- Releases documents revealing concerns about Nigeria programme
By Emmanuel Ogebe
I was shocked to see comments by Congressman Scott Perry that USAID is funding Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria. As the topmost global expert on Nigerian terrorism to work with the U.S. Congress to force President Obama’s designation of Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on November 13, 2013, I can confidently say this is blatantly false.
Not only did I testify in Congress before the designation but I testified after the FTO as well to report to Congress that Turkish Airlines should be investigated when we obtained evidence of a cockpit recording where Turk pilots discussed arms smuggling into Nigeria.
In addition, I traveled with multiple US congressional delegations to Nigeria on fact-finding missions over the years and in particular after meeting the widow of a policeman, who along with him and her sons had their throats slit but she survived, was directed by them to USAID for assistance. Unfortunately, USAID did not provide her any assistance but my self and others contributed and built her a house. When one of her sons was discovered alive after 14 years, Dr Pastor Paul Enenche gave him a scholarship for several years now.
More recently an American pastor asked me to assist him to exchange himself for the release of captive Christian schoolgirl Leah Sharibu. The Legal Attache of the U.S. Embassy meet with him to dissuade him from doing so saying it was against Nigerian law to engage with terrorists.
Even when an American woman was kidnapped by Fulani bandits in Jos a couple of years ago, the U.S. did not play a role in paying her ransom due to their policy against such. It was my humanitarian colleagues who paid it. The U.S. prefers to send in their troops to rescue Americans than to give money to terrorists as they did in secret military operations in Sokoto and Kaduna disclosed previously.
We have many concerns with USAID. Last year we asked them to assist us in delivering half a billion naira worth of medical aid we were donating to Nigeria but they declined. Upon reviewing the program report they shared with us, we saw that they had allocated $15 million for mosquito nets in the very state where we were providing humanitarian relief to. We requested details for it but they didn’t produce any before Biden left.
We also noted that they claimed to have spent millions of dollars on peace-building in the state. We asked them whether the terrorists had ever attended any peacebuilding seminar.
The fact of the matter is that if U.S. govt was funding terrorism, we would know and expose it.
Only last year, I exposed how a U.S. journalist lied that the CIA rescued Chibok girls from Sambisa in her new book “The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA” by Liza Mundy.
I note further that indeed I raised concerns with the U.S. government when I served as their Country Representative to Nigeria 20 years ago that we had built houses for Bin Laden sympathizers. However, they were ignorant almajiris and not terrorists and Boko Haram was yet to begin terrorism then.
These baseless attacks on USAID are merely to give a dog a bad name after hanging it.
Kindly find below my communications with senior USAID leadership regarding concerns with their programs in Nigeria just last year:
CORRESPONDENCE WITH BIDEN ADMINISTRATION USAID MANAGEMENT
Dear AA Monde,
I have taken sometime to review the documents on your substantial engagements in Plateau state. As Country Rep for the USG, Plateau State was one of several states my agency signed MOUs with for counterpart funding of economic development projects twenty years ago so I am intimately familiar with it from a programmatic lens in addition to attending law school there.
A. PROJECTS REVIEW
- POWER
Firstly, thank you for your electricity project in Plateau state. In an embassy briefing some years ago, we were apprised of it.
Incidentally, the rationale of the project location was based on the heroism of a local mullah who protected 300 Christians in his mosque during the June 2018 massacre that claimed over 200 lives including four of my relatives (the youngest were a four and six year old boy and girl.) We’re currently sponsoring orphans of that atrocity as USAID assistance does not extend to these ones.
COLLABORATION
USAID contacted us seeking our assistance in building a bridge en route the mullah’s village after seeing our rebuilding efforts in Benue state. However given our meagre resources and our focus on underserved communities, we were unable to.
CRITIQUE
In addition to non-assistance to vulnerable violence victims, one of our concerns was that the U.S. recognition of the heroic Muslim cleric’s rescue of 300 Christians significantly erodes its flawed narrative that this is a non-religious conflict. (You may see more analysis of the logical inconsistencies in my recent series on the Africa visit.)
- PEACE-BUILDING
Again thanks for the effort. I am familiar with one of our local interlocutors who I believe is your IP.
CRITIQUE
The obvious one is that a forced peace without justice is repression. US aids Israel with billions to retaliate Islamist terror attacks over land dispute but aids Plateau with thousands to tolerate Islamist terror attacks over “land” disputes.
Your divergent policy on parallel situations, even assuming your flawed problem analysis were true, promotes the survival of the former and annihilation of the other.
Our colleagues in country are reviewing the report in greater depth but clearly given the continuing fatalities the programs have infinitesimal effect and I fear to say have a contrarian effect. The summary I glimpsed is based on perceptions and no hard data establishing a casual nexus between interventions and deescalation of atrocities.
My final comments are that the Fulani invasions predate Nigeria vide the 1804 jihad. Climate change was not the cause then either. Lastly, admitted foreign Fulani militia invaders from west Africa do not constitute “communal conflict” when slaying indigenous Nigerian citizens on their ancestral lands, the same way the Russian invasion of Ukraine isn’t a “communal clash.”
COLLABORATION
We have led US and British parliamentary delegations on fact-finding missions there which have greatly enhanced their appreciation of the nuances to the conflict. We would be interested in having a broad consultation of global actors in this area; the US Diaspora as well as micro interaction with victims in country to bridge the knowledge gap and the relief deficit.
- MALARIA
I commend your budgeted health interventions in Plateau state.
CRITIQUE
The biggest mortality driver and threat factor in Plateau state is terrorists and not mosquitoes. Terrorism is both a public health, food security and national security crisis.
COLLABORATION
Our extensive work and needs assessment in the state show for instance that the premier Plateau Hospital (where I was born) is completely run down and in need of a major overhaul. While USAID’s $15.3million investment in insecticide-treated nets is commendable, $1.3 million of that could significantly upgrade the hospital to be able to provide significant service to a myriad of medical maladies, terror or otherwise, significantly scaling impact beyond merely malaria.
B. PROPOSED PROGRAM PARTNERSHIPS
Overall, the following appear to bear synergistic potential:
- VALUED-ADDED MEDICAL AID COMPACT
Pertaining to the initial object of my outreach, it would interest you to know that our medical aid includes mosquito nets for Plateau State in addition to PPE, equipment and consumables. Facilitating the shipment’s delivery therefore is not only entirely consistent with your programmatic objectives but adds value.
We would ask consideration of a cooperative agreement to allow for delivery of said aid to Plateau state pursuant to your envisaged programming. - UPSCALED PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE LEVERAGING
We recommend considering a reallocation of $1.3 million of the FY2024 mosquito net funds (less than 10%) to be utilized in an MOU with Plateau State to upgrade Plateau Hospital. The MOU would actually leverage counterpart funding from PLSG for exponential public heath impact and service delivery. - MODERN COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT SCHEME
We would like to explore an ambitious plan to help rebuild devastated communities with modernized model villages. After consultation with the embassy, we have searched for potential prototypes by the UN in northeast amongst others. We’re finally site-visiting a Canadian-Diaspora funded prototype in Plateau state soon to explore suitability for replication.
Proposed funding is under negotiation and Plateau state would be a good pilot for subsequent scalability across devastated communities in the north.
This project would reprise a project executed during my tenure where USG built 400 homes in ravaged communities in a cofunding collaboration with a Nigerian state.
I am including a few supporting documents and would appreciate an initial meeting referral with your country office during our next visit and one at HQ to explore these further.
Thanks for your kind attention.
Emmanuel Ogebe
Special Counsel
Justice for Jos Project
Seeking to end impunity in the Nigerian Genocide
PHOTO-2024-02-09-10-10-50.jpg
I located our photos from last February in the Hilton, Abuja
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(10yr Boko Haram IDP widowed Mum)
All are victims of Fulani militia terrorism except Blessing who is a double victim of that and Boko Haram terrorism. Their orphanage in Plateau was destroyed displacing 156 children out of whom we sponsored seven to school in Abuja. Janet, you may recall is unable to parent due to PTSD.
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I am sorry to report that due to the continuing insecurity in Plateau state and inflation, the students’ scholarship program in Abuja was suspended so that they’re not in danger whilst traveling back and forth.
On Feb 7, 2024, at 4:28 PM, :
Dear Monde,
Thank you for taking the time to look into this.
I’d like to first apologize for spamming you. I spoke to a colleague in the UN who called today that she still hadn’t received my email and I found that I had mistakenly resent it to you!
Incidentally, your response is somewhat similar to that received by Plateau state health officials from UNHAS that they only serve Yobe and Borno states in the northeast and so unable to help.
I think this is a clear indicator of the gap between the critical needs of the community and the programmatic priorities and perceptions of donors.
Leaving victims in the midst of their misery and the impunity of aggressors is, I consider, the surest recruitment mechanism for reprisals.
I think that USAID and Africa is fortunate to have you because your strong academic credentials and Africa expertise can help us review the flawed narratives on which failed interventions are hinged.
As Diaspora, hopefully we can reach out to engage with you as we did during Administrator Green’s Nigeria trip.
I believe it is time for an overdue honest conversation on the situation in Nigeria’s middlebelt and I hope we can do it soon.
A couple decades ago, I served a U.S. donor agency as Country Representative to Nigeria. My concerns about the extremism I saw were discounted by HQ. Recently an FSN deployed at the same time as I confided in me that he had exactly the same pushback within the US mission! That was the birth year of Boko Haram.
This tells me not to devalue my perspective as a Nigerian American (for fear of unconscious bias) because another American saw exactly the same thing that I saw!
In the two weeks since Sec Blinken’s trip, three communities in Benue and Plateau states where we had relief projects have been fatally attacked again including yesterday with over a dozen killed. So hopefully you’ll forgive and can understand my non-enthusal.
I am including here the video of the kids who survived Boko Haram attacks in northeast 10yrs ago, being besieged on a mountain for a year, being undocumented refugees outside UNHCR camps in Cameroun only to return to survive a Fulani militia attack in north central two years ago.
https://fb.watch/m2LFszWgOE/?mibextid=UVffzb
I still have photos you took with them at the Hilton Abuja in case you need them.
These kids have been IDPs for over half their lives and we need to find solutions that work instead of them paying the price for suspended animation. That’s a debt we owe Africa’s children.
Many thanks for your kind attention.
Emmanuel
Special Counsel
Justice for Jos Project
Seeking to end impunity in the Nigerian Genocide
On Feb 7, 2024, at 2:04 PM, Monde Muyangwa wrote:
Dear E Ogebe,
Thank you for your email on January 24, 2024. The attacks in Plateau State serve as a sad reminder of how violence can steal the lives of our loved ones and diminish the strength of our communities. As the U.S. Mission Nigeria expressed in a December 28 statement, I also condemn the Plateau State attacks and the tragic loss of life and extend my condolences to the impacted families. It is imperative that those responsible for these heinous crimes are held accountable.
I would also like to thank you for the important work that your organization is doing in Plateau, including your recent medical mission. I have explored your request with my team and unfortunately USAID is unable to facilitate an airlift of medical supplies.
We recognize your long-standing commitment to Nigeria and the issues at hand, and would like to share additional information on how USAID is addressing the drivers of conflict in places like Plateau. Please refer to the attached factsheet. USAID interventions in Plateau work to mitigate farmer-herder violence, professionalize state peace commissions, and build the capacity of community leaders in interest-based negotiation, mediation and facilitation. USAID has worked with 35 peace structures and committees in Plateau who are conducting outreach to dissuade people from carrying out further reprisals. While limited in geographic scope, we are witnessing community members whose newly acquired skills have deescalated conflict from becoming violent. Please find additional information here.
Thank you again for reaching out to me personally and for your commitment to supporting the victims of violence and efforts aimed at building peace. If you have any further questions, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Monde Muyangwa
