Universidade Católica Portuguesa Instituto de Estudos Políticos
Boko Haram Don’t forget Nigeria - Recommendations for Peace
Domestic Conflicts Ten-General António Fontes Ramos Mariana Correia da Fonseca Rodrigues 104515101
Lisbon, 2017
I. Introduction
Nigeria, since her independence in 1960, has witnessed an increase of conflicts. It started in the Biafra conflict, followed by the Maitatsine crises between 1980 and 1982 to the insurgency on the Niger Delta between 2000 to 2010 and the Ombatse cult Group in 2013. But in 2009 there was a new threat that never threatened the integrity of Nigeria like before, the terrorist group Boko Haram. The reason I chose the topic about Nigeria is mainly because it is, according to the UN, the largest crisis on the African Continente and the International Community does not give enough attention to this crisis. Despite the abundance of natural resources, Nigeria remains one of the poor countries in the world today. This is due to the political instability, higher corruption and poor management of public funds. A society completely divided by religious ethnic and political conflicts and with a huge discrepancy between the rich and the poor. Addressing a crisis in a relatively rich country is harder. Because of the vast conflicts and instability of Nigeria, I choose to focus on the problem of the terrorist group Boko Haram. So, this essay starts with a contextualization of Nigeria situation, a presentation of Boko Haram and concludes with recommendations for the Boko Haram Insurgency.
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II.Situation in Nigeria The Federal Republic of Nigeria, a Country that gained the independence in 1960, is the most populous in Africa and it is also the biggest oil exporter in Africa according to the World Bank. With abundant natural resources and a dynamic population, Nigeria revealed to be a potential global player. However, this also fueled violence in the oil-producing Niger Delta region and according to United Nations Development Program, 62.6% Nigerians live below the line of poverty. This comproves that the remarkable economic growth in Nigeria has not been associated with poverty reduction. Nigeria which has the second-largest economy in Africa is currently facing its worst economic crisis of the last years due to the fall of global oil prices and the agitation in the north of the Country. As a consequence of the economic and the instability of the country, the investors distrust in the domestic economy of Nigeria. In the political perspective, there was “good news”: According to the Freedom House, Nigeria has improved “in the quality of the 2015 executive and legislative elections, which featured the first-ever opposition victory at the national level and a peaceful rotation of power, as well as the new government’s initial efforts to combat corruption”1 . For the first time in history, there was a transfer of power from the Peoples Democratic Party (the ruling) for the opposition Party - All Progressives Congress with Muhammad Buhari as the President. Moreover, Corruption remains higher in the country, specially in the oil sector. Despite that, there’s been some hope about the new Government’s initial efforts to combat “corruption, defeating the militant Islamist Group Boko Haram, and Boosting the living standards of Nigerians as his main policy Priorities”2 . Nevertheless, The Human Rights Watch alarm that the inauguration of the new President did not diminished the potency of the country’s serious human rights challenges. Nigeria before the independence had experienced ethnic and religious strife between north and south. The North, which the majority of the population is Muslims of two ethnic groups (Hausa and Fulani) and in the South where the population is mainly Christians, also of two ethnic groups (Igbo and Yoruba). This division represented an important role in the Country’s dynamics nowadays because it is not only about religion and ethnic groups diversification but also in the society. The Yoruba and Igbo groups of the South had more education then the North which was reflect in the government positions, “While not even 1 per cent of it was filled by Northerns (Crowder, 1978). As a direct consequence, the North feared that its traditions and way of life would undermined by the 1
Freedom House. Report of Nigeria. 2016
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Freedom House. Report of Nigeria. 2016
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Southerners”3 . This division is still present nowadays in the four large ethnic groups: Fulani, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba with 350 different languages spoken across the country. As has revealed by Nigeria’s Common Country Analysis (CCA), there’s a deeply divided society by the plurality of ethnic, religious and regional identities “that had tended to define the country’s political existence”4. This divided society can be seen as well in the oil-reach areas that ended to create a lack of opportunities for the young people that became an easy target for Guerrillas. Also, with the instability in the country, it becomes easy for civilians to get close to their traditional loyalties and in this sense religion demonstrated to be a great layer in the growth of religious extremist militancy. The economic issues associated with the fall of the oil industry among with its negative impact on local development because there’s a lack of education, poverty and high population growth also stimulates the resurgence of conflicts in the Country. A country that has 52.4 life expectancy at birth with an expectancy of school of just 9 years and with 51.1% of literacy rate (According to UNDP), it becomes understandable that there is a huge discrepancy between the Nigerian population, between the poor and the rich.
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The path to secession in Africa: the case of Sudan and Nigeria. Gustavo Plácido dos Santos.
