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Abstract
More than 3,500 people have died in Nigeria since 2009 when Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group from northeastern Nigeria, launched its violent campaign to wrest power from the Nigerian government and foist an Islamic state under the supreme law of Sharia. Attempts at negotiating with the group, including the recent amnesty offer extended to its members by the Nigerian government, have stalled due to distrust on both sides and the factionalized leadership of the group's different cells. This article provides a systematic account of Boko Haram's emergence, demands, and modus operandi. It also evaluates how the Nigerian government has responded to the group's threat and how they should respond. The socioeconomic approach of this article helps to explain the Boko Haram problem beyond a usual religious agenda and to evaluate the development of the group in the context of Nigeria's checkered political history and local economic grievances.
Notes
Williams Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming.” Available at http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html
Umar Sani, The Discourses of Salafi Radicalism and Salafi Counter-Radicalism in Nigeria (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University, 2011).
Daniel E. Agbiboa, “The Nigerian Burden: Religious Identity, Conflict and the Current Terrorism of Boko Haram,” Conflict, Security and Development 13(1) (2013), pp. 1–29.
IRIN, “Timeline of Boko Haram and Related Violence in Nigeria,” 22 Feburary 2013. Available at http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97527/Timeline-of-Boko-Haram-and-related-violence-in-Nigeria
IRIN, “Nigerians on the Run as Military Combat Boko Haram,” 22 May 2013. Available at http://allafrica.com/stories/201305221267.html; Premium Times, “185 Killed in Borno Town, Baga, as Soldiers, Boko Haram Fight,” 22 April 2013. Available at http://premiumtimesng.com/news/130680–185-killed-in-borno-town-baga-as-soldiers-boko-haram-fight.html; Daniel E. Agbiboa, “No Retreat, No Surrender: Understanding the Religious Terrorism of Boko Haram in Nigeria,” Africa Study Monographs 34(2) (2013), pp. 65–84.
IRIN, “Nigerians on the Run.”
BBC News Africa, “Nigeria Unrest: Boko Haram Gunmen Kill 44 at Mosque,” 13 August 2013. Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23676872
Agbiboa, “No Retreat, No Surrender,” p. 65.
Nick Chilles, “After Rejecting Nigeria's Amnesty Offer: Boko Haram Continues to Kill,” 23 April 2013, Atlanta Blackstar. Available at http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/04/23/after-rejecting-nigerias-amnesty-offer-boko-haram-continues-to-kill/
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Fox News, “Nigerian President Declares State of Emergency,” 14 May 2013. Available at http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05/14/state-emergency-declared-in-nigeria/
This is not the first time that Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in some parts of northern Nigeria. In December 2011, Jonathan declared a state of emergency over some limited local government areas in the north, after a church bombing blamed on Boko Haram killed hundreds of people, but he lifted it in July 2012.
BBC News, “Nigeria: Goodluck Jonathan Delcares Emergency in States”; Agbiboa, “No Retreat, No Surrender,” p. 66.
Fox News, “Nigerian President Declares State of Emergency.”
Ibid.
Ibid.
International Crisis Group (ICG), “Northern Nigeria: Background to Conflict,” 20 December 2010. Africa Report, No. 168. Available at http://www.crisisgroup.org/∼/media/Files/africa/west-africa/nigeria/168%20Northern%20Nigeria%20–20Background%20to%20Conflict.ashx; O. Alubo, Citizenship and Identity Politics in Nigeria (Ibadan: Cleen Foundation, 2009).
Toyin Falola, The History of Nigeria (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998); M. Meredith, The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years (London: Free Press, 2005).
Besides Quaddiriya and Tijjaniya, there are different Islamic sects in Nigeria among which are Derika, the Izala, the Kaulu (Kablu), the Muslim Brotherhood, and several other splinter groups. Once in a while, there are skirmishes between and among some of the sects. See N. D. Danjibo, “Islamic Fundamentialism and Sectarian Violence: The ‘Maitatisine’ and ‘Boko Haram’ Crisis in Nigeria,” Paper presented at the 2009 IFRA Conference on Conflict and Violence in Zaria, Nigeria. Available at http://www.ifra-nigeria.org/spip.php?article156, pp. 1–21.
ICG, “Northern Nigeria: Background to Conflict.”
Falola, A History of Nigeria.
Daniel Agbiboa, “Why Boko Haram Exists: The Relative Deprivation Perspective,” African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review 3(1) (2013), p. 146.
Raymond Hickey, “The 1982 Maitatsine Uprisings in Nigeria: A Note,” African Affairs 83(331) (1984), pp. 251–256, at p. 251.
Ibid.
M. Hiskett, The Sword of Truth: The Life and Times of the Shehu Usman Dan Fodio (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973).
Hickey, “The 1982 Maitatisine Uprisings.”
