| Get our News Update fast, download AE Toolbar! Click here to download Now! |
| Online media |
| Newspapers |
Join or start a conversation!
Add your Comment
Note: comments posted on this site are moderated. Pls. avoid abusive and vulgar words
Add your Comment
Note: comments posted on this site are moderated. Pls. avoid abusive and vulgar words
THE GUARDIAN
THE STAR
THE PUNCH
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
TIMES OF ZAMBIA
THE SUN
DAILY GRAPHICS
THISDAY
MAIL & GUARDIAN
VANGUARD
D/INDEPENDENT
The nation
Daily trust
Ghana Times
THE STAR
THE PUNCH
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
TIMES OF ZAMBIA
THE SUN
DAILY GRAPHICS
THISDAY
MAIL & GUARDIAN
VANGUARD
D/INDEPENDENT
The nation
Daily trust
Ghana Times
One year after the Madalla bombing
_________________________________________________________
Funmi Macaulay
Sunday, Jan 13, 2012
Sunday, Jan 13, 2012
| Copyrights © 2007 All Rights Reserved African Examiner Online is owned by RD Frontline LLC, a state of Maryland registered company P. O. Box 11582 Baltimore, Maryland, 21229, USA Tel: 443-904-1239. Editor-In-Chief: Oludare Sunday Fase |
___________________________________________________________________________________
| Other stories |
Home | Sports | Interview | Articles | Business | Letters | Social | Archives | Adverts | Entertainment | Contact us | About us | Terms | Blog
| ADVERTISEMENTS |
Need a CPR card or First
Aid certification?
Call Vivian Ngang (CPR Instructor,
Licensed Nurse) 1- 240-462-2607
Aid certification?
Call Vivian Ngang (CPR Instructor,
Licensed Nurse) 1- 240-462-2607
I attended a seminar last spring at the Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard University that discussed the topic ‘The
Future of Nigeria’. With so many things happening in Nigeria at the
time, I expected a robust discussion particularly on the threat that
insecurity situation poses to the country’s economic and political
development.
But I was disappointed. Adebowale Adefuye, the Nigerian
ambassador to the United States, talked as though things were
perfectly normal. “This happens in every country,” he dismissively
replied when Bola, a Nigerian PhD student asked why despite
government’s promise of containing it we’ve seen the insurgency
rise.
Never in the history of Nigeria have people come under such
gruesome attacks for their faith like Christians have in the last three
years. Disappointingly, Adefuye considered it normal. Never in the
history of Nigeria has any group other than the military dictators
tried to gag the press like Boko Haram has done in the recent past.
After listening to Adefuye, I immediately realized one of the
fundamental problems facing Nigeria – the tendency of politicians
and their representatives to play politics with everything including
the lives of the very people that had put them in the positions they
occupy.
It doesn’t matter that Time Magazine named President Goodluck
Jonathan as one of the most influential people in 2012, last year
was Boko Haram’s year in Nigeria. In 2012 alone, the terrorist
group killed over one thousand people through their gun and bomb
attacks on churches, schools, police stations, media centers,
markets and communication networks, making the year the group’s
bloodiest.
To dismiss this as though nothing happened as Adefuye did in
Harvard, is a disservice to the very people he claims to represent.
Throughout the year, I carefully monitored reports on Boko Haram
attacks in Nigeria, and there was no month that passed without at
least three or four attacks on innocent citizens by the group. The
average death toll a month in 2012 was 90.
I believe that Nigeria and Nigerians have had a handful. No nation
allows such callous wastage of its people and expects to truly
develop. The west listens to China and India today because these
nations in the last two decades have demonstrated that they
understand the power they have – their people both at home and in
diaspora. Brazil, a country that recently overtook the United
Kingdom as the world’s sixth largest economy, is another nation that
understands the power of it numbers.
It is said that one out of every six Africans is a Nigerian, yet
Nigerians grapple with such challenges as constant power supply
that smaller countries like Togo, Ghana and even war-torn Ivory
Coast have substantially put behind them. Nigeria remains a
sleeping giant.
