Why Boko Haram Insurgency may remain in the Northeast

Head of Department of Sociology and Anthropology Department, University of Maiduguri, Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim is among the few scholars from the North who saw the emergence of Boko Haram group as a time bomb. But his concern and that of his colleagues were dismissed by too much politics and negligence on the part of the government. During a one-hour conversation with AJIBOLA AMZAT in his office, the eminent scholar traces the origin and evolution of Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast. He concludes that terrorism in the region is a direct consequence of economic deprivation and poor investment in human development that have been allowed to endure for too long by the political leadership in the region.

Did the sociologists in the northern universities foresee the ascendancy of Boko Haram?
Some of us did. There was a time I went do a research in a village around Maiduguri. The village is called Chukuguduwa. The research was on gender need assessment. We wanted to know how parents celebrate their newborn babies- male or females. Do they give prominence to a particular gender above the other? Are the parents happier when the baby is of a particular gender or not? We assume that the variance will in a way affect the child as he or she grows up. So I went to the village. There was no specific road leading to the village, we have to follow several routes. And before we got there we were already covered by a lot of dust. When I arrived, I saw a lot of youths in that village, doing nothing. And in the village you could see a man selling orange but has four wives and he will be producing many children, up to 40 children. And this man may not even be able to account for the children he has. Day-in-day-out, you see these children doing nothing. In fact, there is no impact of government in that village. So when I saw that kind of situation, I knew it was a time bomb.

What year was that?
That was about 3 years ago. Boko Haram has started, but their activities had not reached the level it has today. I think the politicians contributed to its ascendancy, there are issues of anger and other factors. And Frantz Fanon once said if you are looking for resources for revolution, go to villages. When I saw the youths in this village, I knew that there was a huge problem on the way. In this village, there are people who could not get N1000 ($4) in a year.

So it was no surprise to me when Yusuf started going to villages to preach, and he was radical in his approach. He was attacking certain polices of the government that did not allow the youths to gain access to opportunities. He was speaking directly to their problems. Later, his group had problem with the politicians, their mosque was burnt down, their leader was killed and all that, so it became a serious threat.

Remember that many of these people do not have Western education; they do not even know so well the religion they propagate. The little their leader tells them is what they follow. They are made to believe they are fighting a cause that will improve their lives. And people who could not get N1000 a year are now getting N50, 000 from ATM to fight their enemies, which was then the government agent.

So I saw this problem, but not necessarily in the form of Boko Haram, but I know things like this would happen.

Did you mean to say Boko Haram leaders are not literate even in Islamic education?
Yes! Yes! You know Islamic scholarship has to do with a lot of things. It has its own history, politics and philosophy. It is not about sitting under the tree reading Quran. Reading Arabic language does not mean much on its own. There are a lot of things they don’t know about Islam. What they do mostly is pray five times per day and read the Quran and nothing more. But Islam has a lot of things. Some of the Boko Haram leaders are promoting this terror for economic reason.

Where did the leaders of Boko Haram get their own teaching?
Muhammed Yusuf was a young man who has read Quran to the level where he can teach it. He was even attending the general mosque in Maiduguri until there was a misunderstanding and he stopped going. He later set up his own mosque and started teaching. His pattern of teaching was so radical. For this, he attracted a lot of youths. Remembers many of these youths are unemployed. Many go to his mosque especially on Fridays. Yusuf himself was not a very lettered man even in Islamic education. He just had fine oratory and was very intelligent.

His members had problem with government over the introduction of head helmet for motorcycle riders. Some of the members objected to wearing the helmet. So, one day, they went for the burial of their members. Some of them did not wear the helmet and the police apprehended them. The arrested members were maltreated and their mosque was burnt down. Then they got angry and retaliated by killing policemen and soldiers. But the soldiers were indiscriminate in their reprisal attack. They were killing both members and non-members of Boko haram. This situation made the youths of the town to form a Civilian JTF (Joint Task Force) and chased the insurgents out of the town because they know them. The insurgents later settled in the villages because it is very easy to operate from the village.

What is the idea behind Boko Haram? Do they honestly despise Western education?
The meaning of Boko Haram is a bit twisted. I think the media amplifies the popular meaning. What this group was saying that time as I understand is that those who have acquired Western education do not do the right thing, rather what they do is in conflict with the Islamic precepts or the principle of morality as stated by Islam. Essentially what they are saying is that if you go to university and receive training as banker or doctor or lawyer, then you graduate and you don’t do the right thing, you steal public fund, then the education you acquired is haram. Some Islamic scholars met in Kaduna sometimes ago and agreed that there is also Quran haram, that is, if you read Quran and you don’t follow the guidelines of Quran, then that is Quran haram. This is the perspective. But it was the media that twisted the meaning to suggest that they despise Western education. Many of their leaders are University graduates.

What role did the politicians play in the evolution of the group?
Let’s start by saying Nigeria is not lucky to have the kind if people that lead the country. Nigerian politicians are bad people. Most of them are there just to enrich themselves, and not to develop the society. Today you see somebody who just graduated from the university and is elected as local government chairman and he becomes suddenly rich. Stealing and corruption have become the order of the day. This practice was what Mohammed Yusuf was preaching against. So when he preached to ordinary people about this dysfunction, people believed him easily because he was touching on the things that affect their lives.

So the politicians don’t protect the interest of the people. During election, they go everywhere in the state campaigning, they win the election and they forget the people. They drive jeep and other big cars, build big houses, and the ordinary man does not even have common water to drink. Yusuf’s people therefore spoke against them and the politicians also replied them, that was the genesis of the Boko Haram terrorism in Maiduguri.

How would you react to the argument that, poverty and corruption exists in other states in Nigeria without degenerating to the level of terrorism that the Northeast is now known for?

