Terror labeling: How American profs fought for Boko Haram
Rev Ladi Thompson
The convener of Macedonia Initiative and General Overseer of Living Water Unlimited, Rev Ladi Thompson has revealed how 20 American professors fought to stop the designation of Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in a new book titled, The Kingdom Gospel’s solution to Boko Haram War.
Rev Thompson spoke and presented the book at a programme organized by the Lagos chapter of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria on the kingdom solution to Boko Haram war in the month of June at the Vineyard Christian Centre, Ajao, Lagos.
He said but for the doggedness of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the former President of Christian Association of Nigeria, the sect would not have been designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation.
In the book, Thompson said about 20 American professors submitted a report in 2012 at a political hearing on Nigeria in the US to Hillary Clinton pleading with the US government not to designate the body a terrorist organization. The professors according to the letter which was later made available to our correspondent had argued that such designation would increase the activities of the terror group, legitimize the abuses by Nigeria’s security services among other things.
But Pastor Oritsejafor who had attended the congressional hearing had come with a three-point agenda that included the labeling of Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation.
Thompson noted at the forum that the views of the professors were largely influenced by what they had been fed with by some influential Nigerians.
He said the report of the professors on Nigeria was “with a spin that introduced Boko Haram as an anti-corruption movement”
Thompson wrote in the book, “At that time Nigeria had not yet fully understood what the Boko Haram stood for and many well recognized Nigerian Muslims were rooting for the terrorists publicly. Sitting at the hearing, I could not recognize the Nigeria that witnesses like Ambassador Johnny Carson and Professor Darren Kew were describing as they appealed passionately on behalf of the terrorist group’
He noted further that Hillary Clinton did not want the Boko Haram to be branded and had managed to persuade the Nigerian president that it would be counterproductive.
Terror designation: How Americans fought for Boko Haram
He disclosed that, at that time, several foreign bodies were arranging funds for Boko Haram; backed by Obama’s State department while Nigeria was sleeping. “It was surprising to discover that all the other arms of government involved in security had voted for FTO designation for the Boko Haram but the votes of the CIA, FBI, Homeland Securities and Justice Department were being held because State Department thought otherwise.”
But the table turned later. He states in the book, “God intervened and the FTO label was posted by the US government after some expected twist in the narrative”
Thompson who has been raising the alarm about an imminent terrorist group long before Boko Haram came to the fore said the designation of Boko Haram as FTO helped to cripple its operation more than any other measure ever taken within Nigeria.
“In one swift move, Boko Haram became a global terror concern and its funding came under scrutiny. All these helped to expose the moles within the system but our country was too compromised to act decisively. On return to Nigeria, Ayo Oritsejafor was vilified by the national media as a traitor. A few weeks later the tide turned as the truth began to emerge on the true nature of Boko Haram.”
He stated in the 138-page book that the new war of terror in Nigeria is hydra-headed warning that it should not be confused as a religious war. He reasoned in the book that it would be wrong to view the terror war as an extension of the Uthman Dan Fodio jihad recalling that the El-kanem and Borno Empire had curtailed the advancement of the Uthman Dan Fodio Jihad.
He wrote, “The Borno Empire had been Muslims for 600 years before Dan Fodio appeared on the scene. Apart from checkmating the so called jihad on the war front, El Kanemi also challenged the Islamic correctness of the jihad and proved that booty was a major consideration”
According to him, ‘what Satanic intelligence has done is to mix theology with virulent philosophies to create a hybrid that is deadlier than any crusade or jihad would ever be.”
He wrote further in one of the chapters, “This new form is much deadlier and more intelligent than the Dan Fodio campaign could ever be. The amusing thing about the story of the sultan of Sokoto trying to deep the Koran into the Atlantic Ocean on Ahmadu Bello road in Victoria Island is a laughable idea compared to the ambitions of this new threat. If this new scenario is permitted to run its course a lot of northerners will be shocked to discover that all the old emirates will be sacked and replaced with new ones.”
Thompson then reasoned in the book that there will be the need for the church to rejig its body language. He noted, “The only thing that the Dan Fodio narrative and this new terror war have in common is the manipulation of the Islamic religion. They are not the same thing and they never were the same thing.”
He warned at the PFN meeting that the church cannot afford to invest in military responses as a response to the Boko Haram terror onslaught noting that the weapons of the believer are not carnal. He said, “there is a wisdom that is better than the weapon of war. This level of wisdom requires faith. This has become a problem because of the encroachment of sense knowledge.”
He warned further that the church must not get involved in retaliation terror killings and it must not cast aside its faith in God. “The church must not embrace sensuous wisdom. It must not rejoice over the death of sinners, it must not reject divine standard of love and must not permit a religious war.”
While nothing that the hydra-deaded terror war machinery of the terrorists kills Muslims as easily as it kills the brethren he said, “many Christians do strange things because they have a strong desire to make heaven and it would surprise the Nigerian Church that the root reason that motivates the suicide bomber is the same desire to make heaven. In reality this is one of the major differences between religion and the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel of the kingdom assures you the citizenship of the kingdom while religion demands an insurance. There is a wide gap between an insurance and the assurance.”
Read also: I would have been sad if Leah denied Jesushttps://churchtimesnigeria.net/365-days-in-boko-haram-den-i-would-have-been-sad-if-leah-denied-jesus-mother-3529-2/
Thompson who recounted various experiences on the field while combating terror activities in Nigeria said one of the tools used by the terrorists is ignorance. One of the solutions to the terror monster according to him is for the church to begin to invest in education. “there is so much ignorance in the north. The north has been so much radicalized and indoctrinated. The church should go after the national policies on education and eradicate such illiteracy. In southern Nigeria the juju men enjoyed such latitude until the light of the gospel penetrated and brought education. Superstitious and jazz men lost ground when they discovered that lightning rods would conduct lightning and neutralize it no matter what errand it had been primed to deliver. The church must work without ceasing to establish free education at all level. Education promotes tolerance and eradicates superstitions in society.”
