ABUJANISTAN:
Nigeria in the Web of Global Jihad & Islamic Terrorism
By Moses Oludele Idowu
“A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; people don’t need to be wicked but only that they be spineless.”
– James Baldwin ( The Fire Next Time)
“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel – it is before all, to make you see.”
– Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
The Third World War started. Yes, you heard me right. The World War has started and we are in it whether you like to hear that or not. It didn’t begin today however, it started long ago but many people are not even aware of it. It started on October 6, 1981.
And this war is not between rich and poor or black versus white; it is between freedom and bondage, between liberty and slavery, between globalism and ideologies of totalitarian internationalism on one side and the right of the nation-state and ethnic national/ religious identity on the other hand.
How?
Follow me I want to show you the root of what is going on so you can understand what is ahead of you and be prepared to fight it.
On the morning of October 6, 1981, General Anwar Sadat, ( bless his dear heart) was reviewing a victory parade of the Egyptian army in Cairo in celebration of Operation Badr, the Egyptian Army Suez Canal crossing and temporary Victory against Israel during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Immediately he was cut down by two soldiers, members of the Al-Jihad, the military wing of Al- Islamiyyah, and an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Why is this even significant and historic? Why is this of concern to us?
Anwar Sadat was the human face of Islam, that is moderate Islam. A general of the army who chose to toe the path of peace rather than war; a man of peace who chose to make peace with Israel rather than continue hostility as most Muslims preferred with Israel. Even he refused to kill and torture members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the radical elements of Islam because he felt as a Muslim it was wrong to kill another Muslim. Instead, he tried to appease and placate them, to make them see the reason why Egypt could not be like Saudi Arabia as a full-blown Islamic State. But you can’t placate or appease a devil. That was Sadat’s greatest mistake and it cost him his life. The same terrorists and radicals that he spared in the name of common Islamic solidarity took his own life in a gruesome murder.
The killing of Anwar Sadat and the popular support for that killing in some Arab states like Libya, Iran, and Syria shows a shift, a stark departure in the relations of the Muslim world with the rest of the World. The killing of Sadat and the support that the killing enjoyed in some Arab nations ( for several hours the news was replayed and celebrated with joy on Libyan radio) because they considered his rapprochement with Israel as a betrayal of Islam and the Arabs shows that Moderate Islam had given way to Radical Islam. The last voice for peace and the human symbol and Face of Moderate Islam was Sadat and his killing shows a shift has occurred.
This is the first angle to the mystery of what is now playing out.
Hosni Mubarak who took over after Sadat did not treat these radicals like Muslims with mercy or compassion, he treated them as enemies and worse than enemies. They were flushed out of Egypt and they scattered in different directions to London, Iran, Lebanon and, for most of them, Afghanistan.
The incursion of the Soviet Union to dislodge and invade Afghanistan, a sovereign Muslim state provided another opening for jihadists and radicals worldwide to test their strength with a superpower. America came into the picture to revenge for her defeat in Vietnam which the Soviet Union made possible by arming the Vietcongs, a Soviet proxy against Americans. It was Soviet Union’s time to taste the bitter pill. So Americans armed most of these jihadists and the CIA recruited many to fight Soviet occupational forces. It was here Osama bin Laden began to work with the CIA and al-Qaeda was born. The hordes of terrorists that could no longer stay in Egypt due to Mubarak’s crackdown moved en masse to Afghanistan to open another theatre of war. Al- Zawahiri who became Bin Laden’s deputy was one of the masterminds of Sadat’s assassination who escaped Egypt. He became the leader of al-Qaeda after Laden was killed and he too met his death in the hands of American forces through drones this last week, a deserved end after a bloody career in terrorism.
After several years Russia discovered that it would never win the war. The cost was too much to bear even for a superpower. Thus on 15 May 1988, the Soviet Union began to withdraw with shame just like the Americans did in Vietnam a decade earlier. By 15 February 1989 Russia had withdrawn all her forces from Afghanistan. A year late the Soviet Union began to unravel and implode leading to the disintegration of the Soviet republics.
*The Birth of Global Jihad*
The concatenation of these events happening around the same period and the morale and oxygen they gave to jihadists and Islamic terrorists worldwide are incalculable. In their imagination, they had defeated a superpower and caused the collapse of a superpower as a result of an economic meltdown due to overexposure to the war in Afghanistan.