Mohammed K. Isa, “Militant Islamist Groups in Northern Nigeria,” in W. Okumu & A. Ikelegbe, eds., Militias, Rebels and Islamist Militants: Human Security and State Crises in Africa (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2010), pp. 313–340; Sylvanus Udoidem, “Religion in the Political Life of Nigeria: A Survey of Religious-Related Crisis in Nigeria since Independence,” in F. U. Okafor, ed., New Strategies for Curbing Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Nigeria (Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension, 1997), pp. 152–183; Basil Ekot, “Conflict, Religion and Ethnicity in the Postcolonial Nigerian State,” Australian Review of African Studies 30(2) (2009), pp. 47–67.
Crowder, The Story of Nigeria.
Human Rights Watch, “Spiralling Violence: Boko Haram Attacks and Security Forces Abuses in Nigeria.” Available at http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/05/16/nigeria-post-election-violence-killed-800, p. 22.
Hickey, “The 1982 Maitatisne Uprisings,” p. 253.
Ibid.
Agbiboa, “The Nigerian Burden.”
J. C. Aguwa, “Religious Conflict in Nigeria: Impact on Nation Building,” Dialectical Anthropology 22(3–4) (1997), p. 338.
Falola, A History of Nigeria, p. 169.
Daniel E. Agbiboa and Emmanuel Okem, “Unholy Trinity: Ethnicity, Religion and the Elusive Quest for National Identity in Nigeria,” Peace Research: Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies 43(2) (2011), pp. 98–125.
Human Rights Watch, “World Report 2013: Nigeria.” Available at http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/nigeria
Udoidem, “Religion in the Political Life of Nigeria.”
Agbiboa, “The Nigerian Burden,” p. 21.
Agbiboa and Okem, “Unholy Trinity.”
Falola, The History of Nigeria.
Abdul Raufu Mustapha, “Boko Haram: Killing in God's Name,” Mail & Guardian, 5 April 2012. Available at http://mg.co.za/article/2012-04-05-boko-haram-killing-in-gods-name
Daniel E. Agbiboa, “The Evolution of Democratic Politics and Challenges in Nigeria: Retrospects and Prospects,” Democracy and Security (in press).
W. D. Graf, The Nigerian State (London: James Currey, 1988).
Ibid., p. 24.
Agbiboa, “No Retreat, No Surrender,” p. 76.
Oxford Research Group, “Nigeria: The Generic Context of the Boko Haram Violence,” Monthly Global Security Briefing, 30 April, p. 3.
James Forest, Confronting the Terrorism of Boko Haram in Nigeria (Tampa, FL: The JSOU Press, 2012).
NBS, National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria Poverty Profile, 2010. Available at www.tucrivers.org/tucpublication/NigeriaPovertyProfile2010.pdf
UNDP, Human Development Report Nigeria, 2008–2009 (Abuja: UNDP, 2009).
NBS, Nigerian Poverty Profile.
Mustapha, “Boko Haram: Killing in God's Name”; Matthew H. Kukah, Religion, Power and Politics in Northern Nigeria (Ibadan: Spectrum Books, 1994); Isa, “Militant Islamists Groups in Northern Nigeria”; ICG, “Northern Nigeria: Background to Conflict”; HRW, “Spiralling Violence”; Chinua Achebe, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra (London: Citadel Press, 2012).
Chris Kwaja, “Nigeria's Pernicious Drivers of Ethno-Religious Conflicts,” Africa Security Brief, A Publication of the African Centre for Strategic Studies. Available at http://africacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/AfricaBriefFinal_14.pdf
Oxford Research Group, “Nigeria: The Generic Context of Boko Haram Violence,” p. 4.
Achebe, There Was a Country, p. 110.
Matthew H. Kukah, “Boko Haram: Some Reflections on Causes and Effects,” unpublished manuscript, p. 3.
C. Clapham, “Problems of Peace Enforcement: Lessons to be Drawn from Multinational Peacekeeping Operations in Ongoing Conflicts in Africa,” in Zack Williams, ed., Africa in Crisis (London: Pluto Press, 2004), p. 200.
H. Clinton “Nigeria: Lack of Good Governance,” The Nation, 14 August 2009, p. 1.
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Paul Collier, V. L. Eliott, H. Hegre, A. Hoeffler, M. Reynal-Querol, and N. Sambanis, Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and Development Policy (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003), p. 53.
J. A. Rosati, D. J. Carroll, and A. C. Roger, “A Critical Assessment of the Power of Human Needs in World Society,” in J. Burton and F. Dukes, eds., Conflict: Readings in Management and Resolution (Basingstoke: B Press, 1990), pp. 156–159.
T. H. Pear, Psychological Factors of Peace and War (London: Hutchinson, 1950).
Ted Robert Gurr, Why Men Rebel (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970); J. C. Davies, “Towards a Theory of Revolution,” American Sociological Review 27(1) (1962), pp. 5–19.
T. Krieger and D. Meierriek, “What Causes Terrorism?” Public Choice 147(1) (2011), p. 3.
Ibid.
J. Kenny, “Sharia and Christianity in Nigeria: Islam and a Secular State,” Journal of Religion in Africa XXVI (1996), pp. 339–364.
Ekot, “Conflict, Security and Ethnicity,” p. 52.
The Post Express, “Nigeria: Sharia, So Far,” 15 July 200. Available at http://allafrica.ccom/stories/2000007170038.html
Ekot, “Conflict, Security and Ethnicity,” p. 63.
M. M. Duruji, “Democracy and the Challenge of Ethno-Nationalism in Nigeria's Fourth Republic: Interrogating Institutional Mechanics” (2010). Available at http://www.peacestudiesjournal.org.uk
P. Ostein, “Jonah Jang and the Jasawa: Ethno-Religious Conflict in Jos, Nigeria,” Muslim-Christian Relations in Africa (2009). Available at http://www.sharia-in-africa.net/media/publications/ethno-religious-conflict-in-Jos-Nigeria/Ostein_Jos.pdf
Ibid.
A. E. Ojie and C. Ewhrudjakpor, “Ethnic Diversity and Public Policies in Nigeria,” Anthropologist 11(1) (2009), pp. 7–8.
HRW, Human Rights Watch, “Nigeria: Post-Election Violence Killed 800.” Available at http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/05/16/nigeria-post-election-violence-killed-800
Ibid.
Forest, “Confronting the Terrorism of Boko Haram in Nigeria,” p. 15.
F. C. Onuoha, “Boko Haram: Nigeria's Extremist Islamic Sect,” Al Jazeera, 29 February 2012, pp. 1–2.
Umar, The Discourses of Salafi Radicalism.
Danjibo, “Islamic Fundamentalism and Sectarian Violence,” p. 6.
Agbiboa, “No Retreat, No Surrender.”
Forest, “Confronting the Terrorism of Boko Haram in Nigeria.”
The Atlantic, “Nigeria's Challenge.” 24 June 2012. Available at http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/06/nigerias-challenge/240961/
Alex Thurston, “Threat of Militancy in Nigeria,” Commentary for Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 1 September 2011. Available at http://carnegieendowment.org/2011/09/01threat-of-military-in-nigera/4yk8
BBC News, “Nigeria's ‘Taliban’ Enigma.” 31 July 2009. Available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8172270.stm
Daily Trust, “Nigeria: Boko Haram Sect Leader Ustaz Mohammed Vows Revenge.” 27 July 2009. Available at http://www.nairaland.com/302352/islamists-yar-adua-want-totla/6
Agbiboa, “The Nigerian Burden,” p. 19.
Thurston, “Threat of Militancy in Nigeria.”
Agbiboa, “Why Boko Haram Exists.”
Danjibo, “Islamic Fundamentalism and Sectarian Violence.”
Reuters, “Islamist Sect Boko Haram Claims U.N. Bombing.” 29 August 2011. Available at http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/29/us-nigeria-bombing-claim-idUSTRE77S3ZO20110829
Agbiboa, “No Retreat, No Surrender,” p. 65.
Mustapha, “Boko Haram: Killing in God's Name”; Isa, “Militant Islamist Groups in Northern Nigeria”; Agbiboa, “No Retreat, No Surrender”; HRW, “Spiralling Violence.”
Kukah, “Boko Haram: Some Reflections on Causes and Effects,” p. 6.
Daily Trust, “Boko Haram Statement.” 25 April 2011.
Agbiboa, “Why Boko Haram Exists.”
Ibid.
Karen Leigh, “Nigeria's Boko Haram: Al-Qaeda's New Friend in Africa?” 31 August 2011. Available at http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2091137,00.html
Lawal Ibrahm, “Nigeria: Bank Robbery Suspects Boko Haram Members.” Daily Trust, 4 December 2010. Available at http://www.rn.org/articles/32601/?&place=nigeria
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Agbiboa, “Why Boko Haram Exists.”
H. Onapajo, U. O. Uzodike, and A. Wetho, “Boko Haram Terrorism in Nigeria: The International Dimension,” South African Journal of International Affairs 19(3) (2012), pp. 337–357.
Leigh, “Nigeria's Boko Haram.”
F. Chothia, “Who are Nigeria's Boko Haram?” BBC News, 26 August 2011. Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13809501
Katherine Zimmerman, “From Somalia to Nigeria: Jihad.” The Weekly Standard, 18 June 2011. Available at http://www.weeklystandard.com/keyword/Somalia
Agbiboa, “No Retreat, No Surrender.”
C. J. Radin, “The Threat of Boko Haram for Nigeria, Africa and Beyond.” The Long War Journal, 23 April 2012. Available at http://www.longwar-journal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2012/04/the_threat_of_boko_haram_for_n.php
Forest, “Confronting the Terrrorism of Boko Haram,” p. 81.
Cited in D.E. Agbiboa, “Boko Haram and the Ongoing Campaign of Terror in Northern Nigeria: The End in Sight?” Harvard Africa Policy Journal, July 3 2013. Available at http://africa.harvard.edu/apj/boko-haram-and-the-ongoing-campaign-of-terror-in-northern-nigeria-the-end-in-sight/
Forest, “Confronting the Terrorism of Boko Haram.”
Ibid.
Ibid.
Al Arabiya News, “New Islamic Group Emerges in Nigeria: Claims Different ‘Understanding’ of Jihad.” 27 May 2013. Available at http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/06/03/218371.html
Ibid.
Ibid.
Bill Rogio, “Nigerian Jihadist Group Executes Seven Foreigners,” The Long War Journal, 9 March 2013. Available at http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/03/nigerian_jihadist_gr.php
Forest, “Confronting the Terrorism of Boko Haram,” p. 121.
Iro Aghedo and Oarhe Osumah, “The Boko Haram Uprising: How Should Nigeria Respond?” Third World Quarterly 33(5) (2012), pp. 853–869.
IRIN, “Hurdles to Nigerian Government-Boko Haram Dialogue,” 28 November 2012. Available at http://www.irinnews.org/report/96915/analysis-hurdles-to-nigerian-government-boko-haram-dialogue
Aghedo and Osumah, “The Boko Haram Uprising.”
IRIN, “Hurdles to Nigerian Government-Boko Haram Dialogue.”
Cited in ibid.
Freedom Onuoha, “Boko Haram: Nigeria's Extremist Islamic Sect.” Al Jazeera Centre for Studies 29(2) (2012), pp. 1–6.
IRIN, “Nigerians on the Run as Military Combat Boko Haram.”
Alex Thurston, “Amnesty For Boko Haram: Lessons from the Past.” Africa Futures 20 May 2013. Available at http://forums.ssrc.org/african-futures/2013/05/20/amnesty-for-boko-haram-lessons-from-the-past/
D. E. Agbiboa, “(Sp)oiling Domestic Terrorism? Boko Haram and State Response,” Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice 25(1) (2013), pp. 431–438.
Sahara Reporters, “Boko Haram Denies Ceasefire with FG, Threatens to Burn more Schools,” 13 July 2013. Available at http://saharareporters.com/news-page/boko-haram-denies-ceasefire-fg-threatens-burn-more-schools-premium-times
Isiaka Wakhili, “Nigeria: Boko Haram accepts Dialogue in FG's Video,” AllAfrica 24 August 2013. Available at http://allafrica.com/stories/201308240217.html
C. F. Onuoha, “The Islamist Challenge: Nigeria's Boko Haram Crisis Explained,” African Security Review 19(2) (2010), pp. 54–67.
BBC News, “Nigerian Army ‘Destroys’ Boko Haram Camps in Northeast,” 24 May 2013. Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22662476
IRIN, “Nigerians on the Run.”
Sahara Reporters, “Nigerian Troops Rescue Women and Children Kidnapped by Boko Haram.” Available at http://saharareporters.com/news-page/nigerian-troops-rescue-women-and-children-kidnapped-boko-haram
Al Jazeera News, “Nigerian Forces ‘Shell’ Figher Camps,” 17 May 2013. Available at http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/05/20135171163037848.html
Human Rights Watch, “Spiralling Violence.”
Hussein Solomon, “Counter-Terrorism in Nigeria: Responding to Boko Haram.” The RUSI Journal 157 (2012), p. 9.
Atlanta Blackstar, “After Rejecting Nigeria's Amnesty Offer: Boko Haram Continues to Kill.” 23 April 2013. Available at http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/04/23/after-rejecting-nigerias-amnesty-offer-boko-haram-continues-to-kill/
E. E. Alemika, “Policing and Perceptions of Police in Nigeria,” Police Studies 11(4) (1988), p. 161.
Claude Ake, “What is the Problem of Ethnicity in Africa?” Keynote address presented at the Conference on Ethnicity, Society and Conflict in Natal, 14–16 September 1992, Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal, p. 16.
Remarks made during peace negotiations with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, 1977. Cited in I. Shenker, “Golda Meir: Peace and Arab Acceptance Were Goals of Her 5 Years a Premier.” On This Day, 9 December 1978. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0503.html
Cited in IRIN, “Nigerians on the Run.”
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Thurston, “Amnesty for Boko Haram.”
BBC News, “Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan: Officials Back Boko Haram.” 8 January 2012. Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16462891
Thurston, “Amnesty for Boko Haram.”