One year after the massacre in the Catholic Church in Madalla, we
have in Nigeria a country more insecure, where Boko Haram has
become insolently audacious and resolutely bold as to invade a
military cantonment and a police base of the caliber of Jaji and
Special Anti-Robbery Squad office.
One year after President Jonathan cried in Madalla, we see Boko
Haram virtually shutdown schools in parts of the north; we see them
bomb telecom facilities making the mobile phones in the hands of
some in that part of the country of no use in an increasingly
interconnected world.
To blame the Boko Haram onslaught on politicians who are
unhappy with the “revolutions that President Jonathan is leading” as
Ambassador Adefuye puts it, is to indirectly show the weakness of
the president. I did an article earlier in 2012 calling on the
President to be bold to name and shame those sponsoring Boko
Haram after he stated that his government knows them. Ironically
the only suspect that was arrested for allegedly masterminding of
the Madalla massacre escaped from police detention.
One year after the Madalla tragedy that claimed the lives of over 40
Nigerians while injuring more than 50 others, fear pervades our
land. Nobody knows where and when the next Boko Haram attack
will occur. The politicians in the national assembly are as fearful as
the ordinary man on the street of Abuja.
Even the president, with all the security apparatus around him, feels
unsafe. For the second year in a roll, he has refused to hold the
normal outdoor parades to mark our independence day for fear of
possible attack, preferring rather to hold an indoor get-together with
friends and allies in his more fortified Presidential Villa.
For Christians in the north, the region has become worse than the
Biblical lion’s den.
The fatalities are more than most media counts indicate. In Borno,
Kaduna and Kogi, not less than 70 churches were destroyed,
according to one media account.
In a recent report, World Watch Monitor, a human rights group that
monitors persecution of Christians across the world, describes
Nigeria as “a country where the worst atrocities in terms of loss of
life occur”.
A number of Christian corps members have been slaughtered in the
north for things that no sane person would call offence. I remember
the stories of Evelyn Tagbo and Christiana Oluwasesin, two
graduates who served in Gombe state. Both taught at two different
girls school but their stories are similar. One day Evelyn was going
to invigilate a class. It was so sunny that she decided to walk her
way to the class passing under a tree in the compound where
unknown to her some Muslim students sometimes prayed. The
students went after her and almost lynched her but for the timely
intervention of the school principal.
Christiana Oluwasesin, a mother of two, who found herself in similar
circumstance never lived to tell her story. She was invigilating a
class when a student walked into the exam hall with her bag.
Christiana collected the bag and threw it outside as exam rules didn’
t permit students to take in their books. Immediately the student
began to cry saying her Quran has been desecrated. Christiana
never knew there was a Quran in the student’s bag, but before she
could even explain that, the students have descended on her and
with the help of fanatics from the village stripped her naked and
stabbed her to death.
Evelyn today blogs about the activities of Boko Haram, calling for
government action to root out extremism in schools and for better
protection of corps members serving in the north. She remembers
with nostalgia how she would have died for what she knew nothing
about. How many corps members have died under similar
circumstances? One year after the Madalla tragedy, we are less
safe. I am only hoping that the worst days are behind us.
Funmi Macaulay is the Founder of Nigerians Unite Against Boko Haram
(NUABH)
Government, Harvard University that discussed the topic ‘The
Future of Nigeria’. With so many things happening in Nigeria at the
time, I expected a robust discussion particularly on the threat that
insecurity situation poses to the country’s economic and political
development.
But I was disappointed. Adebowale Adefuye, the Nigerian
ambassador to the United States, talked as though things were
perfectly normal. “This happens in every country,” he dismissively
replied when Bola, a Nigerian PhD student asked why despite
government’s promise of containing it we’ve seen the insurgency
rise.
Never in the history of Nigeria have people come under such
gruesome attacks for their faith like Christians have in the last three
years. Disappointingly, Adefuye considered it normal. Never in the
history of Nigeria has any group other than the military dictators
tried to gag the press like Boko Haram has done in the recent past.
After listening to Adefuye, I immediately realized one of the
fundamental problems facing Nigeria – the tendency of politicians
and their representatives to play politics with everything including
the lives of the very people that had put them in the positions they
occupy.
