On the front burner of national discourse today are the incendiary activities of Boko Haram, the Islamist terror group that was initiated in 2002 in Bauchi and Borno states. But the disclosure of the identities of five persons arrested in connection with the April 14, 2014 bomb blast at Nyanya in Abuja by the Department of State Service should provoke a new approach to checking the spread of terrorism in the country.
The profiles of the paraded suspects, including that of a military deserter who had served in the intelligence unit of the Nigerian Army and a son of a top retired army officer, coupled with their frightening confessions, especially the plans to launch “mass attacks against the Nigerian state,” clearly confirm the entrenchment of terrorism in the land.
Although Nigerians are outraged at the evil turn of events, the country is headed the wrong route in trying to end the unfolding carnage. The major problem is that there is a misconception of what terror (Boko Haram) is. Until this misconceived notion is cast out of the window through “a mind war,” as the Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, said recently, Nigeria cannot effectively end terror in its territory.
Living in denial of terror by citing the forthcoming 2015 general election as the cause of the spike in Boko Haram activities, as many high-ranking government officials are wont to do or concocting some mind boggling conspiracy theories is another challenge that has to be overcome. An example is the view credited to the Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in April. She said, “We tend to notice that when the electoral cycle comes up, these things heat up.” What a wrong view to hold about terror. Or the myopic view of the All Progressives Congress, as stated by one of its leaders, Muhammadu Buhari, that “until the falling standard of education in Nigeria is fixed to engage out-of-school children, the incessant attacks on innocent Nigerians, particularly in the North-East, may get worse.” This misunderstanding or politicisation of terrorism can only aid its spread.
Boko Haram is nothing but a virulent form of terrorism. The terror group which has killed about 2,500 Nigerians this year – and over 15,000 in all – has linked up with the main al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab and other Islamist terror organisations intent on employing jihad to establish an Islamic world order. Not satisfied with the devastation it has wreaked, Boko Haram, being currently led by Abubakar Shekau, provoked elephantine outrage on April 14 when its bomb wasted 76 innocent Nigerian souls at Nyanya Motor Park, near Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital. The same day, Boko Haram agents abducted 276 schoolgirls at the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State. Four weeks after, most of the girls, who were sitting for the school certificate examination, have yet to be rescued.
Like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “Underwear Bomber”, one of the suspects of the Nyanya bombing, Aminu Ogwuche, the ex-soldier wanted in connection with the Nyanya bombing, cannot be said to be poor or uneducated. The same ideology that drove Abdulmutallab to attempt to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253, en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas Day, 2009, must have inspired the motor park bombers. The uncomfortable truth is that hundreds of Farouks are getting radicalised in our country but we continue to live in denial.
The main challenge before citizens in the other parts of Nigeria not yet totally infiltrated by the evil ideology is to end all the pretence that is fuelling its expansion, as espoused by the Singapore-based Religious Rehabilitation Group. According to RRG, Islamist jihadists believe in “a twisted form of Islamic concepts which form their ideology of hate and terror.” Tony Blair, a former British Prime Minister, vividly captured their goal when he said, “For the last 40 to 50 years, there has been a steady stream of funding, proselytising, organising and promulgating coming out of the Middle-East, pushing views of religion that are narrow-minded and dangerous. Unfortunately, we seem blind to the enormous global impact such teaching has had and is having.”
Globally, RRG says, Islamist jihadists believe that it is their divine duty to establish the Islamic Caliphate which is a utopian state, where they perceive justice and peace will flourish. Their ability to pick and choose certain pristine Islamic concepts as tools used for their corrupted political goals signifies the crookedness of their intention.
Uniquely, they interpret these concepts without proper methodological formulation and arrogantly believe their interpretation and understanding of these concepts are real and succinct. Their motivation is made more iron clad by the belief that Jihad guarantees them heaven.
Concepts such as al-wala wal bara became loyalty to all that follow their ways and hatred to all that oppose them. Jihad became exclusively war. Through their bai’ah (pledge of allegiance), they hold that their amir (leader) has their absolute trust. They consent to istimata (seeking death through suicide) to achieve their goals, while believing that the utopian virgins in heaven will await their martyrs. This is the evil ideology that is driving Boko Haram and nothing else. Poverty comes in only to that extent that the hard core jihadist ideologies can recruit ignorant, poor youths as foot soldiers.
The federal and state governments should heed this warning. They must be ready to fend off this movement before it takes firm root in other parts of the country. Sitting down and thinking that the Boko Haram terror will be limited to the northern part of the country is wishful thinking. Independent intelligence gathering efforts outside of what the Federal Government security outfits are doing must be intensified; the outcome of such investigations should be put to good use to stop terrorists in their tracks before they strike. Fighting Boko Haram demands discrediting this evil ideology and keeping it from spreading.
