Domestication of International Terrorism in Nigeria: Study of Boko Haram and Niger Delta Insurgencies, 2000-2012
Chapter One
Objective(s) of the Study
Main Objective
To examine the extent to which internal discontent influences and promote terorism.
Subsidiary objectives
- To examine those issues that gave rise to terrorism in Nigeria.
- To find out whether the current terrorism in Nigeria is externally influenced, generated from the same internal domestic issues and discontent or product of both.
- To critically assess the socio-economic and political effects of terrorism in Nigeria.
- To examine measures put in place by the Nigerian authorities to checkmate terrorism.
- To fill the gap in existing literature, thereby adding to knowledge on the subject matter.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
The very few years ago, most of us thought that terrorism was something that existed in other climes alone and could never happen anywhere near us. Unfortunately, recent events have proven that wrong. Now people around us especially public figures are routine targets of kidnapping, assassination and its attempts. Today any citizen or foreigner can be taken hostage, blown apart by a bomb or killed through sniper in the street. Terrorism is no longer limited to any country or group of fanatical hooligans whether in Europe, America, Middle East, Asia or Africa. Everybody and every country is now a target. Many instances of these abound.
The case of Israel and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) is a notorious one and of common knowledge. In fact, it is seen as the source of the present day international terrorism. PLO in one of such adventures in Israel seized 95 school children, and when their demands were not met, twenty-eight of them were killed while others were wounded. In Ireland a bomb was exploded in Belfast which killed nine people. In Spain, Prime Minister Luis Carrero was killed in an explosion which a separatist group called the Basque Nation and Liberty took credit for.
The U.S. and its citizens are the most targeted in the present era of global terrorism, as Islamic fundamentalist in their hatred of the western world sees America as the leader of the West and the progenitor for this hatred. Apart from the historic 9/11 World Trade Centre attack, so many others have been recorded. In New York, a tavern was bombed by a Puerto Rican terrorist, FALN, so many people were killed or injured. The Black Liberation Army attacked a police station in San Francisco, set up several ambushes for the police in New York and killed two officers. Bombs were planted in the U.S Capital Building, Senate Building and at the Pentagon by a group called Weather Underground, who also carried out a joint robbery operation with the Black Liberation Army severally in New York, which yielded hundreds of thousands of dollars for them and resulted in the deaths of several policemen and security guards.
The chronicle of terrorism is lengthy and on-going, with thousands of new events added to the existing global record each year. The latest may be the Nigeria’s Niger Delta and Boko Haram insurgencies. The sheer quantity of these happenings tends to not only numb human consciousness but also obscure any real reason and understanding of why they happen. In fact, the situation is like the more we look, the less we see and the more we see, the less we know. However, a backward step from the available details will bring to the fore some over-ridding issues and patterns.
While such issues as marginalisation, injustice, poverty, unemployment, domination, executive suppression and oppression, power imbalance, exploitation, religious intolerance and fundamentalism, ethno-racial issues etc. have been discovered as prime stimulants of terrorism, it has developed some patterns that make it more formidable. The first and most noticeable of these, is the fact that terrorist groups of today are no longer isolated from one another, but are, in fact, so closely intertwined that they constitute a global network. This was a key issue stirred up by Claire Sterling (1981), in his book “The Terror Network”. The reality of the network of terrorism is evidenced by the fact that, not only do the groups assist one another, but can carry out attacks on behalf of others.
An example was the attack on Lord Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, in which many people were killed and wounded. This attack was carried out by the Japanese Red Army on behalf of PLO. The raid on OPEC headquarters in Vienna and its seizure, according to Dobsen and Payne (1979:219), where three men were killed and eleven oil ministers taken hostage was a joint operation between the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the German Red Army Fraction (GRAF).
This build up of the terrorist interlock and network is noted to have been made possible by the fact that the leaders of most of these groups, regardless of their origin and goal, receives their training, indoctrination and weapons from the same source either directly or indirectly. This situation therefore, has made the subject matter of international terrorism a very dynamic and intricate one.
It is based on this discovery, and for more elaborate discourse on this subject matter that this chapter of the work is treated under the following sub-heads:
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The design adopted for this study is historical and descriptive method. Since history by definition is the study of past events, its choice as a methodological approach in the this work has become very necessary in order to dig from the archives of history, the historical genealogy of terrorism and the issues or factors that gave rise to them. This will help in drawing an analytical comparison between the earlier cases of terrorism both at the international and domestic levels and the present cases, in order to predict what the future situation would look like, and what remedial checks that could be put in place in order to prevent or reduce the occurrence.
Historical research is used in the interpretation of past trends of attitudes, events, and or facts. Historical research may be viewed as embracing the whole aspect of human past, as broad as life itself; but then as Osuala (2007) observes, “the data must be viewed with historical perspective as part of the process of social development rather than as isolated attitude, events, or facts. For example, biography becomes history only when the individual is considered in relation to the society of his time, but it is not history when limited to a simple life in isolation. Osuala (2007:162-168) while analysing the purposes of historical research states that:
The first purpose of doing historical research is to gain a clearer perspective of the present. Present problems such as the current problem of race relations in South Africa, are understandable only on the basis of past history. Most things have a history, and it is generally profitable to acquaint ourselves with this history if we are really to appreciate their nature.
