July 16, 2019 – USA

(Being a Presentation by the Secretary-General of the Lower Niger Congress Tony Nnadi during a Nigeria-Specific Event at the Ministerial Roundtable for International Religious Freedom, July 16, 2019 in Washington DC under the aegis of the Department of State).

PROTOCOLS.

As we converge on these hallowed grounds in Washington DC to explore ways of unravelling the intricately intertwined challenges of Trans-Regional Terrorism, Ethnic Cross-Country Migration, and Socio-Political Marginalization of Indigenous Nigerians, the first question that might come to the mind of any casual observer would be: “WHY ARE WE GATHERED HERE AT THE SEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN WASHINGTON DC TO BRAINSTORM ON EVENTS AND ISSUES RAGING IN FAR AWAY WEST AFRICA?”

The answer to this question to my mind is quite simply that the world has become a Global Village in which Events and Occurrences in one part almost immediately and invariably impact on others parts in ways far more significant, (positive and negative), than the causal observer may perceive.
It is in this general context and in the particular context of the three broad issues of concern in Nigeria, placed before us by the Conveners this Meeting for Interrogation (and possibly find some Resolution), that one would be beaming the searchlights on how the interplay of the currents and dynamics, driving and thrown up by these events/issues in far away Nigeria could impact not only the United States but also the rest of the Global Community.

It is also in this context that one would be searching for answers from the potential destinations of the negative impacts of the events and issues under examination, including the United States.

Zeroing in on the core of the Tripartite Phenomena of Trans-Regional Terrorism, Ethnic Cross-Country Migration and the Socio-Political Marginalization of Indigenous Nigerians, the common strand running through the three seems to be flowing from, and framed by the activities of the Trans-Regional Boko Haram and Fulani “Herdsmen” Terror Machineries ranking first and fourth on the Global Terror Index, with Nigeria having the dubious honour of being home to these two world acclaimed Terror Merchants.
The nexial chord between the aforementioned Tripartite Phenomena therefore is the fact that there is a clearly identifiable ethnic group, the Fulani, whose so-called “Herdsmen”, in a Trans-Border Migration setting, has been engaged in terrorising indigenous communities across vast expanses of the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria, creating massive Socio-Political upheavals at a time the Federal Government of Nigeria as well as the Headship of the Armed Forces, Police Force and other Armed Security Services of Nigeria are almost exclusively in the hands of the Fulani, in a manner that spells Socio-Political Marginalization for the indigenous Nigerians.

It is pertinent to recall that the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai had in the aftermath of one of the most deadly attacks on the indigenous communities in Southern Kaduna by the so-called “Fulani Herdsmen”, admitted publicly that the killer Herdsmen were Fulani from outside Nigeria and that he (El-Rufai) had as Governor of Kaduna State, sent large sums of money to those Fulani killer “Herdsmen” in 14 different countries from which they cross into Nigeria to kill, maim, rape dislodge indigenous communities, to appease and persuade them to stop the killings. This removes any conjecture as to the Cross-Border Character of the Terror.

The question of Political Marginalization is also self-evident in the acutely clannish and nepotistic appointments of the current President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, who happens to be Fulani himself and whose only other known vocation after decades of military career is cow breeding. He is also the Grand Patron of the Miyetti Allah Cow Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) which unabashedly presents itself as the sponsors and spokesmen of the murderous Fulani “Herdsmen”.

Being myself an Attorney who had for over 20 years been involved in hands-on search for the unravelling of the Tripartite Phenomena now under discourse and working with my compatriots in the Lower Niger Congress, along with our Partners in the MNN Alliance, I can share with us some important findings that may hold the key to the unravelling of the intricately intertwined aforementioned Trinity of Challenges threatening to consume Nigeria, the Lake Chad Basin and the Gulf of Guinea.

