Nigeria must thank Dr. Stephen Davis, a brave Australian man of the Church, for revealing the needed truth on Boko Haram to the entire world. No Nigerian could do this. When the former head of security, NSA Andrew Owoye Azazi made similar revelations on the truth behind Boko Haram and its sponsorship by the ruling PDP political party, he was fired by Nigeria’s President shortly after and killed before the end of that year.
This year, when former head of state Muhammadu Buhari who recently was begged by Nigeria’s president to agree to settle the libel case he filed against Reuben Abati and the Guardian, out of court, (he accepted the settlement and Reuben and the Guardian published an apology and retraction of the slanderous charges against his person in the Guardian of July 11, 2013, but the damage of the wide-spread lies was already done; see full http://ends.ng/?p=1295) finally decided to speak out and told the world that “had Nigeria’s Vice President Namadi Sambo not been clearly implicated of involvement with Boko Haram by the Nigeria’s department of State security, SSS,” few months later his convoy was aggressively chased and bombed by the terrorists. He was saved by God and Toyota. All the rest that we hear out of Nigeria is rascality, slander and libel from the President’s and SSS’ spokesmen and women.
The revelations made by Stephen Davis have been known to Nigerians for a while though. Yes, they are invaluable, being direct admissible testimony from a person hired by the President of Nigeria to contact and negotiate with Boko Haram, but they did not expose much that was new. Nigerians always knew Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, SAS was a founder of Boko Haram. Borno youth pursued him several times and he always ran to stay safe with Nigeria’s President in Abuja away from Borno. ENDS released an article this January on behalf of Nigerians, pleading for SAS’ arrest. [http://ends.ng/?p=460]
Likewise, Nigerians were always aware of the military chief’s involvement in Boko Haram and that he (they) kept the crises going on because the profited immensely from the security money allotted to this new “anti-terror” cash-cow. The uncountable instances when Nigeria’s soldiers were reported by angry, frustrated and fed-up locals to ALWAYS withdraw from their posts hours before practically every single Boko Haram attack, was clear evidence that implicated the army chief in the protracted Boko Haram crises.
The Nigerian military vehicles, tanks and APC’s that Boko Haram drives in, in convoys of over 50 vehicles and patiently operates for hours on end, without ever having been bombed by the Nigerian army was more evidence that directly implicated the military chiefs. They have been fighting a phony war where they give Boko Haram David-on-Goliath type undue and miraculous advantage. Military choppers have been seen supplying the terrorists in Sambisa and giving them cover during attacks, rather than bombing them; the army never bombed their hideouts in Sambisa but always struggled to protect them and keep the menace alive. Soldiers have reported time and time again on VOA, BBC, etc, being set-up by their top officers to ambush and kill each other. Soldiers have complained that a handful of men are given one or two rounds of ammunition and told to defend barracks’ a set-up to enable Boko Haram men easily over-run the barracks and sack it of vehicles and ammunition; which Boko Haram always thanked the army chiefs for in their videos. Then Chief of Defense (COD), Vice Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim was frustrated after he kept requesting for two battalions to complement the forces on the ground- to deal with the increasingly coordinated Boko Haram menace, killing his men and taking over Borno, but Ibrahim’s and other military men’s pleas fell on the deaf ears of the Chief of Army Staff(COAS), General Azubuike Ihejirika, who kept refusing to send the more troops till he was forced when the State of Emergency was finally declared. [http://newsrescue.com/femi-fani-kayode-defends-named-boko-haram-sponsors-coas-ihejirika-co/#ixzz3BtdhF5ce]
We can go on and on with inexcusable acts of sabotage, cooperation and intentional Boko Haram facilitation by Nigeria’s army chiefs, and the fact that no lower officer was ever court-martialed for these deliberate acts of treason and terror sponsorship, solidly implicates Nigeria’s army chiefs in the mission to destroy farming and life in general in Nigeria’s north. We released an article on this earlier, on July 19th, this year [http://ends.ng/?p=1215], before Stephen Davis’ revelation. Permit me to re-present it to you again, unedited:
Evidently, Nigerian Military Chiefs Are The Sponsors of Boko Haram
July 19, 2014
Nigerian army chiefs are the incontrovertible sponsors of the Boko Haram deadly terrorist sect ravaging the north of the nation. Major General Kenneth Tobiah Minimah GSS, Lt General Onyabor Azubuike Ihejirika CFR GSS, and the Minister of defense, Spy Aliyu Gusau are the direct sponsors supplying the terrorists according to all open evidence.
When seeking sponsors of terrorists, one must trace either their finances or their source of ammunition. Based on this, the Nigerian military and security services is the provable sponsor of the sect. Boko Haram leader, ‘Abubakar Shekau,’ thanks the military in his every broadcast for their dutiful supply of equipment to the sect. Boko Haram acquires numerous army tanks, Armored Personnel Carriers, APC’s and all forms of weapons, rounds of ammunition and rockets from the nation’s army. They recently received more weapons and armored vehicles from Damboa barrack as they have from other cheap, successful attacks of Giwa and other barracks in the past. This is direct sponsorship. The ex-military chiefs are also implicated.
The continuous loss of army equipment transported to the north, to the terrorists and the refusal of the army to bomb these tanks, trucks and vehicles in the possession of the terrorists amounts to direct sponsorship via supply of deadly equipment. This cannot pass as military carelessness or inadequacy. It is the responsibility of the security services to protect their tools and recover lost tools immediately before they are used to decimate local populations. Since the army moved up north, they have directly provided Boko Haram top grade equipment to use for their genocide of the Nigerian farming populace who, de-armed, are left defenseless and at the mercy of Boko Haram terrorists driving in with the nation’s military vehicles.
Reports of military helicopters and jets providing cover to the terrorists in their operations as well as recurrent reports of military jets actually firing on and killing officers of the Nigerian army and Civilian-JTF, further compounds this deadly, treacherous reality.
Boko Haram does not buy guns. They steal food and money with weapons they obtain from the nation’s military. Nigeria needs not look for politician sponsors anymore; we must tackle the military sponsorship of the sect immediately. Foreign partners must take this threat very seriously. Videos of ‘Shekau’ show him bragging, posing in front of Nigerian military vehicles. There is no excuse for the arming of terrorists.
Hundreds of our fine soldiers are quitting the army every week. Our soldiers refuse to continue to be sacrificed by a corrupt military leadership, gulping a quarter of the nation’s annual budget, who position them at a disadvantage to the terrorists. We empathize with these solders recently forced to mutiny.
Before it is too late, Nigeria needs something to be done to restore and protect our military and reverse its role as the single supplier of deadly arsenal and vehicles to the Boko Haram terrorists.
As earlier visited: Article 3 of the Universal charter of human rights declares that 'Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person;' Nigerians are denied these rights and this is done under the eyes of the international community; Article 16 (3) declares that 'The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State;'
Nigerians are denied these human rights and these violations are perpetrated by the ruling authorities under the watch of the international leading bodies; Whereas preamble section 3 of the Universal charter of human rights declares that is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law;
As recognized in preamble section 3 of the Universal charter of human rights, the people of Nigeria are being pushed to dangerous rebellion and global bodies are implicate in the actions and consequences of such resort to self determination and self justice in the advent of continued tolerance to the tyranny, oppression and grave crimes against humanity being perpetuated by the Nigerian government against its people. Must violence be the only address to injustice? We refuse to keep being slaughtered by bandits armed by our military.
Dr. Peregrino Brimah;
[Every Nigerian Do Something]
Twitter: @EveryNigerian