INTRODUCTION
Ten years since the launch of violent attacks against innocent citizens,
it is pertinent to find out exactly what Boko Haram want. It is not
enough to continue to wage a war against Boko Haram who have killed over
30,000 innocent citizens and displaced over 2 million people from July
2009 to July 2019 but it is important to analyse the activities of this
Islamic sect. We have been launching counter-terrorism attacks against
Boko Haram with no end in sight and huge resources expended. Therefore,
there is a need for more introspection. The meaning of Boko Haram
already says something about this group. There is religious violence and
they want government to put an end to it. There is pervasive corruption
in government at all levels and they are appalled by this. There is
economic inequality and they do not want the disparity to continue.
There is poor governance and they want to provide an alternative. We
have abusive security forces and they won’t have none of that. There
is no denying these facts. Countries that are confronted with this kind
of challenge address the root causes rather than resort to the use of
force. They use monies that would have been expended on fighting war to
address the underlying issues driving insurgency. We would have won the
fight against Boko Haram insurgency a long time ago if military strategy
alone was the most effective response to Boko Haram insurgency. There
are other approaches we need to adopt in fighting the war against
terrorism. Approaches that will not only stop the need for
radicalization of teeming youths but also make them realize that their
plight is being addressed by governments.
Boko Haram wants good governance and equal opportunity. They offer an
alternative to the current style of governance in Nigeria. Many Muslims
do not agree with Boko Haram. They believe Boko Haram is fighting a
needless war. To them, Boko Haram is just using poor governance and
economic inequality as a smokescreen for working towards achieving their
evil agenda. They want to establish an Islamic state within Nigeria.
Boko Haram also want to expand their caliphate to West Africa. Boko
Haram are just an extremist group that are using religion as a political
tool. Boko Haram is also using religion to justify the murder of
innocent citizens and encouraging young men and women to become suicide
bombers.
NIGERIA’S SITUATION
From independence till date, Nigeria has designed numerous policies most
of which have been poorly implemented. Police brutality and impunity
have become the order of the day. The economy has been struggling due to
mismanagement while the population of the country keeps increasing. The
rate of unemployment has been on the increase and politicians keep
paying lip service to job creation. Many people are killed
extra-judicially by the police and military personnel with no
consequences. There is also the problem of human right abuses. Military
rule was a disaster but democracy does not seem to be functional. Oil
wealth is not shared equitably. Profits from crude oil over the decades
have produced a class of wealthy Nigerians who live a life of luxury.
Nigeria’s wealth is starched in banks abroad and frittered away. The
concentration of wealth in the hands of few Nigerian elites has led to
extreme poverty. As a matter of fact, Nigeria is now the poverty capital
of the world. About 70 per cent of the Nigerian population now live on
less than $1.9 a day. Nigeria continues to suffer from bad governance
and leadership. The Nigerian political scene is filled with corrupt
politicians and leaders.
UNDERLYING ISSUES DRIVING BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY
One of the reasons espoused by Boko Haram for their attacks is the
failure of government especially those of Northern Nigeria. According to
Boko Haram, there is economic disparity between the North and the South.
Corruption has been so pervasive in government at the national and
sub-national levels. These have contributed to extreme poverty,
illiteracy, youth unemployment, lack of education and poor health
services. In addition there is extrajudicial killings as well as police
brutality and impunity which are the strategies government have employed
in response to agitations by religious sects, ethnic groups and the
citizens. Furthermore, government failed to nip the issue of Boko Haram
insurgency in the bud. They allowed the problem fester.
The truth is that government and the political elites provided the
recipe for this insurgency. The Nigerian elites shared the country’s
wealth at the expense of development in the North and other parts of the
country.
The handover of power to Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa by the colonial
masters in 1960 provided an opportunity for the North to be more
developed than the South but Northern elites and politicians did not
deem it fit to develop their region. Since independence, Northern elites
and politicians have spent more time in the corridors of power than the
South. Northern elites and politicians have superintended over 19 states
more than those in the South. Northern elites and politicians have also
occupied the highest number of seats at the National Assembly. Yet,
Northern Nigeria is underdeveloped, uneducated, and unhealthy to borrow
the words of Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. Many
Northern elites and politicians attended the best schools both locally
and internationally. Rather than expose future generations to this kind
of education, they promoted the Almajiri which is a system of Islamic
education practiced in Northern Nigeria placing it above western
education. And because the new generation do not have access to the kind
of education the Northern elites and politicians had, they are faced
with the challenges of early child marriage, illiteracy, poverty,
unemployment and lack of opportunities leading to drug abuse, banditry,
kidnapping and terrorism. Nigerian elites and politicians use the
Almajiri children to achieve their own selfish interests such as
mobilising them for elections.
