The
group Boko Haram was established by Mohammed Yusuf in 2002 in Maiduguri, the
capital of Borno State in the northeastern Nigeria. Boko Haram gains its name
from the Hausa language meaning that “Western education is a sin!” which
constructs the main pillar of the group Book Haram’s ideology. Boko Haram rejects the Western system came to Nigeria
during the colonial period and the legitimacy of the Nigerian Government.
Its original name in Arabic is “Jama'atu
Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad” meaning in English “the Congregation of the People of Tradition for
Proselytism and Jihad.” The current leader of the organization is Abubakar
Shekau. Muhammed Yusuf established an educational complex consisted of a school
and mosque in Maiduguri in northerneast in Nigeria in 2002. The complex was
very active between the period of 2002 and 2009 which provided free education
for poor and unemployed youths came from northern Nigeria and the neighbouring
countries, including Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.
The complex also offered a wide range of social
programmes for the poor students that aimed to reduce the number of
unemployment and poverty in northern Nigeria. Particularly, poverty,
unemployment, the widespread corruption and underdevelopment have driven many
poor and students for the enrolment of the educational complex of Muhammed
Yusuf. The conflict erupted between Boko Haram and
the Government in July 2009 after the group rejected the application of a national
law related to the use of motorcycle helmets. Most members of the group have
motorcycles and do not want to use motorcycle helmets during driving. After
this incident, the Nigerian security forces killed seventeen members of the
group and the leader of Boko Haram Muhammed Yusuf was arrested and killed in a
brutal way by the Nigerian security forces. With the killing of the leader of
book Haram, the group changed its strategy to attack the government and
launched a massive attack against the Government, including schools, prisons,
police stations, government buildings, churches and mosques in the
country. The 2009 conflict
between the two forces left 1000 people dead and 700 people wounded in the
country. The group
changed its headquarters and moved to Kanamma in Yobe State, near the border of
Niger. In May 2013, the Nigerian
government declared a state of emergency in the States of Borno, Yobe, and
Adamawa located in the north where the Boko Haram actively exists.
The
genesis of Boko Haram goes back to the Maitatsine uprising of 1980. Muhammed
Marwa (died in 1980) known Maitatsine was a controversial preacher in Nigeria,
interpreted Islam contradictorily. For instance, he rejected the hadith and the
sunnah of the Prophet Muhammed and even the prophethood of Muhammed. He forbad
the use of technology such as radio, cars, watches, and bicycles for his
followers. In 1979, he eventually declared himself a prophet. He attracted many
poor and unemployed youths known as the Yan Tatsine in northern Nigeria in the
early 1970s. In December 1980, the Maitatsine movement attacked the police
forces and various religious figures in the society, including the Islamic
communities in Kano, claimed that Islamic communities were corrupt and
politized. The movement also rejected the legitimacy of the Kano State and
threatened peace and security of the states in the north.[1]
Five
thousand people have been killed during the Maitatsine uprising of 1980 and the
leader of the Yan Tatsine was killed in this conflict as well. The uprising of
1980 did not wipe out the Maitatsine movement and the movement grew and spread
over the different cities in northern Nigeria after this riot. Musa Makaniki
became the leader of the Yan Tatsine after the killing of Maitatsine, arrested
in 2006 by the Nigerian police. Violence
continued since the death of Maitatsine in 1980. For example, over three
thousand people have been died during the conflict in Maidaguri and Kadua in
October 1982. In early 1984, one thousand people were killed in a clash in the
city of Yola. In 1985, several people were killed in another riot. Some
analysts argue that Boko Haram emerged as an extension of the Maitatsine group,
had many similarities between the Maitatsine movement and the Boko Haram in
terms of their philosophy, objectives, and organizational planning. [2]
Ojobi
argued that Maitatsine was not Muslim; he was a Christian and had a special
mission to distort the religion of Islam and spread violence among the Muslims.[3]
The Maitatsine movement had a profound impact on Nigerian political, economic,
and social scenes in the 1980s and still it has continued until today. Around
ten thousand people, including the members of the Maitatsine movement, the
Nigerian army and police were killed during the uprisings of the Maitatsine.
Second, the government increased its control over the religious activities in
northern Nigeria. Third, the riots in the north marginalized and stigmatized
the Muslims in particular, and the whole society in the northern Nigeria in
general[4]
The president of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan claimed
that Boko Haram killed over twelve thousand people and left eight thousand
people injured and crippled since 2009.[5]
The group’s first attack on the international community took place on the UN
building in Abuja 26 August 2011, killed 21 people and 73 injured. The group
captured over 250 girls in April 2014 from the Government Secondary School in
Chibok in Borno State. Though the Nigerian Government has deployed about 20,000
troops to rescue the abducted girls from Boko Haram, it has not been rescued
yet. After the incidence of the abduction of the Nigerian girls, the
international community has paid more attention of the group of Boko Haram.
