War Against Terror: UK Stands With Nigeria To Defeat Boko Haram, Says UK International Development Minister

The United Kingdom (UK) says it is supporting Nigeria in the ongoing war against the Boko Haram insurgents.  UK Minister for International Development, Nick Hurd, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that UK had a very long cordial relationship with Nigeria.

 “The very long partnership between UK and Nigeria matters a great deal to us; even my Prime Minister has made it very clear that we stand shoulder to shoulder with Nigeria in the battle against Boko Haram.

“We understand how many thousands and millions of peoples’ lives have been devastated by the atrocities in the North East.

Chibok girls: Pakistani girls’ education campaigner Malala Yousafzai flies to Nigeria to campaign

Foremost girls’ education campaigner, Malala Yousafzai, 17, is on her way to Nigeria to campaign on behalf of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls by Islamic radical group, Boko Haram, according to reports from Telegraph UK. 

Yousafzai has been a backer of the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign. Her visit to Nigeria takes place almost three months to the day since the abduction of the girls, who were taken by Boko Haram militants from a boarding school in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14. 

Yousafzai who is expected to arrive Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, Sunday will also meet with relatives of the kidnapped girls, she is also expected to seek an audience with President Goodluck Jonathan.

When the President writes, By Abdulaziz Abdulaziz

Like when he speaks, when we see the president writes, it is something that jolts us. We the incurable optimists always rush out to the transistor radio or to the TV set, anytime we hear the president is up to speak. We expect something new. It is like when the women ululate, he who has a heavy one at home would expect baby’s cry from his hut. Imagine then, how disappointingly boring it would be when such rush to catch the good news is spoilt by a completely different one. Or, at worse, a more agonising experience when what is said, a la “You journalists know more than the president”, is unbefitting of the office and person of the president.

Then it occurs, our own President Goodluck Jonathan has written for the Washington Post. By my own reckoning, this is the first time a serving Nigerian president would write for an international publication, like the Washington Post. If there were any, please do not seek to remind me, in Nigeria we are all afflicted by amnesia. By the way, amnesia is a sweet affliction here, do not pity us. It is a nice way of forgetting our past misfortunes and, at the same time, a fine tool for political leaders who seek to misguide the people and rule over our ignorance.

Islamist terrorists shot at FG panel members in Borno –Akinyemi

A member of the Presidential Committee on the abducted Chibok schoolgirls, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, on Tuesday narrated how members of the committee were attacked by Boko Haram members in Bama, Borno State.

Akinyemi, who is also the deputy chairman of the National Conference, disclosed this while advising delegates to be cautious in their reactions to the explosion that rocked Kano School of Hygiene on Monday.

“We were attacked in Bama by Boko Haram and it took over 30 minutes of heavy fighting between the sect and the armed forces before we were rescued and taken away,” he said.

Listening To Him, Borno Governor And His Witch Cries

This is indeed a wise saying: Some people talk out of experience and some, out of experience, do not talk. Maybe, the Federal Government should learn to listen to Alhaji Kashim Shettima, the erstwhile university teacher and wordy Governor of Borno State. The man can pass for a prophet, as everything he has said concerning Boko Haram has turned out to be true, and his predictions about the terrorist Islamic sect equally come to pass always. The accuracy of his predictions would make seers in Nigeria cringe with envy.

Let us recall a few of them. The banker turned politician once stunned the plagued nation, saying to whoever cared to listen, that Boko Haram terrorists were better armed and better motivated than the highly rated Nigerian military. It turned out to be factual that these factors were chiefly responsible for why the military could not take out a ragtag army called Boko Haram.

(Photo) Newly Installed Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanus Join #BringBackOurGirls Struggle for Chibok Girls

The newly Installed Emir of Kano who officially assumed office on Sunday has been reportedly joined and support the #BringBackOurGirls protest for the Boko Haram kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls.

The new Emir, His Royal Highness Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is no doubt in direct contrast and clear opposition to anything Jonathanians as he was sacked by the president Jonathan from office as the CBN Governor before the destiny now worked his way to the thrown seat of Kano.

CONFIRMED: Jonathan received new video of abducted girls begging for their lives

The Presidency yesterday confirmed receiving a new video showing the abducted Chibok schoolgirls begging for their lives. 

The Girls were seen pleading with President Jonathan to help rescue them from their Boko Haram captors. 

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, made the confirmation in an interview with CNN aired last night. 

The British newspaper Mail on Sunday had reported that the video was delivered to the Presidency by a Boko Haram intermediary as “proof of life” for the girls and to encourage the President to accede to the sect’s demands. 

EXCLUSIVE: Nigerian Military sights abducted Chibok schoolgirls in 3 Boko Haram camps

Nigeria’s Special Forces from the Army’s 7th Division have sighted and narrowed the search for the more than 250 abducted Chibok schoolgirls to three camps operated by the extremist Boko Haram sect north of Kukawa at the western corridors of the Lake Chad, senior military and administration officials have said.

“It has been a most difficult but heroic breakthrough,” one senior military official said in Abuja.

That claim was supported by another senior commander from the Army’s 7th Division, the military formation created to deal with the insurgency in the Northeast. The 7th Division is headquartered in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

The breakthrough comes at a critical moment for the Nigerian military that has faced cutting criticism over its handling of the kidnapping of the girls more than a month ago.

President Jonathan Accepts Israeli Netanyahu offers to Join the Search for Chibok Girls

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday offered to help Nigeria search for hundreds of Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by extremist Islamist group Boko Haram. A statement from the premier’s office said that Netanyahu, currently on an official visit to Japan, made the proposal in a telephone call to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Israel expresses its deep shock at the crime against the girls,” it quoted Netanyahu as saying. “We are prepared to help in locating the girls and to fight the cruel terror which has struck you.”

Peter Oshun writes an "OPEN LETTER TO THE FIRST LADY"

Dear Madam:

It grieves me to pound out a letter to your good self in circumstances such as these, on the subject on which I feel compelled to address myself to you in the paragraphs below, because they are matters which as the oyinbo would say, really should go without saying. My grief aside, I also am conscious of the impertinence on my part, certainly a slight sense of incongruity, as with the young Obi Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease when he won public disgrace and reduced his primary school headmaster to tears by writing a letter to Adolf Hitler, no less, at the height of World War 2. You are no Adolf Hitler, madam, but neither am I a precocious prepubescent colonial pupil unmindful of the treasonous implications of giving aid and comfort to the enemy in wartime. I am a Nigerian citizen concerned about the welfare of my own sovereign state, and you madam, far from being in a legal state of war with Nigeria, are the wife of its elected president. By some bizarre twist of circumstances you could well be the most important person in Nigeria today, certainly the most important person in government, by virtue or in spite of your constitutionally indeterminate position as First lady, with all the arrogated powers appurtenant.

Okonjo Iweala: I'm Tired of School Girls' Story

The Nigerian Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Eweala says She's Tired of Talking About the Kidnapped Girls.

When asked by the ABC news America to respond to some questions on the Boko Haram Abducted Chibok schoolgirls, the minister said she is tired of the same story.

She said the government is doing all it could to bring the girls back safely.