THE BOKO HARAM IN NIGERIA AND THERE AGENDA
Introduction
Boko Haram, an Islamist religious sect, has targeted
Nigeria's police, rival clerics, politicians, and public institutions
with increasing violence since 2009. Some experts say the group should
primarily be seen as leading an armed revolt against the government's
entrenched corruption, abusive security forces, strife between the
disaffected Muslim north and Christian south, and widening regional
economic disparity in an already impoverished country. They
argue
that Abuja should do more to address the issues facing the disaffected
Muslim north. But Boko Haram's suspected bombing of a UN building in
Abuja in August 2011 and its ties to regional terror groups may signal a
new trajectory and spark a stronger international response that makes
it harder to address the north's alienation.
Birth of Boko Haram
Mohammad Yusuf, a radical Islamist cleric, created Boko Haram in
2002
in Maiduguri, the capital of the northeastern state of Borno. The group
aims to establish a fully Islamic state in Nigeria, including the
implementation of criminal sharia courts across the country. Paul Lubeck, a University of California professor studying Muslim societies in Africa, says Yusuf was a trained salafist
(a school of thought often associated with jihad), and was strongly influenced by Ibn Taymiyyah, a fourteenth century legal scholar who preached Islamic fundamentalism and is considered a "major theorist" for radical groups in the Middle East.
Boko Haram colloquially translates into "Western education is sin," which experts say is a name assigned by the state. The sect calls itself Jama'atul Alhul Sunnah Lidda'wati wal jihad, or
"people
committed to the propagation of the prophet's teachings and jihad."
Some analysts say the movement is an outgrowth of the Maitatsine riots of the 1980s
and the religious/ethnic tensions that followed in the late 1990s. Many
Nigerians believe Yusuf rejected all things Western, but Lubeck argues
that Yusuf, who embraced technology, believed Western education should
be "mediated through Islamic scholarship," such as rejecting the theory
of evolution and Western-style banking.
Before 2009, the group did not aim to violently overthrow the
government. Yusuf criticized northern Muslims for participating in what
he saw as an illegitimate, non-Islamic state and preached a doctrine of
withdrawal. But violence between Christians and Muslims and harsh government treatment, including
pervasive police brutality,
encouraged the group's radicalization. Human Rights Watch researcher
Eric Guttschuss told news service IRIN that Yusuf gained supporters "by speaking out against police
and political corruption." Boko Haram followers, also called Yusuffiya,
consist largely of hundreds of impoverished northern Islamic students
and clerics as well as university students and professionals, many of
whom are unemployed. Some followers may also be members of Nigeria's
elite.
In July 2009, Boko Haram members refused to follow a motor-bike helmet law, leading to
heavy-handed
police tactics that set off an armed uprising in the northern state of
Bauchi and spread into the states of Borno, Yobe, and Kano. The incident
was suppressed by the army and left more than eight hundred dead. It
also led to the televised
execution of Yusuf, as well as the deaths of his father in-law and other sect
members,
which human rights advocates consider to be extra-judicial killings. In
the aftermath of the 2009 unrest, "an Islamist insurrection under a
splintered leadership" emerged, says Lubeck. Boko Haram began to carry
out a number of suicide bombings and assassinations from Maiduguri to
Abuja, and staged an ambitious prison-break in Bauchi, freeing more than
seven hundred inmates in 2010.
In November 2011, the group staged its most deadly attacks so far
,
in Maiduguri as well as Yobe's Damaturu and Potiskum, targeting
churches, mosques, banks, and police stations. At least 150 people were
reported killed. November's violence garnered more international
attention for the group, with condemnations from the head of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Pope, the UN Security
Council, and the UN secretary general. Bombings on Christmas Day in 2011
targeting churches and killing dozens raised fears about the
possibility of another spate of religious violence between Muslims and Christians.
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| Abubakar Shekau (The national leader of boko haram) |
|
Rising Against the State
Boko Haram is easier to talk about than Boko
Haram itself. Injustice and poverty, as well as the belief that the West is a corrupting influence
in governance, are root causes of both the desire to implement sharia
and Boko Haram's pursuit of an Islamic state, say experts. "The
emergence of Boko Haram signifies the maturation of long festering extremist impulses
that run deep in the social reality of northern Nigeria," writes
Nigerian analyst Chris Ngwodo. "But the group itself is an effect and
not a cause; it is a symptom of decades of failed government and elite
delinquency finally ripening into social chaos."
The reintroduction of sharia criminal courts was originally proposed
by the governor of the state of Zamfara in 1999, but the proposal
quickly became a grassroots movement that led to its adoption in twelve
states. Experts say there was widespread "disillusionment" with the way
sharia was implemented, and that Boko Haram has tapped into this
dissatisfaction, promoting the idea that an Islamic state would
eliminate the inconsistencies. "You punish somebody for stealing a goat
or less--but a governor steals billions of
naira, and gets off scott-free," says Jean Herskovits, an expert on Nigerian politics.
Injustice and poverty, as well as the belief that the West is a
corrupting influence in governance, are root causes of both the desire
to implement sharia and Boko Haram's pursuit of an Islamic state, say
experts.
In an August 2011 report, Human Rights Watch notes "corruption is so pervasive
in Nigeria that it has turned public service for many into a kind of
criminal enterprise. Graft has fueled political violence, denied
millions of Nigerians access to even the most basic health and education
services, and reinforced police abuses and other widespread patterns of
human rights violations."
An Amnesty International report
points out that the Nigerian police force is responsible for hundreds
of extra-judicial killings and disappearances each year across the
country that largely "go uninvestigated and unpunished." Human rights
advocates note that the public executions of Boko Haram followers by
security forces, including the ones documented by this video,
have yet to produce a conviction. However, the government began in July
2011 to try five police officers connected to Yusuf's killing and in
August 2011 began the court martial of a military commander responsible for troops that killed forty-two sect
members during the July 2009 uprising.
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| suspected members |
The North-South Divide
Nigeria is Africa's most populous country, with more than 160
million people and nearly 350 ethnic groups speaking 250 languages. The
country is about 50 percent Muslim, 40 percent Christian, and 10
percent indigenous sects. The country has long grappled with how to
govern a diverse nation in which religion is one of the most important
features of identity. Some experts argue that the ongoing struggle
between Christians and Muslims over political power is a significant
factor in the country's ongoing unrest. This sectarian violence,
particularly in the central part of the country where the north and
south collide, has killed more than 14,000 people since 1999, according
to Human Rights Watch.
Others note that Boko Haram has killed more Muslims than Christians.
"In a country with a history of polarization between the majority-Muslim
north and the majority-Christian south, Boko Haram's message is a polarizing one at the national level
and within the Muslim community," write Alex Thurston in Foreign
Policy. Experts also note that though the northern unrest has been
portrayed in a context of extreme religiosity, religious extremism is evident throughout Nigeria, including among Christians.
Despite a per capita income of more than $2,700 and annual GDP growth
of 7 percent, Nigeria has one of the world's poorest populations. An
estimated 70 percent of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day.
Economic disparities between the north and the rest of the country are
particularly stark. In the north, 72 percent of people live in poverty
compared to 27 percent in the south and 35 percent in the Niger Delta.
"An analysis of public investments in infrastructure and human
capital in the northeast would explain why the region is not only home
to flawed elections and economic hopelessness
but the Boko Haram insurgency as well," writes former Nigerian federal
minister Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai. "Indeed, most of the apparent ethnic and
religious crises in the North, and the youth violence and criminality in
the south, can be linked to increasing economic inequality."
Another crucial factor in economic inequality is oil which is being overwhelmingly dominated by Muslim elites, who have, like their
counterparts across the country, benefited from oil wealth at the
expense of regional development. The central purpose of the Nigerian state is to divide up the
country's oil wealth among elites, making Nigeria's politics a "zero sum
game." In the oil-producing delta, for example, groups such as MEND
(Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta)--which has attacked
oil infrastructure--are largely an outgrowth of the feeling that the
south should get more revenue than it already does.
