THE IMPACT OF BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY ON NIGERIAN NATIONAL SECURITY

THE IMPACT OF BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY ON NIGERIAN NATIONAL SECURITY

ABSTRACT

Jama’atul Ahlus Sunnah Lid daawati wal Jihad, also known as Boko Haram, emerged around 2002 as a local Islamic movement primarily for preaching and charity to people in Maiduguri, Borno State. The group’s activities changed in 2009, following a crackdown on its followers by the Nigerian government, as a result of which spiritual and political leader Muhammad Yusuf was killed. More than 13,000 people were killed by the Boko Haram insurgency between 2009 and 2015. The group has increased its attacks on security forces and their formations, top government institutions, schools, Mosques, and the general public. In April 2014, the group kidnapped 250 schoolgirls in Chibok. The group’s threat is undermining Nigeria’s existence as a country. There is only one sovereign political territory. In August 2014, the sect leader declared areas under their control to be a new Islamic Caliphate governed by strict Islamic laws. The purpose of this research is to look into the threats posed by the Boko Haram insurgency to Nigerian national security. The study also revealed that poverty and religious misunderstanding were major factors in the emergence and development of Boko Haram. The researchers recommend that the Nigerian government address both the cause and the symptoms of the problem by eradicating poverty, creating jobs, and strengthening security efforts.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

According to Murtada (2013), Boko Haram’s true name was Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lid da’awati Wal-Jihad (congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad). The term Boko Haram refers to the prohibition of western education. In the early 2000s, the group emerged as a small Sunni Islamic group advocating a strict interpretation and implementation of Islamic law in Nigeria. Initially, the sect’s leadership did not advocate violence; however, its adherents engaged in periodic clashes with security during the sect’s formative years (Blanchard, 2014). Nigerians are becoming increasingly skeptical of the sect’s true identity and motivation. Most Muslims regard it as an extension of the Maitatsine sect, which was founded in 1945 to bring turmoil to Islam after it was determined that Maitatsine was a cult.

He was not a Muslim until his death, and many Christians see it as an attempt to Islamize Nigerians, while others are unconcerned (Shehu, 2014). Boko Haram’s activities had transformed from a local peace militia to a violent group in 2009, after the government attacked members of the group in some major cities in northern Nigeria, resulting in five days of violent clashes between group members and Nigerian forces, which resulted in the death of the sect leader, Muhammad Yusuf, in Maiduguri, and more than 700 other people (Blanchard, 2014).

The sect’s activities slowed after the 2009 uprising. The violence has returned.

The group’s emergence in 2010 resulted in new tactics such as suicide bombing and kidnapping.

Islamic clerics, Mosques, and churches have been attacked in the country. The first suicide bombings in Nigeria occurred in police headquarters and the United Nations office in Abuja (Blanchard, 2014). The sect’s activities accelerated when, on April 14, 2014, it kidnapped 250 female students from the Government Girls’ Secondary School Chibok in Borno State (Zenn, 2014). In November 2013, the US Security Department designated Boko Haram and Ansaru as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). Ansaru was the Boko Haram faction that kidnapped and executed seven foreigners working for international construction companies earlier in 2013. Following that, on May 22, 2014, the United Nations Committee on Al Qaeda sanction blacklisted the group as one of the world’s terrorist organizations. The entry on the United Nations list Boko Haram is described as an Al-Qaeda affiliate and one of Al-Islamic Qaeda’s Maghreb (AQIM) organizations (Reuters, 2014). As a result, the purpose of this research is to look into the impact of the Boko Haram insurgency on Nigeria’s national security system.

1.2   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What are the threats posed by the Boko Haram insurgency to Nigeria’s security system?

2. What are the solutions to Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency?