BOKO HARAM: belligerency coagulated by some northern greedy elites but later made a national problem.
The roots of Boko Haram (Jama'at as Sunnah lid-Da'wah Wa'l-Jihad) could be traced to a period when some northern Governors, led by the then Zamfara state Governor, Ahmed Sani Yarima, immediately after the rebirth of democracy in 1999, came up with the idea of Sharia law. One thing remained a mystery to politicians down south and political analysts about the Sharia call - a larger percentage of northern Nigeria had been practicing Sharia system even before colonization, while the imperialists kept their own part of the suzerainty bargain by allowing a sort of differential judicial system to flourish around 1914-1960 in the South and North of Nigeria respectively (Razak Adefulu, 2008). Yet, some northern political albatross were bent on anaesthetizing the vast uneducated northern population in the name of Sharia for some reasons best known to them.
The above preamble is a political systematic pointer to the fact that the desire of these northern Governors to institute a needless 'fast and furious second phase' of Sharia was probably meant to arrange a grand cover up for some surreptitious anti-state, anti-unity, anti-Nigerian and pro-Islamist/northern elitists agenda which may or have to remain asymptomatic for a very long time, based on their projections.
The so much propagated Sharia actually blossomed in fecundity and various splinter groups emerged from the myriad of religious sects that were active in the North. One of those splinter groups, known as Boko Haram was led by Muhammed Yusuf. According to their leader, his goal was to "purify Islam in northern Nigeria". Thusly, the group was able to appeal to few irrational elites and majority of impoverished, uneducated socially relegated class of people called 'Almajiris'. Muhammed grew in influence and his charisma was gradually becoming archetypal of the radical Muhammed Marwa (Maitatsine), who was slain by the military regime of the second republic. As a result of his fundamentalism, the federal government of Nigeria wrongfully, against the advice of the United Nations, summarily executed him in detention and a police cover up story was created thereafter; consequent upon this, his followers became uncontrollable.
Apart from the death of Muhammed Yusuf, some other factors could be said to have exacerbated the metamorphosis of Boko Haram into a full scale violence monger and a terrorist organization. At first, some untouchable northern political big wigs who are engaged in the clandestine business of illegal mining of our collective mineral resources employed the services of Boko Haram foot soldiers for security purposes by arming them and strategically placing them as watch dogs over illegal cartel. Majority of these boys gained economic consciousness along the line and they fell out of favour with their masters. Invariably, they preferred to be seen as public enemies in the name of what I term ‘self-defined Islam’, rather than serve those that are milking the existence of the entire society. Since these boys do not really have anything to show for their servitude in the first place, they seemed justified based on their consciences and irrational belief system.
Another factor that aided the progression of Boko Haram could be buttressed by the analysis of Stephen Davis, the former Anglican clergyman who used to negotiate with Boko Haram. According to him "many of these Islamist extremists were at one time or the other on the payroll of some big northern politicians because they constitute a useful formidable force that could wreck havoc, kidnap, kill, disjoint or disrupt gathering of any sort at the behest of their master(s)" ... emphasis added. (Lamb Christina, Sunday Times, 20th of March 2016).
In a similar manner in which the various militia groups in the South were illegally empowered with firearms and later abandoned to figure out what to do on their own, after their patrons/promoters must have attained the so much coveted political office(s), Boko Haram members were also left in the cold, egregiously used; and dumped by the same political class who once paid them for committing atrocious acts.
Thirdly, the issue of poverty, social inequality, lack of education and almost near absence of responsible government in the lives/situations of the generality of the core North population, most especially the Almajiri hordes, also, contributed to the change of mentality of the Boko Haram members in such a way that made them embrace terror as an escape/revenge/second plan or change of life route out of their dilemma. These and numerous cases of extra Judicial killings of the sect members endeared them to international Islamist apologist groups such as Al-Shabaab, Hamas and Al-Qaeda, who are always ready to sponsor extremism in the midst of profound penury and religious fanaticism.
Series of violent campaigns which earned Boko Haram a serious international terrorist ranking started after their leader was killed on the 30th of July 2009. The group had since then moved from launching of Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to massive killings, multitudinous abduction and outright pledging of allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL). Boko Haram now goes by the name Islamic State's West Africa Province (IWSAP). The velocity of the group's involvement in terrorism has been on a tremendous increase since September 8th 2010, when a prison break was carried out in Bauchi state and 150 of its members were rescued.
If Boko Haram would be decimated I think it should have been in the year 2011 when the federal government earmarked 20% of our budget for the purpose of addressing insecurity. Anytime any government anywhere spends $5.5 billion to fight terrorism like we did in that year the resultant effect is always evident in the level of relative peace, social cohesion and positive development of the security architecture of the state. But the reverse was the case in Nigeria because for instance, over 190 people died in Kano state when Boko Haram stuck with bomb on the 20th of January, 2012. What a sad simple test on the security components of the Nigerian state!
