MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Al-Jazeera news channel captured chilling footage of men in uniforms shooting unarmed men after they purportedly were arrested during clashes last year with Muslim militants in northern Nigeria.
The footage aired Tuesday on Al-Jazeera shows two uniformed men forcing seven young men to lie face-down at the side of a busy road. The uniformed men then fire into the men’s backs.
Boko Haram sect militants sparked violence in late July, unleashing a bloodbath in which 700 people died. Rights groups claimed authorities committed extrajudicial killings.
Borno state Police Commissioner Ibrahim Abdu says the TV images are false and “a deliberate attempt of the surviving sect members to cause confusion and threats.”
Extremism in Africa: What is happening in Nigeria is taking place all over Africa. Not only are Islamic and Christian fundamentalism on the rise, but also traditionalist extremism. In Uganda, for example, child sacrifice has hit an alarming high. Ironically, it is fuelled not by poverty, but by development and prosperity. A security official told the BBC that as Ugandans grow wealthier, they resort more and more to witchcraft to secure their wealth and to build on it…
[ By: Charles Onyango-Obbo ] The Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who attempted to blow up an American aeroplane with a bomb built into his underwear, was somewhat unAfrican.
Though so-called Sub-Saharan Africa has its fair share of terrorists, AbdulMutallab is one of the very few who has offered himself up as a suicide bomber. From the days of the slave trade, life has been so grim in Africa that we seem to have developed a strong keep-alive ethos that makes suicide unfashionable.
So how do we explain AbdulMutallab? One of the best attempts to shed light on why this young Nigerian, born into a rich middle class family and having received a very good education, became a would-be suicide bomber can be found on the Zeleza Post. The Zeleza Post is a high-minded blog on African affairs founded by Malawian historian, Dr Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, who is touted as the next big African intellectual.
A December 28 posting on the blog by Nigerian Pius Adesanni blames the AbdulMutallab phenomenon the lazy and parasitic “Feudo-Caliphal establishment in northern Nigeria,” which mass produces poverty and stokes radical Islam in order to maintain power.
However, it is not only Islamic extremism that is being pushed in Nigeria. Nigeria is also the epicentre of Christian extremism in Africa.
My favourite is the “Ministry of Sacrifice” led by Prophetess Felicia Okafor, which is dedicated to finishing the work that Adam and Eve left undone in the Garden of Eden. Members of the Ministry prayed naked, and husbands and wives were barred from having sex with one another. Instead, the church appointed a “brother” or “sister” for them. A female member of the Ministry found to be having sexual relations with her legitimate husband was considered to have committed adultery! By any standard of religious extremism, that was going way too far. Prophetess Okafor was busted after her flock couldn’t take it any more and squealed to the police.
What is happening in Nigeria is taking place all over Africa. Not only are Islamic and Christian fundamentalism on the rise, but also traditionalist extremism. In Uganda, for example, child sacrifice has hit an alarming high. Ironically, it is fuelled not by poverty, but by development and prosperity. A security official told the BBC that as Ugandans grow wealthier, they resort more and more to witchcraft to secure their wealth and to build on it…
In common, Islamic and Christian fundamentalism are growing because there is no competing secular cause. Public policy debate is dying in Africa, and what we have is homophobic fury in many countries. Political discourse has been replaced by ethnic hate rants.
We don’t need a great secular idea. Even an Africa-wide youth rebellion, demanding the right for young people to love, get high on marijuana, and party all night will unite the older folks to set them on the right path.
In the past, we united against imperialism, then against the IMF and World Bank. The biggest of them all was HIV-Aids. These issues were always much bigger than religion and superstition. Now the HIV-Aids has receded somewhat.
We need a new enemy; maybe a disease as fiery as HIV-Aids that will marginalise the merchants of religious extremism. If not, we should prepare for more AbdulMutallabs and child sacrifices.
About The Author: Charles Onyango-Obbo — is Uganda’s leading political commentator. He is Nation Media Group’s managing editor for convergence and new products. Charles writes for The Monitor, Uganda’s only independent daily and most influential newspaper and The East African, a Nation-Media publication. Be sure to check out his Article Archive featuring hundreds of Charles’s greatest publications. More Articles By Mr. Onyango Obbo: [ CLICK HERE ]
Not so long ago the mere suggestion that an African team might win a World Cup would have been dismissed out of hand – all of a sudden, the idea no longer seems far-fetched. Could this be Africa’s time? Unperturbed by his 1977 prediction that an African side would triumph by the end of the 20th century, Brazil legend Pele genuinely believes it can occur next year.
BBC: Close your eyes and try to imagine the scenes of jubilation across Africa if a team from the continent were to win the 2010 World Cup.
A celebration like no other, one billion people reveling in one of the greatest sporting and cultural achievements.
For the first time in its 80-year history, football’s blue riband competition is coming to the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped land.
How better to mark the occasion than with a first African champion?
“Winning the World Cup would be one of the proudest moments in the history of that country and our continent as a whole,” former South Africa striker Shaun Bartlett told BBC Sport.
