... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
, which presumably wanted to show its power to Kano's emir, who had recently asked the people to take up arms against the murderous Moslems. Believing in the physical elimination of anyone with whom it differs, Boko Haram has killed 2,000 civilians in 95 attacks in the first six months of this year. Women and students are its special target. Last April, it kidnapped almost 300 schoolgirls and claimed they had been converted to Islam and married off. So far, Boko Haram has kidnapped 500 women since the insurgency began in 2009. Earlier last week, two jacket wallahs, one of them a woman, targeted a crowded market in the north, killing and wounding dozens, and a student suicide bomber spread death and destruction at a boarding school, killing 50 young men.
We in Pakistain know from experience that there are no short cuts to combating and eliminating a highly motivated insurgency. The emergency declared by President
Goodluck Jonathan... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
in many northern states is now more than a year old, but the murderous Moslems' power has remained unscathed. Politics is also in the way, and most parties in the northeast, which is a murderous Moslem stronghold, do not agree with the government's counter-insurgency strategy. The army lacks modern equipment, and this, many people allege, is part of many African governments' policy to keep the armies weak to deter coups. Nigeria has no choice but to develop a national strategy to destroy Boko Haram's network. As in Pakistain, the Nigerian government has neglected education, forcing people to send their children to the murderous Moslems' schools. This enables the