Turd polishers at Levick fail to put Goodluck in front

It raised a few eyebrows last year when word came out that Nigeria Big Boss Goodluck Jonathan had hired on American PR giant Levick to spruce up his image going into the home stretch before the election.

Apparently the millions lavished on Levick have failed to make a decisive difference. Nor has the six week delay in the election, during which time Goodluck had promised to vanquish Boko Haram.

While there has certainly been no shortage of declarations of victory over Boko Haram, nobody believes them. However, everyone is aware that the armed forces of several neighbouring countries now have a free hand in the north.

That can't be a happy thing for the Big Boss.

And while, under Goodluck's tenure, the one percenters have made out like bandits, millions have joined the ranks of the absolutely impoverished, the poorest of the poor, the two dollar a day crowd (and that's on a good day).

Insofar as the wretched masses will vote, it's hard to imagine them voting for more Goodluck.

Nevertheless, Goodluck will declare victory, the streets will erupt in rage, and after days or weeks or perhaps even months of violence, the military will step in to restore order.

Outtaluck Jonathan's impossible Nigerian quagmire

Nigeria watchers everywhere are wondering what the next six weeks will bring.

That's the timeline Jonathan has established for not only crushing Boko Haram but also holding an election!

I'm not the only one who finds this fanciful beyond belief. Sonala Olumhense has been writing about Nigerian politics for thirty years, and it's very hard to find even a hint of optimism in his most recent ruminations.

The think tank here at Falling Downs is betting military coup.

Democracy on hold as Nigeria heads down shitter

Nigeria has announced the long anticipated delay of the long anticipated Feb. 14 elections. Just for six weeks or so mind you - till that pesky Boko Haram menace is swept under the rug, which won't take long now that Goodluck has invited in the armies of Nigeria's neighbours to do what the Nigerian army has been unable or unwilling to do for the past six years. Maybe they'll even bring back the Chibok girls in the process, and hopefully the oil price will also bounce back in that time, thereby giving the incumbent something to crow about.

What could possibly go wrong?

Does Goodluck come up with this foolishness on his own or is this the handiwork of his US advisers?

The odious links between Boko Haram and the Nigerian military

You have to go out of your way a little bit to find them, but there's no shortage of stories like this one claiming a close relationship between Boko Haram and elements within the Nigerian military.

This should not come as a complete surprise. In many areas of rural Nigeria, the dollar-a-day folks fear the state at least as much as they fear the militants. And don't forget, the country has spent more time under military dictatorship than under an elected government. Democracy is more of a decorative façade than than an institution.

The corrupt buffoon running for re-election is spending millions on an American PR firm to burnish his image - not among the voters in Nigeria, but with his pals in the West. Is it a coincidence that America is threatening greater involvement in Nigeria just before the election?

I think not.

17 dead in Paris, millions march; 2200 dead in Nigeria, who cares?

The crimes in France this week resulted in a massive show of support from Parisians and at least 40 world leaders who arrived to march in symbolic solidarity with France.

The crimes in Nigeria this week have resulted in... nothing?

Why?

Is not every life precious?

Well, perhaps, but as we all know, white European lives are exponentially more precious than black African lives.

While the world watches Paris, Islamic militants slaughter 2000 in Nigeria

The big story this week was in Paris, where Islamic militants murdered 12 middle-class white dudes.

A story that may have escaped your attention this week comes from Africa, where Islamic militants slaughtered an estimated 2000 black folks, in what Amnesty International is calling Boko Haram's worst mass murder in its mass-murdering history.

These stories have more in common than the fact that Islamic militants were the perpetrators. A superficial analysis would stop there, and conclude that there's obviously something profoundly wrong with Islam. That's been the overwhelming thrust of the punditry we've seen in the main-stream media thus far re: the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

What we call "Islamic militants" don't suddenly emerge from a void. These groups come from long-marginalized populations wherein some members eventually turn to violence after every other avenue for redress has been denied them.

Eventually these people lash out. The fact that the 12 middle-class white victims in France get a thousand times more publicity than those 2000 poor black victims in Nigeria is another symptom of the dysfunctional system that marginalized those populations in the first place.

Cuba - USA rapprochement; why now?

After all, the Yanks have had well over 50 years to set this right.

So why, after well over fifty years of missed opportunities, is this happening today?

My theory is that when some slow-burning back-burner story like this explodes, it's because the news gatekeepers are trying to take your eye off something else...

Like the EU striking Hamas off the terror list...

Like Islamist militants scoring hard in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Nigeria

Like the torture debate in America

Like the racism debate in America

Like the last round of concessions to the big banks

Like the bankruptcy of the USA

Like the fact that democracy in the USA has become a plaything of the .01%

Like the American elite's commitment to perpetual war

Like the rapidly disintegrating status quo around America's foster child in the Middle East...

When you think about it, there's never been a better time to make peace with Cuba!

There's a lot of stuff out there they want us to take our eyes off.

What we're not watching while we're watching Ferguson in flames

There are no stats on how often white cops have shot down Black Americans.

Nobody knows...

Suffice to say, this is not the first time.

But it should make you wonder why this time, whether it's more or less than 1,756,342, it's getting this massive media attention.

To the think tank here at Falling Downs, it looks like a "public spectacle" that's been cooked up by various levels of government, with the full connivance of the usual social justice entrepreneurs like Reverend Al, et al.

And of course, the main stream media are all aboard, as they inevitably are in every government initiative designed to take your eye off the ball.

Here are just a few stories we're not seeing while we're focussed on this completely routine cop-killing that has mysteriously hogged the spotlight for months:

• looks like that Afghanistan war is not over after all!
• Israel just made apartheid official state policy
• the Iranian "enemy" is almost in from the cold
• Africa's biggest oil producer, biggest economy, most populous country, and biggest US ally, moves closer to being a failed state every day

Those are but four stories we're ignoring, and there are many more from Ukraine to Libya to the farthest reaches of the American Empire, that Americans ignore at their peril.

Does anyone believe Kenya killed 100 militants?

Our favourites in the Dark Continent certainly know how to treat themselves well.

Apparently, Mr. Goodluck over there in Nigeria runs a government whose legislators are the best paid in the world!

And our dear buddy in Kenya, that Uhuru Kenyatta fellow who's been busy bobbing and weaving to avoid the long arm of the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, comes in second!

Oddly enough, our two bestest besties in the Dark Continent are facing down "Islamic insurgencies."

Now a cynic might be inclined to suggest that the reason these countries are besieged by "insurgencies" is because they are cesspools of graft and corruption.

But no. We are informed day after day by the media Big Dogs that both Kenya and Nigeria are beset by Islamic radicals, and they must therefore be given a free pass for any minor abuses of civil rights, human rights, etc. that may come up in the course of "fighting terror."

Both the Boko Haram and Shabaab terror outfits just sprung up out of nowhere, and neither have anything to do with the endemic corruption that cripples meaningful development in both Nigeria and Kenya.

Kenya scored a PR coup of sorts with the news that they have killed 100 Shabaab militants since yesterday's Shabaab attack on a bus. That's made headlines throughout the Nations of Virtue.

That's a major win in the PR department.

In the real world, even if some of those killed were in fact "militants," that merely primes the pump for the next round of violence.

The reason that radical groups like BH and the Shabaab get traction in Africa is because the populace is more than fed up with the corrupt West-friendly stooges who have been looting their countries for years.

Some humans more deserving of "humanitarian assistance" than others

The Nations of Virtue are in a righteous tizzy over the plight of some Iraqi folks trapped on Mount Sinjar without food or water, being threatened by Islamic militants. Western media are inundated with reports of the horrors visited on these poor souls. The leader of the free world has responded by raining humanitarian bombs on the militants and airlifting "non-combat" US troops into the region.

Meanwhile, on another mountain 7,000 kilometers away, a virtually identical scenario is playing out. Nigerian survivors of a Boko Haram raid on their village are trapped, with no way out and no food or water.

They are getting no headlines in Western media and no help from the Nations of Virtue. There are no bombs being dropped on their tormentors and no soldiers coming to help them.

They will most likely die there.

Why?

Post-colonialism; black people are too stupid to manage their own affairs

What else can one conclude from the announcement that France, under a supposed socialist no less, has signed off on a neo-colonial protection agreement with Mali.

And look at Hardluck Jonathan a couple of doors down; he has at last count got American, British, Chinese, Canadian, and Israeli forces on the ground helping to "bring back our girls".

