil worldwide has been emboldened by the weakness of the Obama administration’s policies.

 

Terrorism: Obama’s Against It

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“I strongly condemn the separate and outrageous terrorist bombing attacks in Egypt and Nigeria.”

Nice of him to make this clear, considering his long association with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers.

Associated Press video of the reaction in Egypt:

This whole throwing-rocks-at-the-police thing doesn’t strike me as the Christian thing to do, but consider how Christians have been abused in the Middle East:

The devastating New Year’s Day terrorist bombing at a Coptic church in Egypt that killed 21 people was the latest in a spate of violent assaults against the Middle East’s vulnerable Christian communities. . . .
The attack in the ancient Mediterranean coastal city was the latest in a wave of violence against once-resilient Christian communities in the Muslim world, some of which date back to antiquity.
Christmas Eve assaults by Muslim extremists killed dozens of Christians in the Nigerian cities of Jos and Maiduguri. And Iraq’s Christians have endured a relentless campaign of attacks and intimidation by the local branch of Al Qaeda.
An Oct. 31 siege on a Baghdad church that killed at least 58 parishioners and staff members sparked a new Christian exodus from the Iraqi capital and the northern city of Mosul. About 1,000 families sought refuge in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish enclave afterward, according to the United Nations. Further threats of violence by Islamic militants caused many Christians in Iraq to tone down Christmas celebrations, and attacks Thursday against 10 Christian targets left an elderly couple dead.

More at  Gateway Pundit, Jihad Watch and Israel Matzav.