Blog 10: Bombings in Nigeria and the question of Foreign Aid

Since 2010, Nigeria has been facing a growing problem of domestic terrorism. The group that has been know to make these attacks goes by the name Boko Haram, but hasn't attacked the capital city of Abuja since 2012 because of a hyper-increase of security measures including frequent checkpoints on major streets and entrances to public buildings. But late last month, there was a bombing at a bus park in a suburb of Abuja that was confirmed to kill 71 people and injured even more. The president of Nigeria had stated early this year that terrorism had been pushed out of the cities and out towards the northeast of the country (Abuja is located near the center). The author stated that he think the president is not capable of handling these attacks on his own and should look to foreign aid, by just last year the Honorable Minister of Nigeria in charge of information dissemination said that the country would not look abroad for help to combat the threat of terrorism. The author feels that since many other countries come to Nigeria for its reserves of crude oil, that they should step on and aid in the defense of domestic terrorism.

This becomes a global problem when the people of Nigeria look for aid abroad because their do not feel they have the resources and capabilities to provide it themselves. The author also noted an interview that had been done this month in which a Nigerian soldier claimed that he knew of fellow soldiers that had actually been working with the known terrorist organization Boko Haram. This can either mean that their defense force is not capable of doing their own jobs, meaning that Nigeria is going to need foreign aid to deal with the group; that their is much distrust between soldiers of the Nigerian army, in which case their will likely come infighting if they were to combat Boko Haram and they would need aid from foreign countries; or that there is distrust from civilians towards their military, in which case Nigeria may not need foreign aid because of, but will still not be easy for the military to deal with the group.

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/opinion/in-nigeria-terrorism-moves-south.html?_r=0