Planned assembly of the nation in Uyo: Confab on insecurity (3)

By John Amoda
THE Uyo Confab ought then to have this present condition of the Nigeria society as the reference of all its deliberations.

It is a condition defined by the increasing ineffectiveness of government society wide-hence concerns expressed in terms of state failure or of a slide into anarchy and of the challenge to the existence of government defined by the Boko Haram insurgency.

The impact of both challenges on each other defines the character of the Nigerian security challenge. As government is preoccupied with the JTFs, less attention is paid to the STFs that address the problem of societal disorder caused by armed groups.

Equal attention, therefore, needs to be paid to both threats, threats from anarchy engineered by gangs that have developed into militias, and threats from the Boko Haram sect whose insurgency has developed into Islamic state formation civil war.

Nigeria is now Mali writ large. The Uyo Confab as announced seemed convened to deal with the governance consequences of the societal crises; it must also address the effects of the crisis of governmental challenges defined by present civil war insurgency.

The 2015 elections, therefore, raises governance issues whose relevance is directly and ultimately determined by how the Jonathan administration copes with the twin issues of anarchy and the civil war insurgency. And the interaction of the governmental and governance challenges defines the context of the governance issues.

Elections and electoral induced violence are in themselves automous source of security challenges; and the journey to 2015 is already simmering with tensions- a raison d'efre for the convening the Uyo family meeting.

For this reason, it is of strategic importance that the Uyo Confab holds, and that it deals with the need for the prevention and management of election violence. Vanguard, Friday, July 5, 2013 news section carries the story of armed violence associated with the local government elections in Warri North. The story is titled: "Warri North crisis; Gunmen kill couple, daughter.

- Militia threatens local govt election in Delta.

- Implement Warri peace agreement-Ijaw group tells state govt.

- Kuku criticizes killing of Itsekiri indigenes.

- Egbema clan demands inquiry".

The following is an excerpt from the story. "Gunmen have shot dead an Itsekiri man, his wife and 16- year-old daughter, who were fleeing from crisis-torn Warri North Local Government Area in Delta State to Gbokoda in Ondo State, bringing the death toll of the crisis that erupted Tuesday (July 2, 2013) to 12. The criminals stumbled on the family from Tisun community while they were escaping for dear lives and opened fire on them from close range, a source said yesterday.

Meantime, Egbema Rights Group, EPG, whose actions in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State, led to the killing of about 12 persons and burning of three Itsekiri communities yesterday threatened that if government failed to examine its grievances, no election would hold in the council". The Sunday Vanguard of May 12, 2013 carried a story titled "Oyo Mayhem is a manifestation of govt's intolerance of the opposition-Ex-Gov. Ladoja". I quote from the story: "What can best be described as the return of mayhem in Oyo State politics occurred on Thursday, May 2, 2013.

Attacked were supporters of the state's leading opposition party, Accord, who had staged a reception to welcome defecting members of the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN, and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, into the Senate Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja-led party.

The government of Senator Abiola Ajimobi, the ruling party, ACN, and the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, fingered in the mayhem, promptly denied involvement". In the interview, Ladoja was asked the following question: "It was alleged that the attackers were led to the place by policemen and soldiers under the aegis of Operation Burst, which is the security outfit of the State government.

Did that portend that you did not have police permit for the event?" Ladoja replied: "We sought police permit for the event and were granted. But on that day, we discovered that the ACN had another canopy about 15 metres away from the spot where we were to hold our own event".

In the Delta and in Oyo the violence was not a spontaneous riot resulting in the breech of the law, but violence by groups organised for use in contestation for space and supporters. They both are harbingers of what the general elections of 2015 portend.

More to the point are events associated with the rerun election in a vacant state constituency in Imo State. I quote from a news report in the Vanguard of Friday, July 5, 2013: "INEC declared the election inconclusive upon the fact that the election was disrupted in three of the 11 wards where the election took place.

The violence was despite the water-tight security that was deployed in Oguta". Kayode Idowu, chief press secretary to INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, said: "The Commission finds it worrisome that politicians brazenly flouted the restriction order on movement during the election. Reports showed that officials of Imo State Government and some members of the National Assembly across party lines moved around freely despite the restriction order-some of them with security escorts! Worse, some of these politicians aren't even from Oguta constituency where the election held.

Field reports showed that even though security agents mobilized appreciably for the exercise, there were cases of violence as well as ballots and result sheets snatching by thugs, as a result of which election was cancelled" in the units affected. President Goodluck Jonathan's comments are worth noting. "Those who made it impossible for the rerun election in Oguta to be conclusive must be brought to book. We must make it clear that impunity in the perpetration of violence and irregularities during elections will no longer be tolerated.

Sanctions promptly imposed on guilty persons will deter others from engaging in such acts in future," he declared. The fact of the Imo rerun elections speak contrary to the declaration of the President. Election as currently undertaken are war operations in winner-take all contests and the "before elections" violent intimidations of opponents through thugs now transformed to militias employed by individual politicians, factions of parties, local government chairpersons, state governors, national parties leaderships, are only indications of the high stakes of office holding. Governments are electorally partisan and thus politicise governance.

The conveners of the Uyo summit are being realistic. They are on target when they are disturbed by worsening insecurities and political tension in the country ahead of the 2015 general elections. There are 774 local governments, 36 states, one Federal Capital Territory, and one National Assembly where offices will be filled through elections. If politicians see their incumbency as prebends, then they will seek election and re-election as a "do-or die" affair.

It is thus of national importance that the Uyo Confab addresses possibilities of election-caused wide spread episodes of armed violence and their governance consequences. It is, therefore, not 2015 that is the issue, 2015 will only be the outcome of preceding events that need to be understood and adequately managed.

The President needs the support and goodwill of the Uyo Confab but this support will not diminish his task of leadership, for ultimately it all depends on how the preceding electioneering for 2015 is conducted in the context of the present security situation and the President's role in piloting the Nigerian society in its present crisis condition is strategic in its importance.

 

Planned assembly of the nation in Uyo: Confab on insecurity (2)

By John Amoda
THE Vanguard of Monday May 13, 2013 carries a story titled, "Terrorist may over-run Nigeria". In it, the Senate President, David Mark "warned ... that unless everybody comes together to tackle the security challenges, the perpetrators might over run the country…

The Senate President who expressed grave concern over the continued killings and wanton destruction of property in the country argued that foreigners who might be accused of being sponsors of members of Boko Haram sect currently terrorizing some parts of the country could not succeed if Nigerians were not involved internally as willing tools for the deadly act".

In the Sunday Vanguard May 12, 2013, Lt Colonel Sagir Musa wrote on the "Proliferation of small arms and light weapons" and observed that arms trafficking "is increasingly and dangerously becoming a transnational organised crime in Nigeria with Boko Haram's insurgency, re-emerging Niger Delta crises and escalating kidnapping, communal crises and armed robbery in the South East providing impetus for arms trafficking". Daily reports of the deadly uses to which these arms are put provide gory headlines in the newspapers.

This past month of June began with the Vanguard Saturday news carrying the story headlined: "Herdsmen massacre 17, several hundreds flee homes in Benue". The following is from the story: "Despite efforts by security agencies to stem the recurrent invasions of parts of Benue State by armed Fulani herdsmen, no fewer than 17 persons have been killed in Akough Village in Guma Local Government Area of the State by suspected Fulani mercenaries.

The herdsmen razed Akough market, where some persons were also killed. Saturday Vanguard gathered from eyewitness that the armed attackers stormed the village three days ago at the early hours of the day, burning down houses and huts, leaving several persons dead, while many others sustained varying degrees of injuries. The development has forced several hundreds of people to flee their homes for fear of being attacked in another onslaught".

The Sunday Vanguard of June 30 2013 confirms the routines of Fulani Herdsmen campaign of terror. The story titled "How Fulani insurgents raided Plateau" reads as follows:  "More light has been shed on how suspected Fulani insurgents who raided some village in Langtang South Local Government Area of Plateau State on Thursday engaged members of the Special Task Force, STF, maintaining security in the state in cross-fire for over two hours. Sunday Vanguard learnt that the apparently well-armed attackers in a show of power took on soldiers of the STF who moved to the area following a distress call, but lost 20 men in the process.

It was learnt that the assailants having had a field day at Maguma where they killed eight people and were taking the onslaught to Karkishi when the STF members halted their advance". The front page of Monday Vanguard of June 1, 2013 carries news of Boko Haram war against the JTF.

The news reads as follows: "Maiduguri- Joint Task Force, JTF, weekend killed no fewer than 50 suspected terrorists in Zabarmen Ward of Jere Local Government Area of Borno State". In the same issue of Vanguard, Dayo Johnson reports from Akure: "At least 30 gun men in the early hours of yesterday (Sunday June 30, 2013) stormed the Olukuta Medium Security Prison in Akure, Ondo State Capital and set free about 175 inmates, mainly those standing trial for robbery".

The catalogue of armed violence operations by insurgents and armed gangs confirms the routines of armed violence in the Nigerian society on the one hand, and the ongoing civil war campaigns by the JTF against a Boko Haram insurgency on the other hand. Society in Nigeria characterized by such widespread use of lethal violence by armed gangs is unsecured by prevailing order of central authority.

And the Nigeria Police Force and the internal security agencies have been challenged by the problems of societal lawlessness and disorders. The Army has had to make control and management of this crisis of societal disorder its primary and present responsibility. The Army has found itself called upon to man the Special Task Forces, STF, and the Joint Task Force, JTF and the strain from the burden of these dual responsibilities have become alarming.

The Chief of Army Staff called the attention of the public to this fact on May 8, 2013 in Abeokuta as thus reported in the May 9, 2013 Vanguard issue: "Chief of Army Staff Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika yesterday lamented that the increasing wave of socio-political and ethno-religious violence recorded in different parts of the country was draining the resources of the Nigerian Army.

The Army boss said: 'No doubt, you are aware of the increasing wave of socio-political and ethno-religious crisis threatening the nation's security lately. This has assumed a high dimension, witnessing spates of bombings and attacks on Key Points, KPs; Vulneratile Points, VPs and other strategic areas of interest in the country. This has left serious demands on Nigeria Army resources.

We also know that funding is fundamental to containing these security challenges. Success in this pursuit therefore calls for prudent and efficient management and application of available funds". Much more than efficient management of available funds will be required for the STF's  response to the security situation of the Nigerian society whose condition of anarchy is deliberately albeit for now, uncordinately engineered.

And herein lies the seriousness of Nigeria's societal security condition; that is, the ever-present possibility that that which is now uncoordinated can with change of the leadership of the agents of this condition of disorder lead them to unite and to effect the overthrow of the Federal Government. This is presently the case with the neighbouring Central African Republic where SELEKA, a coalition of five insurgent groups are presently the rulers of that country.

There is, therefore, need for the scope of the societal crisis to be appreciated and the dynamics of its development and expansion to be determined. For both tasks a root-cause analysis of the structure of the Nigerian society is required. It is the appreciation of the failures of the structure of the Nigeria society that has been the underlining raison d'etre for the call for a conference on the condition of the society and for the consequences of this condition to be adequately addressed".

 

Planned assembly of the nation in Uyo: Confab on insecurity

By John Amoda
THE Assembly described by the conveners of the confab on insecurity as the "national family meeting" was scheduled for July 2 and 3 at Uyo. It was also called a political summit on the future of Nigeria. The Vanguard Monday, June 24, 2013 titled its report thusly:

Confab on Insecurity: Soyinka, Sule, Anyaoku, Clark, others storm Uyo

The national family meeting has been reschulded to enable the conveners accommodate requests of those who want to be part of the Assembly of the Nation in Uyo.

[caption id="attachment_387316" align="alignnone" width="412"] From left: Chief of Air Staff Air Marshall, Alex Badeh; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba; and Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Dikko Abubakar, after a security meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday.[/caption]

The two day summit has as its theme: "National Security and Political Stability." According to the conveners, the summit is being convened to douse the tension created by the emergency situation in the country.

Kura, Head of Communications, the summit secretariat, says: "The summit is being convened against the background of the current challenges facing our dear country, Nigeria in the areas of national security and political stability.

The emergency national consultative meeting is designed to bring together distinguished statesmen, government functionaries, political and religious leaders of thought from the six political zones, to discuss and negotiate an agreed modality to securing the stability and future of Nigeria".

The gathering will indeed be a representative assembly of the nation's most valuable asset of intellect, visionaries, experience, proven integrity, and patriotic zeal.