A common motive underlying historical research is the simple scholarly desire of the scientist to arrive at an accurate account of the past. This may involve nothing more than a scholarly interest in truth, that is, the desire to know what happened in the past and how and why the men of the times allowed it to happen.
Nnabugwu (2004:169) opines that “the science of politics is deposited by the stream of history, like the grains of gold in the sands of a river, we endeavour to use these grains of gold to bring about improvement in things as they exist. The import of this is that historical research is important to political inquiry so far as it bears on the evolution of organised social control, and only so far as they elucidate the nature of the state”. Following the above, many experts have contended that “despite the upsurge in the belief in the scientification of political science, that the study of political science will be, is indeed impossible without historical tilt” (Nnagugwu, 2004). This is very much so because history does not only provide, according to Agarwal et al (1994) the raw materials on which political science has built up her edifice, but also generates a system of understanding a phenomena by looking at its process of growth.
As a result, historical research as noted by Anikpo (1986:35) cited in Nnabugwu (2004:169) is essentially “an attempt to understand a phenomenon or determine its process of growth and dynamics of internal change”. It is thus a study of events, developments, and trends, which fit into an often-conjectural scheme of historical change. It is therefore, an incontrovertible fact, as observed by Ndagi (1984) in Obasi (1999), that research has as a subject:
CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS OF THOSE ISSUES RESPONSIBLE FOR TERRORISM AND EVALUATION OF HYPOTHESES
This work has identified the factors responsible for terrorism in many countries of the world, including Nigeria which is the main focus of this research. These are:
(1) injustice
(2) domination
(3) marginalisation
(4) inequality
(5) power imbalance
(6) poverty
(7) exploitation
(8) unfairness
(9) religious intolerance
(10) ethno-racial issues.
Some of these issues are known to be present and responsible for almost all the conflicts and terror situations in the world.
The study identified and discusses some of the major global terrorist phenomenon, while highlighting the role, or place of one or more of the above issues in the conflict. Using the identified global terrorist incidents as basis, this work discussed the Nigerian situation in line with the above topic of the study, analysing the role of one or more of the issues.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
Aside war, terrorism has been practiced through the ages, with the emergence of such cases as the first century A.D. Jewish groups of the zealots and the sicarii, formed to use terrorist attacks against the Roman occupation of Judea. Rome had occupied Judea for many years, dominating, enslaving and exploiting the Jews. As a result of this harsh and hard living condition, the Jews decided to fight for liberation through terrorism. The Khanrijites of 657-666 AD, a radical Muslim group came up due to the leadership dispute in Islam after the death of Prophet Muhammad. The group carried out routine assassination of Muslim leaders who were perceived or found to be at fault. The ‘Assasins’ and the ‘Hashashin’ were two other such Muslim terror groups of medieval Islam (Magill, 1996:1350-2).
The term terrorism came into being during the French Revolution of 1793-1794, where terrorism was adopted as a strategy (revolutionary terrorism). The revolutionaries in the process of the revolution, carried out such violent acts that were referred to as “systeme, regime de la terreur” which means “Reign of Terror”. Since then, all similar violent acts became known as the terrorist acts or terrorism. The nineteenth century Nardonaya Volya (the Peoples Will) which targeted the Czarist officials for assassinations in order to arouse social revolt was one of the first modern terrorist groups. The group’s successful assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881, as well as the assassination of Archduk-Franz Ferdinand in 1914 which eventually led to the first World War, were among some of the nineteenth century noteworthy terrorist activities carried out by political groups, especially the anarchists and nationalists, to achieve their political goals (Krieger, 2000:829-31).
From thence, terrorism as a potent political weapon in the hands of both state and non state actors took a center stage in the global arena, especially during the Cold War era. During this period, terrorism was employed by many of the nationalist groups in their quest for independence, as well as the protagonists in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Middle East Arab-Israeli eventually became a window to the modern day international terrorism. The Arab terrorists, with the perception that America and, of course, the West supported Israel to dominate them in Palestine, took the fight beyond Palestine into the Western World, with the U.S. becoming a special target.
