The Complex Context of Boko Haram. In 2009, following a request by the Borno State Government, then President Umaru YarAdua sent in soldiers ro quell a budding religious insurgency by a local group known as Boko Haram by the local populace because of its total rejection of Western education. This resulted in a military onslaught against the Boko Haram, the capture of its leader Mohammed Yusuf, his key aides and many of its foot soldiers who were handed over by the military to the police but subsequently killed under claims that they were attempting to escape. Boko Haram was defeated but its remnants simply disappeared to resurface later in a very complex context of the emergence of a Southern Christian President, Goodluck Jonathan, claims of the political class in the north of Nigeria of being cheated out of the Presidency, and claims of economic and political marginalisation of the North-East. This is the complex context within which Boko Haram has thrived and flourished and sadly in which the Federal Government and security agencies have waged their response to the insurgency or war, without the wholehearted support of political, traditional and religious groups in the north of Nigeria. From seeing the war against Boko Haram as the sole responsibility of the Federal Government to refusing to condemn Boko Haram atrocities, to alluding to different versions of Boko Haram with that supported by the government as being more virulent, to ascribing a political agenda to the sect. We have also seen calls for full amnesty to be granted to the insurgents and for them to be similarly compensated as the Niger Delta militants, while calls have been made for a Marshall Plan for Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states with #300 billion naira to be spent over five years to redevelop these states. We have also seen responses to of the military against Boko Haram classified as crimes against humanity and genocide by the very people who are experiencing the excesses of Boko Haram. While these calls have been going on and the context of this menace deepening so, Boko Haram has been gaining in battlefield experience, acquiring more sophisticated military equipment, securing battlefield victories against the Nigerian Army and more importantly seizing villages and towns, hoisting its flags and imposing its own version of strict Sharia rule. More than any other thing, the loss of territories in part of Borno and Adamawa to Boko Haram, has riled the political, religious and traditional class who have now been jolted into confronting the reality that victory for Boko Haram will result in loss of authority and power for them. There is finally a call for a full blown war in these quatres. Meanwhile the plot deepens with the forthcoming election and the wider implication of the continuance in office of a Southern Christian President. Personally I doubt if the emergence of a Northern Muslim President would calm the resolve of these insurgents for if the convictions of Salkida, a Boko Haram in-confidant journalist, is anything to go by, this group is bent on carving a Caliphate for themselves and extend same as much as possible to practice their version of Sharia law. It is almost wrong in itself to say, Lets wait and see, for it is a safe prophecy that more lives would be lost between now and whenever those in a position decide to take decisive action against this troope of death-dealers and indeed do and put an end to them. That in itself is the best option, not Amnesty, not negotiation. Boko Haram appears to be an ideology and one which its proponents hold tenaciously and preach through intimidation, torture and death. You do not go with words to battle an Ak47 or Armoured Personnel Carriers. More violence is inevitable. This is the Boko Haram template.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 17:47:30 +0000
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