The miasma of defeat that wafted in the air within the Nigerian security formations in that year alone culminated in the hoisting of Boko Haram's flag in states where Governors and military chiefs exist. The Human Rights Watch and the U.S Bureau of counter terrorism carried out their own independent investigations, but failed to appreciate the 'Nigerian factors' by concluding that Boko Haram members would probably desist from acts of terror if they get social and economic justice. Western world did not reckon with the fact that the concept of Boko Haram is a booming business both for the terrorists and the handlers of the Nigerian security apparatus. In fact, the effervescence of the institutional capacity of Boko Haram could be felt outside Nigeria in places like Niger Republic, Chad and Cameroon.
The sophistry with which Boko Haram operates became incomprehensible to the Nigerian government while this prompted an annual increase in the budgetary allocation for security which invariably serves as a 'veritable rich pot of soup' for the military chiefs. The sect waxed stronger and the then president, Goodluck Jonathan, eventually accepted and stated equivocally on January 8th, 2012 that Boko Haram has links in the military, police and the legislative arm of Nigerian government.
The same problem faced by past political dispensations is the same dilemma confronting the regime of president Buhari because despite the relocation of the Nigerian armed forces operational station to the North East, though, some positive results were visibly acknowledged within the first four weeks the decision was made (Boko Haram retreated to the Mandara Mountains near Cameroon border), the move later proved to be a mere populist adventure in that officer corps of the Nigerian Army still complain bitterly of poor welfare, lack of adequate arms, perforation of coded systematic information and contradictory orders in the heat of onslaught or counter attacks. Consequently, we have witnessed increase in the number of victories on the path of Boko Haram group, lack of motivation for Nigerian soldiers, dissenting in form of refusal to fight or disagreement among superior and junior officers, and outright deserting of the army by those officers who soldiers said 'we do not understand what we were doing'.
The very phase where we are as a nation on the issue of Boko Haram is that phase of stage-managing the terrorists crises; because we have come to realize that this present political regime, just like the past, and its predecessors, is made up of propagandists, sycophants, lobbyists, clowns and bootlickers, but this time with the inclusion of some ethnocentric and religiously tinted irresponsible political psychopaths, who do not know what to do in government but are bent on staying in power for the sake of power.
We now pay huge and undisclosed ransom to Boko Haram at this stage to secure the release of those abducted en masse. Boko Haram even negotiates an unconditional release of some certain ranks of its officers before they accept our ransom. This phase is where we release, train, re-orientate some captured or willingly surrendered Boko Haram members and even, recruit them into the Nigerian Army.
At this level of nationally stage-managing the Boko Haram crises Nigerians do not know how much the security vote is anymore. Nigerians do not get to see what Boko Haram does on the TV anymore. Nigerians do not know the fates of over 2.3 million people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency. We are now at a stage where we are at loss as to the capacity of the impending peril launchable by the devilish sect.
Part of the stage-managing effects is when the minister of information told us that Boko Haram has been technically defeated but we still perceive the ubiquity of the sect in the North East and beyond. The last straw that broke the camel's back in our situation is that, the success of Boko Haram as a group has metastasized countrywide into banditry across the North; while kidnapping, raping and ruthless killings is the version in the South. The whole of these dramas, its daily implications and the trauma is now being accompanied by near total or absolute neglect by the government of the day.
We do not know what will become of Nigeria in the hands of Boko Haram because our own brand of terrorism is quite peculiar to Nigeria - just like our brand of corruption, politics, tribalism, religion, institutional failure and all of that. In fact, another Boko Haram is in the making. The case of Al-zakzaky is similar to that of Muhammed Yusuf. It may look as if the Shiites do not have enough support due to its mild Islamic fundamentalism, but the moment their leader dies in detention, either of natural death or state-arranged his followers will become another set of terrorists we will have to deal with as a nation.
How can we end/curb/cage or seriously engage insurgency, terrorism and religious fundamentalism? Okay, let us first of all pretend as if we have reasonable rulers in Nigeria and as such, attempt the question with seriousness and patriotism. We have to understand that this trend of terrorism will not just go away in the name of prayer, blame game, partisan politics or wishful thinking; it is going to be through a holistic societal propagation and ideological underpinning.
The first thing is to harness all productive resources, be it stolen or grown, for the liberalization of the economy in order to achieve a near equilibrium employment/production of locally consumed goods, and in the long run redistribute social and economic wealth across the societal pyramid.
Secondly, free and compulsory education at all levels pending a period when the volume of Nigeria's export can be said to be inversely proportional to the inflationary gap created by exchange rate.
Thirdly, a complete overhaul of the current unreasonable centripetal federal structure we operate in Nigeria. Restructuring to the old regional government is sacrosanct so that all the regions can develop at their respective pace. This will take care of fundamental issues such as: laws, social amenities and local government.
Lastly, social re-engineering is non-debatable at the regional level, so that the various regional ideologies can be all-encompassing and all-conditioning. This will eventually aim to re-orientate and re-position the citizenry in the light of what government entails and how the people should perceive their society.
