Boko Haram and its impact on Nigeria's recent elections |
Posted: April 13, 2015 |
Within the last two years, the Islamic terror outfit Boko Haram has managed to take over several parts of northern Nigeria. Now, the group plans to enter and capture towns and villages from neighboring countries. In-spite of killing thousands of innocents, the group does not attract as much attention as another Islamic terror outfit called ISIS. Several countries have criticized the Nigerian Government as well as President Obama for not doing enough to crush the terror group that is willing to capture towns and convert them into Islamic state. Boko Haram target and kidnap foreign tourists, politicians, and other high profile individuals. Later, they either release the hostages after collecting the ransom amount, or kill them. The terror group also targets villages and towns with Shia Muslims and Christian population and kills them all. Last month, the group's members kidnapped 80 people from northern Cameroon region. Boko Haram proudly associates itself with Al-Qaeda and the group's activities are becoming more and more ruthless every day. Perhaps, their confidence is increasing due to Nigerian army's failure in answering back. The United States is playing an important role by training the Nigerian army. The force has always been complaining about the lack of equipment and communication channels during cross-border operations. Now, the US is offering weapons, as well as other tools like computers, radios and cell phones to the Nigerian forces. Boko Haram is growing This year the group launched its deadliest attack on Doron and Baga town during the first week of January. Thousands of houses were burnt and hundreds of people were killed. This attack was followed by another similar attack in one of Cameroon's towns during February. Instead of replying to the terrorists, and taking steps to protect people, the Nigerian armed forces and defense ministry seemed more concerned about wrapping the number of deaths. Sources indicated that thousands were killed due to Boko's attack on Doron and Baga, but defense ministry's spokesperson termed those numbers as incorrect, and said that only 150 people were killed. Expert opinion about Boko Haram Amnesty International foundation's Daniel Eyre interacted with journalists and shared his opinion about the terror outfit which he is closely observing since few months. Daniel believes that Boko Haram clearly aims at destroying schools, clinics, homes, Churches and other religious places in Nigeria. The group also wishes to spread its activities in other small countries around Nigeria. Chatham House think-tank's Elizabeth Donnelly also shared her opinion about Boko Haram and their attacking pattern. She pointed out that capturing Baga has helped the terror outfit to set-up their camps in Lake Chad. Winning against multinational forces has also increased their self-confidence. She stressed on the point that Boko Haram easily managed to fight against forces from Chad, Niger and Nigeria in Lake Chad. Now the terror group is sitting on the multinational force's military base. Terror's impact on elections Surprisingly, several political experts and crisis groups had predicted violence during elections in Nigeria. Groups had also indicated that the electoral commission and security forces were not prepared for elections. Some of them had even suggested that violence on the basis of religion and political differences may trigger law and order issues in various parts of Nigeria during elections. Military was also asked to remain cautious against Boko Haram's possible attack during election procedure. Reducing oil prices and Govt's cost cutting initiatives portrayed wrong picture. During February, some people even shared their opinion that Govt is out of money and it may not even pay salaries to employees during the time of elections. But, fortunately, every analyst proved to be incorrect by the people and political parties in Nigeria. The recent presidential elections were the most peaceful in the nation's history. However, no one can deny that the terror activities in the country forced people to remove Goodluck Jonathan from president's chair. Ground reports indicate that around 1.5 million Nigerian citizens are displaced and forced to stay away from their house and hometown due to Boko Haram's attacks. Now these people hope that the newly elected President Muhammadu Buhari would successfully fight with Boko and help them get back to their villages that are captured the terrorists. To know more about Current naija news and gist, visit www.nigerianpalsgist.com. You would definitely appreciate the site's sports, business, politics, crime and other news stories.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|