Boko Haram’s argument is that Islamic state will bring a better and
more just government to power. Islamic state ensure inclusivity, the
provision of social services, medical assistance, counselling and
temporary housing. Boko Haram want to step in to fill the void created
by the failure of governments. Despite stating their reasons for
attacking the state, governments have failed to solve the problem of
poverty, youth unemployment, lack of access to health services and lack
of education among youths. Most of the policies designed to address
these problems are yet to achieve the desired impact. In spite of the
need to prioritize human capital development, governments have
prioritized physical capital which is an avenue for siphoning public
funds. Nigeria is paying the price of years of underdevelopment in
Northern Nigeria. Decades of failed government and bad behaviour of
Northern elites and politicians led to Boko Haram insurgency, extreme
poverty, high rate of out of school children, drug abuse, banditry and
kidnapping.
Ensuring good governance is not rocket science. The provision of basic
amenities of life as well as ensuring the welfare and security of the
people is the primary responsibility of every government. The neglect of
the needs of the people in terms of education, health, housing,
transportation, power, safe water etcetera is an invitation to anarchy.
Governments have been making good governance a singsong but the
situation over the years have shown otherwise. Over the years,
governance has been about what the privileged elites could get from the
common wealth rather than doing what will benefit the generality of the
population. Conversely, developed countries are constantly working on
improving life expectancy, providing better education and reducing
income inequality.
Almost 59 years after independence, Northern Nigeria does not have
anything to show in terms of development. Northern Nigeria is a fertile
ground for radicalization and religious extremism due to extreme
poverty, lack of western education and youth unemployment. Southern
Nigeria is the opposite with high level of education and some level of
development although Southern Nigeria also suffer from poverty,
illiteracy and poor infrastructure. Northern Nigeria has failed to
provide its people with better education and adequate infrastructure
towards ensuring peace, stability and prosperity. The underdeveloped
Northern Nigeria hinder the ability of the Nigerian state to move from a
developing country into a developed country. Northern elites and
politicians did not realise that the chicken will come home to roost.
They felt denying the Almajiri children western education and not
developing the North will help protect their interests. Now, the
Almajiri children that they failed to secure their future are being
radicalized and innocent citizens are bearing the brunt.
The Nigerian state is rebelled against for its failures. Bad governance
and leadership keeps staring us all in the face. Despite the
establishment of anti-corruption agencies, corruption in government is
pervasive. Anyone who agitate against government failures is brutally
dealt with by the police and the military. Those who criticise the
government are seen as enemy of the state. Nigerians are not happy with
the high level of insecurity and inability of governments to address
this problem to the extent that most Nigerians now live in palpable
fear.
Boko Haram is now offering the people an alternative—an Islamic state.
They have readymade tools that have been groomed for them by the
Nigerian state—young people with no education and employment. It is
not only young people in Northern Nigeria that are unemployed, their
counterparts in Southern Nigeria are also plagued by the problem of
poverty and unemployment despite being educated. No one is immune from
the problem of poverty, unemployment, poor infrastructure, poor
governance and pervasive corruption except the privileged elite and
their children. The pictures of PMB children’s graduation from schools
in the United Kingdom was a subject of public discourse.
Boko Haram cannot be happy with the graduation of PMB’s children from
schools in the United Kingdom while Almajiri children are denied access
to western education. Poverty, lack of western education and youth
unemployment leads to radicalization. The youth account for 80 per cent
of the Northern population. The lack of opportunities in Northern
Nigeria has forced many of its youths to migrate to Southern Nigeria in
search of employment opportunities. Majority of them have taken to Okada
riding and other menial jobs. The future of Northern Nigeria cannot be
in the hands of poor, uneducated and jobless youths.
Nigeria has about 70 per cent youth population trapped in poverty and
unemployment. Little wonder there is a rebellion against the state by
Boko Haram. The Revolution Now Movement convened by Omoyele Sowore,
presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) is calling
for a revolution as a way of solving the problem of bad governance and
leadership. The Buhari administration has attacked those opposed
(Amnesty International, Professor Wole Soyinka, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN)
and Chief Mike Ozehkome (SAN)) to the illegal detention of Omoyele
Sowore by the Department of State Services (DSS) (as there is no overt
act). It’s sad that Nigeria’s political class have serious learning
difficulties. Government’s ill-informed responses to agitations by
different groups leads to uprising. The lack of opportunities for youths
have led to revolution in different countries. The agitations by Boko
Haram, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Movement for the
Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Movement for
the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and Civil Society
Organizations (CSOs) are against bad governance and leadership as well
as marginalization.
This brings me to the way forward out of persistent uprising across the
country.
THE WAY FORWARD
Government must rethink its strategy towards winning the war against
terrorism. It’s been ten years since the violent attack of Boko Haram.
Experts have suggested that government should counter Boko Haram
insurgency using military engagement, political strategy and
development efforts rather than adopting military strategy alone which
is yet to achieve the desired impact. The war against Boko Haram
insurgency using military strategy should aim to destroy the terrorist
group. We must seek the intervention of the West to get rid of
terrorists in the Africa region and reduce their growing influence.
There must be consequences for every individual who engage in terrorism.
The Nigerian military is overwhelmed by this fight against terrorists,
hence, the military architecture must be rejigged while issues of low
morale and corruption within the military is dealt with.
Nigeria need to enlist the help of countries such as the US, UK,
Germany, France and Russia in winning the war against terrorism. The
view that involving these countries in the fight against Boko Haram
threatens our sovereignty as a country should be jettisoned. The
international community is willing to help as long as we request for it.
The fight against Boko Haram has taken an international dimension and
can no longer be resolved by Nigerian intelligence and security
services. Some countries in the West have formed alliances with other
countries to fight terrorism.
Government must ensure the development of Northern Nigeria. This is not
a difficult task to achieve and there is no other way than to turn
Northern Nigeria into a construction site. We need to address the root
causes of insurgency if we must achieve peace, security and prosperity.
Many developed countries are constantly working on reducing economic and
income inequality, corruption in government and ensuring good
governance. Nigeria must also address these problems towards ensuring
peace and stability.
There must be a development plan for all the states in the North. Many
state governors in the North have focused on disingenuous policies and
initiatives (such as funding mass weddings and shoe cobbling tools) as a
way of empowering the teeming unemployed and uneducated youths. Those
governors that have tried to bring development have not been able to
reduce the high rate of poverty, illiteracy, youth unemployment and out
of school children. Girl child education in the North has also not
improved. We do not need a soothsayer to let us know that addressing the
agitations for development and ensuring a more functional state will
promote peace and security. I hope governments can tow this line.
However, government’s response to the issue of the Islamic Movement of
Nigeria (IMN), the illegal detention ofSheikh Ibrahim El Zakzaky and his
wife Zeenat as well as the proscription of the IMN (which is null and
void) shows that the Buhari administration do not see the need to
address people’s agitations and make the state functional. The Buhari
administration also proscribed the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)
which is a group agitating for secession from the Nigerian state due to
failure of government. The South West Elders are also agitated over the
failure of government to secure their region from increasing rate of
kidnapping, banditry and herdsmen-farmer conflict. The Nigerian
government must address the agitations by different groups. There is a
need to bring together stakeholders from every part of the country to
discuss ways by which the agitations by different groups can be
addressed.
The over 2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) need to be
returned back to their communities after taking back those
communities/territories from Boko Haram and reconstructing them. The
Northern elites and state governors in the North who have been
responsible for the poor development of this region must be held
accountable for any drawback in development efforts. Nigeria will not
improve its health and economic indicators without developing the
Northern region. The Nigerian government should work with Northern
elites and state governors from the North and ensure that they transform
the North from its present state of underdevelopment into a safe, secure
and economically viable region. All hands must be on deck in rebuilding
Northern Nigeria and every other part of Nigeria plagued by unrest.
Although there is mutual suspicion between the North and the South but
we have to work together to bridge the North-South divide. The
development of Northern Nigeria and other volatile regions will be
critical to ensuring peace and stability. Governments must intensify
development efforts across the country.
The problem of Boko Haram insurgency, extreme poverty, youth
unemployment, lack of access to health services, economic inequality and
lack of education in Northern Nigeria is surmountable. The root causes
of Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, herdsmen-farmer conflict and
kidnapping are within the control of governments. Nigeria is a strategic
country on the African continent and needs to seek the help of the West
to win the war against terrorism and develop the Northern region. Almost
everyone regardless of their religious affiliation agree that
governments have failed in their responsibilities by not addressing the
problem of widening income inequality, pervasive corruption, poor
governance and abuse of office. These problems persist whether in the
North or the South of the country. Nigeria has spent trillions of naira
in ten years fighting Boko Haram insurgency. It’s time to redirect
these monies towards development efforts. There will be no reason for
Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and herdsmen-farmer conflict
if governments had focused on developing Northern Nigeria and listened
carefully to the agitations by different groups. Nigeria would have
enjoyed peace and security.
BOLAJI S. AREGBESHOLA IS A FREELANCE WRITER. HE IS THE AUTHOR OF
‘’NIGERIAN POLITICAL PARTIES AND POLITICIANS: WINDING ROAD FROM
COUNTRY TO NATION’’.