Terror Alert in Africa: A Diplomat’s Spurious Speculation

By

Ibrahim Usman

ibrahimuksmc@yahoo.co.uk

The last time we heard of the Israeli ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Moshe Ram, was when he launched an attack on the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, the Daily Trust newspaper and certain credible journalists, for asserting there was no cause to celebrate the sixty years of existence of Israel as a state.

Recently, the diplomat resurfaced, this time with a spurious speculation that Hizbullah is planning to attack Israelis and their interests in West Africa. The Nigerian Inspector of Police, Mike Okiro, was said to be visiting foreign embassies in the country when Mr. Ram made the statement. He said, a security report uncovered by the Israeli media, did not specifically mentioned Nigeria, but it is all pointing towards that direction. Hear him: “We know that they were not particular about Nigeria but I think that it is very feasible and might, you know, in the chain of events it might happen and eventually it can become a problem”. According to The Jerusalem Post, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, in a rare move, restricted the Counterterrorism Bureau from commenting on the issue. It however cautioned Israelis, especially business men who deal with Muslims, to be on the alert for possible attack and abduction.

Judging by happenings around the world, coming down to Africa, Nigeria having the largest Muslim population and the most populous in the continent stands the only serious threat to the West on the current face off between Islamic resurgence and the new world order. It is equally true to say that, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria under the leadership of Sheikh Ibraheem Yaqub Zakzaky is the only vibrant movement in the continent that is toeing the Iranian model of revolution. Late Imam Khomeini was the spiritual founder of Hizbullah, and the Movement derived its inspiration from thoughts and ideals of Imam Khomein. For the Israeli ambassador to Nigeria to say that, Hizbullah in West Africa is plotting attack is to indirectly express the fear of Israel over activities of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria which is fast gaining ground and popularity within and beyond the continent. For over 27 years now, the Movement had never hid its allegiance and admiration for Iran and Hizbullah in all its activities. In fact, during the thirty-three – day war between Hizbullah and Israel, the Movement alone in Nigeria in weekly processions expressed total support for Hizbullah while the war lasted.

Shortly after the ambassador’s statement world media started pointing accusing fingers at Nigeria, and specifically the Islamic Movement in Nigeria. World Defence Review posted on its website a picture of Sheikh Zakzaky, leader of the Movement addressing a large Muslim audience to commemorate the Ashura and other pictures depicting public activities of the group and made the following comment: “...that these pictures were shot in Nigeria is the fact that first; there is indeed a large Shiite minority in Nigeria with whom Hezbollah would find a natural ally, and second; there is a large Lebanese Shiite immigrant community in that country who settled there in the 1960s and 1970s, coming mostly from south Lebanon. The photographs show an unidentified Shiite mullah (his religious affiliation is easily identified by his dress) being given full military honors during a parade complete with uniformed militiamen and hundreds of Hezbollah yellow flags as well as giant posters of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Another picture shows hundreds of uniformed young men during a military parade, preceded by large posters of Nasrallah and of assassinated Hamas leader Ahmed Yassine”.

This is not the first time that a terror alert was being hinted in Nigeria. In 2007, the US embassy in Nigeria warned American citizens of a potential terror attack on official and commercial installations in Abuja and Lagos. A United States intelligence expert and former ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Princeton Lyman had alleged that, Al-Qaeda shifted its base to Nigeria. Lyman in a report on the American television news station, CBN News, quoted a United Nations investigation which he said uncovered Al-Qaeda’s training and building bases in Nigeria in support of his conclusion that, Nigeria is a natural target for terrorists seeking to expand their operations. However, this is the first time such spurious speculation of such magnitude caught attention of world media.

By this, I want to believe that, it is all part of the Jewish conspiracy to cause chaos in Africa using divisive tendencies among Muslim faithful, as it is doing in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries as attested by Mr. Ram while responding to the seminar on the illegal creation of Israel by the Resource Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria. From all indications, the seminar had drawn so much attention that made Israel and its allies jittery. So jittery was Israel that its ambassador to Nigeria, Moshe Ram had to respond in an undiplomatic way. Israel and its allies could be paving way for attacks on some target Islamic group or groups that pose threat to their existence. Perhaps we should anticipate pre-planned bomb attacks on target places to support the ambassador’s claim. Already we are witnessing assassinations of Islamic scholars in Nigeria as part of the grand plot.

Despite the constant suppression and oppression by governments, not for one day did the Movement declared or plot an attack in the form of either retaliation or vengeance. On a general note, no Islamic group in Nigeria had ever threatened to attack any foreigner or foreign interest in the country. Yet, on many occasions militants in the Niger Delta issued threats, and in fact attacked and abducted foreigners in Nigeria, but these the ambassador found not worthy of mention.

Why would Hizbullah want to carry out an attack in West Africa? A veteran of an elite army unit and a security expert in Africa, Nir Kalron while responding to Moshe Ram’s speculation in Israeli online paper Haretz.com, offered reasons: “One reason is the large population of Lebanese Shi’ites who left their country during the civil war in the 1970s. They deal in trade, communications, minerals and other fields. Ironically, so do many of the Israelis in the region, which means people from both groups may meet up in the business world...the warning must be taken seriously by business people in the area, at least for the time being”.

Mr. Ram must not be taken seriously, if anything his comments have insidious intent, we should therefore be sceptical of such uncouth statements. Such speculative reports say more about those making them than the actual situation on the ground. It is like pot calling the kettle black. Israel is a terrorist state, run by terrorists, unleashing wholesale terrorism. Infact, Israel is number one terrorist state in the world.

Ibrahim Usman writes in from Kaduna

ibrahimuksmc@yahoo.co.uk

 

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