TERRORISM TOUCHES HOME: JOSHUA ADDAH, A LIFE CUT SHORT

Several years ago, I chose to begin to honor the memory of my parents by giving
yearly awards to people in Nigeria that were demonstrating exemplary lives of
service - just as my parents had done when they were alive.  In 2008, the
selection team in Nigeria notified me that there was no better person to receive the award
that year than a young missionary named Joshua Addah. That year, I wrote that he
was receiving the award because of his "unwavering commitment to the spread of
the gospel" and for "setting a remarkable example for our society".  Last night, I received word from Nigeria that Joshua was killed yesterday by Boko Haram, Nigeria's terrorist organization about which I have written over the last few weeks.   By the time of his murder yesterday, Joshua was caring for over 200 children, not including his own biological children, all of whom have now lost a shepherd.

To all those who spend time demonizing the opposition candidate in Nigeria's
upcoming elections, I say this: Please come with me to Nigeria and tell the families of the victims of Boko Haram that their spouses, children, parents and friends deserved to die or be kidnapped and that a failed President who does not seem to consider it his responsibility to protect the citizens of his country (including Christians) must be re-elected just because he is a Christian, supposedly has a PhD, and is from your part of the country. A few years ago, I had to place an unforgettable phone call to the brother of a medical doctor and pastor that was beheaded also in Northern Nigeria.  Then just over 2 years ago, I had to place a call to the spouse of my childhood friend to inform her that her husband had been kidnapped.  Thank God, my friend came through the ordeal unharmed physically, but not before a heavy ransom was paid.  If you have never been in that situation where you had to place any such call as I expect to place soon to Joshua Addah's family, please pray that you never have to.  I also pray that you never have to.

For me, this is not about politics and anyone who construes anything here as such would be wrong - since I have no nuts roasting in Nigeria's political fire. This is about life, truth and wisdom; and it is about my God's commandment that we love our neighbors as ourselves. Joshua, may your gentle soul rest in peace and may God's perpetual light forever shine on you, your family and all others that you have left behind. May your life and death teach us crucial lessons that we so badly need.  May your death be as meaningful as your life was.

Let's Talk (Jan 24, 2015) - Africa's Past

PAUL INYANG'S LAMENT FOR NIGERIA

Like many I have observed with great trepidation the recent spate of violence with the accompanying gruesome pictures in my home. Not only do we have Boko Haram, we now have the additional election violence. I am yet to understand why the spilling of blood seems to have become the norm in our beloved country. It has become impossible to ignore—attaching a bomb to an innocent 10 year old to be detonated at a market, the killings of over 2000 Nigerians in the NE part of our country as reported by Amnesty International in the last week and the burning up of PDP transportation in Benue. Most Nigerians have heard and probably seen pictures of the violence, yet there appears to be complete “calm” in the country—not a bleep from citizens or government. Juxtapose this with the recent events in Paris, France where 16 people lost their lives, 20 if you include the assailants. Not only did the government in France respond vigorously and in a determinate manner to get to the bottom of the matter but it enlisted support from the entire world. Today the largest public demonstration of unity and resolve ever held in France—well over 3 million French citizens demonstrated in a show of solidarity and defiance in the face of such dastardly and cowardly acts of violence.

Can we say that what happened in Paris supersedes anything we have experienced in Nigeria lately? Why the difference in response? Besides the obvious ineptitude of our security apparatus, which the entire world acknowledges—what else could it be? My friends, I am left wondering—what does it take to move us or spur us into action? We are at the height of our complacency and we have no one to blame but ourselves. It seems there is a difference in the way we value life. Our so called leaders are engaged in a political warfare that has encouraged their foot soldiers to partake of the worst kinds of violence—one that is no more insidious but completely overt and callous. Acts that are offensive to eyes and conscience. What is the duty of government and what is our responsibility as citizens—I ask? 

Violence has been politicized because for the most part it has not come home to roost. The victims are nameless to us so there is no emotional connection—yet these are somebody’s mother, father, children and family members. In the words of Robert Nesta Marley—“we stand around and look”. We are all complicit and I believe we will answer for it—if nothing else we shall live in it. Sooner or later it will touch our lives if we do not act. Please save that “not my portion” stuff—we all own this baby. Pardon my ranting, I just wanted to share my grief. May God help us all. Help someone!

Paul Inyang - 1/11/2015 (USA).

