About Article

Boko Haram’s Terrorism and the Nigeria State. Federalism, Politics and Policies, Advances in Africa Economic, Social and Political Development

After a discussion of the history and definitions of terrorism, the book proceeds to establish the factors underpinning the formation of Boko Haram. It asserts that the terrorist group was formed basically as a result of the fragile political environment of Nigeria, social and economic neglect of the northern part of Nigeria, the establishment of the various religious movements in Nigeria (the Izala, the Nigeria Muslim Brothers “Shiites” and the Maintatsine), the establishment of various armed groups and movements, corruption and misuse of state funds as well as oil revenue. The ethnic, religious and socio-economic issues had been the driving force of Boko Haram. The book claims the ideology of Boko Haram is that the Western form of education is bad “Haram” in that western educated and corrupt Muslims are those ruling in Nigeria, particularly the northern part. Boko Haram concludes that the Muslim elites are corrupt because of the western education they had. Therefore, Boko Haram seeks to utilize violence against the “northern political elites” and extends it to the entire nation until they supplant the existing political system with an “Islamic state ruled by the Sharia Legal System” (61). It is shown in the book that Boko Haram has established international links with Al Qaeda, which supplies the organisation with arms and logistics as well as training. It also has links with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other international terrorist groups which share similar ideologies with the group. It lists about 40 terrorist organisations which are related to religion, and detailed the link between Al Qaeda and Boko Haram. It also gives a detailed account of Al-Shabaab and the link between Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab. As observed by David Hoffman, “whereas in the late 1960s, no terrorist group could be branded as religiously oriented, the case was different in the mid-1990s.” 1 latter saw a massive rise in terror groups linked to some religious beliefs. 2 As Nunoo puts it: The

RELATED Articles

Education system in Pakistan

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus feugiat nisi non nunc elementum, id tincidunt enim scelerisque. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae; Maecenas fringilla, magna in dapibus scelerisque, purus enim accumsan libero, et ...