Twenty-one scholars with expertise on Nigeria sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today on Boko Haram. The letter begins by noting the "horrific violence" perpetrated against civilians and government officials, but argues that responding to Boko Haram ultimately requires a "diplomatic, developmental, and demilitarized framework." You can download the full text of the letter to Clinton here.
Nigeria's National Security Advisor is visiting Washington, D.C. this week, and Secretary Clinton has been under pressure from Republicans in the House of Representatives to formally designate Boko Haram a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The Department of Justice's National Security Division wrote a letter to Clinton in January, also urging her to make the designation.
The US-based academics, however, argue that formally labeling Boko Haram an FTO would "limit American policy options to those least likely to work." In particular, it would:
(1) Internationalize Boko Haram's standing and enhance its status among radical organizations elsewhere. A report by Homeland Security Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives in November was entitled, "Boko Haram: Emerging Threat to the US Homeland," and John Brennan, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, said in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center on April 30 that Boko Haram "appears to be aligning itself with al-Qaida's violent agenda and is increasingly looking to attack Western interests in Nigeria, in addition to Nigerian government targets." Many scholars however suggest that despite claims by members of the group, and some alleged contact with terrorist organizations outside Nigeria, Boko Haram overwhelmingly remains a domestic problem.
(2) Give disproportionate attention to counter-terrorism in bilateral relations at a time when economic ties are expanding and a robust multi-faceted relationship has emerged. Last month the U.S. Special Operations Command organized a three day conference on Boko Haram, which entailed a detailed discussion about possible next steps. Some government civilians saw this as an effort to make policy – rather than simply implement it. This was a marked contrast with comments by AFRICOM four years ago, when it repeatedly reassured its critics that it would "stay in its lane." The signers of the letter argue, "The State Department and its civilian developmental partners must be in the lead" on Nigeria policy.
(3) Undermine Nigeria's progress on the rule of law in two ways: First, by effectively legitimizing abuses by security services that Human Rights Watch and other organizations have drawn attention to as urgent, ongoing problems. This issue is especially important because the extrajudicial killing of Boko Haram's captured leader by the police in 2009 was immediately followed by an expansion of violence, radicalization, and fragmentation of Boko Haram. Second, President Goodluck Jonathan is pushing the National Assembly for Martial Law. Historically, such measures have been followed by broader political instability. It would give the military an expanded role in law enforcement in a country with a deep history of authoritarianism. Moreover, given the contentious nature of Jonathan's ascent to power in 2010, and his election in 2011 despite the informal PDP understanding that it was the North's "turn" to rule, additional executive latitude would likely be interpreted as a desperate attempt by a southerner to hold on to power.
(4) Impede humanitarian assistance and possibly independent academic research. The scholars note that the national security list system has created a "cumbersome and arbitrary process" that has interfered with humanitarian work in Africa. The Charity and Security Network has documented how provisions of the Patriot Act prevented humanitarian assistance from reaching hungry people during last summer's famine in east Africa, for example. In a new report entitled "Deadly Combination: Disaster Conflict and the U.S. Material Support Law," CSN notes that once an organization is listed as an FTO, the US Treasury Department explicitly prohibits "any transactions" with listed groups or other entities described as their supporters.For this reason, the academics in the letter raise the concern that the FTO's broad legal regime could also impact their ability to conduct independent scholarly inquiry.
An excellent report from the Center for American Progress summarizes the legal consequences of an FTO designation, and points out how numerous terrorist organizations are not designated as such because of the cumbersome problems that it generates for humanitarianism and balanced inter-agency policy making.
The FTO designation would likely have devastating effects on remittances from Nigerian-Americans. According to the World Bank, Nigeria was the highest recipient of remittance flows to Africa in 2011. It received an estimated $10.6 billion, amounting to 4.5% of Nigeria's GDP. Thousands of Nigerian-Americans would therefore fear prosecution for sending money home. And at a time when the US is trying to demonstrate its goodwill in the north, families there in particular would face additional burdens and hardships. Click here to see a chart prepared by the Migration Policy Institute tracking Nigeria's remittances over time.
I was one of the letter's initiators, along with Peter Lewis from SAIS and Jean Herskovits from SUNY – Purchase. I will be giving a brief talk on Boko Haram at a conference sponsored by the Jamestown Foundation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Tuesday, June 19 , in Washington, DC. I hope to see some of you there.
Source: Dr. Carl LeVan's Homepage
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I wount be surprised if "Prof." Jean Herzcovits or whatever is in the list of "scholars" making this weird proposition. She was the one who said in a January article in New York Times that BH is imaginary. That Boko Haram did not exist. Now, she and her accomplices agree that it exists but is not dangerous enough. This is all because she benefited from the sponsors of Boko Haram. I am sure Americans know that the Christmas underwear bomber is from Boko Haram territory. How dangerous would they want BH to be ...???
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The US government should do well to heed the advice of its inteligence experts rather than listen to these arm-chair scholars.