The Arabs saw the situation in the region as not just an issue between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, but an affront on Islam. Aided by globalisation, this mindset led to the increase in Islamic fundamentalism in many Muslim countries, which became a harbinger of Islamic terrorism on a global scale affecting the safety, security and sovereignty of nation states (Magill, 1996). The West and everything west including Western-style secular and democratic government became an enemy and a target. “This intolerance grew more virulent, and got its ultimate expression on 11 September 2001”, when the World Trade Centre (WTC) Twin Towers, and the pentagon were attacked
With globalisation, it became easy for this global scourge to reach even the remotest part of the world. With Nigeria, a country whose citizens have been noted as the happiest in the world being one of the recipients in a very worrisome manner, leaves one with many questions as to what is responsible for its emergence in the country. The quest to get answers to these questions led this work to the indepth study and examination of both previous and recent cases of terrorism in other climes. The result is the discovery of the following issues namely: injustice, inequity, poverty, unfairness, power imbalance, marginalisation, exploitation, ethno-racial discrimination and intolerance, religious intolerance etc as the causes of terrorism in those other countries either singularly or collectively.
A dig into Nigeria’s terrorist environment in the course of this work, unearthed two different, divergent and unrelated terrorist situations. The emergence of the two cases though from different sources and for different goals, are to a reasonable extent products of bad governance, which allowed and ensured the presence of those issues that gave rise to the cases of terrorism. The two cases of terrorism operating in Nigeria are the Niger Delta and the Boko Haram insurgencies. And using terrorist activities at the global stage, as well as those of other countries, as a basis and standard of reference, it was discovered that the same issues, which have been identified as responsible for terrorism in those countries which have been enumerated above are also present in Nigeria. This was therefore in line with the objectives of this work which were (1) to examine the extent to which internal discontent influence and promotes terrorism. (2) to examine those issues that gave rise to terrorism in Nigeria (3) to critically assess the socio-economic and political effects of terrorism on Nigeria. (4) to evaluate measures put in place by the Nigerian authorities to checkmate terrorism in Nigeria (5) to fill the gap in existing literature, thereby adding to knowledge on the subject matter..
In order to satisfy and actualise the above set objectives, the genesis of the two insurgencies (Niger Delta and Boko Haram were separately, critically and distinctly examined. In the Niger Delta, the people were found to be predominantly farmers and fishermen, while the environment is a rain forest wetland, muddy and swampy – a tropical mangrove type. The region is blessed with large quantity of hydrocarbon deposits and was also where the first oil well was discovered in Nigeria. It accounts for about eighty percent oil production and revenue of the country. In order to ensure maximum success in the oil exploration and production, the people were denied the farmlands. Their planted crops and economic trees were destroyed, the land confiscated and given to the oil companies by the Nigerian government. This means that the people have been deprived from earning a living through one of their main occupations. In addition, the oil production process also results in the destruction of the aquatic life, the fishing water. And thereby deprives the people of the region their second occupation – fishing. The people were therefore, impoverished in order for Nigeria to be rich. They were sacrificed and their lives sold in order to save Nigeria. They therefore became a cargo that must be traded for the benefit of Nigeria.
To make matters worse in the region, the environment including the drinking waters from the streams were polluted through incessant oil spillages, while the gas flare pollutes the air they breadth, yet the government could not provide an alternative source of drinking water for them, and health facility to take care of the hazardous effect of the oil production. The roofs of the houses they have managed to build out of the poverty, inflicted on them by the government and oil companies were destroyed by the gas flares, and yet no palliative came from anywhere to cushion the socio-economic and psychological traumer they are passing through; worse still, no employment opportunities from either the government or the oil companies. They were made foreigners in their own homes, only to stand by the corner to watch wealth generated at the back of their houses taken away by the real foreigners, who live in affluence while the owners of the land watch and salivate. Thus the build-up of discontent and grievances “which focus on equity and justice in State-Niger-Delta relations”, and which was part of the “allegations and perceptions of discrimination, exclusion, oppression, injustice, domination and exploitation”, which Niger Deltans claim arose from denials and violations of their human rights (Osaghae, et al, 2011:8).
It became a baffling development, to realise that a section of the polity with its inhabitants, who are also bonafide citizens of the country would be so neglected and inhumanly treated. Educational facilities were not adequately provided to enable the teeming youths to get requisite education that could make them employable, not even skills and crafts acquisition opportunity, were provided for the youths which would make them self employed. It was a condition of total economic and political exclusion, which appears more intentional than inadvertent on the party of the political leaders of the country. It was as if the government’s intention was to provoke and instigate insecurity in the region. A government that denies and deprives its citizens the necessary and available means of sustenance, which emphasises growth without attempts at fair distribution of national resources; that excludes the majority of the citizen from access to health care, education, and other basic necessities of life, and also denies them adequate and effective participation in government, undermines national economic independence and stability; as well as a threat to itself, the nation and national security.
This is why, when the crisis in the region started, it became very disastrous, destructive and cataclysmic. The violence shows that bread is more potent than gun, because “a hungry man is an angry man”. Bread, though, far cheaper than gun, is more effective in controlling human eruptive reaction to hunger. So much amount of human and material resources (including the money used for importation of arms and ammunition) would have been saved for Nigeria if the federal government had done the necessary things, to avert the avoidable conflict in the area. The situation was similar to the French Revolution where the peasants rose against the rulership because of lack of bread and denial of access to farmland.
