I leave the Milanese cold and catapult myself into the warmth of Abuja. Arriving at the airport late in the evening, the deputy police chief of Abuja is waiting for me to escort me to my accommodation. I don't choose to stay at the Hilton nor at the Sheraton, unlike what was recommended by the police and some journalist colleagues, but in an apartment in a compound of an Italian company.
Even before going to bed and disposing of the 7 flight hours, I insistently ask for information on the situation immediately.
In this short period I perceived that the Nigerian question is far more complex than I expected.
Despite his surname, it seems that President Goodluck has no luck at all.
President Goodluck, of Christian faith, is not a real politician and was not even elected by the people. His rise to the federal executive was a case and not a popular will. In fact, he succeeded as vice president after the death of the current president who had led the Nigerian country already for 3 years. This has made it possible to interrupt what was a customary habit or the four-year alternation between Christians and Muslims.
From this situation of disfavor on the part of the Muslims a real political and civil war was born.
In a country in a state of emergency and divided like Nigeria, both ethnically and religiously the numbers become important when it comes to the population, which is the largest in Africa, counting around 160 million inhabitants, to which we must add all illegal immigrants and not that they find an alternative job or livelihood in Nigeria that is alternative to that of the poorer neighboring countries. Nigeria is a major exporter of crude oil and outsources refining abroad to import the finished fuel. But this strange turn has repercussions in an already weak and corrupt economy of his own.
In fact, in the second week of January, a strike was called against Goodluck's decision to eliminate fuel price subsidies. For almost the 70%, the State subsidized the cost of petrol at the fuel pump, managing to keep the price low to the population, who on average earns 25.000 Naire (about 120 euros) per month. But because of the high cost of re-importing the finished product and the illegitimate theft of tons of crude oil from the pipeline (we are talking about exaggerated numbers that touch the value of the Italian GDP), the Government can no longer sustain public spending of this nature and therefore the price of fuel has been increased, going from 65Naire to 140Naire. A total strike of all categories, which lasted 8 days that knelt the country and cost about 630 million dollars a day.
To this was added the by now endemic fight against terrorism, which in the same days of the strike was announced the beginning of the war to the Christians and to the central Government by the pro-Qaedist Islamic sect of Boko Haram.
The intelligence security units with which I was able to speak at this juncture clearly explained to me that in the north of the country, due to a mere question of numbers, the Muslim population is an absolute majority, touching values of 97% in the Sokoto. This region is of strategic importance for Islamic terrorists, as it is on the border with Niger and therefore with ample opportunities for communication and alliances with the terrorist organizations of northern Africa, in particular with that of Algeria. Of a probable affiliation there is evidence from some Algerians killed or captured by the police during the various actions for the control of the territory.
But the bombing event par excellence took place in the second half of January, when on a normal Friday marked by the litanies of the imams in the mosques, 20 bombs in 20 different attacks broke the idyll of those moments, all in the same city.
Kano became within 2 hours, the most insecure city in the world. No place, no office, no school were safe. In addition to the bombs, bullets were also heard which in a war where everyone is an enemy, were shot on all fronts and on unarmed civilians. Civilians targeted only because they are foreigners or Christians. Like a Sinhalese woman who wore a crucifix around her neck, arrived in Nigeria a few days before the attack, to get closer to her husband, a worker of a multinational construction company, killed with a blow on the forehead.
The number of deaths, in the early hours, seemed strangely low and then reached 186.
So I leave for Kano, where in the meantime a 24-hour curfew had been introduced throughout the region, but thanks to the escort of the now loyal MOPOL (Nigerian Mobile Police, ed) and a few good doses of Naire, we succeed, together with our friend reporter of Reuters to reach the battered city.
One sees nothing but army vehicles and combat helicopters. Only a few inhabitants of the place venture into the streets but are promptly arrested and in some cases killed without too many reasons.
I get in touch with the head of the SSS (State Security Service, Nigerian intelligence, ed) of Kano and he gives me an appointment in an area out of town in an open place near the main road, ready in case of escape. He informs me that thousands of police and army men have been mobilized and that for security reasons controls throughout the region have been strengthened. The term "strengthen the controls" was accompanied by the gesture of cutting the head and ended the speech with "Just in case!"
It is no coincidence that President Goodluck demobilized the entire 22 battalion of the SSSs, men who have gone down in history to be bloody cold. Some of them are now in the president's personal escort.
Returning to Abuja, we immediately note that actions were also taken in this city to strengthen security at the various government offices and barracks. Perhaps also because they had let slip after the arrest, the instigator of the Christmas massacre that, with a simple stratagem by Totò in "Guards and Thieves", managed to escape from the window on the ground floor of the toilet of the police station where he was restrained.
The Nigerian people are increasingly convinced that the current executive, oligarchic and corrupt, is totally unreliable. The air of insecurity felt by the Nigerians is very strong, such as that of distrust towards a minority government, but which remains in power despite the contrary will of the sovereign people.
Only the minority of the population thinks that President Goodluck has acted decisively, declaring a state of emergency, but also among the supporters the discontent is spreading.
The state of emergency is exactly the recognition of an anomalous situation, very similar to the state of war and therefore the use, even illegitimate, of the army is required and tolerated. In his own way, Goodluck, on the fight against terrorism, refers to President Bush, who, urged by all the American people following the vile attack of September 11, activated his powerful military apparatus. Which continued, according to Goodluck in a recent communiqué, President Obama with the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
But evidently Goodluck wants to make petty demagogy and does not admit that Boko Haram is not a simple sect, but a true terrorist organization well integrated into the social and political system, so much so that it has contacts with members of the Popular Democratic Party, which is difficult to central federal power and splinter essence. So there are not only vile acts committed by a sect, but a real conspiracy aimed at weakening the executive who, with an analogy of our house, brought back to the years of lead, wants to establish a sense of general insecurity.
The Nigerian federal government must somehow make its authority heard. And it does so by changing all the police leaders who, until then, have carried out bankruptcy actions. So the new leadership of the police forces gets to work making round-ups door-to-door in all the northern villages. But a secret action will go down in the history of the fight against Islamic terrorism in Nigeria: with a SWAT blitz, coordinated by the secret services, the Boko Haram spokesman is arrested.
A success for the Government?
A success that lasts less than 24 hours, when a video message appears on the internet of the true spokesman of Boko Haram, who with his daughter in his arms and surrounded by his family and supporters, denied being captured, on the contrary he was spending a fantastic and pleasant day enjoying Shawarma (typical Nigerian food), making fun of the police and President Goodluck.
Our source of the top secret services, never wanted to comment on what happened and shaking in the shame of a serious mistake only states: we are in the hands of the Lord!
However, between failures and victories, the fight against Islamic terrorism in a controversial land like Nigeria continues unabated and clashes with that part of the Islamic people that somehow supports and supports Boko Haram.
Many were among the police and army ranks in fulfilling their duty. And one of them, one particular case, struck us. On a quiet day of rest, the head of the SSS in a small town in the north of the country is killed by a gang of Islamic terrorists, with a single blow to the head. The phrase "ALLAH THE ETERNAL" is engraved on the womb. Well these are the moments in which the cynicism of a reporter struggles with disgust and sometimes the desire for justice.
I knew very well that this trip would not have been easy and peaceful and I understood it when at 200 meters from our ½ star hotel in the southern part of the city of Kano, they blow up a car bomb at a police station, where fortunately we only came out of it with some superficial excoriation caused by broken windows. A vile act carried out immediately after the anniversary of the anniversary of the birth of Muhammad. Like when, housed at an army barracks, along the cintra wall, among the undergrowth, they find an IED with 6kg of ANFO (explosive mixture, ed), ready to explode. But our intent was and is to get to know the Nigerian reality first hand in order to spread what others do not disclose. Living in Nigeria and going around the streets it is easy to run into a shootout or an explosion, something that happened to me directly, fortunately remaining unscathed but losing 5 soldiers of the escort during a fire attack by numerous terrorists. So let's continue the journey into Nigerian chaos.
Boko Haram, which literally means "Western education is a sin" at the moment, is dictating the law throughout the territory in the north and wants to enter fully into federal politics by establishing Sharia in their regional powers. The founding leader, Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf, killed in 2009, trained in Al Qaeda camps near Kabul, and was fascinated by Bin Laden's ideology and charisma. He called the Yobe headquarters, just "Afghanistan".
But analytically, the Islamic group of Boko Haram, differs from the other cells on a substantial characteristic. Since 2002, the year of its foundation, he has never made use of suicide bombers, preferring to pass on to the history of the martyrs of Muhammad as true fighters and engaging in the first person, hand in hand, the Christian infidel or Western thread, equally motivated to their own sacrifice the Islamic cause.
As an analyst, I reflect that, regardless of the executive's political line, the terrorist is a loser and with these acts he does not understand that he does not only affect the government, but also the social and economic well-being that Nigeria has ensured in recent years. all. So while the army is mobilizing, the Nigerian people must also do something to improve their status as a battered people. A sense of "individual responsibility" for the social security of the whole country must win. Only if all of Nigeria acts united with courage will it prevail.
Giovanni Di Gregorio