Which part of the country are you talking about?

Say Southwest for example
Well, I have been to the Southwest, and the level of poverty in these states is not as deep as what you can find in the North. If you go to villages here, you will know that the real poverty is in the North.

The other factor is the level of education, both Western and traditional. In the Southwest, you will see that Yoruba have the right education of Islam. Even if the politicians there are as bad as we have here, he people there are better educated. And when people are rightly educated, they will know how to protest against injustice. In democracy, you register your anger through your representatives. But here, because of lack of education, our people don’t even know how to channel their grievance. Go to some of the villages in the North, there is no existence of government. You will not see hospital, you will not see schools, you will not see government buildings, and money is coming to the states year-in-year-out and people are hearing about it. That is the problem. If you go to the villages in the Southwest, you will see schools, you will see hospitals; the basic presence of government is there. Of course you find some problems also in the Southwest, but the real poverty is in the North.

Do you see any contradiction in the ideology of Boko Haram group by leaving the power class to target the underclass?
Yes, there is a contradiction. But initially, they started attacking the police as the agents of the government. And they killed a lot of politicians also. By the time they were driven out of Maiduguri town into villages, they had nobody to attack again. The politicians do not live in the villages. The insurgents now resorted to burning villages so that they will continue to register their anger to the government. And there is an economic dimension to it- by the time they loot a village, there are lot of things they will go away with. They go away with food and other things. That is why the ordinary man is targeted. They no longer have access to the politicians who are more protected by the agencies of government such as the police and the military. Targeting the people making bad policies is difficult.

Why is the contribution of the academic community in the fight against Boko Haram so insignificant?
Yes, it is a known fact that Nigerian academics did not play major role in the fight against Boko Haram. But that is because advice from experts are only taken by the government but not implemented by the people in government. Researches carried out in the past are submitted to the government, but do they implement them? No! If the recommendations made are going to especially affect the personal interest of politicians, they are not likely to touch them.
The main thing that is contributing to this insurgency is poverty and lack of education that we know as a result of our researches. The largest populations of our people are in the villages. As I said, one person in the village may have up to 40 children. We have done researches around this concern and submitted to the federal government. We have not seen it implemented. We have written lots of books. As university lecturers, there is little we can do. Ours is just to talk. We don’t control the economy; we don’t control the police or the army.

What recommendations have you made?
We have recommended that youths should be engaged. You don’t necessarily have to hand out money to them. Assist them in farming. As long as youths don’t have anything to do, Boko Haram will remain. If we successfully fight the insurgency, many of these youths will find reason to cause terror again if they are not engaged economically.

How effective can strategic counter insurgency proposal by your group be in ending terrorism in the Northeast?
It is a theoretical model we are putting together in order to arrive at a moderate position of ending the insurgency. We are saying the leaders who are custodians of the public resources no longer function in that way, instead they think the resources are theirs. And this mode of thinking is affecting the harmonious relationship in the society.

There is a lot of explanation to all these. There is the economic model, political model, and religious model. So if we apply only one, it may not work because each factor is playing its roles and is interactive. So we are looking at how we can reconcile these models in order to arrive at a position that is effective. But again, we can only recommend, it is left for the government to implement our recommendations.

Do you think Borno government is effectively doing enough in ending the problem of insurgency?
It depends on how you look at it. Some people are saying the governor is trying while some are saying he is not trying. Some are saying now that Boko Haram has taken over all the local government areas, the governor has a lot of money to play with. The governor now control revenues allocated to all local governments in the state. And by the time you compare the size of the allocations and the projects of the government, you realize that the money is certainly not being properly used. That is what some people will tell you. If you look at certain structure in the city, you could also say he is trying. In my own opinion, I don’t think he is trying. I will agree with those who think he has more money than what he spends on IDP and social infrastructure. I think Buhari government should really look deeper into the affairs of Borno State.

How do you see the future of the Northeast if Boko Haram insurgents are finally defeated?
I am a little bit comforted that Buhari is in power. I think governance will improve during Buhari administtaion.

What kind of programmes do you think will bring rapid improvement to the people of this region?
Farming activities should be improved. We have a lot of farmland here. Government should organise the farming sector so that both the educated and illiterates can be engaged. The moment the youths are engaged and they are getting monetary gain; they will have no time to partake in insurgency. They should also open up schools. Just do anything to engage the youth constructively.

How about religious extremisms that is at the root of Boko Haram insurgency?
We have recommended that every preacher should at least have a diploma in theology through which they can also learn about human relations. Muslim preacher should not be allowed to make Christian angry and Christian preacher should not be allowed to make Muslim angry through their preaching. The kind of preachers we have in the past don’t seem to know the implication of the statement they make in the public. How can you say somebody who is not a Muslim would go to hell or that if you kill a non -Muslim, you will have a reward in paradise? This is not true. The context within which these statements were made in the Quran was not like that. Islamic teachers do not teach the Quran properly and that is part of the problems.

In what context was the statement then made?
Prophet Mohammed brought Islam. He was the one entrusted by Allah to bring the message. And the prophet himself has said it several times and has practiced it several times that, a Muslim is not different from a person of other religion. The prophet stayed with non-Muslim. His uncle and guardian did not accept his preaching yet they lived together under one roof. You can only attract somebody into Islam by a good behavior, not by forcing him or her.

In fact, the first Jihad a Muslim must wage is a Jihad against self. You do that by improving yourself. Someone’s money dropped, you saw it and called the person “Malam your money dropped on the floor”, that is fighting against self. That is the first Jihad. But the preacher in this part of the country does not emphasize this Jihad.

Rather, what they emphasise as Jihad is the killing of a non-Muslim who does them no wrong. That is not Islam.