THE ORIGIN OF BOKO-HARAM ARM CONFLICT AND THE CONTENDING VIEWS: GOING BACK TO 2009 by Egbeleke Aderopo

The group Jama’atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda’Awati Wal Jihad, known to the world as BOKO HARAM, is an extremist Islamic sect in Nigeria that has created havoc across the north of the country and in the capital, Abuja. Its violent attacks on government offices, security operatives, the United Nations building, and churches threaten to destabilize the country. A range of conflicting narratives has grown up around Boko Haram, and the group’s origins, motivations, and future plans remain a matter of debate. Boko Haram is an Islamic sect that believes northern politics has been seized by a group of corrupt, false Muslims. It wants to wage a war against them, and the Federal Republic of Nigeria generally, to create a “pure” Islamic state ruled by Sharia law. Since 2009 it has been driven by a desire for vengeance against politicians, police, and Islamic authorities for their role in a brutal suppression of the group that year. But the group has proved itself to be very adaptable, evolving its tactics swiftly and changing its targets at the behest of a charismatic leadership. The group leapt onto the world’s agenda in August 2011, when it bombed the United Nations compound in Abuja, killing twenty-three people. Some observers say Boko Haram has reached out to find allies in other global jihadist movements in the Sahel. The speed at which the group developed the capability to produce large and effective improvised explosive devices and enlist suicide bombers to deliver them suggests outside help. 

Unfortunately, Nigeria has a long history of communal conflict and ethon-religious violence. When viewed from outside, it can appear that these conflicts boil down to religious differ¬ences, tensions between blocs of Muslim and Christian inhabitants. When one looks deeper, however, one finds that politics—more precisely, control of government patronage—is the primary cause of many of these conflicts. A weakness in the institutions of politics and the security services has created a political situation where such threats to stability are not dealt with until violence is a certainty. Only when a politician in control of a state is convinced that such a threat cannot be bent to his advantage will he order any action be taken against it. Such is the weakness of security institutions; their only method of dealing with any such threat is with violence and extra-judicial killings. Boko Haram was created under these circumstances. The people living in the northern part of Nigeria have been living in fear since the outbreak of the conflict in 2009. Nigerian government have always use violent response in an attempt to wipe out religious violence championed by some Islamic sects, the worst case was the 2009 Boko Haram crisis, where more than 700 member of the sect were openly executed by the Nigerian army and police. People with long beards quickly go for clean shave because security operatives are targeting anybody that dress, look or suspected to be members of the sect. 

The loss of innocent lives and internal displacement of Nigerians in the process of the government hunt for the sect members have created a fertile ground for the sect to recruit members. The Counter-insurgency of the Nigerian government following the blueprint of US and western model of operation is not impossible to have aggravated the religious fundamentalism conflict into terrorism as we can see in the case of Yemen, considering the fact that the sect has been labelled as terrorist group.Ultimately, counterinsurgency’s production and implementation of a biopolitical differentiation between ‘safe’ and ‘dangerous’ human lives is likely not only to reinforce existing societal divisions within targeted populations but also to create new global, regional and local divisions and to generate resistance to what many people will always view as imperial domination. The germane question remains, what is the best approach to tackle the. Records have shown that the sect members were involved in politics and contesting elections, it was stated that late Boko Haram leader Mohammad Yussuf was a political Godfather in the politics of Borno sate. Buji Foi that was killed in 2009 crisis, a former commissioner for religious affairs in the Borno state government under Governor Alimodu Sherriff and a local government chairman for 6 years before his appointment as commissioner was nominated into the governors’ cabinet by Mohammed Yussuf . I am curious to know the reasons why the relationship between the governor and the sect go soar. 