Although these elites still have access to oil wealth, northern
Nigerians fear their political influence in the country is waning. "The
Nigerian voices heard most loudly around the world, and in Nigeria
itself, are Christian and secular, reinforcing the sense among Nigeria's Muslims that they are invisible," G. Pascal Zachary writes in the
Atlantic.
The dispute over 2011 election results, which led to over eight
hundred dead, also has played a role in Boko Haram's escalating
violence. Experts say many northern Nigerians view the presidency of
Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian, as illegitimate, arguing that he ignored
an informal power-rotation agreement that should have kept a Muslim as
president this round. (Muslim President Umar Musa Yar'dua died in 2010,
two years into his four-year term.) Voting irregularities during the
election as well as efforts to change presidential term limits further
alienated the north from Jonathan. Some Jonathan supporters argue Boko
Harm's attacks are an attempt, possibly funded by northern elites, to make the country ungovernabl
e for the president.
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| Boko haram militia |
Terror Ties and Policy Prescriptions
Experts say the prison-break, use of propaganda, and the
bombing of police headquarters in June 2011 indicated an increasing
level of sophistication and organization, which could point to outside
help. In August 2011, U.S. officials claimed the group has ties to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which operates in northwest Africa, and Somalia's al-Shabaab, another militant Islamist group.
Security officials in Nigeria and internationally are concerned that
the group has splintered into one that is focused on local grievances
and another that is seeking contacts with outside terror groups (
WSJ).
"What is most worrying at present is, at least in my view, a clearly
stated intent by Boko Haram and by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to coordinate and synchronize (AP)
their efforts," said General Carter Ham, head of U.S. military
operations in Africa, noting that such a relationship would be "the most
dangerous thing to happen" to Africans and to U.S. interests in the
region. A 2011 State Department report observes the Nigerian National
Police Force has limited capacity to conduct anti-terror operations.
Other experts, such as Lubeck and CFR's Campbell, question the extent
of the sect's regional terror ties and say it is unclear which attacks
are actually the work of Boko Haram. There is concern that some of the
acts may be the work of criminals looking to capitalize on the mayhem
(some of the targets supposedly attacked by Boko Haram have been banks,
for instance) or perpetrated by other groups hostile to the state. They
also argue the group has a legitimate grievance against the country's
security forces and that international intervention could distract from
policy actions needed to address the underlying issues.
Before the UN bombing in August 2011, the Nigerian government started
to look at solutions similar to its quelling of unrest in the Niger
Delta, including negotiation and amnesty. MEND leaders were "bought off"
by the government and accepted a ceasefire in 2010. But experts say
such a solution is unlikely for a group like Boko Haram. "The grievances
Boko Haram expresses are more diverse, less material, and are
explicitly articulated as religious politics," writes Thurston in his blog.
Analyst Chris Ngwodo argues some kind of federal intervention may be
needed, especially in education and healthcare, and greater pressure may
need to be exerted on northern elites to develop the region. CFR's
Campbell argues that President Jonathan needs gestures, such as naming
prominent northern Muslims to his cabinet, to address northern
disaffection.
He and other experts also are particularly concerned about the
improving economic opportunity in the region, including greater foreign
investment, improving infrastructure, and expanding access to
Western-style education. "The problem in Nigeria is the government must
create the conditions and the incentives, both political and economic,
for the people with wealth to invest locally to generate employment,"
Lubeck argues.
Britain and Israel have already offered anti-terror assistance, and
the U.S. military recently discussed sharing intelligence and
potentially training Nigerian security forces. Human rights and diplomatic officials note that Nigeria's heavy-handed military approach
is compounding their security problem. Campbell warns against too much
U.S. involvement on the anti-terror front. "If the United States becomes
associated with Abuja's oppression, then we and the international
community become fair game," he says, noting that the UN bombing
indicates that it is possible this has already happened.