Conversely, Boko Haram insurgency possesses different characteristics, tilting more to religious fundamentalism than socio-economic and political foundation. Boko Haram is purely a religious instrument, and an extension of the orchestration to Islamise not just the Northern Nigeria but the entire country. It is a historical programme which dates back to the early nineteenth century, and has led to many Islamic uprisings in the North, and against the state of Nigeria. It started with the Usman dan Fodio Jihad against what he perceived as the corrupt and unjust rule of the Hausa monarchs and culminated in the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate and Sharia law in northern Nigeria. However, the overthrow of the Sokoto Caliphate in 1903, whitled away the application of Sharia in the region, before the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and the southern territories of Nigeria, but then some aspects of Sharia were still retained (Hiskett, 1973, Agi, 1998, Human Rights Watch, 2004, International Crisis Group, 2010, Lubeck, 2011).
This effort to Islamise Nigeria continued with pockets of explosions of violence in the northern Nigeria by radical Islamic fundamentalists. One of these was the Maitatsine sect, led by Muhammad Marwa who came to limelight in 1980, and refers to the affluent northern elites as infidels, opposed Western influence, and refused to recognise Nigeria’s secular government. Even though the sect was crushed and its leader killed in the eleven days violence, the remnants of his followers scattered all over the northern cities and continued their struggle and violence for five consecutive years (Report of Tribunal Inquiry on Kano disturbances 1981, Lubeck, 1985, Falola, 1998).
The quest to Islamise Nigeria gained further and fresh impetus after the organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) meeting in Abuja, in November 1989 under the auspices of President Babangida. In the meeting, a declaration for immediate Islamisation of Nigeria and some other African countries like Kenya was made. And for effective actualisation of this, the conference directed for immediate establishment of a replica of OIC in Africa called “Islam in Africa Organisation” (IAO) (Bugaje, 1994, Chesworth, 2007, Wijsen, 2007, Azumah, 2008). After this conference, fresh agitations for the Islamisation of Nigeria commenced, and finally led to the introduction of Sharia Code in the north by the twelve northern state governors after the 1999 election, as partial fulfillment of the Islamisation project, which also resulted in violence in the region. Unfortunately for them, the Nigerian federal factor could not allow the governors to either push further or sustain the implementation of sharia and it fizzled out (Human Rights Watch, 2003, International Crises Group, 2010, Cook, 2011).
It is the failure of the governors to Islamise Nigeria through political means that brought in the Boko Haram Jihad as the last resort, with a strong worded mission statement which stated that they are warriors who are carrying out Jihad (religious war) in Nigeria. And that the struggle is based on the traditions of the holy prophet Mohammed. That they will never accept any system of government apart from the one stipulated by Islam because that is the only way that the Muslims can be liberated. They stated that they do not believe in any system of government, be it traditional or orthodox except the Islamic system, and that is why they want to keep on fighting against democracy, capitalism, socialism and whatever. And will not allow the Nigerian constitution to replace the laws that have been enshrined in the Holy Qur’an, nor allow “adulterated conventional education” (Western education) (Boko) to replace Islamic teachings. And also vowed never to respect the Nigerian government referring to it as illegal, nor will they believe in the judicial system, military or police. (Daily Trust, 2011, Human Rights Watch, 2012).
With the above mission statement, Mohammed Yusuf while leading a band of about 200 people most of whom were university undergraduates and unemployed youths, in mid-2003 migrated into a remote region of Yobe State and established a camp near the Niger border. Their intention was to move away from the “corrupt, sinful, and unjust secular state of Nigeria and form a new community based on Islamic law. And to fight against anything that runs contrary to the teaching of Allah (Bego, 2003, 2004, Reuters, 2004, Samuel and Murrah, 2004, Boyle, 2009).
The propagators and executors of terrorism in Nigeria (Niger Delta and Boko Haram Insurgencies) just like their counterparts elsewhere, chose to attack foreigners and foreign interests in Nigeria in order to attract greater public and international attention, and sympathy. The purpose is to make the international community to prevail on Nigeria to yield to their demands. And by so doing, succeeded in graduating the domestic violence into international terrorism.
While reacting to the set hypotheses namely: (1) the greater the level of deprivation resulting from injustice, marginalisation, unfairness, undue domination, exploitation, power imbalance, poverty, ethno-religious intolerance etc in any environment, the greater the level of discontentment and aggression that may occasion insurgencies and terrorism (2) the higher the degree of domestic terrorism, the higher the degree of its impact on the international environment (3) To a large extent, the more international terrorism issues are reflected in the minds of the people through news media, the more chances there are for domestic replication (4) Peaceful resolution of domestic issues and conflicts to a very high degree would transmit to a peaceful international environment.
