The curse of natural resources is
apparently real or more accurately, cursed interests in resource
exploration are real...
This evil often goes about masked as something
less sinister. Take for instance the insanity that is today’s
Afghanistan, which began in a fashion not too different from what Boko
Haram is acting out in Nigeria today.
Somewhere in the convoluted mix of
transitions and mishmash of Mujahedeen, Taliban and al-Qaeda was UNOCAL,
an oil multinational and its effort to construct pipelines through
Afghanistan from the petroleum-rich Caspian Basin in Central Asia. By
the way, that guy that went on to be handpicked as Afghan President upon
the routing of the Taliban in 2004, Hamid Karzai was a consultant to
UNOCAL before that appointment, something he and the company continue to
deny and the records have been purged to make the denial easier. He
happened to have also been a deputy Foreign Minister for the Taliban.
A pipeline dream set another country on fire. Syria is today the scene of
multiple proxy wars, which is senseless if only for the bizarre alliances that are engaging on industrial scale human slaughter. It might have been given different names to hide the true intent but nothing can subtract from the fact that the crisis revolves around two proposed gas pipelines that would traverse Syria; some have referred to that ugly scenario as “Pipelinestan”. Afghanistan remains fresh in the mind.
multiple proxy wars, which is senseless if only for the bizarre alliances that are engaging on industrial scale human slaughter. It might have been given different names to hide the true intent but nothing can subtract from the fact that the crisis revolves around two proposed gas pipelines that would traverse Syria; some have referred to that ugly scenario as “Pipelinestan”. Afghanistan remains fresh in the mind.
In April of 2012, Tuareg rebels overran
northern Mali under the name of the National Movement for the Liberation
of Azawad (MNLA), French state broadcaster, France 24 ran ahead of
others to give extended airtime to Mossa Ag Attaher, a spokesperson for
the rebels, with a chest caption that stopped short of recognizing
Azawad as a country. France 24 continued its attempt to report Azawad as
a sovereign nation for several days. It even christened an ambassador
for the enclave at some point. In a volte-face France later supported
the government in Bamako to contain the rebels. The then French
President Francois Hollande sold the story of how his country’s interest
was about stopping the rebels in West Africa before they become a
threat to Europe.
It has never been about terrorism for
France. “In the long term, France has interests in securing resources in
the Sahel – particularly oil and uranium, which the French energy
company Areva has been extracting for decades in neighboring Niger,”
said Katrin Sold of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) one
year after in 2013.
There was additional incentive for France to give up the Azawad misadventure at that time. It merged that group was not acting in isolation but was part of a larger ambition to fuse modern day Mali, Algeria, Libya, Chad, Northern Nigeria, Northern Cameroon, Central African Republic and Sudan into one vast wasteland controlled by fanatics.
There was additional incentive for France to give up the Azawad misadventure at that time. It merged that group was not acting in isolation but was part of a larger ambition to fuse modern day Mali, Algeria, Libya, Chad, Northern Nigeria, Northern Cameroon, Central African Republic and Sudan into one vast wasteland controlled by fanatics.
What France has not given up, however,
is the obsession for the energy possibility in the Sahel and Sahara. It
held a security summit to discuss Boko Haram which resulted in the
launch of Sahel Force in June this year. If that force is of any use it
was to catalyze the near rebirth of a terrorist group that Nigerian
military had decimated to the point of defeat. Nigeria’s militia
fighting Boko Haram – the Civilian JTF, Internally Displaced Persons and
several survivors of Boko Haram attacks had recounted in the past how
they witnessed airdrop of supplies to the terrorists across Nigeria’s
borders with francophone neighbors – Cameroon, Chad and Niger. In 2015,
eight French nationals were apprehended by Cameroonian forces for
fighting on the side of Boko Haram. They were promptly handed over to
former colonial master France once the then French Foreign Minister, Mr.
Lauren Fabuci, who simply ordered for the transfer of the suspects.
Nothing was heard afterwards by way of trial.
It is not surprising that Boko Haram
fighters that earlier fled into these neighboring Francophone countries
have slicked back to renew attacks in Nigeria shortly after the French
summit that was supposed to have fashioned a solution to their madness.
If the authorities in Nigeria get their homework right they should have
observed by now that something has changed. The true intent of Boko
Haram is emerging and doing so fast. A pointer to this is the July
attack on the team of researchers that went prospecting for petroleum in
the Lake Chad Basin area (the name does not signify Chad ownership).
Some things stand out. One, the attack
was major, not one of those skirmishes where Boko Haram fighters want to
inflict damages, instill terror and flee back into their hideouts. The
intention was apparent annihilation on a scale that will ensure no
scientist would be willing to return to the area for any prospecting.
Secondly, the intensity of the attack was possible with a combination of
sophisticated weaponry and accurate intelligence that made the ambush
deadly. Both considerations suggest state backing for the terrorists and
only one country has demonstrated interests that correspond to such
capacity in the past. It has the resources to match. Furthermore, not
much is heard anymore of Boko Haram’s desire for strict implementation
of Sharia, which implies that the crux of the matter is about cornering
resources and not the creation of a theocratic state.
A possibility that has not been openly
discussed is that the same Francophone trio that have not done enough to
combat Boko Haram would easily overrun the planned theocratic state,
install a proxy government, stabilize the region and then turn over the
real estate to their colonial master, France, for the exploration of
crude oil and Uranium to begin in earnest. Advances in fracking
technology make oil exploitation viable in this area once commercial
quantities are confirmed.
The Nigerian Government must therefore
ensure it is not caught napping. Afghanistan and Syria are warnings it
must pay heed to since things can stay bad for a long time once they are
allowed to degenerate beyond certain points. The era of thinking it is
fighting only Islamic State (ISIS/Daesh) backed Boko Haram terrorists is
past. These ones are propped up by another sovereign state and this is
even more glaring now that the cover of religious fundamentalism no
longer holds.
It is time to confront the relevant
international groups and supranational bodies with facts. France must
not be allowed to create its own version of Afghanistan or Syria in West
Africa and Nigeria is definitely the worst place to activate such
insanity not in the least using Boko Haram, made up of sociopaths and
psychopaths. The toll would be high not just on the region but on Europe
as well. As it was with the Middle East destabilization and the refugee
crisis it unleashed on Europe, only the Sahara Desert and the
Mediterranean stand to filter the refugee flow to Europe and Africans
are getting better at beating these hostile barriers. Nigeria cannot
burn for another country to light its cities and the world would think
there would be no consequences.
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