Kidnapping girls and raping them many times a day is standard practice for the young men recruited to Boko Haram’s ‘holy’ cause, as are the drugs help to keep them going.
 
By Philip Obaji Jr.
 
CALABAR, Nigeria — Every time the Nigerian military raids Boko Haram hideouts in northeast Nigeria, soldiers report intriguing stockpiles quite apart from the predictable guns, bombs, and machetes. Often these include magical amulets and trinkets, and, frequently, quantities of Viagra and similar sex-enhancing pharmaceuticals.
 
There is a reason for the obsession with erectile function, and it is common to most of the extreme jihadist movements, especially those, like Boko Haram, that have pledged allegiance to the so-called caliphate that claims the name “Islamic State”: the promise of sex is a great recruiting tool, and sexual prowess is deemed to have mystical powers.
 
Thus in Iraq, ISIS has a record of enslaving women and girls deemed “non-believers,” then handing them over to the not-so-tender ministrations of men with years of pent-up frustrations. In Nigeria, Boko Haram has made the kidnapping of young women, like the girls taken from Chibok school two years ago, almost a trademark of its movement. Such practices, from the jihadist point of view, have a couple of benefits. They sow terror at the same time they attract young men to jihadist ranks.
 
But we have to be careful here. The jihadists’ enemies are forever claiming they are sex-mad monsters more interested in concubines than the Quran.
 
“When the military captured their bases and training camps, they never found Quran or other Islamic books,” Nigerian army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement released last September after a number of camps were raided. “What they found were ammunition, local charms, condoms and all sort of drugs including sex enhancing ones in their enclaves.”
 
In fact, independent analysts confirm this general picture. The talismans, according to a non-military source, are not in the least Islamic, and they have a special purpose: “When the girls aren’t scared of dying even with a gun pointed at them, the militants use local charms to hypnotize and lure them,” said Yusuf Mohammed, a respected Arabic scholar and community organizer in the northeastern town of Maiduguri who also assists the city’s main vigilante group, the Civilian Joint Task Force, in intelligence gathering. “And because they sleep with so many girls in a day, they are forced to depend on sex enhancing drugs so as to last long in the act, and a condom when they suspect a woman has sexually transmitted disease.”
 
Figures certainly seem to show that Boko Haram militants have a huge appetite for sex. A report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released early this year estimates more than 2,000 girls have been abducted since the jihadist group began its uprising in the northeast over six years ago. Other estimates put the number at 7,000, with the presumption that many if not all of them are used as sex slaves.
 
A number of these girls have become pregnant in captivity and some have contracted sexually transmitted diseases. Many have been raped repeatedly and relentlessly.
 
Asabe Aliyu was about 23 years of age when she was abducted in 2014 by Boko Haram militants from Delsak, a village near Chibok in the northeast. The mother of four children was taken to the jihadist’s stronghold in the remote Sambisa forest where she was sexually assaulted day after day by different men and forced into marrying one of the militants.
 
“They turned me into a sex machine. They took turns to sleep with me,” she told Daily Times, a Nigerian newspaper. “Now I am pregnant and I cannot identify the father.”
 
A number of other girls have told stories of how they were raped and violated almost on a daily basis by the same unit of militants in Sambisa forest. Some of the victims are as young as 8.
 
“Some victims have said the militants usually discuss among themselves the number of girls they’ll sleep with in a day,” said Yusuf Mohammed, who has interviewed and counseled a number of Boko Haram victims in Maiduguri. “The aim is so that they’ll be able to impregnate as many girls as possible and bear children who will continue in the jihad.”
 
Last year, Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima, told reporters that the urge to bear kids is driven by Boko Haram’s superstitious believe that their children will take after their cause.
 
“These people have a certain spiritual conviction that any child they father will grow to inherit their ideology whether they live with the children or not,” Shettima said. “The sect leaders make very conscious effort to impregnate the women.”
 
To fulfill this macho obligation, jihadists turn to performance enhancing medications. The army announced as recently as Friday that it recovered “sex enhancing drugs such as Viagra” from some militants as they tried to flee Sambisa forest on Thursday.
 
Viagra and similar drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction work only with sexual stimulation and do not increase the desire for sex. But the fact that they could maintain an erection for up to five hours (a health hazard warned against on the package) is what Boko Haram militants find so appealing.
 
A victim of Boko Haram’s sexual violence once told me that the jihadists love to boast among themselves about their sexual stamina, and that they bet on who will last the longest in having sex.
 
“Anyone who has sex for the longest hours wins whatever bet has been placed,” she said. “They take whichever girl they want and they can have sex for hours.”
 
In March, the government of Borno state, announced the closure of cattle markets in the capital city because agents working for Boko Haram sold cattle stolen by jihadists from neighboring villages in these markets and used the proceeds to buy food and drugs for the militants.
 
Local vigilantes and security officials have identified sex enhancing drugs as the medicines these agents most commonly buy from retail pharmaceutical stores.
 
“About five people were arrested by the military and they confessed to buying these drugs for the militants,” Yusuf Mohammed said. “They use proceeds from the stolen cattle they sell to buy these medicines.”
 