It doesn’t matter that Time Magazine named President Goodluck
Jonathan as one of the most influential people in 2012, last year
was Boko Haram’s year in Nigeria. In 2012 alone, the terrorist
group killed over one thousand people through their gun and bomb
attacks on churches, schools, police stations, media centers,
markets and communication networks, making the year the group’s
bloodiest.
To dismiss this as though nothing happened as Adefuye did in
Harvard, is a disservice to the very people he claims to represent.
Throughout the year, I carefully monitored reports on Boko Haram
attacks in Nigeria, and there was no month that passed without at
least three or four attacks on innocent citizens by the group. The
average death toll a month in 2012 was 90.
I believe that Nigeria and Nigerians have had a handful. No nation
allows such callous wastage of its people and expects to truly
develop. The west listens to China and India today because these
nations in the last two decades have demonstrated that they
understand the power they have – their people both at home and in
diaspora. Brazil, a country that recently overtook the United
Kingdom as the world’s sixth largest economy, is another nation that
understands the power of it numbers.
It is said that one out of every six Africans is a Nigerian, yet
Nigerians grapple with such challenges as constant power supply
that smaller countries like Togo, Ghana and even war-torn Ivory
Coast have substantially put behind them. Nigeria remains a
sleeping giant.
One year after the massacre in the Catholic Church in Madalla, we
have in Nigeria a country more insecure, where Boko Haram has
become insolently audacious and resolutely bold as to invade a
military cantonment and a police base of the caliber of Jaji and
Special Anti-Robbery Squad office.
One year after President Jonathan cried in Madalla, we see Boko
Haram virtually shutdown schools in parts of the north; we see them
bomb telecom facilities making the mobile phones in the hands of
some in that part of the country of no use in an increasingly
interconnected world.
To blame the Boko Haram onslaught on politicians who are
unhappy with the “revolutions that President Jonathan is leading” as
Ambassador Adefuye puts it, is to indirectly show the weakness of
the president. I did an article earlier in 2012 calling on the
President to be bold to name and shame those sponsoring Boko
Haram after he stated that his government knows them. Ironically
the only suspect that was arrested for allegedly masterminding of
the Madalla massacre escaped from police detention.
One year after the Madalla tragedy that claimed the lives of over 40
Nigerians while injuring more than 50 others, fear pervades our
land. Nobody knows where and when the next Boko Haram attack
will occur. The politicians in the national assembly are as fearful as
the ordinary man on the street of Abuja.
Even the president, with all the security apparatus around him, feels
unsafe. For the second year in a roll, he has refused to hold the
normal outdoor parades to mark our independence day for fear of
possible attack, preferring rather to hold an indoor get-together with
friends and allies in his more fortified Presidential Villa.
For Christians in the north, the region has become worse than the
Biblical lion’s den.
The fatalities are more than most media counts indicate. In Borno,
Kaduna and Kogi, not less than 70 churches were destroyed,
according to one media account.
In a recent report, World Watch Monitor, a human rights group that
monitors persecution of Christians across the world, describes
Nigeria as “a country where the worst atrocities in terms of loss of
life occur”.
A number of Christian corps members have been slaughtered in the
north for things that no sane person would call offence. I remember
the stories of Evelyn Tagbo and Christiana Oluwasesin, two
graduates who served in Gombe state. Both taught at two different
girls school but their stories are similar. One day Evelyn was going
to invigilate a class. It was so sunny that she decided to walk her
way to the class passing under a tree in the compound where
unknown to her some Muslim students sometimes prayed. The
students went after her and almost lynched her but for the timely
intervention of the school principal.
Christiana Oluwasesin, a mother of two, who found herself in similar
circumstance never lived to tell her story. She was invigilating a
class when a student walked into the exam hall with her bag.
Christiana collected the bag and threw it outside as exam rules didn’
t permit students to take in their books. Immediately the student
began to cry saying her Quran has been desecrated. Christiana
never knew there was a Quran in the student’s bag, but before she
could even explain that, the students have descended on her and
with the help of fanatics from the village stripped her naked and
stabbed her to death.
Evelyn today blogs about the activities of Boko Haram, calling for
government action to root out extremism in schools and for better
protection of corps members serving in the north. She remembers
with nostalgia how she would have died for what she knew nothing
about. How many corps members have died under similar
circumstances? One year after the Madalla tragedy, we are less
safe. I am only hoping that the worst days are behind us.
Funmi Macaulay is the Founder of Nigerians Unite Against Boko Haram
(NUABH)
| ...news focus on NIGERIA |
N6.46bn: EFCC seizes
ex-Gov. Slyva’s 48
properties
African Examiner
Friday, Jan 04, 2013
ex-Gov. Slyva’s 48
properties
African Examiner
Friday, Jan 04, 2013
FG committed to
reduction of maternal
and infant mortality
African Examiner
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
Gov Dickson Signs
Emergency Agency
bill, others into law
African Examiner
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
New Year: Jonathan
reiterates
commitment to FG’s
transformation
Agenda
African Examiner
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
reduction of maternal
and infant mortality
African Examiner
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
Gov Dickson Signs
Emergency Agency
bill, others into law
African Examiner
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
New Year: Jonathan
reiterates
commitment to FG’s
transformation
Agenda
African Examiner
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
Jonathan not behind
2015 Presidential
election Posters –
Presidency
African Examiner
Thursday Jan. 03, 2013
2015 Presidential
election Posters –
Presidency
African Examiner
Thursday Jan. 03, 2013
Injured Gov. Wada
discharged from
hospital
African Examiner
Wednesday, Dec 02, 2012
New Year Message to
Senator Bala
Mohammed
African Examiner
Wednesday, Dec 02, 2012
discharged from
hospital
African Examiner
Wednesday, Dec 02, 2012
New Year Message to
Senator Bala
Mohammed
African Examiner
Wednesday, Dec 02, 2012
Wanted Ex-Governor
Audu Arrives US
Potomac Home
African Examiner
Friday, Dec 21, 2012
Audu Arrives US
Potomac Home
African Examiner
Friday, Dec 21, 2012
I don’t have 48 houses
–Sylva
African Examiner
Monday, Jan 07, 2013
–Sylva
African Examiner
Monday, Jan 07, 2013
Wada returns to Govt
House amidst
confusion over his
presence
By Banabas Attah-Abuja
Monday, Jan 07, 2013
Nasarawa Governor
fingers state PDP
chairman in contract
scam By TOR VANDE-ACKA,
Lafia
Monday, Jan 07, 2013
FCT shutdown 82
sub-standard medical
outfits in 2012
African Examiner
Friday, Jan 04, 2013
N29bn: My Story, by
Jonathan's key
Minister, Orubebe
African Examiner
Friday, Jan 04, 2013
House amidst
confusion over his
presence
By Banabas Attah-Abuja
Monday, Jan 07, 2013
Nasarawa Governor
fingers state PDP
chairman in contract
scam By TOR VANDE-ACKA,
Lafia
Monday, Jan 07, 2013
FCT shutdown 82
sub-standard medical
outfits in 2012
African Examiner
Friday, Jan 04, 2013
N29bn: My Story, by
Jonathan's key
Minister, Orubebe
African Examiner
Friday, Jan 04, 2013
Youth Group Tasks
Works Minister
African Examiner
Friday, Jan. 11, 2013
Constitutional crisis
brews in Enugu over
Chime
By Ochei Matthew, Asaba
Wednesday, Jan 09, 2013
PDP-led FG
desperates to stop
opposition –A C N
By TOM CHIAHEMEN
Wednesday, Jan 09, 2013
Bayelsa Shocker: I
inherited just N4,451
from Sylva –Gov.
Dickson
African Examiner
Wednesday, Jan 09, 2012
Works Minister
African Examiner
Friday, Jan. 11, 2013
Constitutional crisis
brews in Enugu over
Chime
By Ochei Matthew, Asaba
Wednesday, Jan 09, 2013
PDP-led FG
desperates to stop
opposition –A C N
By TOM CHIAHEMEN
Wednesday, Jan 09, 2013
Bayelsa Shocker: I
inherited just N4,451
from Sylva –Gov.
Dickson
African Examiner
Wednesday, Jan 09, 2012