The United States has been beavering away in Africa, stepping up its military presence on the continent under the cover of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM). The kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok, Bornu state, Nigeria, by the militant Islamist terrorist organisation Boko Haram has been a godsend — a golden opportunity to strengthen US military, intelligence and security ties with its most important trading partner on the continent, Nigeria. Meanwhile, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan conceded that Boko Haram has “infiltrated the armed forces and police”. Washington promptly dispatched military and intelligence personnel to Nigeria on the pretext of meeting Abuja's urgent request for assistance. Boko Haram hit the headlines when it launched an uprising against the Nigerian government in 2009, but the organisation ostensibly was catapulted into the international, regional and local arena by Osama Bin Laden, the late Al-Qaeda leader, himself the Frankenstein prodigal progeny of America. As the saga of the schoolgirls unravels, stories it spews unfold secrets that read like a detective novel. And this week marks the first anniversary of the declaration of a state of emergency in three northern and overwhelmingly Muslim Nigerian states: Adamawa, Borno and Yobe. Boko Haram's strategy seems to be to provoke the Nigerian government into its old repression so as to erode its popularity among Muslims in the north of the country. To begin with, Nigeria, in spite of its status as Africa's largest economy and most populous nation, does suffer from an image problem. On the eve of the opening of the World Economic Forum summit last Thursday in the Nigerian capital Abuja, the very foundations of Africa's presumably most formidable nation seem to have been shaken. With little sign of a shift in policy by the Nigerian authorities or Western powers, a bloody stalemate with Boko Haram looks set to persist. Yet as the casualties mount it is becoming crystal clear that the Nigerian authorities are incapable of dealing with the country's rapidly deteriorating security situation. Indeed, the country's president hinted that some of his military and police force are not only sympathetic to Boko Haram, but are working in cahoots with the terrorists. United States Marines provided security for the World Economic Forum summit, patrolling the streets in and around the conference centre in Abuja. The giant Nigeria has been reduced to the status of less illustrious African nations, such as Mali. Washington has seized the moment. The strategic significance of northeast Nigeria, lying at the crossroads of the continent, straddling the Sahel and the Sahara, cannot be downplayed. Geographically, the region is halfway between the militant Islamist terrorist militias of Northwest Africa and the Saharan region and Al-Shabab of Somalia. On the face of things, Washington's endeavours look like an exercise in futility. The ghost of Bin Laden cannot be exorcised in the barren wastelands of the Sahel. In the meantime, it is important to note that the Obama administration has expanded AFRICOM to around 5,000 personnel stationed in Africa, with a presence in 38 countries, including Nigeria. Washington now has more troops in Africa than at any time since its intervention in Somalia in 1993, which resulted in disaster for the Americans. Indeed, there are growing fears that open American military intervention in Nigeria will spark off anti-American venom in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria that in turn will fuel the cause of Boko Haram further. The US is not disheartened, though. AFRICOM, based in Stuttgart, Germany, has a civilian component to its activities in Africa to provide the people of the continent with a wide range of development, “good governance” and “humanitarian” services, to placate impoverished and frustrated Africans. Yet Washington has signally failed in the past to restore peace and stability in Arab countries such as Iraq and Libya where it has intervened militarily to topple regimes that constituted a perceived threat to the US's national interests. Even so, Washington looks likely to make further inroads in Africa and to influence the domestic and foreign policies of more and more African states, including Nigeria. And Washington does so under conditions where there is widespread local opposition to the dispatching of US military forces. AFRICOM commander General David Rodriguez was recently reported as saying that last year the US military carried out 546 “activities” in Africa, up from 172 in 2008, making a total over the years of around 1,000 “activities”. This astounding revelation by Rodriguez hardly hit the headlines and only a few scholars, specialist experts and researchers in institutions of higher learning are familiar with Washington's growing military presence in Africa. The Nigerian police have offered a $300,000 reward for information leading to the location and rescue of the abducted schoolgirls. Yet ominously, Amnesty International claims that Nigerian security forces had prior knowledge of the approach of Boko Haram militants and their plans to attack the school and abduct the schoolgirls. Even more puzzling still is that some of the teachers at the school in Chibuk where the girls were abducted seemed to know that there was an imminent attack, as most of their own daughters were enrolled in the school. Apparently, the teacher parents promptly returned their daughters home before the attack. Human rights groups, both local Nigerian and international, are urging the Nigerian authorities to investigate the matter. “The fact that Nigerian security forces knew about Boko Haram's impending raid, but failed to take the immediate action needed to stop it, will only amplify the national and international outcry at this horrific crime,” said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International's Africa director. Nigeria has officially invited four countries to assist in freeing the schoolgirls, namely the United States, Britain, France and China. All four have complied, even though China at first prevaricated. Washington promptly dispatched investigators and Marines to Nigeria. “Our inter-agency team is hitting the ground in Nigeria now, and they are going to be working in concert with President Goodluck Jonathan's government to do everything that we possibly can to return these girls to their families and their communities. We are also going to do everything possible to counter the menace of Boko Haram,” US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Washington. Some of Nigeria's neighbours, and in particular those bordering the northeast Nigerian state Bornu, a Boko Haram stronghold, are providing satellite imagery to track down the whereabouts of the schoolgirls and their abductors. It is also now coming to light that as far back as 2002, Bin Laden had dispatched an aide to Nigeria to donate some $3 million to motley militant Islamist and Salafist organisations in Nigeria and other predominantly Muslim West African nations. Apparently Bin Laden's alms were instrumental in the promulgation of Islamic Sharia laws in 12 northern Nigerian states. A newcomer had arrived on the political map of Nigeria and the Nigerian military's vaunted reputation for even-handedness as peacekeepers in West African countries such as Sierra Leone and Liberia has withered since. The pain of suspension was written across the furrowed forehead of Michele Obama who in an unprecedented move gave the weekly speech in place of her husband on the other side of the Atlantic. The First Lady called the abduction of schoolgirls an “unconscionable act”. She shared the sentiments of many Nigerians and concerned individuals across the globe that Boko Haram was “attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls”. Indeed, Boko Haram, fundamentally hostile to Western education, is particularly uncompromising when it comes to the education of women. “Like millions of people across the globe, my husband and I are outraged and heartbroken,” the US First Lady said. “In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters,” referring to Malia, 15, and Sasha 12, the same age range of the abducted Nigerian girls. “We see their hopes, their dreams and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now.” Theatrics aside, the point Washington appears to be belatedly projecting is that dealing with Africa is less dodgy than in the past. “I want you to know that Barack has directed our government to do everything possible to support the Nigerian government's efforts to find these girls and bring them home,” the First Lady emphasised. Bringing the powers that be in Africa back home to America, figuratively speaking, delivering the continent to the clutches of Washington, and elbowing out China and other non-Western rivals might well be the hidden agenda, or not so secret real mission to free the abducted Nigerian schoolgirls. The melodramatic charade is chillingly ominous to many in Africa, but not, perhaps, for Washington's policymakers.