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Nigeria’s Common Country Analysis
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III.Boko Haram
#BingBackOurGirls, it was the hashtag about the 476 schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok, that called the attention of the international community to the most deadly terrorist group in the World in 2014 and 2015 (according to Global Terrorism Index). Boko Haram is a group created in 2001 by Mohammed Yusuf with the goal of implementing Sharia Law. As the name of the group suggests, Boko Haram = Western education is forbidden, is an islamic extremist group with the objective to revive an Islamic Caliphate in Nigeria. In this sense, Boko Haram revealed to be opposed to the current Nigerian State which is founded on the secular and western principles of state due to earlier British Colonialism. The terrorist group promotes Sharia Law as an alternative to the current state because they claimed it is a corrupted government and that they do not promote the needs of the people. Boko Haram seeks to completely displace secular law and install fundamentalist Sharia Courts in Nigeria.5 In this sense, it is relevant to understand that socio-economic and political realities are relevant to explain the activities of Boko Haram. Therefore, the group started to be more extremist in 2009 when Abubakar Shekau became the new leader of one of the most high-profile conflict actors in West Africa. Shekau announced his objective to revive an Islamic Caliphate in Nigeria and in the west-Africa region. His ideological points are related with strong anti-Christian sentiments, denouncing western influence, and it became a transnational terrorist group when expanding his attacks to Chad, Nigeria and Cameroon. In 2015 Boko Haram sworn allegiance to ISIS and it became part of the greater neojihadist IS caliphate project. According to the Global Terrorism index (2015), Boko Haram was the most deadly terrorist group in the World with an increased by 317 per cent in 2014 with 6,644 deaths when ISIL was responsible for 6,073 deaths from terrorist attacks. This is due to the fact that the terrorist attacks are much more lethal in Nigeria than any other country.6 This is an important factor to understand the fast rising of the extremis group that in 2013 was in fifth highest level of fatalities and in just one year it became in the second highest. This is also because of the Fulani militants who killed 1,229 people in 2014. However, the Fulani farmers have localize goes to have access to some lands while Boko Haram since is aligned with ISIL has the goal to establish a Caliphate. The Countries with the highest number of deaths from terrorism have also highest levels of internally
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Emmanuel Onah, "The Nigerian State as an equilibrium of violence: An explanation of the Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria." African Journal on Conflict Resolution 14, no. 2 (2014), 64. 6Global
Terrorism Index. 2015. Institute for Economics and Peace.
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displaced people as it can be seen in the Nigeria case. According to the Global Report on Internal Displacement of 2016, 2.1 million Nigerians are internally displaced due to the insurgency.7 In terms of the terrorist attacks, most of them were in the northeast of Nigeria where Boko Haram is based with 40 per cent of the attacks are in Borno State. The nature of the attacks in Nigeria, in the begging were more like armed assaults using firearms and knives, however in 2014 it increased for suicide attacks mainly perpetuated by women and children suicide bombs against private citizens and education or religious institutions. It is important to understand that the terrorist group hold some support base in the northeast of the Country because not just of the ethnic ties but also because of the poverty, illiteracy and insecurity resulted from the Nigerian State. According to International Amnesty, with the new President in Power, there was a sustained offensive by the military, with assistance from the armed forces of Cameroon, Chad and Niger which forced the Boko Haram out of towns in northeastern Nigeria. Also, the military announced the recovery of more tan 1,400 people from territories controlled by Boko Haram. However, the Organization also assumed that Boko Haram continued to kill civilians through raids and bomb attacks.8 Along these lines, according to the Humanitarian Response to Nigeria, there is an ongoing humanitarian crisis in the northeast of Nigeria, causing human suffering with 7,000 women and girls living in abduction and sex slavery and over 8 million people are facing food insecure.9 It becomes crucial to understand that in order to promote peace and prosperity and ensure that the rights of Nigerians are protected, it has to be elaborated a collective plane to fight Boko Haram, not only by the International Community but also and most important by the Government measures.
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Global Report on Internal Displacement. 2016. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Norwegian Refugee Council.
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Anual Report Nigeria. 2015/2016. International Amnesty
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Humanitarian Response to Nigeria
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IV. Conclusion/Recommendations
After presenting a contextualization of Nigeria in terms of economic, political and society context and a resume of Boko Haram it can be conclude that Boko Haram is losing ground, fighters and resources. However, it is important to prevent a future insurgency and increase the respect for human rights of the Nigerians. Thus and so, I will present five important recommendations according to some specialists to fight the terrorist group. First recommendation and according to International Crisis Group, it is crucial for the Nigerian Government to improve the politics of the Government with the goal to decrease corruption. Nigeria, one of the richest countries of Africa, has one of the highest levels of poverty and in this sense, politics, political violence, bad governance and poverty are connected. Because of the political economy driven by huge oil receipts there is a systemic corruption.10 This has greater implication on the society because the opportunities are just for few and the ethnic minorities or sectarian groups are who suffer the most. Poverty is a consequence of bad governance. In this sense, after presenting the Boko Haram group and the divided society of Nigeria in the previous chapters, many in the North suffer from a lack education with no skills to employment which make them an easily target for anti-state and militia groups. It is crucial to Buhari's Government continue the fight agains t corruption and focus also on the government administration to the poorest peripheries with “a more comprehensive strategy that targets the economic, social and cultural roots of the crisis�.11 Secondly, according to International Crisis Group, it is important to enhanced democratic space by making the government open and accessible to debate. This can be adjusted to the response of the Government by consider how to treat captured soldiers of Boko Haram to prevent violence and mitigate future recruitment. They should, instead, try to obtain crucial information of the insurgency and the recruitment process (there is still lack of information) to find ways to avoid it. Also, the Government should be prepared to engage with Boko Haram leader who may be looking for a compromise.12 Thirdly, it is crucial to facilitate and support humanitarian assistance and income support to vulnerable groups. This need to be addressed when delivering humanitarian assistance and respect for the citizens that had been suffering. If the Government provide food, security, education and health to the citizens they will feel comfortable to cooperate with federal and state authorities. And 10
Curbing Violence in Nigeria (II): The Boko Haram Insurgency. International Crisis Group. 2014. Brussels
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Curbing Violence in Nigeria (II): The Boko Haram Insurgency. International Crisis Group. 2014. Brussels
Boko Haram on the Back Foot?. International Crisis Group. 2016. Brussels
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more important, if the state provides income support to vulnerable groups, it becomes easy for them to feel integrated in the Nigerian society and harder for the extremists to recruit new soldiers. This needs to be address with a promotion of education, including girls, as the only way to conduct the future generation with a more equal society. Therefore, it has big chances of decreasing the extremists recruitment. In this sense, additional programs for the resettlement of the displaced and abducted, as well as assistance in rebuilding towns destructed by Boko Haram should be created.13 Fourthly, the Donors and Partners should press the Nigerian Government in working with the northern political, traditional and religious elites as the only way to do a comprehensive approach to the Boko Haram’s challenge.14 Sometimes the difficult about the donors and partners is due to the fact that Nigeria is already a rich country with enough money to develop projects and programs to improve the citizens quality of life. But instead of helping with more financial help, they should instead pressure the Government to understand that working with the diversity between south and north it can be the only way to reduce poverty and therefore, the insurgency that comes from that. Fifth and to conclude with my opinion during the research about Boko Haram and Nigeria dynamics, I should assume that this giant of Afica, blessed with natural and human resources, did not know how to allocate the oil revenues by improving life conditions of the northern population. This divided society with different ethnic minorities are who suffer the most and it become easier for the growing of the insurgency groups and the activities of Boko Haram in the North-Eastern part of Nigeria represents that. It is urgent to address more effective counter-strategies because Boko haram continued to commit war crimes and the genocide in Baga where 2,000 people died need to be remembered. In order to resolve the violence of Boko Haram, the state must be more democratic, combat the corruption, increased the number of economic aid programs to improve the citizens life. Adding to this, the world political leaders must put the Jihadist Nigeria at the level of the other jihadist groups. It can not be seeing anymore as “one more war in Africa�
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Beyond Terror. Addressing the Boko Haram Challenge in Nigeria. Kate Meagher. Norwegian Peacebuilding resource centre.2014 Curbing Violence in Nigeria (II): The Boko Haram Insurgency. International Crisis Group. 2014. Brussels
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Bibliography
Anual Report Nigeria. 2015/2016. International Amnesty AGHEDO, Iro and Oarhe Osumah. 2012. “The Boko Haram Uprising: how should Nigeria Respond?� Third World Quarterly 33, no. 5: 861. Boko Haram on the Back Foot?. International Crisis Group. 2016. Brussels CORPSMAN, Anthony H. The Uncertain Trends in the Metrics of Terrorism. CSIS, Center for Strategic and International Studies. 2016. Washington. Curbing Violence in Nigeria (II): The Boko Haram Insurgency. International Crisis Group. 2014. Brussels Freedom In the World 2016. Freedom House Index. 2016 Global Terrorism Index. 2015. Institute for Economics and Peace. Global Report on Internal Displacement. 2016. Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Norwegian Refugee Council. Humanitarian Response Plan Nigeria. January-December 2016 MEAGHER, Kate. Beyond Terror. Addressing the Boko Haram Challenge in Nigeria.Norwegian Peacbuilding resource centre.2014 ONAH, Emmannuel"The Nigerian State as an equilibrium of violence: An explanation of the Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria." African Journal on Conflict Resolution 14, no. 2 (2014), 64. PICHETTE. Andrew.The Rise of Boko Haram: An Analysis of Failed Government. Illinois Wesleyan University. 2015. PLACIDO DOS SANTOS, Gustavo. The path to secession in Africa: the case of Sudan and Nigeria.
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Online Information: https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/west-africa/nigeria/nigeria-challenge-militaryreform http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/NGA https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2016/nigeria http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/09/nigeria-deeply-divided-says-un-report/ http://venturesafrica.com/10-critical-issues-nigeria-will-face-in-2016/ https://www.controlrisks.com/en/our-thinking/-analysis/terrorism-outlook https://www.trackingterrorism.org/group/fulani-herdsmen-nigeria http://othersolutions.eu/boko-haram-swears-allegiance-to-the-islamic-state/ http://mg.co.za/article/2016-02-17-why-boko-haram-is-the-worlds-deadliest-terrorgroup https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/nigeria/report-nigeria/ https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/west-africa/nigeria/curbing-violence-nigeria-iiboko-haram-insurgency https://www.academia.edu/20824405/ The_path_to_secession_in_Africa_the_case_of_Sudan_and_Nigeria
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