To deal with the armed conflict of Boko-Haram it is important to investigate the root cause(s) of the conflict in order to create a space for alternative approach to the counter-insurgency operations of the Nigerian Government. My assumptions is that the threat of Boko-Haram sect before 2009 is not as serious compared to the 1999 introduction of Sharia Law by Zamfara State government which led to the death of thousands. Boko-Haram sect is just acting on the existing Laws of Sharia introduced by Nigerian politicians in 2000. There must be a reason Nigerian government consider Boko Haram a threat to National security and responded with brutal force but ignored the 1999 Zamfara state governor and consider Sharia Law as Liberty. There are series of assumptions and approaches that have emerged to explain the Boko Haram crisis in Nigeria, most importantly, that there is a need to give more important to President Jonathan’s contestation of the 2011 presidential election and the coming election in 2015. 

The first assumption is the Relational/Vengeance perspective. It offer explanation for violent conflicts between groups by exploring political, sociological, economic, religious and historical relationships between such groups. It is a concept that illuminates the history of conflict between groups that lead to stereotypes, racial xenophobia and discrimination. The differences in value invariably creates the “We” and ‘Others” dichotomy. The fact that ‘others’ are perceived as different makes us feel they are entitled to less or are inferior by reason of […] values .This remained the plausible explanation for the terror campaign by Boko Haram as the death of Yussuf in the police custody, and the hunting and incarceration of the members by the Nigerian security forces were perceived to have intensity the “we” and “others” psychology 

The second one is the Human Needs/Socio-Economic Perspective: Unlike the relational/vengeance perspective, the perspective goes beyond the trigger to focus on the underlying factor(s) that could have bred such groups. The proponent of this assumption argued that it was clear in 2009 when the insurgency began that the root cause of violence and anger in both the north and south of Nigeria is endemic poverty and hopelessness, the government must address socio-economic deprivation, which is most severe in the north .The northern elites have also posit the economic perspective as the root of the problem. The idea of a “direct link between the very uneven nature of distribution of resources – the 13 per cent derivatives going to oil producing states of the south and the rising level of violence – Boko Haram’s insurgency” quoting Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Lamido Sanusi, a scion of Northern establishment, clearly raises the resource distribution issue.

The third one is the Islamic Theocratic State Perspective: It explain the Boko Haram sect intention to bring down the Nigerian government, the Kufur system, and ultimately Islamize Nigeria. The shari’a coexistence with secular federal system are view by many northerners that western education is incapable of stimulating meaningful development and prosperity in the region, and so shares the fallacy of western education being incompatible with Islam. The influence of al Qaeda or its affiliates give the Boko Haram insurgents the vision of global political Islam, which is the overthrow of all worldly government and the enthronement of an Islamic theocratic state. The inspiration derived from the victory of the Mujahedeen over the Soviet in Afghanistan symbolizes the triumph of Islam over secularity and other factors can be attributed to the root cause of the crisis. 

The Fourth one is the Conspiracy perspective which focused on actors, both internal and external. This includes the frustrated northern power elite who, having lost power, are bent on bringing down Nigeria under a southern leadership, as well as the Jonathan administration itself, which may be sponsoring the crisis in order to rally southern support behind his administration, and there is also the perception that Boko Haram may be a secret society controlled by some ‘invisible’ hands that seek to destroy the north ahead of 2015 so as to forestall or weaken its bid for the presidency at that time .A pattern in Boko Haram’s insurgency – targeting ethnic and religious fault-lines – appears designed to enact the 2015 prediction of United State of Nigeria break up or how can one explain a rag tag militant that operates on motorbikes to have develope capabilities to carry out well coordinated attacks with little or no educational background. Quite a number of people have argued that the government must at least address the issues related to Jonathan’s decision to contest the 2011 presidential elections against the power rotation principle designed by his political party, the PDP, and his speculated 2015 presidential ambition

But I will argue that the government created the Menace of BOKO-HARAM. The reasons the Boko Haram gave to be attacking police and government buildings in 2010 is because of the oppressive act of the government towards them. The police forces are said to be fond of arresting and subjecting members of the sect to a long period of extra judicial detention as done to other helpless Nigerians before the genocide of 2009. Such detainees are neither taken to court nor released and are often tortured if not killed. Now that the Boko Haram of 2009 is not the same as Boko-Haram of 2013, what is the wayforward and HOW BEST CAN NIGERIA TACKLE THIS MENACE?