The study discovered that the seizure of the farmland of the Niger Delta people, destruction of the plantations and crops which prevented them from earning a living through their farmland without commensurate compensation, as well as the destruction of the aquatic life which also denies them their second occupation which is fishing without providing alternative means of livelihood is unjust, unfair, and intentionally aimed at impoverishing them. Also the destruction of the environmental atmosphere and their building roofs through oil spillage and gas flare; and exposing them to the hazardous effects of oil exploration and production, without providing the necessary health facilities to take care of their health, is unjust and unfair. The inability of the Nigerian government to give them their due share in political appointments and employment, amounts to marginalisation and power imbalance, as well as undue domination. For the resources in their land to be feeding Nigerians, providing amenities for Nigerians, and building Nigeria without any provided for them, not even the most basic necessities like healthcare, education, good drinking water, roads and other essentials of life, means, that they are marginalised, dominated, and exploited. This means that while the presence of one or two of these issues are sufficient to generate violence in other parts of the world, almost all of them are present in Niger Delta.
On the other hand, the study discovers that in the north where Boko Haram hold sway, the principal issue there is religious intolerance. All they want Nigeria to do for them is to facilitate the islamisation of Nigeria, like it was declared in Abuja during the OIC meeting in 1989 “to eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all non-Muslim religions in member nations (such religions shall include Christianity, Ahmadiyya and other tribal modes of worship unacceptable to Muslim), to ensure only Muslims are elected to all political posts of member nations. To ensure the ultimate replacement of all western forms of legal and judicial systems with the sharia in all member nations, to ensure the appointment of only Muslims into strategic national and international posts of member nations” (Abuja Declaration 1989 – Wikipedia).
The study further observes that domestic violence cease to be treated as a domestic matter as soon as foreign persons and foreign interests become targets of such violence. It automatically becomes an international security issue, with the global body and foreign nations coming together to join the nation involved in finding solutions to the situation. This is evident in the Niger Delta case as well as that of Boko Haram where foreign nations and the U.N. not only pledged support but came in to assist Nigeria. And this is why it was observed earlier in this work that, domestic terrorism automatically transforms to international terrorism once foreign persons and interests become victims.
Related to the above, as discovered by this study is the fact that domestic terrorists often go into the international arena by attacking foreigners and their interests, in order to crate international awareness, and secure international attention which will help it in achieving its goal. This is because if they operate at the domestic level alone, the government can mobilise its security apparatus to crush them not minding human rights abuses. But if it becomes an international issue, the international system will prevail on the government to seek peaceful means of resolving the conflict, and also prevent the government from descending so heavily on the group. This is why in Nigeria’s case, one hears the Human Rights Watch and other human rights bodies shouting about human rights abuses on the terrorist, especially against the police and the army. The presence of the international system also contributed to a large extent in the establishment of the amnesty programme in the Niger Delta.
The study also notes that globalisation through its mass media not only encourages spread of international terrorism, but also its replication or replication of similar scenario at the domestic level, which will in turn spill over into the international environment. For instance, at the beginning of the struggle, Boko Haram adopted the name “Taliban of Nigeria” because of what they had seen, heard, and read about the Taliban of Afghanistan, and so wanted to replicate such in Nigeria. Also, Boko Haram’s methods of attack which are similar to those of al Qaeda is also due to the influence of al Qaeda through the news media (Bego, 2004).
This work also observes that, since most cases of international terrorism (if not all) originate from domestic discontent and terrorism, their resolution or attempt to resolve such international terror cases should also start from the domestic environment where the initial domestic terrorism started. Attempts to seek solution for such cases at the international environment, even if it is successful would only be for a temporary time. It will be like curing the symptom of an ailment and leaving the cause, which will only give temporary relief and allows the situation even worse. This is why the amnesty programme targets the grievances that led to the conflict at the rural Niger Delta area.
Conclusion
On the basis of the analysis so far carried out in this work, it is ripe to make the following deductions. The major distinguishing factor between domestic and international terrorism is the victim of the attack or the target. It is immaterial whether the attack is carried out in the terrorist home country or not. For instance, if the Nigerian Boko Haram concentrates its attack on local Nigerians it becomes a domestic terror group. But if a foreigner or a foreigner’s property or business is attacked, it means it has crossed the boundary into the sphere of international terrorism. At the same time, if Boko Haram attacks a Nigerian who is a servant, employee or who represents a foreign interest, it would be said that it has engaged in international terrorism. Just like in the case of the attack on the United Nation building in Abuja, if the only person that was affected in that attack is a Nigerian staff of the United Nations and even outside the premises of the building, it is still an international terrorism. There is the need also to restate that almost every case of international terrorism is traceable to a particular domestic issue emanating from a particular domestic environment. Unless in cases of state sponsored international terrorism, all other cases carried out by non state actors originate from discontent and grievances that have to do with domestic issues.
In respect of the two Nigerian cases studied – Niger Delta and Boko Haram insurgencies, the issues responsible for their emergence have been found to correspond with those responsible for the cases at the global level and in other states. But then different issues gave rise to each of them – Boko Haram and Niger Delta. While socio-economic and political issues are responsible for the emergence of the Niger Delta insurgency, that of Boko Haram is a purely religious issue. In the Niger Delta region, the issues responsible for the crisis are injustice, marginalisation, unfairness, undue domination, exploitation, poverty, and power imbalance; that of Boko Haram is simply religious intolerance. Some analysts have tried to argue the emergence of Boko Haram using the same socio-economic and political indices as was the case of the Niger Delta, but that is not correct. For instance, Copeland (2013:5) while quoting analysts at Amnesty International, states that “Many Muslims complain of marginalisation by the federal government which is dominated by Christians. Additionally, at both local and federal levels, the Nigerian government has failed to respond satisfactorily to underlying social and economic conditions in the northern states. Poverty and malnutrition rates are staggering – over 75 percent of residents in the north are impoverished, living off on less than USD one per day”.
Such arguments as the one above, tend to be misleading and refractive of the real issue. The real issue here is that Boko Haram is a project orchastrated by Islamic fundamentalist, and associated with a historical permutation aimed at the Islamisation of Nigeria. According to Abu Qaqa, the Boko Haram spokesman quoted in International Crisis Group Report (2014:9) “Our objective is to place Nigeria in a difficult positon and destabilise it and replace it with Sharia”. And to achieve this, force is required in line with the directive given by al-Qaeda to all Jihadist groups, in its training manual which underscores the commitment of Islamist to both politics and violence as a mechanism for change, and which states that:
Islamic governments have never been and will never be, established through peaceful solutions and cooperative councils. They are established as they (always) have been by pen and gun by word and bullet by tongue and teeth (Gunaratna, 2002:240).
The contention and projection here is not to the fact that such socio-economic and political factors as poverty, unemployment, marginalisation, etc are not contributory to the emergence and/or success of Boko Haram, they are but to a minimal level. Socio-economic and political factors are just but auxiliary to the main issue, which is “religious intolerance”. Their primary target is the Islamisation of Nigeria, which is known to the northern political elites. They want everybody in Nigeria to either become a muslim or be killed. They want islam to control both the political and judicial structures of Nigeria.
This study notes further that while such issues as injustice, marginalisation, poverty, exploitation, etc which were the genesis of the struggle in the Niger Delta region are externally introduced into the region and forced on the people, its corollary in the Northeast where Boko Haram emerged is internally generated, as an outcome of the earlier explained primordial oligarchical and aristocratic institutions, which rather than developing the young ones and empowering them, chose to retain them as servants and slaves – hence the almajiri institution.
The study contends that the socio-economic and political issues, advanced, as factors responsible for the emergence of Boko Haram, is a project championed by the “political Boko Haram, in order to deceive and disfigure the minds of the general public, and then gather local popular support for Boko Haram; as well, to demand similar amnesty programme to that of the Niger Delta. There is the need to re-state here that the real Boko Haram – the Jihadist and or Islamic Boko Haram had vehemently rejected the idea of amnesty, stating that the only condition for peace is total Islamisation of Nigeria.
This study’s final note is that to curb terrorism in Nigeria, both at the domestic and international levels, there is the need for Nigeria to embark on such domestic policies that can address injustice, poverty, marginalisation, exploitation, oppression, and religious radicalism and intolerance.
Recommendations
Based on the analyses and findings carried out, this work recommends the following:
- That Nigerian government should, using the available security structures, develop mechanism that would enable it to intercept early warning signs of discontent among the citizenry, especially when such emanates from the general feeling of people of a state or region. It will enable the government to proactively deal with such issues as injustice, poverty, marginalisation, exploitation, oppression, domination, unfairness, as well as religious radicalism and intolerance, which have been identified as triggers of Boko Haram and Niger Delta insurgencies in Nigeria. This can be achieved through effective intelligence led policing, and would reduce militarisation of internal security (IS) issues.
- That the present solution to the Niger Delta problem through amnesty though, a right step in the right direction but it is not sufficient enough to tackle the problem in the region. The amnesty programme is just part of the solution but not the solution completely. Using the amnesty programme as a solution to the problem in the region is also like curing the symptoms of a sickness and leaving the disease or cause. The militants who were granted amnesty and empowered are not the only or real people who are suffering in the region. The militants are just like agents or messengers. The real people are the local old and young, men and women who live in the rural Niger Delta, suffering the hazards of environmental pollution due to oil production activities without adequate medicare, good drinking water, road, house, school, and other necessary amenities.
This study therefore, recommends a comprehensive and holistic approach in solving the problems in the region. This could be done either through a separate establishment or empowering the existing one, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Ministry of Niger Delta, through adequate funding. This should be in addition to the amnesty programme and other structures already in place. With adequate financing, the NDDC and the Ministry would be able to penetrate the rural Niger Delta and provide them with things that are lacking – schools, roads, bridges, skills acquisition, centers, etc. The two agencies should also ensure that the farmlands, which have been destroyed and made infertile due to oil activities, are refertilised, so that the local farmers can go back to their farming occupation to earn a living, while those whose lands have been confiscated and given to oil companies should be empowered to start up such agro business as fish farming and animal husbandry. In the same vein, the youths who were not accommodated in the ongoing amnesty programme should be made to undergo skills acquisition programme, so that they can be self employed and self reliant. The Federal Government of Nigeria should put stringent measures in place to check or stop oil spillage and gas flare which have been responsible for the environmental degradation of the Niger Delta area.
(3) With regard to Boko Haram and religious fundamentalism in the north; though the Islamic or Jihadist Boko Haram have vowed never to embrace amnesty, stating that their only condition for peace is the Islamisation of Nigeria, the political Boko Haram (those members of Boko Haram infused and sponsored to be there not necessarily for Jihad but to serve the political interests of the Northern political elite) should be granted amnesty. Granting amnesty to the political Boko Haram would drastically reduce and weaken the fighting power of Boko Haram. Clues from those political Boko Haram members will also help the government in the necessary strategy plans that can help in checking the menace of the group. The reality that the original Boko Haram, is a Jihadist group and that Jihadists do not surrender unless their aim is achieved, should be the watchword of the federal government and its policy makers, so that they will stop dreaming of amnesty for the entire group. As such would only act as a corrupt medium to siphon the wealth of Nigeria. Remember, in Jihad, there is no retreat no surrender. The fighters are holy warriors who have been promised heavenly paradise with “seventy virgins as wives and or servants” when they die in the process of the Jihad.
(4) The Nigerian leadership should as a matter of urgency embark on restructuring or reframing of the Nigerian constitution in order to remove the mention of a particular religion or religious terms. This will help in giving or restoring to Nigeria its true secular characters and ensuring peace in Nigeria. Over time, it was discovered that the mention of Islam, Sharia, grand Kadi and Kadis etc in the constitution has been a contributory factor in fuelling Islamic uprising in the north. This has been wrongly and misleadingly interpreted to mean that the Nigerian constitution recognises only Islam. Some northern elites have often used it to mislead the uninformed, making them to fight to claim “what have been given to them” by the constitution (Islamisation). This is because there is no corresponding mention of other religions or religious terms in the constitution. It is either those terms are deleted from the constitution or the mention of other religions and religious terms should be made in the constitution to balance the situation.
(5) The Nigerian government should as a matter of urgency too, abolish the almajiri institution, and in its place, institutionalise compulsory education. The almajiri institution has exposed northern children to so much hardship and abuse that they see life as meaningless, and with a plate of food given to them, they are ready to commit whatever that is the wish of their master. They not only constitute the footsoldiers, but the warriors also in all the religious uprising in the north, including Boko Haram. The youths should be engaged in useful jobs by providing employment to the employable ones, while skills acquisition centres be set up for others to learn crafts.
(6) The government should develop such mechanisms that have the capacity to address grievances early enough, before it degenerates into violence or terrorism. The government should also develop an instrument that would have the capacity to check and address issues of injustice, marginalisation, unemployment, etc, which have the capacity of degenerating into acute discontent and violence, especially youth unemployment. The porous Nigerian borders have been found to have made entry of foreign bad elements or religious radicals into Nigeria very easy. The government should take this seriously and come up with a long term plan that can ensure total barricade or closure of all illegal entry points – both those in existence and those anticipated may open up soon, within the next five years.
(7) According to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the internal security of Nigeria is the responsibility of the Nigeria Police Force, while the military takes charge of external aggression. The Nigerian Constitution as well as the Police Act and Regulation further directs that whenever an internal security situation degenerate to a war level, so much so that it has gone beyond the capability of the Nigeria Police, the police should call in the military and hand over to it. As a result therefore, there is the need for the police to be adequately equipped with modern gadgets to enable it contain such internal security issues, and possibly prevent such development that could force the military to abandon its traditional responsibility of securing the territory of Nigeria, for the purpose of assisting police in its internal security issues. The police need to be equipped with modern technology in surveillance, tracking machines, surveillance interceptors, surveillance cameras both night and day, hitech night goggles and binoculars, finger print taking and analysis machine etc. There is need also for men to be adequately trained in handling these equipment, as well as on modern security operations, especially in terrorism, and should always adopt proactive policing in place of reactive policing method.
(8) Also noted in this work is the effect and influence of inter agency conflicts, squabbles, and mistrus in the operations of the Nigeria’s security agencies. Inter-agency misunderstanding, envy and conflict are some of the serious challenges facing security operations in Nigeria. This has very dangerously affected and hampered the fight against terrorism. This is the fault of the Nigerian government, which created many security outfits without strictly assigning specific roles to each, or sharing duties and responsibilities among the agencies. There is the need for supervised division of labour among the agencies, with proper delineation of duty boundaries, which must be strictly adhered to by the agencies. At present all the agencies appear confused, performing the same duties at the same time. All the agencies want to perform the police duties while there are many other vital aspects of security that are left unchecked. For instance, the Department of State Security which was purely created for gathering of intelligence is no longer effective because, it has deviated from what was supposed to be its primary role. It is supposed to be an underground operative, carrying out covert security activities. It is not supposed to be known or seen by anybody, it is only its work that should be seen. Its duty is the gathering of intelligence, and passing same to the police for immediate action. In other words, while the DSS carry out covert actions, police perform overt duties. As it is today, men of the DSS are known by everybody, some of the operatives openly introduce themselves to the public as such. This, to a large extent, hampers their ability to gather the needed and necessary intelligence. Even the internal intelligence outfit created by the police, Security Intelligence Bureau (SIB), to fill the vacuum created by DSS has equally fallen victim to this circumstance.
This was the same problem America suffered prior to the 11 September attack, lack of cooperation and coordination among the various agencies. According to Shane (2009:127) while quoting Gladwell (2003) “prior to the September 11 event, the greatest weakness from federal law enforcement authorities was their inability to manage and share intelligence”. There is an array of local services or domestic security agencies which could have been drawn upon to help investigate domestic terror leads or interpret ambiguous information, because local police departments have an intimate knowledge of their community. Shane (2009) went on to state that historically, law enforcement agencies at all levels ranging from the federal and state to local levels have had problems integrating well from on-scene control, to communications, to information sharing. The problems result, in part, from ‘home-rule’ rivalries, interoperability shortfalls, and confrontational attitudes of different agencies because of a generalized lack of trust and understanding among them. This problem of rivalry is even worse among the intelligence agencies (FBI, CIA, and NSA). This was why even when the intelligence about 9/11 was received, they refused to share it, not only among themselves but with the police that would have taken pre-emptive action. According to the 9/11 Commission Report (2002:265), these intelligence agencies got information about the attack but refused to pass it to the domestic law enforcement agency (police), and did not warn the public. FBI was specifically accused of hoarding information.
There is the need to state here that the 9/11 attack could have been averted or the havoc reduced, if the various pieces of intelligence intercepted by the agencies had been analysed, processed and acted upon. Fragmented pieces of intelligence were received by the various security agencies, which, if they had been put together by the agencies, bearing in mind that they are working for a common goal, would have assisted the American government in averting the 9/11 disaster. Apart from this disjointed leads, as has been stated in the earlier part of this work during the analysis of Afghanistan, Ahmad Massoud who controlled Northern Afghanistan before his murder had early in 2001 informed the intelligence agencies about the ongoing plan by al Qaeda and Taliban to attack U.S. on a large scale, yet, the agencies did not work on the information due to rivalry. The result of that rivalry was the disastrous and devastating attack on the United States of America.
These discoveries which were made by the “National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States” (which produced the 9/11 Commission Report, 2002), led to the establishment of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created to “Unite all the 22 disparate federal agencies” (Shane, 2009:135), as well as coordinate the activities of the police at all the three levels. DHS became a melting pot for all the intelligence agencies. All the intelligence gathered by any of the agencies must be submitted to DHS, whose duty it became to coordinate and harmonise all the intelligence reports received, analyse and process them into action. It therefore removes, suspicion, rivalry and quest for superiority among all the agencies. It became a mother to all the agencies.
Based on the above analysis, this work hereby recommends the establishment of a similar outfit like that of the DHS, whose duty would be to coordinate the activities of all the security and intelligence agencies in Nigeria, receive their individual or disparate intelligence reports, analyse and process such reports, and hand them over to the appropriate or designated department that would use them.
(9) Finally, in securing Nigeria against incidents of terrorism, three approaches are recommended.
(i) The first is to ensure peaceful resolution of all issues that could ignite discontent and conflict, such as injustice, marginalisation, exploitation, domination, religious intolerance, etc. This involves promotion of good governance; respect for human rights, national and international law; equality; socio-economic and political inclusion; community cohesion, and active citizenship. The government should also encourage active synergy and collaborative effort between the public, private, voluntary sectors in procuring peaceful community.
(ii) Secondly, when (i) above could not yield the anticipated results and terrorism is about setting in, then the government should adopt the ‘four ps’ of PREVENT, PURSUE, PROTECT, and PREPARE. This should be applied as follows:
- Preventing terrorism by addressing those issues that can generate discontent, frustration and aggression;
- Pursuing terrorists and their sponsors;
- Protecting the public, key national services and institutions, as well as Nigeria’s interests both at home and abroad; and
- Preparing and anticipating for the consequences, this means getting the relevant agencies ready for military action. This requires the active role of the intelligence agencies which will ensure first, the quick discovery of early warning signs.
(iii) The last stage when (ii) above fails is full military action which must be total, and must ensure total defeat of the enemy. Already, the essence of the fourth strategy in (ii) above – PREPARE, is to make the police and military ready for military actions, which must start with the police before the military is called in, where the situation goes beyond the capability of the police. The intelligence agencies, while executing the strategies in (ii) above, would alert the police and military to get prepared for military action, so that they may not be caught “sleeping” when it is time for military combat.
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