In fairness, the Israelis may have been called home by now because they've got bigger fish to fry, but still, that's an impressive load of help from a lot of really smart white folks, and a few yellow ones, who are even smarter.

Are "our girls" back yet?

No, but that does not mean that their usefulness to the state has diminished. Goodluck came out today with a request to borrow a billion dollars to fight Boko Haram and bring back our girls.

Does anyone imagine that American, British, Chinese, Canadian, and Israeli forces would be giving all this "help" if Nigeria were not the oil capital of Africa?

And how is it that the leader of the oil capital of Africa needs to go cap-in-hand to the IMF to beg another billion to bring back our girls? Bear in mind that this is the same leader squandering $100,000/month on a top Washington PR firm to polish his image ahead of the elections.

The Nations of Virtue have been "helping" Africans for about 400 years now.

Are things getting better?

Malala takes on Boko Haram

Here's a story destined for major traction in Western media; Malala has showed up in Nigeria to advocate for the "bring back our girls" campaign.

Malala was always a theatrical prop used by her Western oriented parents to further their anti-Islamist agenda. When she survived a Taliban assassination attempt it was a dream come true.

Those parents were utterly shameless about using her to further their own agenda, which is what made her a Taliban target to begin with. This is a kid who was exploited by her parents to write anti-Taliban propaganda from the time she was ten years old.

Do ten year olds typically write their own thoughts?

But she eventually, thanks to her parents, caught that Taliban bullet, and the miracle that followed ensured her a place in the pantheon of anti-Taliban activists, which brought about a Nobel nomination and A-list brand recognition in the West.

She is now bringing her celebrity show to Nigeria.

She will succeed where Goodluck has failed.

Or not.

Malala obviously knows nothing about the legacy of institutional incompetence and corruption that has created Boko Haram. Yet she is trotted into Nigeria by her management team to advise the locals on what they should be doing to resolve the Chibok girls crisis.

If Goodluck can't figure out Nigeria, there's no way a 16 year old girl from Afghanistan will.

Goodluck gives up on Boko Haram, goes after Super Eagles instead

Compared to Boko Haram, the Super Eagles were sitting ducks.

The Eagles fell in the round of 16 to France. All in all, not that bad a showing, but Goodluck needs some positives for the front pages and was hoping the national football team would provide it.

Hardluck Jonathan subsequently ordered the arrest of the team president on his return from the World Cup.

That got the attention of global football rulers FIFA, who promptly slapped down Noluck's extra-curricular judicial efforts.

Bear in mind that this is the same President who has retained a top Washington PR firm, to the tune of $100,000 per month, to polish his image going into the next election.

After this fiasco, those smart white folks at Levick are going to up that to $200,000 a month!

Nigerians hate their army as much as they hate Boko Haram

This is something you'd expect to see in a failed state. A soldier dies in a traffic accident and when his comrades find out, they go on a rampage.

Police are nowhere to be found, because for all practical purposes the soldiers are the police. Not only do they enforce the law according to their whims of the moment, but they are above the law.

This happens against a background of rampant rumours about the military conniving with Boko Haram.

It going to take more than a Washington PR firm for Goodluck Jonathan to salvage anything out of this mess.

Nigerian generals convicted of arming Boko Haram terror network

Most of Nigeria's history since independence in 1960 has been lived in the shadow of the military. As in many other former colonies, the military left behind by the colonial masters has become entrenched as a "deep state" within the state.

So the story of links between the military and the current terror crisis should not come as a surprise. A democratized body politic can only marginalize that deep state. Ergo, there are many ambitious men in the military who see it in their interest to undermine and destabilize the civilian government.

For its part, the government of Goodluck Jonathan, widely considered the most legitimately democratic government in the nation's history, has done itself no favours by continuing to govern for foreign bankers and oil conglomerates instead of for the interests of his people. His about face on the elimination of the fuel subsidies came only after the people mobilized in massive street protests.

What the military needs from Boko Haram is the creation of unrest, insecurity, and general destabilization. In short, Boko Haram is useful in creating a climate of fear that will engender wide-spread public support when the time is right for the next military coup.

Who will pick up Rob Ford's Escalade at impound lot?

