Terrorism and Counter- Terrorism in Africa- Case Study- Nigerian Boko Haram
Thesis
This main objective of the research is to make attempts at broadly analyzing the Boko Haram Sect in Nigeria, bringing a clearer view on their motives, aims and organizational background as well as the delving into its origin to determine why the group is prevalent in the northern part of Nigeria and not in other parts of the country. Also, the research critically reviews the notion that the Boko Haram sect is an organized group that has the support of domestic and international groups to enhances political and financial gains. Findings of this research show that the continuous civil unrest, poor governance, abuse of human rights, high rate of unemployment etc have all contributed to the crisis in Africa, and the lack of the basic needs of survival due to economic hardship has put over 55 million Africans into poverty in 2020 and around Thirty-three percent of the countries in Africa were classified as the least developed in the world in 2023, and about 8 countries declared debt stress and another 13 are at high risk of debt stress (Chatham, 2024). To this end, it was discovered that the number of people joining extremist groups are largely due to economic factors rather than religious factors, according to a United Nation Program report (UNDP) an increase of 92 percent new recruits join extremist group for better livelihood in comparison to the motivation of those interviewed in their 2017 report. Regarding the research question findings show that Nigeria’s strategy towards insurgencies since the beginning of 2010 is the deployment of its Joint Task Force (JTF) which consist of the Air Force, Navy, State Security Services, Police and the Army all operating under a unified command structure in order to enhance coordination between the forces foster efficient intelligence sharing amongst the forces and encourage unity of direction between the forces necessary for the countering of insurgencies, “although this has been limited. The Nigerian parliament passed anti-terrorism legislation, originally introduced in 2011, in 2013. The law was designed, in part, to facilitate greater counterterrorism coordination, but interagency cooperation and information sharing remains limited by Nigeria’s federal structure, which has caused confusion between chief state security officers and federally controlled security forces. Nigerian JTF counterinsurgency operations in the northeast have been “generally repressive,” relying heavily on military-led operations to kill and capture “scores” of Boko Haram insurgents since the movement was first brutally crushed in 2009, while this use of force has clearly enabled the JTF to pressure Boko Haram strongholds in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa and reduce the scope of its activity, it has also produced large-scale extrajudicial killings, mass arrests and intimidation of civilians, who are treated as insurgent sympathizers” (Afeikhena Jerome, Lessons from Columbia for Combating the Boko haram Insurgency in Nigeria, 2015). Nigeria has been faced with several challenges and constraints in their security force response, especially as it relates to mismanagement of funds and significant corruption in the system, over USD470 million was deployed to purchase Public Security and Communication Systems, however, the funds was poorly managed, and the project has long been abandoned. In terms of the research hypothesis analysis show that there are views that the Boko Haram sect is just an Islamic group that is seeking the attention of the Nigerian government regarding the Islamization of the States in Nigeria especially the Northern States and the enforcement of the Sharia Law on those states while declaring the alienation of the Western Civilization, for instance (Walter Gam Nkwi 2015). The research also revealed uncertified rumors in the country that attributes the fact that the Boko Haram is a political tool that is being used by some elitist and politicians for personal political gains they provide ammunitions for the Boko Haram group to combat the army, usually to win an opponent in an election, the group is also being paid to cause chaos especially in the regions where they are dominant during an election cycle to scare voters away so they do not come out to vote especially when a particular politician know that he/she is losing to an opponent, this they do by ensuring that funds that are allocated to by the Federal government of the country to train military personnel does not get to them and money allocated to buy sophisticated weapons to overpower those of the sect will not be used to purchase same . For instance, a report by Afeikhena Jerome show that lack of investment in training, failure to maintain equipment and dwindling cooperation with Western forces has damaged Nigeria’s armed services (Afeikhena Jerome 100), also recent report by Chatham House points out that soldiers in the northeast are suffering from malfunctioning equipment, low morale, desertions, and mutinies. Despite a large increase in government spending on the army from a security budget totaling almost $5.8 billion, little of it has found its way to the front lines. Four hundred-eighty Nigerian soldiers were alleged to have fled to Cameroon in August 2014, when they were confronted with superior weapons in the hands of Boko Haram insurgents. In June 2014, ten generals and five other senior security staff were reportedly court martialed for arming and providing intelligence to the group, with twelve (12) of them sentenced for execution in September 2014” (Afeikhena Jerome, 2015). Finally, the research show that a critical factor necessary in combating terrorism is Intelligence, Intelligence is a crucial tool that is required if any meaningful headway is to be made in combating terrorism across the global, and particularly Africa.