Let's Talk - OHIRO ONI-ESELEH with PAUL INYANG (USA) & LEMMY RUSSELl (NIGERIA) - January 18, 2015

LET'S TALK - OHIRO ONI-ESELEH with PAUL INYANG (USA) AND LEMMY RUSSEL (NIGERIA)

Nigeria's New Export: Terrorism

Once every few years, I host a conference with the aim of bringing together great minds to dialog on specific social problems that are Africa's bane.  Our last conference - attended by citizens of 8 countries - was headlined by Professor Godwin Ohiwerei, a highly reputed American Sociologist of Nigerian descent.  Our mission at that conference was to take a look at the problem of corruption in Africa.  He opened his keynote address with the following words delivered in a very clear, stern and deliberate tone: "Nigeria is a failed state".  With those words, he sent a very strong message that his mission over the next hour and fifteen minutes was not to make anyone comfortable.  Instead, he was ready to tell it exactly as he saw it.  I was personally shocked for two reasons.  First, I felt that, by making that claim, Professor Ohiwerei had just stepped on a land mine.  Second, that is not the way that keynote addresses usually begin.  But then, he is a sociologist and the best of them do not beat around the bush and they are as good as anyone at backing up their claims - and Professor Ohiwerei is one of the best.  Take, for example, Douglass Massey & Nancy Denton's work titled American Apartheid: Segregation and The Making of An Underclass.  Most people would agree that the term apartheid is not one they would consider to be synonymous with American ideals and values.  Yet, I would like to see that individual who would not be moved in some way (either in the direction of consent or intense disagreement) after reading this work that examines the historical, social, political and economic realities of the housing system famously known as "the projects". Regardless of the place where one falls in relation to this work, it is impossible to argue that this work does not provoke a re-examination of personal and group thought.

Nigeria has been independent for just over 54 years but one wouldn't know it from the current state of the nation.  For several years, I suggested in lectures and private conversations that Nigeria's problems could be explained as part of the growing pains that lined the path of nation building and development.  I did that because I believed what I was saying but I was also somewhat aspirational about Nigeria, believing that it was a matter of time before the country was led in a different, more positive direction.  But the Nigeria that I defended and advocated for was the oil-rich nation that had a significant history of positive accomplishments; the Nigeria in which some political leaders were adults who may have enriched themselves through the offices that they held but also actually worked on issues such as education, understood questions of war and peace, potential concerns about religious intolerance, and paid some attention to social problems that had the capacity of derailing even the most seemingly stable communities in a heterogeneous nation like Nigeria.   In those days, Nigerians travelled out of the country to be educated only in the most respectable nations in the world.  After that, they returned home proudly, determined to play their part in the development of the country that they called home.  Those who chose not to return took up residence in the countries where they had studied, or in other countries, but their hearts were never far removed from home.  Not very long ago, Nigeria was an exporter of such talented skill that there was major concern about the potential of irreversible brain drain out of the country.

Time was when Nigeria provided financial and technical aid, and even supplied electricity, to many African countries.  Nigeria's role was even crucial to the eventual demise of apartheid in South Africa.  But that was then, and this is now.  As tends to happen under weak, irresponsible, careless and non-caring leadership, Nigeria is now a shattered country that no longer exports the resources from which it once derived respectability.  Instead, Nigeria has become a country that exports fear and death through terrorism to its neighbors.  Having cowered and conquered the will of the Nigerian government headed by President Goodluck Jonathan and his ill-equipped and historically corrupt military, Boko Haram began to feel powerful and courageous enough to extend their reach beyond Nigeria's borders.  Kidnapping hundreds of children, killing thousands of Nigeria's citizens and taking control over large portions of Nigeria's North were insufficient for Boko Haram, especially as the country's President allowed them to operate at will.  So they began to launch attacks in Cameroon in September 2014 that continue to result in the deaths of innocent people. While Cameroon continues to struggle and lose at the hands of Nigeria's new export, Nigeria's President campaigns for re-election without as much as a mention of Boko Haram's atrocities.  While citizens of his country are increasingly fleeing in large numbers and becoming refugees in the neighboring countries of Chad and Niger, the government of Nigeria seems content with the quality of its new export. Just last week, as many as 2000 people were reported killed in Baga - a town in Northern Nigeria.  Over a week later, President Jonathan was still being urged to end his silence on the massacre.  Rather than act, the Nigerian government has engaged in a losing argument that 150, not 2000, people were killed in Baga - as if a lower number makes it right.  Released satellite pictures of Baga before and after the massacre now show that the number of people that were viciously murdered was most certainly in the thousands.

This article is not about the incompetence of the President of Nigeria or about Nigeria's politics.  It is instead about the direction in which Nigeria has been led by people to whom the responsibility of leadership was handed by the people that they were supposed to protect, nurture and respect.  When a country that once exuded respectability and stability and exported talent and goodness begins to sow disappointment in its citizens and exports fear and death to its neighbors, it can hardly anymore argue that it is not a failed state because that is what a failed state looks like.

Terrorism: We Ignore Nigeria At Our Peril

* I wrote and published this blog article on February 20, 2012 - almost 2 years ago.  Considering the current state of security in Nigeria, as well as the focus of my next article, I thought it would be a good idea to re-publish this exactly as written in 2012 without adding or subtracting anything.  So, here we go:
                                          _______________________________

As the world pays attention to terribly violent events in the Middle East and the economic crises across Europe, it is easy to forget that much of the rest of the world is not at peace either. With all of the remarkable successes that the United States has attained in its effort at crushing Al-Qaeda around the world, it is crucial to remember a few facts. First, the ideology that created and drives the terrorist acts of Al-Qaeda is not dead. Secondly, the social and political realities within which a terrorist organization like Al-Qaeda thrives are alive and well, and in fact strengthening in some parts of the world where such might not have been expected before now.

One of such countries is Nigeria , arguably Africa's most famous and most populous country. Nigeria is a multicultural nation where people had lived in relative peace for several decades, despite significant religious and ethnic differences. In recent years, aspects of the Islamic North of Nigeria have become increasingly radicalized and this fact has been playing out as violent incidents resulting in several hundreds of deaths mostly across the Islamic North. Even without listing all of the incidents that have occurred over the last few years, most of the terrorist acts that have occurred in Nigeria over the past few months should concern everyone. In August 2011, the UN Building in the nation's capital of Abuja was attacked by a suicide bomber who left carnage in his wake. It was not long before the attack was linked to Boko Haram, an Islamic sect in Northern Nigeria that openly sympathizes with Al-Qaeda. Then on Christmas day in 2011, the same Islamic sect claimed responsibility for the bombing of churches that killed dozens of worshipping Christians in Northern Nigeria. Then in January 2012, the same Islamic sect carried out orchestrated bombing attacks in Kano, one of Nigeria's largest and most historic cities and killed almost 200 people.

Before, between and since all of these attacks, the same group has carried out several less-reported attacks. There are several reasons why this is important. First, investigative reports, including some published by UK's Daily Telegraph, have established a link between Al-Qaeda and Nigeria's Boko Haram. Secondly, the government of Nigeria is corrupt and too inept to successfully handle the challenges of Boko Haram. Thirdly, Western politicians who believe that Africa is not in the security interest of the West are ignorant and will deserve blame if terrorism strengthens in that part of the world beyond its current state. Fourth, if Nigeria explodes, so could the rest of Africa. Even for that alone, the rest of the world must not stand by and watch innocent Nigerians get killed by terrorists driven by the same ideology that has wreaked extensive horror in so many parts of the world.

Governor Mario Cuomo, A Conscientious Political Giant, Dead at 82

Former New York State Governor, Mario Cuomo, has died at age 82, just hours after his son's second inauguration as governor. It is not an accident that even NY newspapers that are usually unapologetically hostile to liberals are singing Mr. Cuomo's praises today - and each has him on its front cover, with one referring to him simply as "Super Mario".  A consistent liberal, a highly efficient governor, a charismatic and graceful leader with a captivatingly brilliant mind, Cuomo was a governor like none that has occupied that office in almost any state in our nation since his time. Most people may remember him for his oratorical skills and his refusal to run for the Presidency of the United States despite very popular demand.  That refusal earned him the nickname “Hamlet of the Hudson”.  Personally, I will remember him as a giant who was tuned into the plight of the least among his constituents and unabashedly defended his belief that government could, and should be, used for good.  Even his opponents knew where he stood and his vision of America included all of humanity.  Certainly, Mario Cuomo was ahead of his time, and no wonder he is being universally praised today. 

I have often wondered what our nation and our world would be like today had Governor Cuomo at any time occupied the office of President of the United States.  Would he have transformed the United States with his vision, his intellect and the liberal policies that he championed - which we know to be effective?  Might he have been able to tackle poverty and brought the plight of the less privileged to the forefront of political debates in this country?  Would he have been able to teach African leaders the lesson that their parents may not have taught them - that they have responsibility to the people that they govern? Indeed, we will never know.  However, here is what I think: If his son, the current New York State Governor, Andrew Cuomo, ever decides to become half the genuine, respectable and selfless man that his father was even in politics, he too would be great and would have a chance to influence our world in more ways than his father did.  So far, indications are that Andrew Cuomo is more willing to calculate his political risks than to wear his father’s shoes and trek the giant’s exact path. 

Rest in peace, Governor Cuomo, and thank you for your committed service.