Negotiation and the need to identify an Ideology.

In some of my previous posts, i mentioned the importance of identifying an underlying ideology in the effort to challenge fundamentalist groups with a view of getting them into the negotiating room. While it may be often more convenient to think of your foe as a evil the manner in which he fights you means that you will never be in a position to win against him. This is what we have come to refer to as the unconventional war.

My reference in particular was to the Boko Haram group which i argued needed to be confronted about its Educational reform ideas. Because of the insistence that Western Education was forbidden, we needed to engage them about what they felt was lacking in local education systems. In a sense we needed to force them into a different battle field-that of the mind.

Now that the aforementioned group was seeking to form union with Al Quaeda and ISIS, this need is becoming more apparent. This is significant because even if the face of modern 'resistance' was changing, these groups were also feeding on each other and benefiting from the numerous research that was available on-line and with many media houses. While some groups (especially suicide bombers) were often encouraging their recruits to prepare for virgins in heaven, Boko Haram is instead creating a heaven on earth for its fighters by providing them young brides. This is a massive and notable change in Ideology. These shifts in thinking need to be exploited and utilized.

What these groups are saying, is that some of what was conventionally expected as heaven in its rewards can now be made available on earth. This is a two edged sword and can serve to fodder or prevent some of those who before were tempted to take their lives in acts of bravery. The downside of this though is that the same African (Nigerian Group) has also started using young girls to take part in acts of violence.  

The rise of a new religion-human rights it's priests are called activists.

This week I heard an interesting program on the BBC in which an interview was done with a former British intelligence officer whose level of expertise seems is in ISIL. 

He made some important references to U.S work in Iraq and the errors that were made in dismantling the former presidents state machinery. His view was that those who had formerly served the Iraqi president had now coagulated and gathered around the new core (ISIS). This made sense because I was beginning to see a revival of Baathist tendencies especially with the attack on Yazidis. In my view therefore the former president was not dead...not in the complete sense. 

One could see the same happening in Libya even if the forces that displaced the Colonel in that country seem to have been more home grown. What one should therefore follow is the after effects on Libya and if marginalized groups will begin to suffer abuses from the past as in the case with Iraq. If the same happens, then one might as well rewind all the way back to 2011. 

The conflict here rises out of what we can loosely refer to as established authority and the broad subject of Change. What I have also found and what I ascribe to is a belief that nations are just like people. When they are hurt or wounded, they often cease to grow or at least begin to limit resources to those areas that are wounded until those parts are healed. 

If they have unanswered questions or dilemmas, these often cause deep questions which after a passage of time will result in a loss of confidence in their systems or a birth of doubts and fears and negative attitudes. 

So the natural flow of questions in this regard then is this? Are Americans ready for change and what does this mean for the next administration? 

Will it take the rapid form as it did in the early 1900s so that suffrage predates the struggle of the sixties with the civil right movement? 

Was Hillary meant to be first and is America ready for the return of the Clintons to the white house (after the primaries we can see how the Clinton family played the role of king maker in B.H.O's election). 

As power begins to centre more along family lines, will we see the return of the larger Bush Family to the white house too? Is Florida going to play a significant role in the elections? What role if any will the new dynamics in the U.S-Cuban relations play in the coming elections. Do these changes benefit the republicans or do they favor eye democrats?

Have recent development in the petroleum brought about a sea change in the machine that is government? Are we going to see something similar to what happened in the Seventies when the Saudis tightened the note on foreign relations?

The Christian faith calls these strongholds, or you can call them mindsets.

You could say, that the sixties were a prime example of this challenge on the American Psyche. The Vietnam war, the Kennedies and Martin Luther on one hand and the drive to the left which was characterized by the Jesus Movement, the hippies and the rise of experimental drugs. 

While we are still dealing with the subject of our relations, another group has arisen whose prime focus seems to be on the elimination of western education. 

In my most recent post (trends and prediction) I wondered aloud why we seem unprepared for an event which we for such a long time had predicted. 

Could this be the case now too? 

Do we now have a solution to the problem of endemic corruption?

A forceful return to faith (sharia) and a complete revamp of the education system? 

Have you ever silently cheered for someone who challenged authority even if you did not approve of their actions. Did you ever wish that they succeeded and fought for a position once they did even if you were unwilling to engage as deeply as they did?

There are some aspects of this in the faith struggle that seems to accompany all major faiths especially those that have proselytization as part of their doctrine or that insist on some sort of hell fire message. 

In addition to this there are some references to what Zacharias calls man's responsibility versus God's sovereignty which in summary questions, tries to differentiate between those activities for which men must act and those for which God bears full responsibility. 

The result of this is the creation of two distinct groups of believers those who act and those who wait for God to act. Maybe some groups draw inspiration from the book of Genesis in which God places men at the heart of his garden and commands them to subdue and dominate the earth. 

Nigeria gets her groove back: Reconstruction has a Rethink

In Uganda we are dealing with 20 plus years of an insurgency in the North whose effects are now being experienced regionally.
We have had some help from the Americans (from of their elite military units) and am sure the military establishment here has gained a lot.

I guess my interest piqued after hearing reports about the renewed search for J.K. (Of Northern Uganda fame) and while i am glad that we are receiving 'help', i fear that the help has been masked by shame and has caused an opening of doors to foreign military elements and intelligence officials who would never have been allowed into a country like Nigeria. All of this while Nigeria is reporting tremendous progress and growth.

The bottom line is that in Uganda and Central Africa, Somalia, and other dense forested areas foreign military teams are still rather disabled and will use this opportunity to benefit themselves.   

So while we lament about government's seeming inaction in Nigeria...and rightly so, we must not forget that our American friends are still yet to deal with their own challenges in a industry that brings in Billions of Dollars and does a little bit more than just abduct young girls.

So we are in a bit of a dilemma. Our regions and countries have become spots of contention for turf wars and we have become attractive positions for proxy wars.


We are a little different from the Nigerians in our approach in that, we have also attempted to drive many reconstruction efforts in the Northern Area of Uganda. My suggestion for the Nigerian government is that they use the Ugandan model in their battles with Boko Haram. I am not suggesting that we can teach the Nigerian military much of anything. Heck we send many of our generals to military schools in Nigeria. What i think we can help demonstrate is the value of our reconstruction efforts and how in some sense they have helped ease the burdens on our northern brothers. 

The Nigerian have an interesting system that allows for a shift in authority between the predominantly Muslim North and the Largely Christian South. It is a rotation of sorts which allows for a delicate balance to be maintain between the two major religious groups.

I think that there must be a greater push to develop the North of Nigeria and to think about fresh terms if the Executive is for some reason cut short (as was the case the previous government). As i have also suggested before, Educational Reform is not too much to ask for given the rate of unemployment and the reported level of corruption. I think certain aspects of this form of negotiation would also help pull the idealogical rag from underneath the feet of the Boko Haram.

Anything short of this threatens to result in a rise in copy cat crimes fueled by the attention this group has received from the media even after a seeming lull in revolt and response from the Ogoni tribe and the much earlier Biafra group.

Advice-Please be careful about who you allow into your country. Focus on your current victories and celebrate them...continue to fight for African Solutions to African Problems. Rethink the manner in which you educate your children. Allow your cultural values to supersede those of your religions.