Boko Haram has not only challenged the legitimacy of the secular state but also
destabilised peace, security and stability[6]
and threatened the Western interests in the country.
There
was the Bornu Empire (1380-1893) prior to British colonial period in the current
region of north-eastern Nigeria. The majority of the population during the
period of the Bornu Empire was Muslims and known as Kanuri-Muslims. The Kanuri people
are an African ethnic group living in the territory of the Bornu Empire and the
most of whom today speak the language of Hausa and Arabic. The geographic areas
of the Bornu Empire laid into the southeast Niger, western Chad and northern
Cameroon and the Kanuri-Muslims today still exists in these places. With the
beginning of the British colonial history in Nigeria in the 1900s, the Kanuri
people increased living in this region their loyalty to the Bornu Sultanate and
founded a Nigerian political party in 1954 called the Borno Youth Movement that
aimed to fight against the colonial power of Britain and establish a local
administration in the region.[7]
Many Kanuri people in northern Nigeria sympathized and supported the members of
Boko Haram, believing that the group is fighting against the corrupt
authorities and the leaders who have cooperated with the former colonial powers
for their own self-interests.
It
is important to underline that Nigeria is among the poorest countries in the
world despite the fact that it has vast natural resources. Especially, poverty
and deprivation in the northern Nigeria is extremely deeper than the south. In
addition, unemployment, underdevelopment, maternal and infant mortality rates
in the north are higher than the south. Importantly, the level of participation
of the political mechanisms in the north is very low. Brutal and unjust
policies of the State of Plateau against the Muslims and Islam living in have
led to the emergence of irritation against the State in particular and the
Federal government in general.[8] According to Boko Haram, politics in northern
Nigeria especially and in the Federal Republic of Nigeria generally have been
controlled by corrupt politicians and therefore corrupt institutions of the
government have failed to serve for the citizens of Nigeria.
Brutal and inconsistent policies of the security
services have marginalized the poor people and unemployed youths throughout the
country. Extreme poverty, the high unemployment rate, and underdevelopment are
the result of the corrupt administration in the country. The organization
particularly emerged to stop the widespread financial and moral corruption
cross the country and to create a new political system based on the Islamic law
which aims to create a good society. Book Haram believes that the elite created
by the Britain during the colonial period are spiritually and morally corrupt
and they only focus on their own self-interests rather than the interests of
the Muslim community.[9]
In 2010, the US announced it a terrorist organization. The president of Nigeria
Goodluck Jonathan also declared it a terrorist organization. The organizations’
main targets to attack are especially the government buildings and Nigerian
security forces but the organization has expanded its targets to include public
places, schools, churches and even international institutions since August
2011. For example, it bombed the UN in Abuja in August 2011, twenty-three
people killed.
Islam
and Christianity are the two dominant religions in the country. The genesis of
the conflict between Boko Haram and the Nigerian Government is not religious,
but it is political. The religion of Islam is exploited by both the Federal
Government and Boko Haram. Both sides misrepresent the religion of Islam and
the Islamic community. The attacks on the mosques and churches made by Boko
Haram showed that the group does destabilize the unity and solidarity and
threaten peace, security and stability cross the country.[10]
It can be argued that the main purposes of the conflict between the two are to
control over the natural resources and the political power of the country
rather than creating an Islamic State in the country.
References:
[1] Niels, Kastfelt, “Rumours of
Maitatsine: A Note on Political Culture in North Nigeria”, African Affairs, Vol. 88, No., 350, (Jan., 1989), p. 83-4.
[2] Abimboloa Adesoji, “The Boko
Haram Uprising and Islamic Revivalism in Nigeria”, Africa Spectrum, Vol. 45, No., 2 (2010), p. 96-8.
[4] Niels, Kastfelt, “Rumours of
Maitatsine: A Note on Political Culture in North Nigeria”, African Affairs, Vol. 88, No., 350, (Jan., 1989), p. 84-5.
[6] Abimboloa Adesoji, “The Boko
Haram Uprising and Islamic Revivalism in Nigeria”, Africa Spectrum, Vol. 45, No., 2 (2010), p. 96.
[7] Akinola, Olojo, “Nigeria’s Troubled north: Interrogating the
Drivers of Public Support for Boko Haram”, Research Paper, International
Centre for Counter-Terrorism – the Hague, 2013, p. 4.
[8] Andrew Walker, “What is Book Haram”, Special Report,
United States Institute of Peace, 2012, pp. 13-14.
[9] Ibid. pp. 1-7.
[10] Akinola, Olojo, “Nigeria’s Troubled North: Interrogating the
Drivers of Public Support for Boko Haram”, Research Paper, International
Centre for Counter-Terrorism – the Hague, 2013, p. 7-9.