The list begins with the President to lead the distinguished presence of former presidents/heads of state, their deputies, leaderships of the National Assembly, state governors and ministers, including First Republic Minister and Chairman, Northern Elders' Forum, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, the Chairman of The Patriots, the legal icon, Prof Ben Nwabueze (SAN); Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka (lead speaker); General T.Y. Danjuma, Dr Alex Ekweme, Chief Edwin Clark,Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Ambassador Christopher Kolade, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Alhaji Aliko Mohammed, Chief Philip Asiodu, Prof Itse Sagay (SAN), Prof Akin Oyebode.

The list is a representative assemblage of the nation's best, brightest and passionately and courageously committed not only to the survival and stability of the nation but to its thriving and enduring prosperity. It is a veritable 'Who is Who in Nigeria'. All zones, all sectors, private, media, technocratic, governmental and political are represented. All are proven and effective articulators of the interest of the nation. The danger to the nation contained in its present circumstances compels the convening of this "national family meeting."

The report's Introduction is an economic summary of the purpose of the conveners. "Disturbed by worsening insecurities and political tension in the country ahead of the 2015 general elections, eminent leaders of thought, statesmen and politicians across the six geo-political zones will converge on Uyo, Akwa Ibom State Capital, next week to chart the way forward.

They will gather at Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts between July 2 and 3 for a political summit on the future of Nigeria, convened by Project Nigeria-National Consensus Group".

At this point it is pertinent to ask what exactly is the present condition and crises of Nigeria and what opportunities for redirection does the nation's condition provide for this particular intervention and how are the nation's crises to be managed to allow for planning and piloting of ways forward? The objectives of the Confab are not modest.

The Assembly of the Nation is called with "a view of kick-starting a profound process of national consultations and political negotiations capable of fostering enduring solutions to the heightening tension in the country".

It is therefore of critical importance to ascertain what are the assumptions with respect to the prevailing national crises that inform the convening of the consultation meeting to plan the way forward for the country. Events in the country portray the Nigerian society as a society threatened with anarchy and a government fighting an insurgent civil war.

The insecurity to be addressed at the Uyo conference is therefore not a challenge to be fixed through reform. What confronts the citizenry is a society described in terms of anarchy. The Sunday Comment on THISDAY May 12, 2013 editorial page written by the Editor, Peter Ishaka is titled: 'Averting a Slide into Anarchy': "These are trying times as criminal gangs are on the rampage.

There is urgent need to contain the danger". Peter Ishaka writes: "No fewer than 55 persons were killed last Tuesday when suspected Boko Haram militants invaded and attacked separate security formations in Bama, a border town in Borno State, freeing 105 prison inmates in the process. Among the victims were 22 policemen, 14 officials of the Nigerian Prison Service and two soldiers.

On the evening of the same day, another group of religious militants said to be worshippers of a local deity called 'Ombatse' ambushed and killed 43 policemen and several operatives of the State Security Service, SSS, in Lafia, Nasarawa State. At the time of writing this editorial, many policemen were still unaccounted for. So within the period of 24 hours, 65 policemen, 14 prison officials and two soldiers were officially confirmed to have been murdered by some bandits in two states with the fate of several others still unknown….

Against this backdrop that men and women in uniform embody the state, it should be obvious to the authorities that the situation where official armed personnel could be so cynically executed poses a serious threat not only to the security of citizens but also to our corporate existence as a nation".

These two killings occurring within the same day involving two radically different killers in two different states are alarming in their scope and ordinarily are indicative of a society ill secured. The societal crisis in Nigeria is characterized by the fact that these two killings are not extraordinary or shocking events but part of what has now become a routine of armed violence.

US alarming misreading of facts about Nigeria (2)

By John Amoda

ONE person’s atrocity does not excuse another’s and revenge is not the motive. It is good governance.

It’s ridding yourself of the terrorist organisation so that you can establish a standard of law that people can respect. And that’s what needs to happen in Nigeria.”

The above remarks show the consequence of analyses of misconduct by the opposing forces, Government and Boko Haram, BH, without focus on the course and nature of the conflict in Nigeria. The course is terrorism, not insurgency.

BH terrorist operations make no distinction between combatants and non-combatants; between Muslims and Christians. BH terrorist operations are of dual purposes:

*To destroy the capabilities of the Nigeria Government to wage counter-terrorism operations in Nigeria

*To control and rule areas of Nigeria as bases for gaining more Nigeria territories that are to be brought under the BH government. The US criticism addresses the first of the two aims of the BH. The Government of Nigeria is not engaged only in counter-terrorism internal security operation.

It is engaged in a civil war with the BH that has transformed itself into colonising party.

The Boko Haram’s course of territorial control and rule is a civil war course and how an aggressive BH fights a territory grabbing war compels the Nigerian Government to fight to win the civil war for it is the integrity of the Nigeria society that is now at stake. All civil wars are fought over governing or conquest of society.

The US has to factor the fact into their counter-insurgency plans for their allies that global terrorist organisations initiate civil wars as means of developing their capability to conquer and rule territories that serve as their base for global terrorism. The BH seeks to replicate in Nigeria what the AQIM achieved in Northern Mali. President Jonathan explained what was at stake in the declaration of the state of emergency in the three Northern states.

According to President Jonathan: “These terrorists and insurgents seem determined to establish control and authority over parts of our beloved nation and to progressively overwhelm the rest of the country. In many places these have destroyed the Nigeria flag and other symbols and flags suggesting the exercise of alternative sovereignty.”

The Boko Haram at the stage of the declaration of the state of emergency had established their own government over areas they militarily controlled and thus shown themselves to be a rival contestant for sovereignty over parts or all of Nigeria.

The Boko Haram, according to President Jonathan, has become by their course of war a revolutionary party, replacing the Constitution and its government with its Islamic Sharia government in the areas of Nigeria it controlled. Northern Mali was being replicated in the parts of North Eastern Nigeria where the Boko Haram held sway.

The course of civil war make winning the allegiance of society, part or in its entirety, the overall goal of the war. The Boko Haram as the aggressor-party make neutrality of the inhabitants of the parts of the society under its control suicidal.

The course of civil war polarises society and it does so fundamentally and the Nigerian Government must first defeat the Boko Haram and recover lost territory in the course of war determined by the aggressor.

The US cannot claim ignorance of the course of civil war-its experience in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq is fresh and painfully so. And this same experience confirms the fact that control of society is the strategy of choice for Al Queda affiliates in all areas of their terrorism operations.

This strategy is most attractive where control of society is weak or tenuous as was the case in Mali. It is thus part of the course of war for terrorists to go through the phase of insurgency during which government control is weakened by indiscriminate use of violence to the stage of consolidation of military control of the society controlled and the institutionalisation of their authority over the society transformed into a new country for a terrorism base.

For the Secretary of State to focus on the protection of human rights in the course of counter-terrorism operation is to ignore two salient facts in Nigeria, namely: That the present chronic violators of human rights are non-state actors; that the condition of anarchy in Nigeria inherited and or induced provides the space for the organisation of armed gangs that constitute themselves into militias. Militias can, as has been the case with the Boko Haram, develop into insurgent groups through the radicalisation and or change of their leadership.

The Niger Delta crisis provides ample evidence of the emergence of militias out of gangs and the development of militias into insurgent groups as was the case of MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta).

The US that cuts into the spectrum of the course of war in Nigeria at the phase of formation of terrorist organisation out of a militia will find its efforts futile and frustrating in Nigeria.

Nigeria is attractive to Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations for objective and structural reasons. Nigeria is a country with vast segments of its territory poorly or weakly controlled and these provide camps for organising and growing armed gangs who have become militias advertising Nigeria as largely anarchic.

Why this is so must be addressed in the planning of long-term peace and security in Nigeria.

US alarming misreading of facts about Nigeria

By John Amoda
LAOLU  AKANDE writing from New York in The Guardian Tuesday June 18, 2013, reports that “President Barack Obama is stepping up America’s military strategy against global terrorism and that Africa is on the list of his targets.

The U.S. had earlier this year established a drone base for the sake of dealing with Boko Haram terror threat in Nigeria, an ally of the U.S. in Africa.

According to a letter sent to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and President Pro-Tempore of the Senate at the weekend, Obama informed the U.S. Congress that he had 'deployed combat equipped forces to enhance the counter- terrorism capabilities and support the counter- terrorism operations of our friends and allies, including special operations and other forces for sensitive operations in various locations around the world'.

The letter dated June 14 and signed by Obama himself, disclosed under the sub-heading 'Military Operations in Niger in Support of U.S. Counter-Terrorism Objectives' that: 'As detailed in my report of February 22, 2013, and at my direction, on February 20, 2013 the last element of deployment of 40 additional U.S. military personnel entered Niger with the consent of the Government of Niger'.

Obama wrote that: ‘This deployment provides supports for intelligent collection and facilitates intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali, and with other partners in the region'. The total number of U.S. military personnel deployment in Niger is approximate180. Observers say by adding more troops to the drone base in Niger, the U.S. is sharpening its strategy against Boko Haram upon whose head the State Department recently placed a $7million bounty some weeks ago.

The whole purpose of Obama’s security policy in Niger and in Nigeria is to enhance the counter- terrorism capabilities of these two U.S. allies to mount counter-terrorism operations in support of U.S. counter-terrorism objectives.

President Obama’s directive is in furtherance of the U.S. global counter-terrorism objectives. President Obama prefers 'a light-footprint approach that relies on Special Forces, drones and local partners to combat terrorism, a sharp contrast to the regime change approach which was followed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This change in strategy is evident in President Obama's counter-insurgency effort in Africa. Bounty of $21million have been placed on the heads of five Al Qaeda/Boko Haram leaders, with the highest on the head of Abubakar Shekau, the Nigeria leader of the Boko Haram sect. The U.S. recognises the affiliation of the Boko Haram to Al Queda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and appreciates the insurgent capability of Shekau, hence the bounty.

“Boko Haram has fought alongside the regional Al Queda affiliate known as Al Queda in the Islamic Maghreb or AQIM according to residents of Mali. Hundreds of self-identified Boko Haram fighters last year learned to fire shoulder-mounted weapons at an AQIM-affiliated training camp in Timbuktu Mali, said a cook who fed them and neighbours who watched them.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau spent much of last year in Mali, according to a senior Nigerian security adviser.

In Boko Haram: 'You have a group that is becoming increasingly efficient'. Indeed the U.S. authorities rank the Boko Haram behind the Al Queda and the Talibans in terms of their threat capability. Nigeria is therefore critical in Obama’s new approach to fighting in global counter-terror war without 'putting U.S. boots on the ground'."

Counter-terrorism operations

For a Nigeria Government regarded as a principal US ally in West Africa, it is amazing that the US misreads or makes light the security condition of the country. The US counter-terrorism objective in Africa requires that it enhances the counter-terrorism capabilities of Nigeria in order to support the country’s counter-terrorism operations.

This US policy cannot be implemented without the US taking into account the course of terrorism addressed by US allies in general and by Nigeria in particular.

Addressing the course of terrorism is addressing the capabilities of the terrorists in their operations, and more specifically it is to address the terrorist operations confronted by the Nigerian Government.

When the US urges the Nigeria Government to conduct its counter-terrorism operations within the ambit of R2P (Responsibility To Protect non- combatants) is it mindful of the nature of the course of Boko Haram terrorist operations in Nigeria?

Secretary Kerry as reported in the May 26, 2013 of THISDAY, acknowledged that there is no denying the destabilizing ferocity of Boko Haram campaign of violence in Northern Nigeria. “They have killed wantonly and upset the normal governance of Nigeria in fundamental ways that are unacceptable,”  he said.

“And so we defend the right completely of the government to defend itself and to fight back against terrorists." But human rights groups and some Northern leaders have complained about reprisal attacks by Nigerian security forces which further alienate local populations, making it harder to gather information about Boko Haram.

A Senior State Department official travelling with Secretary Kerry says Washington has been monitoring the conduct of Nigerian forces during a state of emergency declared earlier this month and concludes that human rights abuses are continuing. The official said: “It still remains a concern for us, peace and stability in the North and human rights issues".

Nigeria's President, Goodluck Jonathan, with whom Kerry met on the sidelines of AU summit has ordered an investigation into alleged misconduct during security operations in the village of Baga. And for that Secretary Kerry said Nigeria deserves credit. Kerry said US and Nigeria officials have spoken directly about the imperative of Nigeria troops adhering to the standards.