If these guys are really scholars then apology to BOKO HARAM. This bunch of idle and ill-informed persons who call themselves scholars from Nigeria (by the way I did not see any Nigerian name amongst them except their names too have imploded). John Campbell, a Former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, a board member in Atiku Abubarkar’s university who belongs to Atiku abubakar ’s camp, who has been leading a campaign of doom for Nigeria, if a northern candidate does not win the election in the 2011 has been the campaign strategist in the US trying to mold a different opinion and misinform the US diplomatic circle about events in Nigeria especially relating to BOKO HARAM which appears to be the instrument in Atikus camp for making Nigeria ungovernable if he did not win the 2011 presidential elections. The US government had better not listen to these craps who try to paint a picture quite different from reality. The reality is not in the corridors of US Universities far removed from the theater of war in the street of northern Nigeria. Nobody can sell that silly story to Nigerians that BOKO Haram arose because of economic inequalities between the north and southern Nigerian. When did southerners become the presidents or heads of state of Nigeria? What is the contribution of the north to the economic growth of Nigeria? They always reap or threaten to reap where they did not sow. It is better for the US government to dispassionately take action to assist Nigeria in this fight against violent Islamic extremism. Remember the under pant bomber, when his father reported him to the US embassy they were very lazy to verify the facts of the complaint rather they dwelt on stereo-types. That’s what the US government is doing again. BOKO HARAM is a cancer spreading, if not contained by all interested parties in Nigerian affairs then US interest in Nigeria would be at risk. Let no one be deceived BOKO HARAM is Al Qaida’s entrance to Nigerian, the footprints are all there.
Prof.Jean Herzcovits and her clique of Twenty-one Scholars are either a bunch of ignorant people or paid agents of the Wahabis of Arbia and Mullahs of Iran who are financing the ongoing Íslamization of Nigeria. It is a fact that all instituitions in Nigeria are corrupt and malfunction.Is is also an undisputed fact that a grinding poverty exist all over Nigeria.But the Boko Haram terrorists are not fighting fo bread and butter.They want to Islamize and impose sharia all over Nigeria.They go about that by murdering specifically innocent Christians in cold blood.They bomb Christian property and places of worship.The claim that the Hausa/Fulani murder both muslims and Christians is a specious fallacy.Christians are their specific targets while muslims at times are mere victims of collateral damages caught by the shards and shrapnels of their suicide car bombing campaign.The victims of Al Qaeda in Iraq,Syria and Yemen are muslims.So are those of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and also of the Al Shaabab of Somalia.All three groups are terrorists. It is a fact that the Boko Haram terrorist are being sponsored by some elements within Jonathan's ruling PDP party.A former Governor of Borno State,Senator Ali Modu Sheriff has never denied ever finncing the Boko Haram in the past. A captured Boko Haram terrorist,Mallam Ali Sanda Umar Konduga (alias Usman Al-zawahiri) fingered Senator Muhammed Ali Ndume as one of the directors of the terrorist operations.Senator Ali Ndume hasn't denied offering logistics to the Boko Haram sect.According to him all he did was at the behest of no other person but,the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.So when President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan went public to announce that within his cabinet are members and sympathizers of the Boko Haram sect,he was indeed referring to his own deputy,Alahji Namadi Sambo and others.Those are untouchable and the PDP is cult.All members are protected not only by their PDP cult but also by immunity clause.And it came to pass that no court in Nigeria could convict Chief Jame Ibori.It is indeed an Orwellian double-speak of a system that Nigerians practice. The Hausa/Fulani muslims want a Theocratic Islamic Republic with sharia.But our Commonwealth is a secular Republic.If the so called Twenty-one Scholars of America were not what they really are,agents of the Arabian Sheiks and of the Mullahs of Iran,they could have agreed with me that a permanent resolution of Nigerian problem is our going the way of the Soviets, Yugoslavians and of course the Sudanese of recent. At the very long run, the Christians especially the Igbos who have been permanent victims of the Hausa/Fulani cold blooded mass murders since 1922 will eventually take up arms to defend themselves like they did in 1967.Si vis pacem bellum para!
In the 21st Century world, a group of non-Nigerians have clad themselves as Nigerian "intellectuals" operating out of the US. Funny thing, I've lived in the US for 40-years and have never heard of these strange names who now call themselves Nigerians. Is this another forum for Amb. Campbell to continue to proselytise his Northern Nigerian political action or interest group in the US Congress, or have legitimate Nigerians suddenly disappeared from the United States to the point that we would allow the likes of Ambassador Campbell to speak for Nigeria in the US Congress? I find it quite annoying that Alhaji Atiku's handpicked lobbying groups in the US would be bold enough to publish this nonsense as if to imply that legitimate Nigerians have given their consent to this illogical diatribe to the extent that someone would actually publish it for the public's consumption. Not only must the Secretary of State - Hillary Clinton discountenance this, she must, I hope, ask the hard question as to: Who actually is Dr. Carl Levan? Which part of Nigeria was he born, and when did he change his name to a Jewish surname? I have long concluded that the likes of Ambassador Campbell have NEVER wished Africa well, and would do whatever it takes to ensure that this beautiful continent remain mired in controversy and internal strifes. I hope the Nigerian Ambassador to the US would speak up against these well-scripted organs of disunity that often call themselves "Friends of Africa." For, if they are friends of Africa, I would hate to see our enemies and what they look like.
Do the writers forgot that the present Nigeria government is a terrorist government, in fact, Boko Haram was used to rig election in the Northern Nigeria. In as much as this govt. keeps on working with B.H. the acts of terrorism will never stop in Nig. Which i strongly believed that the entire world is aware of it. Now is the right time to label Nig. a terrorist country, not during Mutalab's attempted terror act in the US, that was not sent by Nig. govt. which was wrong then, now the govt. sponsors terrorism in many ways, B.H. members are virtually in all institutions of the govt. which some of them was arrested and letter they were released for no good reason. If the govt. is not a terrorist govt. how come they have been unable to arrest the problem since, they new that arresting the problems will open the can of worm. writing to HILARY CLINTON is like chasing shadow.
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