Those findings are :

1. That the most catalytic factor to these Multifaceted Regional Trans-Border Challenges is ethnic (Fulani) and compounded by religion (Jihad).
2. That the methods and strategies deployed by these adversarial trans-border migrants thrive best in Ungoverned Spaces.
3. That the virus behind the spread of these near-intractable Trinity of Challenges is the failure of the regime of the Rule of Law in the vast territories currently engulfed by the Challenges.
4. That the Chief-Enabler of that virus fuelling the failure of the Rule of Law, is the warped Constitutional Order imposed and manipulated by the same ethnic forces behind the problematic and adversarial Trans-Border Migration, now threatening the already Distressed Federation of Nigeria as well as the stability of the West African Sub-Region.
5. That the Global Islamic Caliphate and its concomitant Terror Machinery which was being challenged and ousted in the Middle East took advantage of the contiguous and largely ungoverned spaces that sweeps straight from Somalia to Northern Mali, berthing in Nigeria where its local franchise, Boko Haram was reinforced to seize political power and now driving a vicious seaward campaign of CONQEST and COLONIZATION spiced with ETHNIC CLEANSING against Nigeria’s Indigenous Communities, and establishing a new fortress for the kind of Global Islamic Caliphate it sought to establish in Iraq and Syria, which would include Chad, Niger Republic, Northern Mali and the adjoining Libya. The resultant behemoth will endanger the peace of the Global Community in an unprecedented manner. (See marked map of Africa/Middle East)
6. That unless something happens very fast to halt and Quarantine this Monster rapidly entrenching itself in the Lake Chad Region, with Nigeria as its Hub, we might suddenly come to where the Global Community finds itself having to contend with a humongous Monster that is armed with vast resources that will include the entire oil/gas output from Nigeria as well as a vast sovereign space measuring more than five times the size of Nigeria, with a distressed population in excess of 250 million people.

It is against the backdrop of the foregoing and in search of viable solution options that I chose to focus my Intervention on establishing the nexus between UNGOVERNED SPACES and GLOBAL TERROR with a view to helping persuade the potential destinations of the brewing Global Terror, especially the US, to act in good time to arrest the situation.

Recent Examples of this nexus abound around the Globe with Al Shabab and Al-Quaeda being the most notorious.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

1. With the complete collapse of the false FARMERS-HERDSMEN CLASHES NARRATIVE from the June 5-11, 2019 IRF Roundtables at the Capitol Hill; having established the direct nexus between Ungoverned Spaces and Global Terror with Nigeria in Focus; having also established the Causative Factors of the failure of Rule of Law, as well as the centrality of the warped, imposed and thoroughly disputed Constitution of Nigeria to the failed regime of Rule of Law, it is within the reach of the United States deploy existing Policy Strategies to proactively contain this direct threat to its National Security which may begin with a clearly worded RESOLUTION OF THE CONGRESS/SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES articulating the findings from these June/July 2019 Roundtables regarding the clearly established case of Fulani Invasion and Ethnic Cleansing of the Indigenous Nationalities of Nigeria. The recent failed Ruga Cow Colony gambit as well as the 30-Day ultimatum of the so-called Coalition of Northern Youths are indications of the depth of desperation driving the Fulani invasionists.
2. In view of the urgency of the multi-faceted Challenge of the adversarial Trans-Border Migrations in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin, the US Administration needs to move more quickly towards appointing a Special US Envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region, to immediately rally the Resources required to apply the Quarantine Plan which will revolve around the swift easing out of the disputed imposed Constitutional Instrument currently tearing Nigeria down, offered all Stakeholders by the ongoing Consensual Democratic Processes of the endangered indigenous nationalities of Nigeria as embodied by the FREEDOM PARK PROCLAMATION of December 11, 2018.
3. Considering the ethno-religious Factors now identified as fuelling the adversarial Trans-Border migration in Nigeria, with the resultant socio-political marginalization of the Indigenous Nationalities of Nigeria, as enabled by the imposed, disputed 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (now on the verge of collapse), the situation in Nigeria closely resembles the terminal stages of the South African Apartheid Constitution Challenge that was resolved by a structured TRANSITIONING PROCESS between 1990 and 1994. Accordingly, guided by the FREEDOM PARK PROCLAMATION of December 11, 2018, and in the face of the INCONCLUSIVE NIGERIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2019, the greatest assistance the US can offer the distressed and embattled Indigenous Peoples of Nigeria would be to help shepherd Nigeria into a TRANSITIONING to rework the Damaged Constitutional Basis of Nigeria in a manner that will halt the ethnic-driven Trans-Regional Terrorism, Ethnic Cross-Country Migration and comprehensively address the long-standing socio-political marginalization of the Indigenous Nationalities of Nigeria, whilst also arresting the National Security threat to the US represented by the current situation in Nigeria.

Thank you for your audience.
+234-810-056-9448
info@lowernigercongress.org
www.lowernigercongress.com
Tony Nnadi
Secretary-General,
Lower Niger Congress.
July 16, 2019.