FEATURE ARTICLE

Babs AjayiSaturday, March 7, 2015
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Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

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JONATHAN, THE ARMED FORCES AND A WAR OF DECEPTION AND LIES

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Continued from Part VIII

r. Jonathan and the armed forces are waging a fierce war with Boko Haram (BH) from the safety of their Abjua offices and residences. The battles with BH are being won on the armed forces' tweeter feed and at news conferences by the army and with unusual weapons such as pens and paper. The steady humiliation Mr. Jonathan and his ill-equipped, poorly trained and heavily underfunded (due to massive corruption and kleptocracy - a la Thieves of State) has shown that the armed forces are no match for BH. The armed forces have been humiliated, beaten badly and made to run leaving behind their equipment and military trucks, at least in the last six (6) long years. Then, and suddenly, Mr. Jonathan and his errand boys came up with a plan - all built around his low appeal and clear indications of a certain electoral defeat on February 14, 2015 - to demand the postponement of the election for six weeks, and suddenly he promised to defeat BH in six weeks! Within a week of the forced postponement news reports and stories of the Nigerian armed forces recording massive victories over BH started appearing in some newspapers, particularly The Vanguard and The Guardian. Most of the news reports were filed by reporters who never visited the battle fronts; reporters who were embedded with the armed forces in their headquarters in Abuja and mobilized to write news and stories of victories only imagined. The news reports provided no photographs and no video clips as evidence of the victories. In fact, these reported stories of the Nigerian Army are not even close to pyrrhic victories because in any pyrrhic victory the armed forces still directly engaged the opponent, won the battle but suffered heavy casualties and losses such as the Battle of Ausculum and the Anglo-Zulu War. A costly victory is way more honourable than false and fake victories from the safety of the army headquarters in Abuja that is being reported by journalists assigned the task of making it look and feel like a sudden turn in the fortunes of the humiliated armed forces of Nigeria. It is wont of thieves of state to rely heavily on deceit, falsehood, deception and lies. But how long does it take before the lies and deceptions are exposed?

The Vanguard of Nigeria on February 20, 2015 reported that "Troops recapture Boko Haram training base - kill 117 terrorists, retake Dikwa LG, many others killed as war planes pound Sambisa." It turned out that that report, which was filed by Kingsley Omonubi, Ben Agande, Evelyn Usman, and Ndahi Marama, were entirely based on a news conference and briefings some of the journalists attended at the Defence Headquarters. The journalists depended on the information provided to them by a serial liar, Major General Chris Olukolade, the very army information officer who had previously lied about the release of the Chibok girls and repeatedly lied about the killing of the leader of BK, Abubakar Shekau in 2009 and 2013. How can journalists, except perhaps armed chair journalists, rely on information from a very unreliable and dishonest soldier? Vanguard also reported "the death of a large number of terrorists" and claimed that "many others are also scampering all over the forest." Did the journalists have video clips and photographs from the army to substantiate this? Even when a dishonest Chris Olukolade provided a photograph of Abubakar Shekau, who he claimed the army had killed, it turned out to be merely a figment of Olukolade's imagination. To humiliate and disgrace the armed forces, Shekau just simply reappeared and mocked the big-title, low skill soldier. Several newspapers and news organizations around the world had then noted that the Nigerian military "did not say when or how Shekau was killed" and they did not trust the Nigerian armed forces. The notorious abuser and sick terrorist Abubakar Shekau is today alive and dishing out heavy defeats to the army of a heavily corrupt nation, notwithstanding what the Vanguard is reporting and editorializing. Corruption is taking a heavy toll on the armed forces and every sector in the nation. Just today the CNN, BBC and the Guardian of London reported the killing of 68 and dozens of people in raid on Nigerian village by BH. Chris Olukolade and his paymasters in Aso Rock are now a laughing stock around the globe. No one believes anything they say or write because they have no proof or evidence to substantiate their claims of massive defeat they are inflicting on BK. Even a civil servant in the department of state security service, Marilyn Ogar falsely claimed that "the original" Abubakar Shekau was dead, but these are all shameless liars and dishonourable people.

Vanguard newspaper also referred to a nameless "military source" in its report relating to "raid, which comprised military airstrikes backed by ground troops" and which "…inflicted severe casualties on the terrorists," but there were no photographs or video clips, and no eye witness account(s). Vanguard reporters have brought shame to the journalism profession and with it a bad name to the newspaper - making the paper look like a propaganda machine of the kleptocracy of the Jonathan administration. These journalists relied on a tweet that was posted on the defence headquarters' handle as their source of news! The discredited tweet reported that "Troops are dominating operations in Kukawa, Gari, Gujba in Yobe to rid the terrorists." Where is the evidence of that? Show me the proof and do not report information offered to you by discredited soldiers and liars inside the armed forces headquarters or Aso Rock because all these people have no credibility. Have these journalists from Vanguard seen BBC and CNN reports? They often always include photos and video clips from battle fronts. The only authentic defeats BH has suffered recently have come from the Chadian army, who have entered Nigerian soil to fight BK. The conference room victories are the illusions and dream of a clueless and drowning kleptocracy that sees a certain electoral defeat around the corner and wants to use any method possible to prevent it.

Vanguard also wrote about some nameless "sources close to epicentre of the battle" which "disclosed 73 terrorists killed in Konduga." Where did the Vanguard reporters meet/find these sources? Could they have seen these sources on the streets of Abuja or at the defence headquarters? The journalistic process of the Vanguard journalists does not include the need to substantiate or verify news reports. Welcome to fabricated and made-up journalism. Could this be some kind of lazy, envelope-driven journalism or could it be because the kleptocracy and the PDP are placing a lot of campaign adverts in Vanguard and they asked for some favours in return? Or the government have threatened to stop placing adverts in the Vanguard? I suggest these Vanguard journalists read the most recent story from CNN and see the dozens of photographs produced by the global news leader at http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/05/world/boko-haram-nigeria-raid/.

The Nigerian Guardian is also guilty of false reporting in this very matter. "Military recovers 30 communities, sacks terrorists," screamed the newspaper's headline on February 20, 2015. However, when you look closely you will realise that The Guardian news report was based predominantly on "them-say." Dr. Stanley Macebuh must have turned in his grave and wondered how a newspaper he brought to international prominence along with several other editors and egg heads could report and give space to unsubstantiated stories. He will wonder why the pillar of truth the newspaper used to stand on is now so shaky and crooked. The fluke report started in The Guardian with an unsubstantiated sentence: "The Nigerian military says it has secured at least 30 communities that were previously under the control of the Boko Haram sect, as hundreds of terrorists perished in renewed operations in the Northeast." Though the Guardian employed the present tense verb "says," the newspaper still went on to make the story look real, true and authentic. Are Nigerians supposed to swallow this sentence as a gospel truth without a single photo from the battle ground where hundreds of terrorists were killed? The reporters this time are Karls Tsokar in Abuja and Njadvara Musa based in Maiduguri. The reporters relied on a news conference addressed by those discredited, unworthy liars in the armed forces of Nigeria.

The reporters even used phrases such as "it was learnt" and "interestingly, the troops have maintained its victory over the Boko Haram sect …" despite not having a shred of evidence to substantiate such spurious and dubious claims. This says so much of how badly The Guardian had degenerated in recent years. The news report went on to - as did the Vanguard - refer to "sources within the military." Which military is that? The very same that Nigerians loathe and the world distrust? The only part of The Guardian story that appear credible was the reference to one Bukar Fantami, a supposed resident of Konduga who was said to have fled to Maiduguri, but there was no photograph of him, and this makes his existence doubtful. The Guardian listed several localities "where the troops have flushed out the terrorists" without finding a single local leader from those communities to interview and to corroborate the claims of the armed forces. The Guardian also used information from the tweet handle of the armed forces and did no additional work to verify the information they copied from there.

The Sun of March 3, 2015 produced a very responsible news report, which was a far cry from the reports in Vanguard and The Guardian. "Nigerian troops backed by civilian vigilantes today claimed to have killed more than 70 Boko Haram fighters in a foiled attack to capture the strategic town of Konduga near Maiduguri." Other newspapers from around the world used the word "claimed" because the armed forces did not provide them with any credible evidence to make them believe the claims they made. The Jamaican Observer, Daily Mail Online, USA Today, Oman Tribune, Nigeria Tell and Premium Times of Nigeria all sensibly added "claimed" to their reports because they know the source is dubious and very unreliable. It is disgraceful that Vanguard wrote an editorial opinion that gave "kudos to our troops" based on a bunch of lies, falsehood and fraud. The kudos was devoid of facts and lacked reference to any victories recorded by the corrupt and compromised armed forces of Nigeria. The editorial was a dirty, needless job that only helps to repay a clueless government that is putting dozens of adverts in the newspaper. To the horror and shock of the nation, Vanguard "anticipated total victory" without the newspaper witnessing any battle, without its reporters attending the battle front, and without interviewing a single witness to the grotesque victories of the Nigerian armed forces, a notorious armed forces that has gained fame and reputation for telling lies at will, misleading the nation and for fooling themselves every step of the way. When a few people tried to fool the nation and ended up making an idiot of themselves you just laugh at them, ridicule their stupidity and foolery, and you do so with disdain. Let me happily declare with broad smiles and rib-hurting cackle to Mr. Jonathan and his wimpy soldiers: Ah de laugh!

Continued from Part IX

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