BREAKING: Obama Offers To Make Western Education Attractive in Nig.'s Boko Haram Enclave

The United States' government has expressed its readiness to help train Nigeria's youth in addition to assisting it in its efforts to combat terrorism.

During the commencement ceremony of new military cadets into the Nigerian army at the military top institute at West Point, New York, today, President Barack Obama said, "not just will we help Nigeria in fighting Boko Haram but also, we will help in training its youth."

 The latest situation follows reports of what led to the blossoming rise of Boko Haram in the northern parts of Nigeria. The youth in that region are renowned for being mostly illiterate and poor. Such misfortune makes them vulnerable to initiation and indoctrination into Boko Haram, a Muslim militant group, with its attempt at assuaging their thirst for a better life with instilling in them a desire to right the wrongs of the society and assurance of heavenly bliss if they die in their quest to do so.

The Nigerian government has   consistently been advised to take this long-term but infinitely rewarding approach but so far, it has yet to be taken up by the federal government.

With United States'readiness to do so now, it appears the long-awaited solution has arrived. However, the United States' ability to do this is fraught with many challenges. The militant group's name literally means "Western education is a taboo." So, to now foist that same education on them is a tough task. Besides, the Islamic clerics who allegedly recruits soldiers for Boko Haram through their sermons at various mosques in the north are notorious for their unwillingness to co-operate with the West. And due to the overwhelming and invidious control which the Muslim clerics exercise over all spheres of life in the dominant Muslim north, the US's laudable mission in the area. Boko Haram operates in Nigeria's northern region.

The influence of the Muslim religious leaders cannot be under-estimated. Their objection led to the failure of West's ambition to eradicate polio in the world through their directive that all Muslims in the place should not take the oral polio vaccine Despite vigorous orientation effort by the West and its agencies, majority of the people heeded the imama and with that, the preventable disease which was already eradicated in all other nation of the world, persisted and gradually re-surfaced in hitherto, clean areas.

This marks yet another example of US's readiness to eradicate illiteracy in order to combat terrorism and so, banish instability in a region. The Obama administration did likewise in Afghanistan.

President Jonathan's Govt. Has Links With Boko Haram

President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria had a direct link of communication with Boko Haram, the dreaded terrorist group, judging by the release of a secret video tape urging him to swap Boko Haram prisoners for the abducted girls ta.ken from Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno state. 

The video was allegedly handed to Jonathan's office by an intermediary who reportedly started a dialogue with the group two weeks ago. The go-between, a Nigerian journalist, got the video as a means of proving earlier claims that the president has genuine communication access to Boko Haram's leaders.

Boko Haram had boasted in the past of having such communication links to Aso Rock. this claim had been vigorously denied by presidency officials.

Meanwhile, the proposed prisoner swap was abandoned after Western governments pressurised Jonathan not to negotiate the deal.

Had the deal gone through, it would have led to the release of 50 of the kidnapped girls released for an equivalent number of Boko Haram fighters. Earlier, the Nigerian government denied the existence of a negotiation deal. So far, it neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the video.

Reports of the video's existence surfaced as Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff claimed the military now knew where the girls were located. Speaking on Monday, Staff Air Marshal Alex Badeh, described it as "good news for the parents" but said that the military would not risk "going there with force".

South African Movie Leads 2014 AMAA Awards

"Of Good. Report", a South African Movie, won five awards to emerge as the biggest winner at the 2014 edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards, (AMAA) concluded, May 24, in Yenagoa,Bayelsa state.
The movie won Africa's most prestigious movie awards for Achievement in Screenplay, Best Young/Promising Actor for Petronella Tshuma, Best Actor in a Leading Role for Mothusi Mangano and. and Award for Best Director for X.T. Qubeka. The movie also went away with 2014 AMAA Awards for Best film, the biggest prize of the Academy.
The film dwells on a high school teacher's obsession with his teenage student which eventually culminated In a gruesome murder. The movie, shot in black and white in classic noir genre was banned in South Africa for its graphic violent and sexual motifs.
Despite the ban, the film has made impressive showings at movie festivals across the world. With the sweep of five awards, it is also clear that AMAA thinks so too.

Wiz Khalifa Goes to Jail

It's been a long time coming. Wiz Khalifa, the American rap artiste, was recently arrested for drug possession in El Paso, Texas, United States.

Undaunted, he tweeted from jail, "do it yourself. A short time later, he again tweeted, "start small."

Khalifa has been a long-time and unapologetic to user of marijuana. but, this marks the first time he will be arrested for being in possession of marijuana. He remains in jail as at the time of filing this report.

Boko Haram: US & Allies Reveal Security Plans for Nigeria

Following the meeting held recently in France among concerned Western stakeholders and Nigeria's neighbours with the country itself in attendance, the United States has revealed its readiness to help Nigeria get out of its present security challenges.

Already, it has commenced training of Nigerian military on rescue operations that will lead to the recovery of the abducted Chibok girls. Wendy Sherman,Under Secretary for Political Affairs,  said, “if there were to be a rescue operation, there may be other ways to bring them home, but if it were to be a rescue operation, that’s a very specific skill set and not every army in the world has that skill set,” adding, “I know that there are some training that has been gone on with units of the military in Nigeria to build those skills, in other words special forces skills.  Whether they’d be able to attempt a rescue, I think it would just depend on the circumstances.”

All the countries that were at the meeting including Benin, Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Nigeria alongside representatives of governments of the European Union (EU), US, UK, and US are very focused on coordinating their information, intelligence and resources to realize the common aim of rescuing the kidnapped girls. 

It is yet unclear why Canada and Israel did not attend the meeting, but they are also providing assistance.  Tension may  be flaring among the Western nations providing assistance to Nigeria judging by the absence of these countries from the meeting. Both nations have also been providing assistance to Nigeria in finding the abducted girls at about the same period that the other Western allies joined in.

Unconfirmed reports also said that President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria initially requested US and UK to convene the security parley but they declined but, Francois Hollande, the French President, accepted the proposal. The relations between Cameroon and Nigeria have always have an on-and-off relationship and the situation soured between the two neighbours with disagreements over the Bakassi Peninsular and  claims and counter claims over culpability in dealing with the Boko Haram insurgency. Cameroon accused Nigeria of undermining its security by not effectively handling the militants while Nigeria also accused Cameroon of lapses in not 

  

US has been at the forefront of helping Nigeria deal with its present security contingency. It designated Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and placed a $7 million bounty on his head.  Presently, a multidisciplinary interagency team is in Nigeria.  It has also commenced flying Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance  (ISR) aircraft or drones over Borno state. In France, Sherman met with the national security advisor of Nigeria and held more discussions on ways of further engagement. 

But, there are areas where US has expressed its unwillingness to co-operate. One of this is ransom for the kidapped girls. “The United States has its own view about ransom, exchanges, things like that, but this is a Nigerian decision. Our views on this are well known,” Sherman said. It’s been an age-old policy of the US government never to negotiate with terrorists or agree to ransom with them.

However, though it frowns at this action, it believes that the decision in this case belongs to Nigeria. Sherman said,“ It’s not an American decision.  Nigeria is a sovereign country and its government will make what choices it thinks it’s appropriate.”  If Nigeria decides to do so, it is clear that it will do so alone without the co-operation of US; it might even pull out of providing assistance.

 President Hollande called the meeting with not only Nigeria’s head of state alongside the heads of state of the surrounding countries in order to have both the short-term goal of coordinating all efforts to rescue the kidnapped girls and to ascertain the immediate and long term ways of ensuring that there was regional and global coordination to bring all Western assets to bear in dealing with Boko Haram, by securing regional borders, ensuring an end to Boko Haram insurgency and ramping up the development in the sub-region so that it is not a breeding ground for terror.

For now, the ongoing cooperation of Nigeria with foreign forces have already yielded some useful intelligence. It has been established that majority of the ammunition in use by Boko Haram were got from Libyan rebels and the terror group got advanced training in Mali.

In the next few days, the UN will impose sanctions on Boko Haram. This will include freezing its assets, travel ban and imposition of any other punitive measure to destroy the terror group.