The Nyanya bomb blast of Monday, which claimed another 100, is just one too many and a culmination of a nurturing a terrorist haven in Nigeria since the '80s, with no Government paying adequate attention. When the cumulative neglect of a vast populace and its collateral damages are fully considered, one should not be surprised the Boko Haram is hatched in Northern Nigeria. It is now like Boko Haram of Nigeria, like Al Shabab of Somalia and like Al Qaeda of Afghanistan. The phenomenal transition is that despicable.
The Nyanya bomb blast of Monday, which claimed another 100, is just one too many and a culmination of a nurturing a terrorist haven in Nigeria since the '80s, with no Government paying adequate attention. When the cumulative neglect of a vast populace and its collateral damages are fully considered, one should not be surprised the Boko Haram is hatched in Northern Nigeria. It is now like Boko Haram of Nigeria, like Al Shabab of Somalia and like Al Qaeda of Afghanistan. The phenomenal transition is that despicable.
To begin with, the right education has not received full attention in the core North. This explains why the United Nations recently listed the North East as harboring the highest concentrations of world's most illiterate populations.
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It is not that Northern kids are not participating in some form of education. Everyone knows about the Almajiri form of education involving about 10 million children up North. This form of education, however, as opposed to western education, is not functional and renders its graduates unfit for gainful employment, beyond the menial.
Strangely, the core Northern States and the Federal Government never came up with a deliberate policy to integrate the Almajiri educational system into the formal education, to prepare their beneficiaries for competitive life with their counterparts from the other parts of the country, until the demonstration effort of President Goodluck Jonathan only recently. Apart from being too late in coming, the impact could not scratch even the surface of the yearning need.
Many would argue that manufacturing of bombs used by the Boko Haram and other terrorist elements is not a job for illiterates. While this may be true, fact is the real armies of suicide bombers and terrorists’ foot soldiers, going by the arrests seen, are drawn from such disadvantaged, stranded populations. It shows that education, poverty and wrong indoctrination have a way they produce would-be terrorists.
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Conventionally, the world over, the would-be terrorists are typically the Almajiri kind of people, for the simple fact that they are impressionistic and pliable, and can be bent to any cause, especially religious terrorism. Even the name - Boko Haram - translates roughly to "Western Education is bad"; which also suggests this terrorist brand is a protestations against the kind of education that renders their Almajiri education and its outcome useless. In order words, they appear to be saying, were it not for western education, we would be better off, so away with it!
Even the aim of Boko Haram to Islamize 12 States in the North is still a fulfillment of this assumption that they are pushing to carve out an enclave to impose their own way of life. This makes Boko haram a very dangerous religious, political and economic terrorism all rolled up in one and any attempt to find solution to it must take into complete account these three dimensions.
The other factor responsible for terrorism in Northern Nigeria is religious extremism, which clearly radicalize vulnerable and gullible citizens, who, as a result, openly trample on other citizens’ rights, even right to lie, without the Federal and affected State Governments doing anything. One remembers vividly the case of Akaluka who was extra-judicially beheaded in a prison in Kano and his head spiked on stake and taken round the streets. This way, such individuals and groups grew in temerity and impunity, to reach the capacity to confront Governments and now ultimately seeking to overthrow it and declare an Islamic State.
This brings me to the 3rd factor fostering terrorism in Nigeria, namely, lack of political will to deal decisively with terrorism. At States and Federal levels, the successive Governments, have all acquiesced to terrorist acts and treated them with kid gloves. Even today, with another hundred dispatched to the great beyond by yet another terror attack at Nyanya, Abuja; the Federal Government can only blame the opposition party, without naming, arresting or planning to prosecute anybody.
For the avoidance of doubt, below is a chronicle of some of the massive bloodbaths and genocidal killings in the North since 1980, which then subsisting State and Federal Governments did little or nothing to punish so as to forestall re-occurrence. 1980 May: 2,467 killed in Zaria, 1980 December 18‐20, riots in Kano. The Maitatsine sect, 4,177 were killed. The same year,September 29-October 3, there were disturbances in Kaduna, Kaduna State and 53 were killed and many churches were burned. Between 29th and 30th of October, 1982 there were further troubles in Maiduguri, Borno State by the Maitatsine sects. 118 died.
