The Biggest Nigerian Scam – Its Army

Nigeria is the poster-country for online money scams. Emails from Nigerian “princes,” rich heirs, government officials and “doctors and specialists” of all sort and kinds enlist stupid Americans (and the nationals of other countries) for get-rich schemes that require the deposit of a small amount of earnest or “interim” money that eventually will disappear into a corrupt and lawless land that enables fraud at massive levels. But this reflection of corruption is miniscule compared the “corruption that matters.” With about one third of oil-rich Nigeria’s government budget flowing to its military, you have to wonder how a huge national army is completely unable to contain a cruel and despised insurgency in northeastern Nigeria.

First, this region is heavily Muslim (the Christians live primarily in the south), and most of the villagers have some direct connection with Boko Haram – Islamic/ethnic extremists who wish to purge their lands of all things Western, particularly education, and replace the legal system with harsh Sharia law. Second, the massive government benefits from oil revenues almost never reach the people. We don’t really know their numbers or their true underlying structure, but they are affiliated with the most militant elements of al Qaeda. Although education is supposed to be provided in Nigeria, corruption generally moves too many students (read: boys only) who even get an education to the militant indoctrinating classrooms of the local Islamic madrassa. Meanwhile, government officials and soldiers run roughshod over the people, palms outstretched and willing to apply to violence to get their way.

“Many Nigerians describe Boko Haram — at least at first or in part — as a violent reaction to this pervasive abuse. ‘At the beginning was this cry of justice,’ explains Yanusa Zakari Ya’u, director of a nongovernmental organization focused on budget transparency. ‘The secular institutions were not performing. Boko Haram became popular because they were offering an alternative vision. When the [government] crackdown came in 2009, they said, ‘We were victimized because we were trying to clean up society.’ That may not be real, but they are using that to mobilize people. That’s how they got entrenched.’

“'At first the group [Boko Haram] singled out police stations for its onslaught. Nigerians detest the police. The force is ‘worse here than in any country I’ve worked in,’ remarked a Western veteran of police training and security-sector reform in Africa. Human Rights Watch documented some of the abuses in a 2010 report. Shakedowns of street peddlers and passengers on public transportation are routine. So is arbitrary arrest and torture as a way to extort ‘bail’ money.

“But many Nigerians reserve their harshest words for civil servants. When oil money does reach state coffers, rivers of it get diverted through public procurement fraud. ‘Any job that attracts money,’ a Defense Ministry IT worker explained, involves two contracts: the real one (‘only two or three people know its terms’) and the formal document. Expenditures regularly total five or 10 times the actual cost of the project. ‘It’s so common now,’ she said, ‘everyone is looking for an avenue to get something. At the end of the fiscal year, they create problems to get money. Everyone is bringing their memo.’” Washington Post, May 16th.

With an international gathering of experts joining the search for the missing almost-300 kidnapped girls, you’d think that finding and releasing them would be a slam dunk. Quite the contrary. “The problem, many involved in the rescue effort say, is the failings of the Nigerian military.

“There is a view among diplomats here and with their governments at home that the military is so poorly trained and armed, and so riddled with corruption, that not only is it incapable of finding the girls, it is also losing the broader fight against Boko Haram. The group has effective control of much of the northeast of the country, as troops withdraw from vulnerable targets to avoid a fight and stay out of the group’s way, even as the militants slaughter civilians.

“Boko Haram’s fighters have continued to strike with impunity… killing dozens of people in three villages in its regional stronghold, but also hitting far outside its base in the central region. Car bombs have killed well over 100, according to local press reports…

“Instead, the government may have its best shot with a negotiated settlement with the Islamists, possibly including a prisoner release, said a military officer in the region. Nigerian officials have hinted of a deal as well, though President Goodluck Jonathan has publicly ruled out a deal.

“Some other diplomats here were more pessimistic, saying it was unlikely that all of the victims would be saved. Already, in the region and in the capital of Borno State, Maiduguri, 80 miles from Chibok, there are some credible accounts suggesting that some of the girls may already have been killed. ‘I think it’s going to be a slow burn,’ one diplomat said.

“Adding to the diplomats’ worry is a sense that officials in Mr. Jonathan’s administration are dangerously out of touch with the realities of a vicious insurgency that for years had been minimized in the distant capital, until the abductions made that impossible.” New York Times, May 23rd.  Rumors flow that for years, the Nigerian government paid off Boko Haram because they knew military containment was not possible, given military corruption… money which only reinforced that militant groups capacity.

As with too many “let’s fix the corruption abuse problem” insurgencies, Boko Haram is now completely out of control, and there is no serious challenge to their power. We in the West see a horrific crime, countries all over the world raging against the kidnappers, the U.N. officially adding Boko Haram to their terrorist list and expect this violent group to be contained. In Nigeria, they know better. Boko Haram is nowhere near contained. Simply put, they control northeastern Nigeria with little in the way of serious opposition.

I’m Peter Dekom, and Nigeria may be one of the richest failed states in the world.