An American Connection to Boko Haram?

By Abdulazeez Abdullahi

There is no denying the fact that if the Boko Haram crisis is not resolved in the earliest possible time it could lead to the destabilization of the country. As things are now, the harmonious coexistence of the nation’s diverse peoples in different parts of the country is coming under serious threat with southerners leaving the north in fear of attacks by the religious sect that has warned them to relocate or risk attacks. This sad situation is not helped by some leaders especially of the south east who have asked their kinsmen to return home. To make matters worse, northerners residing in the south do not also sleep with two eyes closed as they live in constant fear of becoming targets of reprisals even for attacks that may have nothing to do with Boko Haram. This much was evident last week when they were forced to flee Onitsha after a policeman reportedly shot dead a motorcyclist. For the unfortunate fact that the policeman was a northerner and the motorcyclist an Igbo was enough reason for residents to vent their anger on the northerners they could lay hands on.

If this atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion amongst Nigerians is allowed to go on, surely that could provoke a major crisis that may lead to the break up of the country. By the time the Ibrahim Babangidas and the David Marks get their military uniforms back on in readiness for the trenches, it may well be too late. To avoid such scenario, perhaps they will do well to use their influence and power now to see that the country, particularly the north, gets out of this Boko Haram logjam.

The dangerous road to perdition that our dear nation is travelling on is seen by many as a deliberate grand plot allegedly put in motion by the United States of America which to it eternal credit has carved a reputation for itself over the years for such diabolical operations especially where its interests have come under threat. Last week Friday, this newspaper began publishing a three – part article by a group called the “Greenwhite Coalition” in which it drew attention to the role the United States in orchestrating the Boko Haram attacks that have evidently defied any well thought out solution from our security agencies. Grrenwhite Coalition claims that America’s Central Intelligence Agency {CIA} operates a camp in Niger Republic where it trains young Muslim radicals who have been brain washed into believing that they can bring about violent change in the country.  It claimed also that the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Abuja and indeed some of the sophisticated attacks so far carried out by members of the Islamic sect were masterminded by CIA operatives. While the group has not provided evidence yet to support its claim, it does beat the imagination how the sect was able to acquire the sophistry to carry out such audacious assault without external help.

The coalition which said its membership cuts across Nigeria’s religious and ethnic divide alleged that the Boko Haram crisis is part of a grand strategy whose ultimate goal is the break up of the county by 2015. According to the coalition, Nigeria’s influence in the West African sub region and also the continent poses a direct threat to the interest of the United States, adding that the success of ECOMOG during the Liberian crisis proved to the Americans that their influence and support may be less needed on the continent in the future.

Before Greenwhite Coalition’s warning, an American journalist, Gordon Duff, had late last year also wrtten about the alleged plot to destabilize Nigeria by what he describes as “powerful forces outside Nigeria”. Duff, who was a US marine during the Vietnam war and currently a senior editor for Veterans Today journal, said he has told his friends in the Nigerian government about the plot and even gave them a heads up on some of the attacks before they happened. According to Duff, “they who have been working with the terror groups are building an Al Qaida type organization that will be able to start across borders and carefully orchestrate a pattern of destabilization using the same contractors that are going to be paid millions to help put in place security apparatus to protect the country”. Like the Greenwhite Coalition, he too disclosed that a training base is located in Niger Republic from where attacks are being plotted.

In a country where its people have become cynical about almost everything, chances are that many Nigerians will dismiss these accounts as conjecture and conspiracy theories. It may however serve our security agencies well  to consider some of the leads the Greenwhite Coalition and Mr. Duff have thrown up. The National Security Adviser, Andrew Azazi, the sacked police chief, Hafiz Ringim and the State Security Service officials have all said that Boko Haram attacks are a new phase of terrorism which we hitherto do not know of. This clearly indicates that external forces are behind the sect’s activities.

The United States it must be said has not acquitted itself in the past to avoid being drawn into such conspiracy theories as many of the nations where the CIA had carried our covert operations have bitterly come to realize. America’s involvement in the arming of rebels and eventual toppling of regimes that undermine its interests are legion. During the Cold War, for example, The CIA helped topple a democratically elected government in Guatemala in 1954 simply because it was headed by the communist party just as it did to an elected government in Brazil in 1964. Closer to home, it also orchestrated the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana in 1966. Chile also fell victim of the treachery of the Americans when it made several attempts on the life of Salvadore Allende, the Chilean leader in 1973 before his eventual ouster.

The world will not forget in a hurry the CIA’s role in destabilizing Nicaragua in the 1980s when it armed and financed the Contra rebels who were based in Hunduras against the Sandanista government.  In a desperate bid to overthrow the Sandanista, the CIA “planted mines in civilian harbours and sunk civilian ships”. It also helped sabotage Nicaragua’s refineries, ports, and bridges without sparing a thought for the lives of many innocent civilians. In defence of these atrocities, the US had this to say: “Nicaragua’s neighbours have asked for assistance against Nicaraguan aggression and the United States has responded”. The United States is also responsible orchestrating the unending crises in Somalia by funding some war lords to destabilize the government. It also armed Ethiopian army to launch cross border attacks against the Somali government.

While there is no evidence yet of its involvement in the Boko Haram nightmare, Nigerians should not be in doubt of the capability of the United States to mastermind such a sinister plot. As history has shown, nothing stands in the way of America in its pursuit of what is in its national interest and if destabilizing Nigeria is what is required to further that national interest, well it is just a small price to pay Let however hope this is just a conspiracy theory.