Source: http://rlprayerbulletin.blogspot.com/
Date: May 5, 2021
DIARY
Ramadan: 12/13 April to 13 May [see RLPB 592 (7 April)].
1 May: China's new 'Administrative Measures for Religious Clergy' came into force [see RLPB 585 (17 Feb)].
Insecurity, terrorism and the 1999 Constitution.
plus: Haiti Update
by Elizabeth Kendal
Red circle: Boko Haram's latest conquest.
On Sunday 25 April Boko Haram fighters crept into Kaure, a remote village in the far east of Niger State, close to the western border of predominantly Christian, already traumatised southern Kaduna, and about 200 km (by road) north-west of Nigeria's federal capital, Abuja. When the signal was given, they struck without mercy: killing and wounding, looting and burning, torching crops and seizing women. The following day, Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, sounded the alarm. 'I am confirming,' he told a public forum, 'that there are Boko Haram elements here in Niger State. Here in Kaure in Shiroro Local Government Area (LGA), I am confirming that they have hoisted their flags there. The villagers' wives have been seized from them and forcefully attached to Boko Haram members. I just heard that they have placed their flags at Kaure meaning they have taken over the territory.' which, as he notes, is just 'two hours drive from Abuja'.
On Tuesday 27 April Niger State's Senator Musa Sani told the Upper House: 'I can authoritatively confirm that the Boko Haram terrorists have mounted their flags in many of the villages they have captured such as Kaure, Alawa and Magami ...' He informed the senators that over the last three days about 42 communities across Shiroro and Munya LGAs had fallen to Boko Haram, causing some 5000 villagers to become displaced. Earlier in April, the militants overran, looted and sacked three military camps in the area - in Allawa and Bassa (both in Shiroro LGA) and subsequently Zagzaga (in Munya LGA) - doubtless in preparation for what appears to be a Ramadan offensive.
IDPs from Shiroro LGA
The people of eastern Niger State and central Nigeria are mostly ethnic Gwari/Gbari. According to the Joshua Project, 38 percent follow ethnic religions, 29 percent are Muslim and 33 percent are Christian (mostly Roman Catholic). The State Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria's Niger State Chapter, Reverend Mattias Echioda, appealed to Christians in the state to give generously to help sustain the displaced (IDPs). He also called for prayer, that God would intervene in the security challenges confronting Niger State in particular, and Nigeria in general. The situation is critical not only for Christians in eastern Niger State, but also for those in neighbouring Kaduna, where 323 persons have been killed and 949 kidnapped in the last three months.
Whilst the government has deployed extra forces in and around Abuja to protect the capital, the threat facing Abuja's urban elites is nothing compared to the threat facing ordinary northern and Middle Belt Nigerians, especially those living in regional areas. In truth, the nightmare scenario of RLPB 562, 'Insecurity Enables Terrorist Expansion' (12 Aug 2020), is coming to pass: gross insecurity has paved the way for Boko Haram to expand into the Northwest and establish a foothold among the Fulani. On Sunday 2 May a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Robert Clarke, spoke on Channels Television's Programme, Sunday Politics, warning that the country was on the verge of collapse and might not survive another six months. While Clarke is calling for a State of Emergency, others are loath to put more power in the hands of the Buhari regime, noting that lack of authority is not the problem. On the contrary, over-centralisation - the legacy of the military-inspired 1999 Constitution - is mostly to blame.
The 1999 Constitution was prepared by the military regime of General Abdulsalami Abubakar and decreed into being, just ahead of Nigeria's return to democracy. Political scientist and historian, the late Peter Ekeh, maintained that 'the over-riding legacy of military rule in Nigeria is over-centralisation of governmental functions', and this has resulted in 'failures that are glaring' and 'debilitating consequences'. Nigeria is the only country practising a federal system of government but operating a unitary police force. Not only did the 1999 constitution abolish local police and centralise Nigeria's police force, it also expressly bans the establishment of any other police force. As Ekeh noted in his Lagos Lecture of December 2010, 'This Constitutional prohibition has the effect of depriving State Governments and Local Governments of the authorities to provide basic security for citizens under their jurisdiction ... The gradual erosion of basic security in the country must be blamed on high-handed military concentration of provision of security in the hands of Nigeria Police Force which has no presence in most towns and villages of the Federation.'
Recommended:
Military Rule and Damage to the Spirit of the Nigerian Constitution
Peter Ekeh, Lagos Lecture, 1 December 2010 .
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT OUR HEAVENLY FATHER WILL:
- sustain Nigeria's traumatised Church in the midst of her troubles: comfort those who grieve, heal those who are wounded and traumatised and provide for the displaced; may Yahweh Sabaoth (the Lord of Hosts, commander of heaven's angelic army) preserve and rescue all those women who have been captured as war booty and gifted to Islamic jihadists. Lord in your mercy, 'deliver us from evil' (from Matthew 6:9-13).
- redeem the current crisis to bring spiritual awakening and constitutional reform to Nigeria, a nation of immense wealth and potential, blighted by corruption and gross insecurity. May God the Redeemer (Haggo'el) have mercy on Nigeria!
- grant Nigeria's Christian leaders - spiritual, political and civic - great wisdom, insight and boldness to be truth-speakers and peace-makers, as well as channels of sustenance, hope and grace; may Nigeria's Christians 'shine as lights' (from Philippians 2:14-16) through this current darkness.
'I can do all things through him who strengthens me' (Philippians 4:13 ESV).
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HAITI UPDATE
On 11 April, ten Catholics -- five priests, two nuns and three lay persons -- where kidnapped by a criminal gang that demanded ransom. Three clergy were released on 23 April [see last week's RLPB 595 (28 April)]. The remaining hostages were released on Friday 30 April, a little malnourished but otherwise unharmed. Thank-you Lord. There is no information on whether a ransom was paid to secure their freedom.