Terrorist Attacks In France & Nigeria: Two Different World Reactions - CNN

Washington (CNN) - Almost immediately following the news of the first terrorist attacks that eventually killed 17 people across France, the global community united around a Twitter hashtag "Je suis Charlie" and just days later foreign leaders linked arms with their French counterparts to lead a historic million-person strong rally.
Meanwhile, explosives strapped to a girl who appeared to be about 10-years-old detonated on Saturday, killing at least 20 people, in a country whose encounters with terrorism were also punctuated by a hashtag - this time "#BringBackOurGirls" of Nigeria. Boko Haram militants killed as many as 2,000 people, mostly civilians, in a massacre that started the weekend before the terror attack on Charlie Hedbo in downtown Paris.

Both the attacks in Nigeria and those in Paris are shocking and horrifying in their own respects, and yet one fomented an unprecedented international reaction - a popular show of force that rivalled even the reaction to 9/11 - while the response to the attacks in Nigeria paled in comparison.

Here are a few of the reasons why:

Symbolism
The terrorist attack on the satirical publication Charlie Hebdo was not just violent, but highly symbolic.
While the terrorists in Nigeria targeted innocent civilians in a strategic northern town in Nigeria and in a crowded marketplace, the gunmen who stormed the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo took aim at one of the most cherished values in France: freedom of expression.

The attack quickly sparked the hashtag and image on social media proclaiming "Je Suis Charlie," I am Charlie. In a way that few nations would, the French people took the attack on Charlie Hebdo as an attack on the very core of their country's constitution and values -- a country where the line between politics and culture blends often seamlessly and where criticism and mockery of public officials rushes toward -- not away -- from controversy.

It's a special relationship to a freedom won over and fought for more than once through bloody revolution that even President Barack Obama recognized as he reacted to the Charlie Hebdo shootings. "No country knows better than France, that freedom has a price because France gave birth to democracy itself," he said.

And Americans can directly relate to attacks on freedom of speech, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell said.

And beyond the French people's broad reverence for freedom of speech, France is a country heavy on symbolism, embodied by its national motto of "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité," Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

That symbolism, which drove millions into the streets of Paris, cities around France and around the world, was also quickly seized on by France's President François Hollande, who quickly called for national unity in an address that honed in on France's ardent belief in freedom.

And while the reaction to the attacks in Paris evolved naturally through social media, Hollande and his government successfully picked up on the public sentiment and amplified those voices.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, though, had concerns more pressing than issuing a rallying cry of defiance in the face of attacks that again sought to undermine his country's very sovereignty.

In fact, while Jonathan issued a statement condemning the attack on Charlie Hebdo and expressing Nigeria's "full solidarity" with the people of France, he failed to do the same for the victims of terrorism in his own country. Jonathan is up for reelection next month and the atrocities committed by Boko Haram are the last thing he wants to address.

And the attacks in Nigeria have barely resonated within the country's borders, said John Campbell former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria. "It hasn't even had a very large impact in Lagos," Campbell said of Nigeria's most populous city.

By contrast, the attacks on freedom of speech resounded strongly not just in France, but around the world. "Americans can directly relate to attacks on freedom of speech. They can directly relate to terrorism and the impact in France is being compared to the impact of 9/11 in the United States," Campbell said. "Boko Haram by contrast is viewed as a kind of civil war ... and it's all happening a very long way away."

Hollande, however, came face to face with an opportunity - an opportunity to boost his own sagging political fortunes and to help unify a society increasingly fractured by politics.

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