“Every African nation has its internal problems but football can do wonders for people and nations, which is a huge incentive.”
Nobody is saying it is going to happen but the groundswell of opinion suggests South Africa 2010 is the best opportunity yet. [ READ MORE ]
The Genius of Pele
The 2010 Draw:
Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic, Greece
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, Korea DPR, Côte d’Ivoire, Portugal
In Katsina State, North-west Nigeria, debt collectors and street performers live off the sweat of hyenas. The animals are trained to threaten debtors to pay up and when they are not “working,” their handlers use them to entertain motorists and pedestrians — for a fee, of course.
“We use a heavy stick to hit the hyenas on the head when they misbehave,” Abdullahi said. “We knock them down on the ground. All of us hold the sticks in case the animals become aggressive.”
However, Abdullahi’s daughter, six-year-old “Mummy,” played with the animals with no sign of fear. She even rode a hyena as if it were a miniature, slope-shouldered pony. “She cannot be harmed,” said Abdullahi. “It’s the same thing with the snakes and monkeys. She has taken a potion of traditional herbs and has been bathed with it. So her safety from the animals is guaranteed for the rest of her life.”
The animal handlers make use of herbs, concoctions, powders, amulets and esoteric incantations to catch and train their captives, protect themselves against harm and build up their own confidence. Amulets are also placed into “akayau,” metal rings tied around the men’s ankles, to enhance their dancing skills. The handlers believe that humans are capable of transforming themselves into animals such as hyenas, hence the need for powerful voodoo charms and incantations as protection. [ READ MORE ]
How Dangerous is This Wild Animal — The Hyena?: The bite force per square inch of a mature hyena rivals that of a croc or an alligator! They hunt in packs like Republicans!
Hyenas (Republicans) vs Lions (Democrats). Hyenas Kill 9 lions defeat Pride, in the Serengeti [August 20th 2009]
Physical Characteristics: The hyena is Africa’s most common large carnivore. Over the years hyenas and humans have come into close contact in Africa and, in earlier times, in Asia and in Europe, often leading to mutual predation. In ancient Egypt hyenas were domesticated, fattened and eaten, and in turn humans have on occasion become food for hyenas. Reputed to be cowardly and timid, the hyena can be bold and dangerous, attacking animals and humans.
Except for the aardwolf, all living hyena species are hunters and scavengers. They have extremely strong jaws in relation to their body size and have a very powerful digestive system with highly acidic fluids, making them capable of eating and digesting their entire prey, including skin, teeth, horns and bones. Hair and hooves are usually regurgitated. Because their digestive system deals very well with bacteria, they have no aversion to and readily eat carrion.
The Spotted Hyena is primarily a predator, unlike some of its cousins. Spotted Hyenas are successful pack hunters of small to large sized ungulates, and are the most abundant carnivores in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Female spotted hyenas are dominant over the males and outweigh them by about 3 pounds. It is difficult to distinguish between the sexes in the field because external female genitalia have a superficial similarity to those of the male. Why the female hyena developed in this manner is unknown, but it may have been necessary for them to appear large and strong to protect their young from males, as hyenas have cannibalistic tendencies. [ READ MORE ]
There are important initiatives of his predecessors that the Obama administration can build upon. President Bill Clinton’s most important contribution to Africa was the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that lowered barriers to African export products to the United States. While the Bush administration extended the scope of AGOA, a real breakthrough for Africa on trade issues crumbled with the collapse of the Doha Round of talks on a comprehensive deal on trade.
Ghana: Obama Visits a Hopeful Nation on a Troubled Continent
By: Prof. Richard Joseph There is perhaps no region in the world in which there is a greater gap between the high expectations of an Obama presidency and knowledge of his administration’s intended policies than in sub-Saharan Africa. That gap should narrow when President Obama makes a fleeting visit to Ghana on July 10 and 11.
Unlike Kenya and Nigeria ? the countries he might have been expected to visit first in his presidency, but whose reputations are clouded by corruption, electoral misconduct, insecurity and other woes ? Ghana is now regarded as a “beacon of democracy” after two decades of political progress and renewed economic growth.
The country has witnessed five successive elections since its return to multiparty democracy in 1992. In 2006 the United States rewarded Ghana for its progress with a $547 million Millennium Challenge Account grant for capacity building — an initiative of the administration of President George W. Bush.
Workers push a cart past a billboard depicting Ghanaian President John Atta Mills and President Obama at an intersection in Ghana’s capital, Accra, on Tuesday.
The December 2008 national elections were hotly contested and ended in a confusion of lawsuits, the boycott of a run-off vote in one constituency and accusations of fraud and other irregularities. But when the defeated presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo of the governing New Patriotic Party, conceded to John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress after losing by a sliver (0.46 percent) of the popular vote, Ghana was spared the trauma of the post-election upheavals we have seen in recent years in Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
On the economic front, revenues will soon begin flowing from the export of petroleum, a result of the discovery of oil off Ghana’s west coast several years ago.
Nevertheless, the country faces substantial challenges. In last December’s election, the virulence of party campaigns, deepening ethnic-bloc voting and the mobilization of vigilantes showed that Ghana has not yet crossed the frontier to intimidation-free electoral politics.
In government, a bloated executive dominates and marginalizes parliament and the judiciary, and financial self-dealing among governing elites is again rampant. The prospect of oil revenue highlights the urgent need for improved and transparent systems of economic management.
Forty percent of Ghanaians still live in poverty and thousands leave annually to seek a better life elsewhere. Pervasive unemployment among youths, as throughout Africa, is one of the tragic consequences of high fertility rates and low economic productivity.
Yet Ghana could lead a new wave of accelerated and sustainable development in agriculture, industry and services.
In August 2006, while visiting Nairobi as a U.S. Senator, Barack Obama highlighted the failure of Kenya, and other countries in Africa, “to create a government that is transparent and accountable, one that serves its people and is free from corruption.”
On his first visit to Africa during his presidency ? to Cairo last month ? President Obama challenged government leaders to “place the interests of your people and the legitimate workings of the political process above your party.” His summons applies acutely to Ghana.
There are buds of an Obama doctrine, seen in both the Nairobi and Cairo addresses, which can sprout in Africa. It emphasizes tolerance, transparency, the rule of law, government that rests on consent rather than coercion and “doesn’t steal from the people.” It urges political leaders to respect democratic rights and institutions while they are “in power” as they did “out of power.” In his recent July 3 interview with AllAfrica, he reiterated his understanding of “the direct correlation between governance and prosperity” and the need to stop making “excuses about corruption or poor governance on Africa.”
During his campaign for the presidency, Obama promised to double foreign aid once elected into office. But much more important for Africa is the need to spur enterprise-led growth and support the new generation of entrepreneurs and professionals who are fed up with aid-fuelled and corruption-plagued politics.
There are important initiatives of his predecessors that the Obama administration can build upon. President Bill Clinton’s most important contribution to Africa was the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) that lowered barriers to African export products to the United States. While the Bush administration extended the scope of AGOA, a real breakthrough for Africa on trade issues crumbled with the collapse of the Doha Round of talks on a comprehensive deal on trade.
The establishment of the Millennium Challenge Account was one of the notable achievements of the Bush administration and one which President Obama can expand and extend to sub-national entities. Such an action is relevant to countries such as Nigeria with dynamic governments emerging at the state level.
The scope for the U.S. government and American companies to pursue agricultural, infrastructural, and other investment opportunities in Africa is vast. Sub-Saharan Africa now provides almost 20 percent of U.S. oil imports while its gas imports have jumped nearly ten-fold since 2000.
On Saturday, President Obama and his entourage will visit the Cape Coast Castle from which many Africans were dispatched to chattel slavery in the Americas. He will then address the Ghanaian Parliament and a great multitude in the capital city of Accra. To the thousands who will gather to hear him, 750 million sub-Saharan Africans will follow his remarks closely, thanks to independent media and telecommunication services that now flourish in the continent.
His anticipated message of hope, audacity, responsibility and “pragmatic progressivism” will reverberate long after he leaves. It will be a sublime and potentially transformative moment for Africa and those who have who have long argued for the United States to stand up boldly for democracy and developmental governance in the continent.
Ghana Prepares For Obama Visit
About The Author: Richard Joseph is nonresident senior fellow in the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution and John Evans Professor of International History and Politics of Northwestern University. He directed The Carter Center’s election mission in Ghana in 1992 and has worked closely with Ghanaian researchers and civil society activists. He has been travelling to Ghana for 30 years. Beginning 20 years ago, while working with former President Jimmy Carter, he followed closely Ghana’s return to multiparty politics. On Saturday he will be in Accra for the visit of President Barack Obama, an event he describes as a “sublime and potentially transformative moment for Africa.“
References:
1.Mood in Ghana: ‘We are a lucky country’ — Quietly, modestly ? but also heroically ? Ghana’s going about the business of rebranding a continent. New face of America, meet the new face of Africa.
2.BONO: Ghana is well governed. After a close election, power changed hands peacefully. Civil society is becoming stronger. The country’s economy was growing at a good clip even before oil was found off the coast a few years ago. Though it has been a little battered by the global economic meltdown, Ghana appears to be weathering the storm. I don’t normally give investment tips ? sound the alarm at Times headquarters ? but here is one: buy Ghanaian. On his visit to Ghana, President Obama has the chance to lead nations in building on the successes of recent efforts within Africa and to learn from the failures. [ READ MORE ]
The Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who attempted to blow up an American aeroplane with a bomb built into his underwear, was somewhat unAfrican.
There is perhaps no region in the world in which there is a greater gap between the high expectations of an Obama presidency and knowledge of his administration’s intended policies than in sub-Saharan Africa. That gap should narrow when President Obama makes a fleeting visit to Ghana on July 10 and 11.
