Anonymous is Legion because they are many

Seeking a comment aggregator

There are a number of blogs where I leave comments and sometimes I would like to have some sort of comment aggregator that draws together all the comments I have left in different places so that I can follow the discussion, if there is any on the matter being commented on.

Generally, my comment would pertain to the subject matter and sometimes to comments written by others but usually on the context and content, very rarely on the person or personality – comments should be about ideas, hopefully.

The infinity comments

I do sometimes agonise about comments that end up as treatises such that you are in an infinity scroll trying to read the whole thing.

This is not helped by the fact that the commenting areas are not subject to the more granular formatting you find in the blog spaces, so people who do not punctuate their commentary end up with rambling text of literary or unstructured diarrhoea.

If I find I am going to make a rather long comment, I put it on my blog and have a URL link in place of my comment. It goes without saying that it is expedient to have your own blog as someone who posts comments because it helps people understand your thinking about issues.

Identities matter

What matters to me most is that I like to engage with people and where commenting systems offer the options for identifying oneself; the worst option to choose is to be anonymous when a name, a reference address, or even a pseudonym can be offered.

I was so irked about a slightly challenging comment recently that I responded thankfully to the pseudonym of the writer, but soon afterwards someone else castigated my comments but offered the identity of Anonymous.

Much as I naturally wanted to respond, I felt without an identity, I could well be whistling in the wind. Others however got engaged with this anonymous thing that I found myself writing another comment and that appears below.

My name is Legion

I don't know why anyone is giving this anonymous whatever any oxygen.

Someone without a clear identity cannot have a personality and a focus to engage with.

It reminds of the person Jesus met at the tombs and Jesus asked his name, he answered, My name is [Anonymous, sorry] Legion (Wikipedia), because we are many. {The man was demon possessed.}

Makes you wonder which one of the multiple personality Anonymouses masquerading as one person you are engaging with.

It is the simple reason why I rarely engage with people who are afraid to give their opinions a hand of who wrote it and a face of who said it {or a person of who is responsible for it.}

In real life, they will stand for nothing because they identified with nothing, don't make them relevant.

Sniper’s Alley

Anonymous came back later on to commiserate with my frustration, well I was not frustrated, having to deal with the anonymous is very much like walking down Sniper’s Alley and getting shot at by assassins, the question is how you defend yourself against a faceless, unconscionable and unprincipled enemy whose rules of engagement are completely slanted against you?

Except when you are in a totalitarian state where the freedom of expression is curtailed and those with independent opinions risk danger, there is no reason to be anonymous except where you cannot stand by what you have expressed – there could be no clearer expression of cowardice than that and for that reason the Anonymous must remain anonymous, their views invisible and the comments irrelevant.

Nigeria: Conflicted interests in the Boko Haram probe

President appears to act

After returning from his rescheduled trip to Brazil President Yar’Adua met with senior security personnel to assess the situation with the outbreak of violence first perpetrated by the Boko Haram religious fundamentalists on the police and then the subsequent quelling of the uprising by the Army that captured the main proponents to the seeming extra-judicial killing of the leader and financier of the group.

I read that the President had instituted a probe [1] into the circumstances behind the uprising leading to the death of the principals of Boko Haram.

Unfortunately, I did not read in that first announcement who would be heading the probe or what the clear terms of reference would be.

This became clear in another news item where the President directed the National Security Adviser to carry out a full scale investigation [2] and report within a week whilst parroting the well worn mantra of rule of law to effect.

A missed opportunity

I am quite doubtful that any report produced by security agencies in Nigeria will pass the muster of credible, trustworthy, fair, just or truthful.

This is not to excoriate the attempt but evidently the whole security apparatus knew about Boko Haram, they had some intelligence on the group, they allowed the group to thrive till it became this malignant suicidal force that lead to the loss of 700 or so lives.

Why the President could not find a reputable retired judge who commands respect, known to be both incorruptible and impartial to address this matter in order to give Nigerians the confidence that the truth can be brought to light escapes me.

They allowed Boko Haram to thrive

It is difficult to have an open mind about this probe where everything about Boko Haram points to the tolerance of their activities, the influence they had that prevented governments from acting decisively, the incompetence of the whole security apparatus and the ill discipline of the police in allegedly committing two extra-judicial killings.

It beggars belief that the same security framework that allowed this to happen is to investigate itself and determine what might have happened as part of what they could have done right or wrong.

However, the President has suggested that after this probe, there might be the possibility of further investigations; it would provide him the opportunity to gain some kudos to hand the investigation to parties who really would go after the truth rather than using conflicted interests to investigate themselves.

Sources

[1] BBC NEWS | Africa | Nigeria to probe Islamist attacks

[2] allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Yar'Adua Orders Probe of Boko Haram Leaders' Killing

Additional Information

The interview conducted with the captured leader of Boko Haram before he was killed.

The interrogation of Muhammad Yusuf | Next.com

An update on a place called church

A chronicler of the times

Sometimes, it appears life rolls along in front of you like a film, memories morph into the reality of today; such is the lot of the chronicler.

Inadvertently, I find that I am not a participant in many things but I talk about these many things like someone called to record those events lest they be lost to posterity under the impression of them being irrelevant or mundane.

Waking up this morning, I decided to catch up with a past that would be so differently represented in the present. I went to church and did I need an update on what happens in that place.

The brain serves a function

Of recent, I had become anti-religious, a debunker of bizarre beliefs which the adherents purport to be part of some faith they had acquired somewhere. What riled me most was the suspension of intellect that accompanies deep religious attachment on the part of some – our brains are there for a reason and especially when it comes to matters spiritual it needs to be at its most efficient to ensure one does not absorb error like a sponge.

That means one needs to reconcile that has been heard and preached with proper study of the texts to ensure that they correlate, being religious is something for the scholar not the dullard.

Above all, my view is religion is to serve humanity and anywhere humanity is sacrificed to creed, doctrine, tradition or custom; religion loses its significance on the premise that it was made for man and not man for religion.

The people that make church

Anyway, my visit was encapsulated in the humanity of meeting up with the man who some 7 years ago was courting, for whom we prayed that they receive favour for a house and they ended up with the choice of four and in whose wedding video I appear regaled in African garments dancing most probably as an embarrassing middle-aged dancer.

I thought I recognised him, a brain scan would have shown my cranial computer riffling at breakneck speed through the facial recognition database that needs a good indexing facility and finally, it all clicked but the name.

The chains of recognition began rebuilding themselves, to wife, to in-laws, to friends and to other relationships, then probing questions hoping the answers would not represent a challenging response.

I was doing well and then his wife came by, we exchanged profound pleasantries and by the time I knew it, I was about to say hello to their son who is almost five. Yes.

Finding some significance

As I spoke to the assistant pastor, I remembered I first attended that church some 8 years ago, it has always been a welcoming place from the people through the message and the atmosphere of continually connecting with each other, it is a family setting to which bachelors like me can be a very glaring sore thumb.

It could be rather difficult to find ones place, but I can see the changes, young men and ladies of yore now parents with responsibilities and children, people who had moved on or passed on, people who have returned after a sojourn somewhere else realising that this church offers more fulfilment in many ways than one can clearly tell about.

It is about people always

The pastor who had built this community has been in ministry for 18 years without break, he and his family are taking a sabbatical of renewal, as one should and they are in my prayers because they have been a very compassionate family to me, in many difficult times and other wonderful times.

I saw very few old faces but it was nice to know that one who I had thought might not have made it through a very serious illness years ago thrives just as I sadly remembered one of whom I was told on my last visit just about a year ago did not.

Above all, church is about people and God amongst his people, sometimes, one does need an update on proceedings at a place called church.

Nigeria: The Grim Reaper in the police station

They kill with impunity

As incredible as it sounds, it is reported that Nigerians are not surprised [1] that the anyone in police custody gets killed, the explanation surrounding these misfortunes is the well worn story that the suspect was attempting escape.

The mind then boggles about how porous, ineffective and lax policing and custody facilities are in the Nigerian Police Force, it makes one wonder if the locks on the cell doors are really personnel with fingers on the trigger ready to shoot at any rustle before checking what might be happening.

Delivered alive and died in custody

The dispute currently going on [2] amongst the security forces is that the leader of the Boko Haram sect was captured alive by the army, he had an arm wound which was treated and was handed alive, hale and hearty to the police. Not long after, he ended up dead in custody, under the premise that he was attempting escape.

If that was not troublesome enough, the army also delivered alive to the hands of the police the suspected financier of the Boko Haram sect, Alhaji Buji Foi and he has also been shot dead [3] in custody.

A grudge settled?

This is beginning to look not like wanton lawlessness within the law but a grudge match of vengeful revenge where the loss of police lives in the heat of the skirmish is now been paid for in the comfort of the Police Headquarters by an executioner who might think justice is served by summarily killing the people who brought on the melee.

As the report goes, Alhaji Buji Foi was captured and had his hands bound behind him by the army as they took him first to the governor’s office and then to the police headquarters.

What I find incredible and I wonder if the correspondent attempted to review that write-up before publication is that someone delivered bound to the police ended up in a gun battle with the police using the double-barrelled he had acquired whilst he was a commissioner in an erstwhile regime.

As the announcer suggests, “The sect leader did not survive the injuries he sustained at the battle field, after he was picked up. He died Thursday afternoon.”

I suppose this is the battle field of the Police Force Headquarters because as far as the army was concerned the men delivered to the police were not in need of any hospital care else they would have been in hospital under guard receiving treatment.

Carelessness beyond words

It belies a level of gross incompetence and carelessness on the part of the police that these two events can happen and they can unashamedly concoct a cock and bull story that they expect Nigerians to swallow with question.

This is one time for the government of Nigeria to stand up and be counted on their Rule of Law mantra and get to the bottom of these atrocious acts of extrajudicial killings borne from negligence at least and collusion at worst.

One can become conspiratorial and suggest that the reason these people were eliminated was because they could provide links to even more senior members of society who condoned Boko Haram [4] and its activities since 2002.

Boko Haram is not dead

The spectre of Boko Haram however has not left Nigeria, their women and children have been fully indoctrinated in that philosophy as the matriarch said “All we want is to be re-united with our families so that we can continue with our faith. My children will not go to formal school because it is against our faith.”

One can expect in a decade or so the brood would be up in arms seeking revenge for the killing of their fathers who were not allowed the opportunity to state their case before a jury of their peers before they were killed off like animals, in police custody.

These crimes must not go unpunished.

Sources

[1] BBC NEWS | Africa | Brutal reality of Nigeria killing

[2] BBC NEWS | Africa | Nigeria row over militant killing

[3] Boko Haram Suspected Financier Executed | Nigerian Guardian Newspapers

[4] Boko Haram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia