April 27, 2012: Senior members of the government, from both north and south, fear that continued Boko Haram terrorism could cause civil war. Nigerians and foreigners have been predicting that for years, but the Islamic radicals have indeed terrorized Nigeria, especially the Moslem north, and politicians are under pressure to do something about it. So far this year Boko Haram violence has left about 1,100 dead.

One of Boko Haram's main goals (as its name implies) is to prevent Nigerian Moslems from getting a Western education (despite that being what most parents want). So far this year 14 schools have been destroyed, leaving 7,000 students without an education. The threat of attack on schools and teachers has kept over 100,000 other students away from class at least some of the time.

April 26, 2012: Suicide car bombers in the capital and the northern city of Kano attacked the offices of a major newspaper, leaving 40 dead and hundreds injured. Boko Haram took responsibility and warned that if news media continued to say unflattering things about the Islamic terrorists the attacks would continue. This is a standard tactic of terrorists.

April 25, 2012: Tribal violence continued in the Central Nigerian city of Jos, leaving six dead in two incidents.

April 24, 2012: An audit of the fuel subsidy program (which keeps vehicle and other petroleum fuels very inexpensive) found that someone stole nearly $7 billion from the program in just three years (2009-11). Legislators are calling for identification and prosecution of those that took the money. But the guilty will, as usual, use their stolen wealth to bribe police, prosecutors, journalists, and politicians to avoid punishment. It's very difficult to get through these defenses and actually convict and imprison these thieves.

In the northern city of Kano police raided a Boko Haram bomb workshop and found six assembled bombs and one under construction. The Islamic terrorists use these bombs to attack the security forces, intelligence services, and government offices. But most of the casualties tend to be nearby civilians. This increases the willingness of people to tell the police (who are generally hated for their corruption and cruelty) about Boko Haram activity they have spotted.

April 21, 2012:  The government is establishing a special prison for senior Boko Haram. This will make it easier to interrogate the prisoners and analyze the information. The new prison will also be more resistant to Boko Haram attempts to free their fellow terrorists. Other prisons are vulnerable to such attacks because of bribery and incompetence.

In northeastern Borno State an explosion in a Boko Haram bomb workshop killed at least five.

An air force raid on a Boko Haram bomb workshop in northern Kogi State destroyed the facility. While the terrorists were able to escape before troops could get to the remote area, much evidence of bomb making and Boko Haram was found.

April 20, 2012: In the north Boko Haram killed seven people in several attacks during the last 24 hours.

April 19, 2012: Piracy is on the increase off the coast. Ships are not being taken, as off Somalia, but instead the crews are robbed and anything valuable and portable is taken. Sometimes senior officers are kidnapped and held for ransom. In the first three months of this year, there were ten of these attacks off the Nigerian coast. For all of last year there were only ten such attacks. At the same time oil revenue last month was down five percent because of attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta.