BOKO HARAM: A New face of Militancy in Nigeria
BOKO HARAM: A New face of Militancy in Nigeria
BOKO HARAM: A New Face of Militancy in Nigeria
By Abdulrahman Mele
3rd August 2009
On Sunday 26th July 2009, a seemingly negligible group of fanatics abruptly turned militant and launched a blitz on security forces in Maiduguri. Several police stations, government offices and schools were attacked and many set ablaze. The Police Headquarters of the state was not spared and the main prison in the city was invaded and all inmates set free by the militants. In the ensuing hours and days, there was an atrocity and most people could not come to term with the fact that it is in Maiduguri; a city popularly nicknamed home of peace'. The militants put up a staunch resistance and were only expelled on the fourth day with reinforcements of military personnel and hardware. The extent of the devastation was unimagined.
The leader, Muhammad Yusuf, was caught by the army on Thursday 30th and handed over to the police. Hours later, his corpse laid by the roadside while his base, including the Ibn Taymiyya mosque was razed to the ground. Hundreds of corpses, including those of innocent civilians were scattered across the conflict zones in the city. Thus, an ambitious sect, seeking the legitimate cause of implementation of the Shari'ah, foolishly and arrogantly dug its own grave and buried itself.
By the sixth day, official reports put the number of dead at over 800 people. Hundreds more were injured and this is just awful for a five-day crises. Take a simple comparison - the five-day war between Russia and Georgia in 2008 cost Georgia some 390 people, while the Israeli siege on Gaza in 2009 cost some 1,400 people in over 10 days; here, the proportion of the magnitude of the crisis and the lost of lives is most sombre for the Maiduguri case than the others in which armies of two nations fought with full military engagement. Ours was the crushing of a militant uprising by one segment of the army and the police.
By all indications the decision to assail the state was not arrived upon based on a long scheduled plan of action. Muhammad Yusuf had indeed vowed to take revenge for the shooting and wounding of some of his students weeks earlier by the Operation Flush forces. However, other forces, some said beyond his control, evidently led to the final showdown. His deputy Abubakar Shekau is known to be notoriously troublesome and was said to have forced his master to execute the attack plan. Whatever the case, one factor is obviously responsible for the sudden decision to attack. The discovery of some of his men in Biu and Maiduguri with home-made bombs had probably convinced the man that his days as a freeman is nearing an inevitable end. And then his years of preaching do not seem to be giving him the sort of ego satiation he had anticipated. The calibres of people joining him are largely people who had never attended schools and who are not employed by the government. Perhaps he has wanted to see a stream of youths giving up schools and public service as was witnessed in the first two to three years of his mission. Whatever led to this eventuality, Muhammad Yusuf and his adherents probably knew they are set for naught but a suicide mission.
The late Sheikh Ja'afar Mahmud Adam had once prophesised that if Yusuf and his people are indeed sincere in their actions and beliefs, Allah may give them victory, otherwise, let's wait and see where they would get to in ten years'. And indeed it was not up to a decade since Yusuf broke ties with the mainstream sunni scholars on the pretext that they advocate for democracy and secular education at the expense of true Islam.
The manner in which Muhammad Yusuf was able to draw a huge support is amazing. Within a few years, he was able to draw thousands of supporters without any material possession to lure them. No politician of his age (late 30s) can draw and galvanize such a multitude. After all, we all know why people are teaming behind certain politicians - they give money and make promises to draw support. Others get behind them with wishful expectations of better life should their candidate get into the office.
For now, Yusuf and his core followers have left the world for good or went into the underworld. But the condition that created them as well as the very cause over which they fought and willingly laid their lives still lives among us. This is for sure. All commentators are unanimous that poverty, corruption with impunity and profound ignorance are the undeniable principal causal factors, not only of this crisis, but most of such in different parts the country.
While the cause over which they fought, namely the implementation of Shari'ah and rejection of any law that contradicts Islam is a legitimate cause in the hearts of any educated and true Muslim, Muhammad Yusuf's mistakes, which indeed are fatal mistakes, is the manner in which he tried to attain this and their misconception and misrepresentation of Western' education (boko). First of all, his decision to sever links with the mainstream of society is a prohibited act in the principles of Islam, and then the decision to invade the state is naught but a suicide mission. Their connotation of formal education as essentially aimed at secularising the minds of the people' and that such education should be relinquished by all Muslims right away is a grave mistake. All along, they have sought to prove this stance and to dissolve the link between what are taught in schools and modern technology(Yusuf reiterated this in the short interview with the army after his arrest. He argued that the equipments found in his house are not part of boko' but what he called kayan kira' meaning; manufacturing equipment'.).Given their number, resources, plans and a myriad of other reasons, it makes no sense whatsoever that Yusuf's group can succeed and establish an Islamic state in this manner.
The Causal Factors
Corruption
Nigeria is a country where leaders are involved in the most horrendous form of corruption one can imagine. What is even more obscene is that they do all these with utter impunity. The much celebrated democracy in the country is slowly turning into a perfect aristocracy. A tiny fragment of the society is gnawing on the huge oil fortune of the country amid decaying public and private sector infrastructure and institutions. Politics is drifting away from the democratic concept whereby the minority opposition parties call those in power to order in the parliaments. All indications show that the politicking at the moment is geared toward creation of a one-party polity.
Though largely in principle, there are attempts in recent years to curb this menace. New institutions had been established to fight corruption but still, there are some hidden corrupt forces bent on extinguishing this flicker of hope. The bottom-line is that corruption is inarguably institutionalised in the system and it will take nothing short of a revolutionary overhauling to change this situation and this gives a good food for thought to people with revolutionary instincts.
Here, the intention is not to explain whether or not there is corruption in Nigeria but to say, candidly, that it has the effect of disillusioning and frustrating the public, especially the youth who see their erstwhile hopeful lives falling to pieces because of the negligence and selfishness of their leaders.
Ignorance
Another causal factor is ignorance. It is an underlying factor which aids and provides a fertile ground for all other ills of the society including corruption. There is profound religious ignorance among the people. Religious knowledge is never promoted by the government, and because people could never be compelled to relinquish religion, they try to learn it on their own and consequently build erroneous interpretations on the little they know. This is why the deviant teachings of khawarij (extremists) writers like Abu Basir at-tartosi of London, Abu Qatadah, Omar Bakri Muhammad, Faisal, Abu Hamza and others who partly inspired Muhammad Yusuf and his followers hold firmly in the hearts of so many Muslim youths who have true faith in Islam and the zeal to understand the truth. But the inability of most youths to make good use of their faculty of reasoning makes them fall prey to such deviant teachings, which often contradicts the mainstream of the very sunni path from where they commence their journey to extremism. In the whole of the boko haram' camp, one seldom gets a real scholar or even an elderly person, let alone a mufti' who can rightly issue verdicts on religious matters. Most of them are aged below forty, and most of them had severed links with their previous scholars on accusations that the later are too moderate or scared of the authorities.
Nigeria is still a superstitious society submerged in an abyss of ignorance. We need massive public enlightenment and re-education to change public attitude. Take, for instance, how most people tried to explain the Muhammad Yusuf phenomenon superstitiously saying that he drew people to his side with some magic charms and that his fighters are immune to bullets. Many would say, in the traditional rumour style that is the basis of information in our society, that his fighters were seen shaking bullets off their clothes as they approached the soldiers. All these are absurd claims based entirely on rumours but no tangible evidence whatsoever. To clarify this, challenge whoever hold such belief to produce a single eye witness to this and they would never. Most people do not appreciate the power of faith and beliefs. History is however testimony to the power of faith and to appreciate this, dig into history and see how people lay their lives willingly for their faith. You will see how Indian Hindu women dive into the flames at their husband's funeral pyre and die believing they would be reincarnated together in a next life. You will see how Japanese civilians and soldiers killed themselves on the order of the deity-king Hirohito.
In Islam, there are (and nothing will change this) legitimate causes for which people would lay down their lives. It is, for example a collective obligation on all Muslims to fight if and when they are forced to stop practicing Islam or any part of it. But there are steps to be taken before this. For a beginning, one can, for instance, migrate to places where religion is not hampered if fighting will not solve the problem. And then some responsibilities are not on the individual but the collective responsibility of the society. Others are for those in authority over the affairs of people. As a part of the clergy, it is Yusuf's responsibility to call on those in power to rule by what Allah revealed, but it is not his responsibility to take arms to force this. Every individual is held responsible for failing to fulfil an obligation that is binding on him or her. Members of this group however took up the task of speaking for the people even though they are intellectually and ideologically at war with the people and this is a good manifestation of an ignorant attitude.
To appreciate the magnitude of ignorance in the Nigerian society, consider the fact that so many Nigerians are educated but not creative. They know a lot of what other intellectuals propounded but they could not propound their own theories and methods. Most people are largely educated but do not know how to put what they know to some meaningful use. In our schools, we live on garbage-in-garbage-out. We live more as imitators than contributors to what is going on in this world at the moment and then many among us cherish this stance and would be prepared to do whatever it takes to defend the status-quo. Thus, our society became a largely unprincipled society of humans living life without knowing its purpose. Most people move about wherever the wind blows. They take life as a win-win game in which the winner takes it all and there is only one thing to win and that is money. Most people do not see life as a mission of responsibility, but a task of enjoying the beautiful things in life miss this, and you are a perfect loser.
Poverty
For good or for bad, material affluence or at least the state of not being in abject poverty makes people give meaning and attach some importance to their lives and those of the peoples around them. It goes with the saying that he, who has nothing, has nothing to lose. In instances of extreme penury such as is the case with most people in Nigeria today, youths often and easily become desperadoes ready to be employed by whoever and whatever can provide at least a flicker of hope and direction. Thus, those with materialistic tendencies got employed by politicians as thugs or become armed criminals and those with spiritual faith find the unbending and unapologetic preaching of the fanatical scholar attractive.
Notwithstanding all that is said and that will be said regarding ignorance, poverty and corruption as the prime causal factors responsible for social unrest, it is never easy sometimes to see the connection between these factors and the consequences. It is scientific - and irrefutable - and needs true analyses. One problem begat another and the problem with Nigerians is that both the state and public often fall into the fatal fallacy of ignoring problems while they are in the making and start crying wolf and trying to clean the mess only after they have metamorphosed into full-blown and formidable crises. The Matatsine' phenomena of the 70s and 80s were both handled with much disregard before they erupt into bloodbath. Similarly, Muhammad Yusuf and his ideology would have been contained long ago.
Besides these factors, the issue of religious and ethnic sentiments and sensitivities are intrinsically interwoven in the affairs of Nigeria. Objectivity is hard to come by and hence any attempt by those in power and the intellectuals to touch on these issues immediately fall open to varied interpretations. If you say or do one thing, it will be interpreted as another. For this reason, nobody has the moral authority to convince the enlightened common man in Nigeria that they are free individuals living with full rights for self determination. And then many are still turning to the traditional politics of pretence and denial.
In the immediate aftermath of the recent mayhem, there were frantic attempts to address issues at stake, and some began by calling for the unification of the various sects in Islam instead of calling for their unity. They seem to imply that these words, with a world of differences between them, are synonyms or interchangeable. The truth is that people do differ in their views and perception of life and all the things in life including religion.
Humanity is bond to live and end with differences and there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop this. In settling disputes, differences are reconciled and not denied or obliterated. The call for peace therefore, should not be a pretentious denial of our differences or hypocritical attempt to break the barriers of differences. While some barriers could be broken and ought to be broken, others are simply unbreakable. We are only deceiving ourselves into more conflict in the future if we merely continue fooling ourselves that we are the same in ideological inclinations, because no faithful soul will be prepared to concede their fundamental beliefs for the sake of anything.
The Holy Prophet of Islam (SAW) had prophesised that Muslims would split into seventy-three sects before the end of time but nothing in Islam justifies any attempt by any of these sects to seek the annihilation of the others militarily. It is therefore an extremist's interpretation of Islam that makes some people treat members of sects other than theirs' as sub-humans.
True peace mean coexistence and coexistence means naught but that we eke out a modus Vivendi in which people with varied views, beliefs and aspirations will live in sustainable harmony. The call for peace should therefore be a call for bilateral concessions that will not favour one party at the expense of the other. This however is what we always fail to do in this country.
Now that the notorious boko haram' sect had got a fatal blow from the Government, its members are no longer among us to share or participate in the debate. For apart from what used to be the contention back then when they are preaching fiercely for the Shari'ah, now many more issue had been raised. These still include the question of the status of Shari'ah in the country, what the government will do about education, poverty and corruption in Nigeria and very importantly how the government will reconcile the similarity of the crimes of Boko haram and the Niger delta Militants and the dissimilarity of their punishment.[3]
In a nutshell, the crises in the Niger Delta and this recent clash with Islamist militants are testimonies to how fragile the security situation in the country has become. Many Nigerians, though erroneously, seem to believe a simple gesture from the Government will change the minds of these groups. Many believe they are simply looking for wealth and no true agitation for autonomy as they traditionally present in their list of demands and conditions.
The Amnesty granted to the MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) is just one manifestation of the delicacy of the Nigerian polity and the corruption in the system. When on earth do traitors get cheap pardons even before they express sincere intention to trade their demands for peace? What the government obviously wants is to ensure the steady flow of petro-dollars and nothing else.
Besides, Nigeria is uniquely a nation where the state encourages disinformation. The government always does all it could to keep people from knowing the truth. The authorities would always say these facts would ignite tension but fail to realise that keeping people in the dark does not mean keeping them from thinking and speaking. Hence people turn to rumour which is always more dangerous than the true picture no matter how dreadful. When the NTA reported the Maiduguri crises, the cameraman avoided the corpses but people do know there are several deaths. Similarly, when AIT aired scenes of an aircraft accident the other time, their license was confiscated.
The bottom-line is that the aftermath of these crises will reiterate the inaction and ineptness of the Nigerian state in handling these issues. The government might employ a million more policemen and spend a fortune on its training but the attitude and motives remain the same. A through investigation of issues surrounding the latest militant attacks in the North will obviously reveal the deaths of innocent people which nobody will account for. And then there will be infringement of the rights of several innocent people. People might be massively arrested and maybe demanded to pay monies to bail themselves' out - this is nothing new in Nigeria. Besides, the government will certainly fail to take bold steps that will ensure lasting peace and the most important reason for this failure is that it will fail to listen to the grievances of the people and will do nothing about the aforementioned causal factors, namely ignorance, corruption and dismal poverty.
Consequently, the crises in the Niger Delta will obviously continue no matter what for as long as there is bureaucratic corruption in Nigeria and Islamic militancy will rage on no matter what for as long as Shari'ah is not the basis of law and governance in the predominantly Muslim parts of the North. The trouble however is that the government have neither the resolve nor capacity to consider any of these demands at the moment or anytime in the foreseeable future.
E-mail abdulrahmanmele@yahoo.com
[3] Both MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) and Boko Haram are secessionists groups seeking the establishment of independent states. Both attack police stations and the military. Both attack and destroy properties of the Nigerian state.
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