Why the Latest Nigerian Unrest Should Matter More

If the Obama administration is really interested in conducting America’s foreign relations differently, it should take a deep seated interest in the situation in Nigeria right now.

The New York Times reported Nigerian security forces on Thursday confirmed the death of the leader of a fundamentalist Islamic sect in the city of Maiduguri, apparently ending a fierce five-day campaign against the group that may have left hundreds dead across northern Nigeria.

The militant group led by Mohammed Yusuf, known as Boko Haram or Taliban, wants to overthrow the Nigerian government and impose a strict version of Islamic law. It has been blamed for days of violent unrest in which hundreds of people died in clashes between his followers and security forces.

A military spokesman would not say exactly how Yusuf was killed, though it has been widely reported that he was killed after being captured. But in an interview with the BBC’s Network Africa, the Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili said while she was concerned about the death and that the government would find out “exactly what happened,” Yusuf’s demise was “positive” for Nigeria.

The State Department has not commented on the Nigerian situation so far, but such alleged police violence would likely raise tricky questions when Secretary Clinton visits next week, as part of her seven-nation African swing that begins Aug. 5 in Kenya at the 8th U.S. – Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum.
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Secretary of State, not Superwoman

Reading New York Times’ David Landler’s commentary on Hillary Clinton’s first major address as Secretary of State at the Council of Foreign Relations, one gets the impression that Clinton is Superwoman repressed by her boss and nemesis in the White House.

Landler calls her speech “an effort to recapture the limelight after a period in which Mrs. Clinton has nursed both a broken elbow and the perception that the State Department has lost influence to an assertive White House.” He also situates her speech against the backdrop of the antecedent rivalry between Clinton and Obama from their bruising presidential primary campaigns last year.

What is there to recapture? Politico reported Secretary Clinton has traveled, in her first six months in office, nearly 100,000 miles visiting two dozen countries, many of them more than once – and that’s even more than two of her more successful predecessors, James Baker and Henry Kissinger in their first six-months. Besides, a successful Secretary of State is not necessarily somebody who is constantly in the limelight. Landler’s harping on the Obama-Clinton rivalry also comes across as being tired and neglects Clinton’s own competence and dynamism.

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