The Boko Haram Insurgence In Nigeria: Perspectives from Within

249 Pages·2019·2.36 MB·English

by  Edlyne Eze Anugwom

NEW DIRECTIONS
IN ISLAM
THE BOKO HARAM
INSURGENCE IN
NIGERIA
Perspectives from Within
EDLYNE EZE ANUGWOM
New Directions in Islam
Series Editors
Joshua M. Roose
Institute for Religion, Politics and Society
Australian Catholic University
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Bryan S. Turner
Institute for Religion, Politics and Society
Australian Catholic University
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Emeritus Professor, Graduate Centre
City University of New York
New York, NY, USA
Islam is recognized as the world’s fastest growing religion and is predicted
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on these new local contexts. Islam is growing rapidly, but many Muslims
now live in secular societies where Islam is a minority religion and where
there is considerable social conflict between Muslim communities and
the wider society. Therefore it is vital to engage with the multitude of
ways by which Muslims are adapting as social and cultural minorities.
How are they developing their faith in line with local and national cus-
toms? How are converts and subsequent generations adapting in these
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Edlyne Eze Anugwom
The Boko Haram
Insurgence In Nigeria
Perspectives from Within
Edlyne Eze Anugwom
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Nigeria Nsukka
Nsukka, Nigeria
New Directions in Islam
ISBN 978-3-319-96958-9 ISBN 978-3-319-96959-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96959-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018954359
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Kene and Chinuru—friends, believers and ardent supporters and the boys
Foreword
In the last decade, Nigeria has witnessed an upsurge of conflict and vio-
lence, partly occasioned by the Boko Haram insurrection and indiscrimi-
nate mayhem, perhaps one of the largest terrorist groups in Africa. In
2011 alone, sporadic bombings orchestrated by Boko Haram militants
included the May 29 bombings in Abuja and Bauchi, the June 16 bomb-
ing of the Nigerian Police Headquarters, the August 26 bombings of the
United Nations building in Abuja, the attacks in Damaturu on November
4 and the clashes between the Nigerian security operatives and Boko
Haram militants in Maiduguri and Damaturu. In April 2014, the scan-
dalous kidnapping of over 250 Chibok female students was a vivid testi-
mony to the fact that the Boko Haram insurgency was far from abating.
In 2018, there has been a remarkable de-escalation of bombings, wanton
killings and kidnappings, while their activities have been drastically trun-
cated owing to the combined action of local and external security agen-
cies. While it is hard at this point to claim that the nation has grasped
fully the motivations, intentionality and consequences of the Boko
Haram carnage or gotten over the dire impact and social trauma that fol-
lowed this crisis, Nigeria has again been drawn to yet another crisis by the
Fulani herdsmen unleashing a new wave of brazen attacks and gruesome
killings across the country.
The proliferation of conflicts and violence poses crucial security threats
and tremendous challenges to the local-global community because of
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viii Foreword
their national, international and transnational scope. The pace of public
bemoaning and international censure of these violent conflicts is hardly
matched by a deficiency of rigorous scholarly research towards unpacking
the motivations, nature, texture and resilience of terrorist groups and
acts, such as the Boko Haram in Nigeria and the West African sub-region,
but also counter-terrorist efforts and mechanisms. Conventional explana-
tions of conflict and violence remain incomplete if they separately empha-
size different yet related phenomena of conflict and violence, without
much effort to provide for a holistic, comprehensive explanation or
framework that encompasses the full range of interpersonal, institutional,
structural and symbolic conflict or violence. A proper grasp and analysis
requires a critical interrogation of holistic factors—remote and immedi-
ate causes, the complex role of stakeholders, the exogenous and endoge-
nous dynamics—the specific religious, social and cultural contexts within
which Boko Haram have been operating, but also global factors. As the
author aptly notes: “any thorough-going analysis of the Boko Haram must
appreciate the antecedent and immediate nature of the Northeast cum
Northern Nigerian society; nature of the state and governance in Nigeria
viz.-a-viz. response to the needs of citizens; the undeniable amenability of the
environment to sectarianism; varying interpretations of both the Qur’an and
Hadiths even within mainstream Islam; and the Messiah complex.”
This book provides fresh, critical, yet illuminating insights on the
impasse in Nigeria drawing upon extensive field ethnographic experi-
ences and data gathered in 2016 in Borno State, a context that has served
as the major hotbed of the conflict. The author carefully weaves together
a rich tapestry of religious conflicts in Nigeria, critically assessing the
contemporary political context and trends conducive to the emergence
and growth of Boko Haram on the one hand; but most importantly,
exploring perceptions, narratives of “lived-experiences of people affected
by the insurgence, and even what may be called a first-hand insider view
of the Boko Haram by ‘suspected’ Boko Haram members and sympathis-
ers.” The author calls attention to the limitations of a mono-causal expla-
nation of the insurgence and contends that Boko Haram should be
treated not merely as a form of terrorism since this would misrepresent
reality and compound perceived solutions. This book, according to the
author, “is also driven by the desire to inform policies and actions (programmes)
Foreword ix
at targeting the eradication of extremism in Nigeria. The book aims at offer-
ing a nuanced and evidence-based understanding of the dynamics of religious
extremism in Nigeria and how the ideology (or avowed principles) of extrem-
ist sects like the Boko Haram feed into socio-economic marginalization, polit-
ical exclusion and corruption very prevalent in Nigeria.”
This book is therefore a must-read by all those who abhor any forms of
conflict/violence, whether religiously, politically, ethnically or economi-
cally induced or motivated. Africanists and scholars with interest in social
conflicts and religion; terrorism and development in Africa will find this
book invaluable. I warmly commend it!
Princeton Theological Seminary Afe Adogame
Princeton, NJ, USA
Preface
The book provides new insights on the Boko Haram insurgence which
has emerged in the last decade as the most daunting development and
security challenge in Nigeria. Despite a range of state-driven responses
and involvement of the international community in recent times, the
insurgence has persevered albeit in diminished capacity. Thus, in spite of
significant progress in the war against Boko Haram, incessant suicide
attacks, armed conflict and kidnapping create the impression that the
sect is a complex phenomenon driven by centrifugal forces, fundamental-
ist religiousity and socio-political challenges. While a growing body of
work has focused on this subject in the last five years, perhaps none has
been anchored on a thorough-going empirical study. This is what sepa-
rates the present effort from most of the other publications on the sub-
ject. As the title suggests, it provides perspectives from within not only in
the sense of being written by a Nigerian but more critically in the sense
of real engagement with those affected and ‘infected’ with the Boko
Haram bug.
The extensive survey of Boko Haram in Northeast Nigeria evidenced
herein has no doubt provided unique insights and information which
interrogate a good number of orthodox narratives regarding the sect. The
book is non-judgmental and anchored on a deep socio-political history of
Northern Nigeria and colonial heritage considered influential in the
making of Boko Haram and other previous Islamic fundamentalist sects
xi