The abductions in Nigeria

[Simfan34]

I'm amazed at how many of my hipster friends on Facebook have used the #bringbackourgirls hashtag after they ragged so hard on Kony 2012 2 years ago. I point it out them and they get all pissy and say it's not the same but can't explain how. Hipsters in America only care about this because the media isn't covering it. If the media was covering it, they would probably say it was the media trying to drum up support for another foreign war against brown people, or something like that.

This seems a bit rantish, but I can't really disagree. But remember how Hollywood types grabbed on the idea of a US intervention in Darfur c. 2006 or so. Even at, what, 12, I was startled by the contradiction of people who I figured opposed intervention in Iraq supporting intervention in another Arab country. It still doesn't make sense.

As for the hipster-ish aspect it is the main story on the BBC webpage. But the Nigerian response, as always, is beyond botched- they've arrested some protesting mothers of the kidnapped girls because they "embarrassed" the President's wife. They've all been too busy celebrating "becoming Africa's largest economy" due to their "GDP rebasing", sometimes people from Nigeria can be really full about things. The Boko Haram insurgency shows no sign of abiding. Not that the APC offers anything better, of course.

[Simfan34]

I mean I suppose so, but the Kony thing was sort of past its prime when they decided to make an issue of it and they used a sort of very black-and-white imagery when the whole issue was quite complex. I was one of the people criticising it, yes. This however is different- it just happened and Boko Haram is very obviously an objectively bad group worse than the government of Nigeria. That wasn't so clear in Uganda, where the NRA was also using child soliders and whatnot, for example.

[Simfan34]

Of course and then it seems several Nigerians I've spoken to regard this thing as some sort of hoax.

[Simfan34]

The Grauniad has proven to be consistently awful when it comes to Africa.

[Simfan34]

I have one thing to say here;

Children have been abducted.

Please bear this in mind before your opinions fall out of your mouth.

Or have they? There are a few Nigerians I know who maintain this is some hoax perpetrated by the local villagers and/or government, for some unknown reason.

[Simfan34]

The Emir of Kano has called for people to take up arms and defend themselves against Boko Haram, that is, they ought to take matters into their own hands and be armed. This is of course after Boko Haram captured the town of Chibok last week (which is, of course, the hometown of the still-missing schoolgirls), and only retook it with the help of a local militia, which is exactly the sort of thing the he seems to be talking about.

The Emir of Kano is, it should be remembered, Lamido Sanusi, the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (and this guy!) who declared that upwards of $20 billion was missing from the treasury and was promptly sacked. Unsurprisingly, the government has condemned (which is actually somewhat surprising, considering the Emir is not usual a political figure) his call, saying that it would be a "call for anarchy and lawlessness," which doesn't seem terribly different from the state at present. The spokesman claimed that the police were doing their job, which is an incredible claim to make when large swathes of a region are controlled by a militant group and patently absurd when soldiers have literally ran away from the militants they are supposed to be fighting.

Also this should be the general Boko Haram thread- it's far too big a deal to be consigned to a general continent-wide (ick) thread.