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Home Columns

Boko Haram insurgency: Violent conflict between faith and citizenship

8th April 2020
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 In the beginning 

The Boko Haram insurgency, which has claimed the lives of over 20,000 people with a displacement of another two million, is the most challenging armed conflict directly involving the Nigerian state since the civil war. The escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency into a full-blown war, beginning from 2010, has exerted enormous pressure on the Nigerian state and her national security agencies. The gallant officers and men of the armed forces who are engaged in the counter-insurgency war have made steady progress, which ultimately led to the downgrading of the lethal capabilities of the Boko Haram group. 

The sacrifice of the officers and men under arms to secure our nation has been huge working under a democratic civil political authority, which initiates defence and security policies that are sometimes implemented in a manner more political than tactical. The consequences of these policy implementation flaws are manifest in the poor state of defence and security infrastructure, leading to poor architecture and weak response mechanism to such security challenges.

The Boko Haram insurgency appears to be intractable largely because the political leadership of Nigeria has not been able to properly situate the fundamental basis and motive of the terror group. For example, the President Goodluck Jonathan administration viewed the insurgency through the narrow prism of partisan politics as clearly seen in the muddling up of the post-election violence with the Boko Haram insurgency. This view was clearly demonstrated when, in 2012, at Asaba, Delta State, on the occasion of the South South Economic Summit, and then National Security Adviser, Gen. Andrew Owoeye Azazi, attempted to link the power struggle within then ruling PDP over rotation of the seat of presidency to the North but Jonathan insisting on running.

The NSA said. “The issue of violence did not increase in Nigeria until when there was a declaration by the current President that he was going to contest. PDP got it wrong from the beginning. That created the climate for what is happening or manifesting itself in the country. Is it possible that somebody was thinking that only Mr. A could win, and if he did not win, he could cause a problem in the society?

“Let’s examine all these issues to see whether the level of violence in the North East just escalated because Boko Haram suddenly became better trained, better equipped and better funded, or something else was responsible.”

Apparently guided by the Azazi conspiracy fallacy, the Jonathan administration initially believed the insurgency to be aimed at discrediting him and his administration. It was believed to be the North’s response to loss of power and hence regarded as self-inflicted. The current administration is in a justifiably hurry to succeed where its predecessors failed. To this end it has identified corruption and indiscipline as largely responsible for the intractability of the Boko Haram insurgency. This has been matched with a renewed determination to defeat the Boko Haram group. The officers and men of the armed forces under the new political leadership have recorded spectacular successes in the reinvigorated war effort, culminating in the fall of Camp Zero, the operational headquarters of the insurgent group in Sambisa. However, the continuous attack on both civilian and military targets after the fall of Sambisa is indicative of the fact that the Boko Haram insurgency is not yet over. The present administration of Muhammadu Buhari, like its predecessors, has not been able to clearly and properly situate the Boko Haram insurgency in a way that will enable government to initiate and implement defence and security policies that will enhance the war effort and bring it to a conclusive end.

Before the beginning 

Boko Haram is not Islamic but Muslim. The Boko Haram insurgency has its root cause in radical Islamic ideology, whose seeds were sown in mainstream Islam and watered by mainstream Islamic authorities.

There are three major doctrines that are fundamentally driving radical Islam. These doctrines are not Islamic but Muslim.

1) The concept of the Caliphacy; majority of Muslims aspire to live under a unified global Muslim community under the leadership of a guided theology presided over by a Caliph or successor to the Holy Prophet Muhammad SAW. This doctrine is entrenched in mainstream Muslim theology and Muslims are living with the dilemma of living in a secular country while aspiring to be governed by Sharia law and by a Muslim ruler. Boko Haram insurgents are merely putting to practice the already entrenched doctrine of an Islamic state. The fact that the Caliphate system does not separate religion from the state means that Boko Haram insurgency is fundamentally a violent conflict between faith and citizenship.

2) The unresolved question of people of the book; among mainstream Islamic authorities, there has been a clear deviation  from the original position of Christians, Jews and Sabians from their designation as “people of the book, worshippers of God and believers” to outright unbelievers. This belief that people of the book are unbelievers portends a great danger to the peaceful coexistence of a multi-religious Nigeria. People of the book have been portrayed as mortal enemies of Muslims and Islam. The implication of this is that citizens of the same country consider one another as enemies. This explains why the Boko Haram insurgent group targets Christians and their places of worship. This however is in direct contravention of the will of Allah SWT as contained in this verse from the Quran. “Those who believe (in the Qur’an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians, any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.’’

3) The unresolvable question of Bid’a [innovation]; there is a consensus among Muslims over the prohibition of innovation in Islam. However, religion is a subjective interpretation of faith and hence there is no consensus on what acts of some Muslims constitutes innovation. The Takfiri doctrine, which is the most radical of all three highlighted here, is the denouncing of fellow Muslims as unbelievers on account of the practice of Bid’a. This is why Boko Haram targets fellow Muslims who don’t believe in their own unique ideology because they consider them as unbelievers.

After the beginning 

The major challenge of the post-insurgency era is to prevent another insurgency. If there is any lesson learnt from the history of radical Islam, it is that succeeding terror groups appear bolder and more deadly than the one before. The Taliban in Afghanistan rose in the 1990s to diminish the famous Mujahideens, heroes of the Soviet-Afghan war. Today, ISIS has emerged deadlier than all before it. Boko Haram can’t be declared defeated until the ideology driving radical Islam is defeated ideologically. The role of the military is to contain the menace of radical Islam and not to defeat the ideology. Boko Haram is a Muslim problem that can only be solved by Muslims in the long run. Muslims must take full responsibility for what has gone wrong with the beautiful religion of Islam by taking deliberate steps at scripturally combating the poisonous ideology that is fast tearing mankind apart.

Rapheal

Rapheal

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Comments 1

  1. Avatar Dr Uche Kalu says:
    11 months ago

    Mallam Majeed Dahiru,thank you very much for the affirmtion that the members
    of the Boko Haram are muslims not Christians, as the bloody Fulani/Yoruba mongrel,Major General Bamidele Shafa recently tried to insinuate.
    Having said that however,it was indeed at the behest of Mallam Muhammadu Buhari that the Sharia State Governors,went out their ways into recruiting, nurturing and siring
    their various groups of the Boko Haram Jihadist as the custodians of their
    Sharia-jurisprudence.
    As reported by the Guardian on August 27th 2001; Major General (Retd.) Muhammadu
    Buhari had then convened an Islamic Seminar on Sharia in Kanduna.
    In his opening speech ,Mallam Buhari had publicly thus declared,quote,”I will continue
    to show openly and inside me the total commitment to Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria.
    Allah willing,we will not stop the agitation for the implementation of Sharia in the country,” unquote.
    How many Christians were killed then for merely protesting against the imposition
    of the fucking Sharia upon them?
    That there was a conspiracy to make the country ungovernable for our erstwhile dear President, Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, if he dared run and did win the 2011
    Presidential Election was indeed an open secret.
    The following Northern Leaders did openly threaten to do exactly that;namely;
    1.Abdullahi Ango,2. Adamau Chiroma (late),3. Atiku Abubakar,4.Lawal Kaita,
    5.Sarduana of Sokoto,Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar,6.Tanko Yakassai,7. Turaki
    Abubakar,et al.
    Alhaj Atiku Abubakar had on 14/12/2011 threatened, quote,” Let me again send
    another message to the Leaders of our great country especially the Political
    Leadership that those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable.,”unquote.
    President Jonathan did run and won the Pesidential Election of 2011,and in defiance
    of the Northern Leaders’ threats.
    It was indeed the Hausa/Fulani muslim Leaders,who unleashed their Boko Haram
    Jihadist Killer Squads upon us,in order to make the country ungovernable for
    President Jonthan.
    They claimed that President Jonathan did steal their Presidential Slot.
    Thus,when the late Security Adviser to President Jonathan,General Owoye Andy
    Azazi went public about his having a list of the sponsors of the Boko Haram Jihdists,
    there was a sudden pandemonium and panicking among them,as follows;
    1.The former Governor of Borno State Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff did admit to having
    used members of the Boko Haram Jihadists as his political thugs.
    2.Senator Ali Ndume confessed to have directed the operations of the Jihadists and
    offered logistics to them, only at the behest of the then Vice President, Namadi
    Sambo.
    3.To protect his image and save his face, the ex-Vice President set his empty Kanduna
    residence on fire and blamed the Boko Haram Jihadists for the arson.
    4.Mallam Muhammadu Buhari in order to distance himself from the Boko Haram,
    whose spokesperson and godfather he is,did stage a barbaric attack on his convoy
    in a Kaduna Christian neighbourhood, killing 78 innocent pedestrians and unlookers
    in his wake.
    5.The erstwhile IGP, Mallam Hafis Ringim,who along with the Sarduana of Sokoto,his
    Emirs and Imams, did use their gobble – de – gook Perception Mannagement to aid
    arrested Boko Haram Jihadists to escape prosecution,did flee the country into a
    self imposed exile.
    Our rogue Fulani President,Mallam Muhammadu Buhari does see the Boko Haram
    Jihdists as marginalised muslim youths,who are merely fulfilling their Islamic obligation of Sharia nomore no less.
    Thus,there is an ongoing Deradicalisation,Rehabilitation and Reintegration
    Programme (DRR),the so called Operation Safe Corridor ,which is an euphemism
    for a blanket amnesty for the Boko Haram Jihadist Killer Squads.
    No to the status quo nte bellum!
    Down with Hausa/Fulani Islamic Hegemony!!

    Reply

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