With the number of girls Boko Haram has abducted, it is clear what the jihadists intend to achieve: to punish as many girls as possible through rape, and father as many children as they can by impregnating them.
 
“The more girls they kidnap, the more sex enhancing drugs they’ll need,” Yusuf Mohammed said. “These militants just want sex with every girl in their custody.”
 
Philip Obaji Jr. is the founder of 1 GAME, an advocacy and campaigning organization that fights for the right to education for disadvantaged children in Nigeria, especially in northeastern Nigeria, where Boko Haram forbids western education. Follow him @PhilipObaji
 
Culled from The Daily Beast
 
Photo Illustration by Bridgette Supernova/The Daily Beast

By Rueben Abati
 
This day, June 12 will always be remembered by those who have defied the culture of silence and conspiracy against a significant moment in Nigerian history, to remind us of how today, 23 years ago, the battle against the exit of the military from power was fought at the ballot by a determined Nigerian people.
 
It is indeed sad that apart from the South West states of Oyo, Ogun, Lagos and Osun which have doggedly continued to celebrate the hero, and later martyr of that battle, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, there has been studied indifference to the June 12 phenomenon by the Federal Government and remarkably, the rest of Nigeria.
 
This is sadder still because MKO Abiola was not an ethnic champion: he was a man of pan-Nigerian vision and ambition, who went into politics to give the people hope, to unite them and lead them out of poverty. His campaign manifesto was instructively titled “Hope 93- Farewell to Poverty: How to make Nigeria a better place for all.”
 
 
 
When Nigerians voted in the presidential election of June 12, 1993, they chose the Muslim-Muslim ticket of MKO Abiola and Baba Gana Kingibe under the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). MKO Abiola not only defeated the Presidential candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC), Bashir Tofa in his home state of Kano, he also defeated him “fairly and squarely” with “58.4% of the popular vote and a majority in 20 out of 30 states and the FCT.”
 
That election was adjudged to be free and fair, and peaceful. But the Ibrahim Babangida-led military government had been playing games with the transition-to-civilian rule, and so it chose not to announce the final results of the election, and later on June 23, 1993, the Presidential election was annulled.
 
This was a coup against the Nigerian people, and an act of brazen injustice, but June 12 will go down in history as the birthday of the revolution that swept the Nigerian military back to the barracks. The media began to refer to MKO Abiola as “the man widely believed to have won the June 12, 1993 election”, or perhaps, “the undeclared winner” but those who played key roles at the time, including Humphrey Nwosu, the chief electoral umpire, have since confessed that “their hands were tied”, and that indeed MKO Abiola won the election. General Ibrahim Babangida, then Head of State, has not been able to live down that error of judgement.
 
It was the final error that also consumed his government, forcing him to “step aside”, and as it turned out “step away”. He left behind an Interim National Government (ING) led by Chief Ernest Shonekan who was handpicked for the assignment, but the ING contrivance only survived for 83 days; in November 1993, General Sani Abacha, who was in the ING as Minister of Defence, seized power. It was obvious that the military never wanted to relinquish power.
 
June 12 brought out the worst and the best in the people: the worst in the military and its hungry agents definitely, but the injustice of its annulment released the people’s energy and capacity for protest. Progressive Nigerians spoke in unison against military tyranny and the violation of their right to choose. The Abacha government, which had initially deceived the progressives about its intentions, unleashed a reign of terror on the country: media houses were attacked, journalists were jailed, bombed, beaten, civil society activists were hauled into detention.
 
But the repression was met with stiff resistance. The people insisted on the election of June 12, the military’s exit and Abiola’s declaration as winner of the election. On June 11, 1994, in what is now known as the Epetedo declaration, Chief MKO Abiola declared a Government of National Unity and asked for his mandate to be duly recognized. He was subsequently arrested for treasonable felony, but that only added fuel to the protests. Abiola later died in custody on July 7, 1998, a month to the day, after General Sani Abacha himself died.
 
But the real outcome was that the military had been branded evil, and the people would accept nothing but the end of military rule. This was the scenario that led to the return to democratic rule on May 29, 1999, and the specific choice of a political figure from the South West to assuage the expressed fears of the South West that the denial of MKO Abiola’s mandate was an assault on the right of the South West.
 
The ethnicization of the June 12 protest was unfortunate because indeed the struggle against tyranny recruited foot soldiers from virtually every part of the country, international support also gave the struggle higher relevance; those were the days when serving foreign diplomats joined pro-democracy protesters to wave placards on the streets. Many died, and they were all from across Nigeria, businesses were affected, but the people were determined to make the sacrifice. It was that revolution that made May 29, 1999 possible, and if any date is deserving of celebration, it is June 12.
 
The irony is that those who benefited most from MKO Abiola’s martyrdom do not want to be reminded of him. And those who used to talk about injustice have since, given the opportunity, inflicted their own injustice on the people. Those who used to swear by Abiola’s name have since found new political patrons. Those who proclaimed Abiola as the symbol of democracy and the rallying point for the people’s hopes have since been dancing on his grave.
 