If they could defeat Russia, why not Americans too? More so since they had worked with the CIA in Afghanistan they now realized that even Americans are not better than Russians and both are dangerous to Islam.
There and then they began to plot for the collapse of America too.
Something happened at this time which was not part of Islam’s preoccupation before then: world conquest.
The terrorists and jihadists seeing their victory in Afghanistan then decided to stop fighting Islamic nations as they did in Egypt but to expand their scope to include global conquest and the imposition of Sharia Islamic Law on all nations. They were no longer concerned about just capturing one nation but now imposing Islamic rule in all nations.
The revolution in Iran also serves as a booster that radical elements can take control if they persist enough.
At the same time, Islamic terrorist groups and jihadists began to proliferate and multiply like raindrops on monsoons all over the world. Here are a few names you haven’t heard:
*Islamic Terror Groups*
* Malaysia: Jemaah Islamiyyah
* Algeria: Armed Islamic Group ( GIA) and Salafist Group for Call & Combat
* Morocco: Islamic Combat Group
* Palestine: Hamas & al- Fatah
* Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood & Al- Jihad, al- Islamiyyah
* Kenya: al- Shabab
* Somalia: al- Shabab
* Lebanon: Hezbollah
* Afghanistan: Taliban’s
Pakistan: al- Qaeda
All these radical Islamic groups are sold on terror and are agreed and united by three things: the Koran is their rule book, Mohammed is their inspiration and prophet and Islam is their religion. And one more thing: their goal is world conquest, the defeat and destruction of Israel, America and Christians and Jews.
These are the precursors and forerunners and enablers of Boko Haram, ISWAP and Fulani herdsmen and bandits who have now opened a new theatre of warfare in Nigeria and terrorising the people.
Britain with her treacherous and adulterous policies provided a haven to shelter these terrorists in the name of asylum-seeking and London became their headquarters. It may surprise you that the 9/11 attacks were planned in London not Saudi Arabia even though 14 of the 19 terrorists were citizens of Saudi Arabia!
This is how and why the name _Londonistan_ came into the lexicon of European Intelligence circles and community.
*Nigeria: Long Road to Islamization*
The Secretary of the Arab League declared what their intent is: “Our goal is to Islamize America and Arabise Africa.”
That specifically is the goal.
For the Islamic World conquest to sail through Africa with her enormous resources is crucial. And three nations are very significant in Africa: Egypt in the North, Nigeria in West Africa and South Africa in the East. Egypt is already in their hands, Nigeria is not yet fully in their hands and South Africa with her Christian majority and the strong army is still a no-go area.
However, their intent in Africa which is Arabization is disguised in the name of Islam. Since the indigenous peoples won’t support Arabization and removal from their land, they have to disguise their intentions with the promotion of Islam but their real intentions are land grab and takeover of the land in Africa and expulsion of blacks for the Arabs and Arab- like Africans. Most Muslims in the south are yet to discover this, thinking they are fighting for Islam but by the time they do discover it would have been too late.
The Sudanese in Darfur were Muslims yet they were exterminated by these Arabs because they are blacks. This is what is presently playing out in Nigeria against the indigenous people in Benue, Plateau, and Southern Kaduna. In Plateau State, more than 55 communities have been evacuated from their homes and Fulanis and foreigners now live there. It has happened in some Benue, Niger, and Zamfara communities as well.
It began with Islamization but it will end in Arabization.
The journey to Islamization is very long and it is still ongoing. Here is a list of memorable dates and events:
In the early 1,970s, a meeting of the Islamic Conference Organisation was held in Cairo where it was decided that all Christian mission schools must be taken over. It was discovered that schools were the major source of proselytizing by Christianity.
Yakubu Gowon was Nigeria’s head of state – a good man who did not know what he was doing. As someone said, ” It is not the crooks we are afraid of, it is the honest man who does not know what he is doing.”. Gowon was that honest man who does not know what he was doing.
Immediately the military government ordered all mission schools taken over by the government. This is the beginning of the rot in our educational sector today.
Suddenly, Christian missions and churches lost all their schools.
Again it was decided that all Muslim nations should antagonize Israel and member nations should sever relations with Israel. However, this was disguised as to get sympathies from Africa so they propagated the idea that Israel took possession of Sinai from Egypt an African land forgetting it was in the war and it was Arabs who started the war. The Arab Lobby in OAU moved that a resolution should be passed that all Africa should break relations with Israel. Again, Yakubu Gowon was the Chair of OAU, the honest man who did not know what he was doing. He was used by the Arabs to rubber-stamp the resolution. It was an Arab/ Islamic agenda, not Africa. Africa benefited nothing from it.
Soon they removed Gowon from power after using him.
Then in 1978 during Constituent Assembly the Muslim Lobby presented the inclusion of Sharia in the 1979 Constitution. Justice Udo Udoma was the Chair, a Christian from Cross River State. He threw out the proposal. It was defeated. In response, Shehu Shagari leading other members whom Achebe calls “Islamic fundamentalists” staged a walkout. Olusegun Obasanjo who was Head of State always ready to appease the Muslims and the Islamic Lobby quickly moved by slamming a no-go area on the Assembly. He would waver again many years later when some Northern states introduced Sharia and he refused to do the needful and rise to save the Constitution.
In 1983 during the Presidential election campaign, Shehu Shagari declared at the Ilorin Stadium that “Israel is our enemy” and that if Awo is elected he would bring Israel to Nigeria. I heard this from his mouth because I was based in Ilorin then. How was Israel our enemy and my enemy? He was possibly referring to the Islamic Conference Organisation resolution earlier passed which most Nigerians do not know.
Then on December 31, 1983, Buhari came to power. He named his deputy, Chief of Army Staff, Supreme Headquarters and Chief of Army Staff, all three were Muslims. It was a stark departure from the tradition of balance that had held Nigeria together. However, this made sense later because part of the resolution of the OIC was that all sensitive posts and positions must be held and occupied by Muslims and that it is unislamic for a Muslim to serve under a non-Muslim. Buhari was aware of this Resolution and was following it to the letter. Unfortunately for him, he went too far that even the Muslims in that government became uncomfortable and with a large presence of Christian officers, he was removed. power.
Then came Ibrahim Babangida, ever smiling and friendly but the hardcore Islamists still put pressure on him to proceed with the agenda.
Thus it was a shocked nation that woke up on Monday morning in 1986and discovered that Nigeria has become the 46th member of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). The rupture and tension were palpable everywhere. The Nigerian Press, ever ready for such fights rose to the occasion. Nigerian Tribune, Daily Sketch (now defunct) God bless your courage. Christianity was alive and well in this nation then and the message of comfort and prosperity has not weakened her. A military government panicked and went for broke as Christians and non- Muslims with some honest Muslims like Gani Fawehinmi, the Ife Socialist Collective ( Fashina, Olorode etc), the Ahmadu Bello University Radical School consisting of Bala Usman and Patrick Wilmot all came out to demand that Nigeria must be pulled out of OIC. CAN be alive and on fire then under Olubunmi Okogie.
Babangida panicked and trembled, he had to summon all army officers conference to explain to them the situation. Only National Concord newspaper ( now defunct) was championing the Islamization agenda. But it failed. Benson Idahosa went a step further by placing a ban on his members from reading the National Concord newspaper and the ban wasn’t lifted until Abiola went there to reconcile. He was even disallowed from entering the Benin Stadium to watch a football tournament because of his perceived support for the islamization of Nigeria. That was how vibrant the anti- Islamization agenda was in the 1980s, unlike today where Christians seem to be under a spell and in disarray.
Babangida had to seek cover and the agenda slowed down. One of the things these Islamists fear and hate is confrontation. They hate to be confronted. They are not prepared for it.
Sani Abacha was not for any agenda, he was for himself.
Then came the Fourth Republic. Obasanjo became the President, he is Christian. The Senate President was also Christian from the East. Thus a new game has to be played to further the agenda: Sharia implementation. All the Sharia states began to introduce the full implementation of Sharia beginning with Zamfara State in a bid to subvert the Central administration which was headed by a Christian from the South. In essence, by introducing a different law in its absolute they seceded from the nation but not many people and even scholars saw this. Unfortunately, today it has backfired. More on this later.
Then came 2015 and Nigerians made a terrible mistake by electing a Sharia enthusiast and Islamic fundamentalist, Muhammadu Buhari. Then the agenda that was truncated in 1985 when he was removed resumed in earnest.
The first four years seem to be for consolidation and preparation and study. By the time he was returned the second time, the stage was set for the regime to bear its wings. The National Assembly has become a lame duck and rubber stamp, with the two arms headed by “Useful Idiots” who are more loyal to the administration than to the people who elected them.
The Governors Forum is weak and comatose and the governors are cowardly except for two – Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue State and the Gov. Wike of Rivers. But for these two men who knows what this government would have done and how far it would have proceeded with the agenda?
However, it has reached its final and decisive stages and barring the mercies of God, nothing stops it. The Christians are weak and sleeping, the Press is corrupt and inept, the Civil Societies are comatose, the Trade unions like ASUU are embroiled in personal battles; the two major parties are in the hands of the same Islamist forces and the National Assembly is weak and headed by lapdogs of the Islamist- supporting the government. All the security forces are headed by Muslims, possibly sympathisers with terrorists. There are at least 3 or 4 critical figures of this administration who by their antecedents show sympathies with terrorists and jihadists.
Attack on Abuja*: *Islamic Terrorism Comes Home*
We may now be in the last stage of the agenda of complete takeover and Islamization by the terrorists, terrorist sympathisers in government and security agencies and the Islamists and their sleeper cells in the population. There is now incontrovertible evidence even in the public domain of the fact that the terrorists attacking this nation and especially the capital and the present government are on the same page. I will visit that another day.
If anyone is in doubt the last two months conclusively prove it.
According to newspaper reports the DSS forwarded 44 security reports to the security agencies warning of attacks on the Correctional Facility in Kuje, Abuja and nothing was done. It is also stated that “soldiers guarding prisons were removed 24 hours before the terrorist attack.” ( See Vanguard July 7, 2022 p.25).
Meanwhile, the weekend before the attack scores of youths was reportedly massacred in the southeast by the same military in search of so-called “unknown gunmen”. The same military that refused to attack the terrorists who are raping and killing and abducting for ransom is busy looking for what was not lost.
If you think this is an ordinary coincidence then you should think again. The Vanguard Editorial Comment was forced to ask the military:
” We never hear any report of similar efforts to dislodge armed herdsmen who have forcefully set up camps in the forests of indigenous communities, killing people in their farms, raping and kidnapping for ransom…
” The forest invaders are spared, but it is those confronting them that are hunted down and killed along with other innocent youth.” ( See Vanguard July 7, 2022 p.18)
It is even worse than stated. If you can add one or two together then you know we are on dangerous ground.
Is it for nothing that several soldiers have resigned their commission under this administration citing “biased deployment and malicious use of soldiers”?
Why should it be difficult for our military to confront terrorists if not for sabotage at the official and highest levels?
Some of the parents of Baptist students abducted said the terrorist knew what their bank balances were during negotiations. So how did they come in possession of this knowledge if not aided by agencies of government in charge of Communication? Who is subverting Nigeria?
Thus what General Danjuma said is correct: the military is no more neutral. And the military is not neutral because the Commander in Chief is not neutral.
The same government that travelled hundreds of kilometres to Kenya to bring an ethnic agitator and sent hundreds of soldiers to Ibadan to remove Sunday Igboho, the same military that extra-judicially murdered “Gana”, the Benue ethnic warlord who went for amnesty is foot-dragging when it comes to herdsmen and terrorists.
There may be some credibility in the allegations of Shehu Sanni that this government may be planning to hand over to Islamists.
Abuja is now under siege. Even though our military refused to attack them they have taken the initiative by attacking the military instead. They have killed some officers of the Brigade of Guards and even shot at a convoy of the president. The enemy you refused to fight will fight you.
With Kaduna, the home of the 1st Mechanised Division permanently under siege and Ibadan the home of the 2nd Division far away from the capital and Jos the place of the 3rd Mechanised Division several kilometres away, the future may be bleak if these terrorists who have encircled Abuja decided to storm in hundreds of Okada carrying militants with weapons. Abujanistan may then become not a dream or wishful thinking in the minds of some deviants but a tragic reality, a nightmare turned real. With Islamists clearing out an entire battalion of soldiers in neighbouring Niger State and even storming Abuja and killing several soldiers the day may be in sight when the inevitable may happen as secretly designed by the Islamist-supporting government.
So where does this lead us? What does this sum up to? Each community should make its arrangements and stop depending on the government at the centre or on a military whose loyalty is now called into question by even its officers and generals.
To this end, I urge all people to set up their own People’s Militia in every town and community to be ready to resist this self-inflicted monstrosity. Governor Ortom has taken the right step. Gov Matawale of Zamfara has taken the right step by encouraging the people to defend themselves and even conferring the right to own guns. This is what this government has brought upon us. The threat is real and we ignore it at our peril.