Let's see now; potentially life-changing or even world-changing elections in half a dozen countries in the past week, Ukraine troops and "terrorists" fighting it out in front of the Donetsk Porsche dealership, 2-300 Nigerian schoolgirls still in the clutches of terror obsessed Koran-crazed radical Islamists, the Pope in the Holy Land, climate change threatening to drown and bake or bake and drown all of us years before we ever thought possible, and the number one story in Toronto is this;

Who will pick up Rob Ford's Escalade at impound lot?

Not a bad week for The Empire in Africa

First of all, you've got United States Army War College grad General al-Sisi winning an election in Egypt. al-Sisi is still a youngish man, so by the expected life-span standards of middle-east despots his victory should sew up Egypt for Western interests for the next thirty years or so.

Meanwhile, right next door in oil-rich Libya, US citizen and "rogue" Libyan General Khalifa Haftar is doing God's work imposing order on the 1001 Libyan militias that have run amok over the past three years. Both of our generals are committed to crushing the Muslim Brotherhood, and both have better relations with Israel than they do with the Palestinians.

At the same time, our allies in Kenya and Nigeria have doubled down on the "terrorist threats" in their midst, promising "all-out-war" against al-Shabab and Boko Haram respectively. The call to war was immediately echoed by French colonies Benin, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.
Declarations of perpetual war can only be music to the ears of AFRICOM boss General David Rodriguez and the Pentagon.

So while it may no longer be a perfect world, rumours of The Empire's imminent demise are greatly exaggerated.

Western media green-light anti-Muslim genocide in Nigeria

Here's a headline ripped from a mainstream Canadian news outlet, the National Post; Vigilante groups killing suspected Boko Haram militants...

Who do you think might qualify as a "suspected" Boko Haram militant? Any Muslim within reach of a bloodthirsty mob?

And all those US/UK/Canadian "helpers" who have magically appeared on the ground in Nigeria, without any discussion in their home countries or in the UN, who are they fighting? Boko Haram of course; the evildoers who kidnap innocent schoolgirls. And how are they to distinguish between the genuine Boko Haram terrorist and a mere suspect?

They can't, of course.

Luckily, Nigeria has the kind of massive oil resources that can readily be called upon to indemnify the occasional mistake.

Hey, if ya gotta fight terror, that's the perfect place to do it!

Colonial masters take over search for kidnapped schoolgirls from inept Nigerian government

As recently as yesterday Reuters was reporting that Nigeria was willing to negotiate the freedom of the kidnapped schoolgirls with their captors.

That was apparently a bridge too far for the colonial masters. Today the top UK official in Nigeria announced that Nigeria would on no account negotiate with Boko Haram.

Thank God the Brits are there to stiffen the backbone of their inept Nigerian underlings!

Frankly, it's more than a little unsettling to see the red carpet being rolled out for Nigeria's colonial masters. British, US, and Canadian "assets" are already on the ground and in the air "helping" in the search for those schoolgirls, and by extension "helping" in the struggle against Boko Haram.

I suppose that since they've finished "helping" Afghanistan in its struggle with the Taliban, they're at loose ends for things to do...

Nigerians will soon rue the day they invited in these "helpers."

Boko Haram bride-stealing raid paves way for US boots on ground in Nigeria

A month ago Western media waxed jubilatory as the news broke that Nigeria was now the biggest economy in Africa.

The fact that this "achievement" was due to accounting hanky-panky and not any actual change in the Nigerian economy was little commented on.

The fact that 50% of the population lives on less than a dollar a day wasn't mentioned at all.

The large-scale bride-stealing raid by Boko Haram is becoming the outrage-du-jour in that same Western media, and that's created a receptive environment for the West to "help" Nigeria even more. No less an altruistic helper than AFRICOM is ready to pony up military advisers etc. according to US Secretary of State John Kerry.

There's a reason Boko Haram is gaining traction in Nigeria. In the Muslim north of the country the poverty is even more excruciating than in the south. The billions upon billions of oil wealth has ended up on the balance sheets of foreign oil multi-nationals and in the pockets of their tiny clique of corrupt Nigerian insiders.

People are pissed off and are not going to take it any more.

Yup, that's a classic case of Islamic terrorism if ever there was one!

And OH MY GOD LOOK THEY KIDNAPPED INNOCENT TEENAGE GIRLS!

Not even the heinous al-Qaeda has ever stooped to such depraved depths of barbarity!

Obviously, it's high time to send in the US Marines and the drones to protect the teenage girls...
and the oil.