Successive federal administrations since 1999, have also failed to redress the injustice of 1993, by doing the minimum of declaring June 12 a national holiday. There have been suggestions along this line, including the possibility of a post-humous national honour (the only constraint here is that the national honour is not awarded post-humously although there is nothing that expressly forbids this in the enabling Act), or the naming of a major national monument after MKO, or the official admission that the June 12, 1993 election was indeed won and lost and was not in any way inconclusive.
 
Truth: Nigeria forgets too soon, too easily. For, when indeed the Jonathan administration tried to address this injustice by naming a significant national institution after MKO Abiola, the attempt resulted in controversy and a storm.  The last paragraph of then President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2012 Democracy Day speech had renamed the University of Lagos after MKO Abiola. Both the students and staff trooped to the streets in protest.
 
They rejected the name-change and declared that their university’s name is a brand that nobody, not even the Federal Government of Nigeria could tamper with, in honour of anybody, living or dead. They said they were not consulted and the University Act had not been amended. Politics and opportunism was read into the gesture, and the government had to eat the humble pie. Would the reaction be different if another government were to take the same step, the same way the reaction to the increase in the pump price of petroleum products has been different this year, under a different dispensation?
 
MKO Abiola was a victim of military politics and conspiracy, now his martyrdom and legacy seem lost in the intricate web of conditioned amnesia and the ego of those who continue to compete with his memory. In a country where history is no longer taught, and there are no well-managed museums and monuments to make history part of the public landscape, a generation is already emerging, like the generation of UNILAG students in 2012, who may someday ask: who is MKO Abiola? Those who refuse to teach history run the risk of producing children who may lack the capacity to remember and the wisdom to appreciate history’s many lessons.
 
Those who insist speculatively that MKO Abiola could not have been a good President also miss the point about his example and legacy: his martyrdom shaped the architecture of much that happened subsequently in Nigerian history, and it is not the military’s duty to veto the people of Nigeria.
 
The military have been shipped out of power for good, they can only return as they have been doing as retired soldiers, and whatever happens with our democracy, the people are resolved that nobody can annul their right to choose, and it is part of their right to choose, to sometimes make mistakes and learn.
 
The various state governments and civil groups that remember and celebrate MKO Abiola every year deserve a pat on the back for defying amnesia. June 12 is ultimately not just about one man who became a symbol; it is also about the collective struggle against military tyranny, a reminder of people power and the value of civil society; it is that historical moment when Nigerians voted for change and stood by it.
 
On this occasion of the 23rd anniversary, may the words of MKO Abiola at Epetedo on June 11, 1994 prick our conscience: “People of Nigeria, exactly one year ago, you turned out in your millions to vote for me, Chief MKO Abiola as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
 
But politicians in uniform, who call themselves soldiers but are more devious than any civilian would want to be, deprived you of your God-given right to be ruled by the President you had yourselves elected. These soldier-politicians introduced into our body politic, a concept hitherto unknown to our political lexicography, something strangely called the “annulment” of an election perceived by all to have been the fairest, cleanest and most peaceful ever held in our nation.
 
       “…My hope has always been to arouse whatever remnants of patriotism are left in the hearts of these thieves of your mandate, and to persuade them that they should not allow their personal desire to rule to usher our beloved country into an ear of political instability and ruin…
 
      “Instead they have resorted to the tactics of divide and rule, bribery, and political perfidy, misinformation and (vile) propaganda. How much longer can we tolerate all this? There is no humiliation I have not endured, no snare that has not been put in my path, no “setup” that has not been designed for me in my endeavor to use the path of peace to enforce the mandate that you bestowed on me one year ago.  It has been a long night. But the dawn is here. Today people of Nigeria, I join you all in saying, “Enough is Enough!”…Enough of military rule…Enough of square pegs in round holes…”
 
I recommend a reading of the entire declaration by all patriots in remembrance of Chief MKO Abiola.
 
 
Culled from www.ynaija.com
 

By Blackice
 
So I got to the state secretariat this morning in the rain and went up the elevator to follow up my letters of invite that I had submitted more than a week ago.

As soon as the elevator door opened, I was greeted by the most horrible smell ever experienced and it came from the toilet which was directly opposite the elevators.
 
I managed to get out quickly and practically ran to the office I was headed and waited for more than 2 hours for officials to arrive at work.
 
Mind you, I got to the secretariat complex as early as 8.30am.
 
In all the offices that I visited, no officer was around so I had no choice than to wait until 11.am
 
Now sitting and waiting and quietly thinking my day through, a man dressed in an attire that made me think he could be a pastor walked in and sat by my side. 
 
We exchanged pleasantries and almost immediately started playing music on his phone (classical).
 
Let me break to say this....I am a lover of classical music, but should he have?
 
Now my question is...If a Muslim does same thing in same airspace as he was, how would he have felt?
 
If I also start playing my hip hop or reggae or those very loud music how would I appear to him?
 
My point is I think we should do onto others what we wish others onto us...
 
I am a believer and a follower of Christ and I make bold to say it any and everywhere... but I’d rather we do not throw our preferences into other peoples’ faces.
 
I am Blackice and I think to make my opinions clear