Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s alarm last week that wealthy Nigerians were leaving home to join terrorists is refreshing. Though a bit late in coming, this realisation represents another piece of the terrorism puzzle falling into place for a ruling elite that has been confounded by a bloody spin-off from global Islamist terrorism. Having identified the problem, however, this government should be more creative in its counter measures than its clueless, blundering predecessor in confronting the anarchists.
The reality that some children of the rich and influential are also flocking to the banner of violent jihadism further discredits the false narrative that blames poverty as the prime factor driving youths to horrific acts of cruelty in the name of religion. This misguided diagnosis has served to justify our government’s dithering and its lack of a robust, holistic response to terrorism. The global community, especially the West, has been lulled into inertia by this notion. According to some so-called foreign “experts” on Nigeria, non-profit agencies and cynical diplomats, the Boko Haram insurgency is driven by “poverty and injustice.” The Council on Foreign Relations and International Crisis Group, among other think tanks, and the US State Department, for example, consistently cite pervasive poverty in the North-East zone, injustice, corruption and unemployment for the terrorist campaign, suggesting that the entire bloodletting fury is driven by a desire to address these grievances.
But we must properly situate this view in line with Osinbajo’s revelation and the thousands of privileged youths from the West flocking behind the jihadist flag. The Vice-President appeared surprised at the departure from the norm of those lured by money, wondering how “for some strange reasons, terrorist groups, made up of the mindless and almost insane people,” were easily recruiting rich youths.
We have said it repeatedly: Islamist jihadism is driven by a universal ideology that seeks to supplant existing world governments with a global caliphate, based on a narrow interpretation of sharia law enunciated and implemented by self-appointed zealots. Rooted in salafism, an ultra-orthodox movement that seeks a return to rustic seventh century theocracy, Islamist terrorism opts for indiscriminate violence, terror and mass slaughter to achieve its objective. It offers a false piety and the promise of eternal paradise for its adherents, especially those who die fighting. This is a powerful aphrodisiac for misguided youths of all classes.
Nigeria will do well therefore to devise intelligent means to stem the flow of brainwashed children of the elite leaving home to join terrorists. It is not a new phenomenon. A number of youths from rich homes are said to be in detention centres in the North-East, male and female, nabbed among captured terrorists, as financiers or providers of material assistance or while en route to jihadist enclaves. In his defiant rant at his trial, “Underwear Bomber,” Farouk AbdulMuttalab, son of the millionaire banker who attempted to blow up a plane over Detroit, USA, boasted that there were many Nigerians like him in terrorist training camps in Sudan and Yemen. The middle-aged son of a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, who reportedly left his posh life to undertake the perilous journey from Abuja to join terrorists in Syria with his wife and children in tow, was seeking a better “after-life.” The kingpins of terrorism — from Osama bin Laden, his successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Anwar al-Awlaki to the hijackers of 9/11 — were from prominent families or were well educated. Self-appointed Islamic State “caliph,” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is a doctorate holder.
Unlike Western cultures, we still have extensive family and social structures that can be harnessed to help de-radicalise our youths and prevent them from being sucked into the vortex. Over 20,000 foreign fighters have travelled to the Middle East to join terrorist groups, according to some estimates. Between 5,000 and 6,000 Europeans went to Syria to join ISIS in the year to April 2015, 1,450 of them French, according to the European Union. Its counter-terrorism chief, Gilles de Kerchove, said social media was deployed to recruit young Europeans, including girls going to marry jihadists. Some 600 Western girls moved from various countries in the month of May alone. The US Department of Justice said 250 deluded Americans had joined ISIS this year, while Canada reported 45 of its citizens travelling to wage jihad in 2014.
It is the sacred duty of every responsible government to eradicate poverty and ours should not be an exception. In combating terrorism in all its ramifications, including stopping the emigration of our youths, rich or poor, to terrorist camps, however, the solution must begin with the right understanding of the problem. CFR identifies fringe mosques, internet sites and extremist preachers as major agents radicalising youths. In Nigeria, some preachers have become almost above the law, ignored by the security agencies despite their incendiary hate messages and links with extremist foreign agencies.
Boko Haram and other extremist groups partly base their campaign of hate against the state on the grounds that the 12 states that adopted criminal aspects of sharia law are apostates by not going far enough. Many northern states also stoke the fire by plunging headlong into religion instead of sticking to their constitutional role of guaranteeing freedom of faith within the law. By violating the constitution in the name of religion, such state governments embolden zealots.
In implementing its crisis communication initiative, we encourage the government to involve the state governments which should map out counterpart enlightenment programmes at the local government level to counter extremist ideology. Success however will hang on the ability of the intelligence services and the police to identify, monitor, infiltrate and dismantle recruitment rings and terrorist cells.
