Adding fuel to this theory has been the renewed outbreak of violence in Nigeria’s southern, oil-rich Niger River Delta. On October 30, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has long advocated a redistribution of oil wealth and a greater control of the region, broke its on-again, off-again peace with the government by launching a rash of attacks on oil facilities throughout the Delta.
The belief that it would be a contained and limited fight was countered by the group’s most recent communiqué which stated: “In the coming weeks, (MEND) will launch a major operation that will simultaneously affect oil facilities across the Niger Delta.”
In addition to grappling with MEND, the Nigerian government has been simultaneously engaged in fighting the northern-based Islamic militant group Boko Haram. This group, which holds links to North Africa’s al-Qaeda branch, has long been fighting to have Sharia law imposed on all northern Nigerian states. In recent days it has threatened: “Any Muslim that goes against the establishment of Sharia (law) will be attacked and killed.”
Even though a dozen states in the north operate under Sharia law, they remain under the control of secular state governments. Still this has not prevented outbreaks of heavy fighting between the sect and government forces, fighting which escalated heavily in July 2009 when Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf, died in police custody.
All of this fighting comes behind the backdrop of an upcoming January 2011 general election. The election has exacerbated tensions between Nigeria’s Muslims and Christians with the decision of current president, Goodluck Jonathan, to seek reelection.
The cause for controversy is that Jonathan, a southern Nigerian, has gone against the unwritten agreement of the ruling People’s Democratic Party that power be split between a candidate from the north and south every two terms. Jonathan is completing the term of President Umaru Yar’Adua who died in May 2010.
Adding to Western unease over the potential for sectarian violence in Nigeria is its role in already being a staging area for terrorist strikes. This fear announced itself front and center when Nigerian citizen Umar Farouk Abdulmmutaallab was accused of attempting to blow up a Northwest Airliner in Detroit on Christmas day 2009, an action which prompted the US Government to include Nigeria as a “country of interest,” one believed to be a sponsor of state terrorism.
While some believe Iran’s latest sanction violations to just be a case of “tweaking” Western powers in an attempt to demonstrate it is still a global player, others see a darker motive.
Through sponsorship of such terrorist organizations as Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaeda or the Taliban, Iran has been the prime agent behind sowing international discord since 1979. As “U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once neatly opined, “Iran has been the country that has been in many ways a kind of central banker for terrorism.”
What is not up for debate, however, is that in all the talk over Iran’s nuclear program is the unmistakable fact that Iran doesn’t need nuclear weapons to destabilize the world. Nigeria just may prove to be the latest country to prove that unfortunate point.
Frank Crimi is a freelance writer living in San Diego, California. You can read more of Frank’s work at his blog, www.writingwithoutanet.com or contact him at frankcrimi@sbcglobal.net.
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"The Iranians have steadfastly maintained that the incident was noting more than a private company's attempt to sell weapons to another yet not identified West African Nation." This from the Ahmadinejad who says that they are mining gold in Venezuela when they are mining the biggest uranium mining field in the world or when he is really training Iranians in a factory in Venezuela where they are supposed to be manufacturing car parts, or that Russia is aiding in building the nuclear facility in Iran is is for electricity purposes? the biggest story is that of another missile crisis in Venezuela with the building by Russia of another nuclear facility there, as well as the new terrorist organization training in North Africa which is going to be the next hot spot for terrorism and no one is even has it on their radar! Our country is not feared by anyone and we have lost all respect. No one fears us anymore and walks over us at will!
Our country is not feared by anyone and we have lost all respect. No one fears us anymore and walks over us at will!
You blame them? We don’t destroy our enemies anymore because we fear that others will frown down on us. Hence, we occupy them instead to win their hearts and minds even when they are obligated, per the texts and tenets of Islam, to hate our kafir infidel guts no matter what, because our elite, like Condi “appeaser” Rice, believes that Islam is a Religion of Peace™.
They tried that in the 1960s and were murdered en masse in the Biafran War. And true to form, the West did nothing, and worse still, sided with the butchers, whilst Muslims, helped by Egyptian pilots and treacherous Christians, butchered helpless Biafran Christians.
Iran shouldn't worry about arming Hamas. The United States is pouring about 1.5 billions per year into the P.A. It will end up with Hamas. If that doesn't suffice the U.S. taxpayer is also funding the training and development of a P.A. army. When you see P.A. you also can read Hamas. Why should we do what Iran is already doing?
Oh well, let's just reschedule another Security Council meeting so we can discuss the new issue; that is after officially recalling Iranian ambassadors all over the world and tell them how naughty we think they are.
We can also schedule talks on the issues raised above by Renee – concerning mining uranium (for electricity of course) and its alliance with every known dictatorship in the world.
Damn, it's nearly Christmas, best we schedule these talks in next year's Security sessions. Iran will respect the Christmas break and tell its nuclear physicists to halt progress on their new bomb.
The survival of Ahmadinejad and the appeasement of the US Government are the two faces of the same coin.