In 1984 February 27-March 5, there was yet another disturbance in Yola, then Gongola State by the same Maitatsine sect, 568 died. In 1985 April 26‐28 there was a riot in Gombe and Bauchi State by the Maitatsine sect. 105 died. In 1987 March 5th and following days, in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, Christians and Muslims clashed at the College of Education. 100 Churches were burnt.
In 1987 March, in Katsina, Funtua, Zaria, Gussau and Kaduna (Kaduna State) there was a wave of religious riots and many churches were burnt and property worth millions of Naira destroyed, and many lives were lost. In 1991, April, in Katsina, several lives were lost. Shiite sect in Katsina led by Malam Yahaya Yakubu stirred up trouble. In 1991 April, in Tafawa Balewa University (Bauchi State) over 200 lives were lost with properties and 20 churches destroyed.
In 1991 October 14‐ 15 in Kano, the attempt of the Izala sect to stop Rev. Bonnke from preaching became violent. Thousands died and property destroyed. Conservative estimates were put at 3800. In 1992 February 6th and then May 15‐16: Zango Kataf, Zaria, Kaduna State Communal clash becomes a religious clash, with lives and property destroyed. Around the same time, in Funtua (Katsina State), Kalakato religious sect assaulted a village head and 50 lives were lost and properties destroyed.
In 1999 May 20, Muslim‐Christian riots in Kaduna, for three days, several hundreds were feared dead. Conservative estimate put the figure at 3,200. In 1999 July 18, Hausa and Yoruba riot in Shagamu claimed over 60. This led to trouble in Kano where over 70 were further killed. In 2000 August 11, about 200 were killed as the army intervened in Taraba State to quell a similar unrest. In 2000, October, Ahmad Sani Yerima introduced the Sharia Law in Zamfara State and there was a riot in Kaduna over the introduction. Over 400 were killed.
In 2001, September 7, there were Christian-Muslim conflicts in Jos. Over 500 were killed. Also the same year, October 12‐14, in Kano, there were anti-American riots, because of USA intervention in Afghanistan. At least 350 were killed. In 2006 February, sectarian violence sparked by cartoons of Islam’s most revered figure spread to 11 Nigerian cities resulting in the burning of 28 churches and pushing the total death toll to more than 650.
Since the death of its second leader M. Yusuf, in 2009, Boko Haram has killed thousands across Northern Nigeria. In Abuja alone, it has unleashed massive terror, resulting in many deaths as usual. Over 20 died in St. Theresa Catholic Zuba in 2012 and the bomber Kabiru Sokoto getting mere prison sentence. Over a dozen died in their daring strike at the Police Force headquarters the same year and at the UN building and Sani Abacha Mammy market all in Abuja.
Since then, there was a lull, until they returned last Monday with a vengeance with the Nyanya strike that claimed up to a hundred. From the foregoing, it is evident the nation has in place an asymmetry terrorist warfare with a long gestation period. What this means is that with its millions of army trained in guerrilla warfare and suicide, who come from and have permeated the entire northern populations, the nation should be prepared for a long drawn conflict. Though one may be reluctant to declare it an unwinnable war, a quick victory is certainly not on the radar at all and expectedly so.
Since it is often better to err on the side caution, relevant States and Federal Government have to creatively reach to these discontented populations and put empowerments in place for the teeming unskilled youths. The North East is in an urgent need of de-radicalization of its youth. The integration policy, which meshes the Almajiri and formal education, must be intensified and established across North.
Government also needs to quickly find ways to hold dialogue with the segments of the sect willing to pull out. They will be useful in identifying the rest and isolating them from the general populations. Government should also consider relocating communities along the North East borders and declaring such areas no no-go militarized zones.
For the citizens, they need to stand with the nation and supply all the information they can to help. They must also take personal steps to protect themselves by being security conscious, staying away from crowded places and not rushing to scenes of explosions in case a second one is in the offing.
As Nigerians now pray about everything, may God help us!
• Law Mefor, is an Abuja-based Forensic Psychologist and Journalist; email:[email protected]; tel:+234-803-787-2893.
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