#BringBackOurGirls The Role of ethnicity and religion in Nigerian Politics There is little that most Nigerians like about their political system, but things did not start out that way. A few polls done in the early 1960s suggested that only 84 percent of those sampled viewed Nigeria in national terms. However, that early optimism did not turn into sustained support for any of the country’s regimes. If anything, Nigerians have grown more skeptical and cynical about their politics and their politicians. The following map of Map of Nigerian Ethnic groups reveals a systemic political leadership and cultural representation along the timeline. Military Rulers
Civilian Govt
1966-1966
1960-1966
1960-1966
1966-1975
1975-1976
1979-1983
1976-1979
1999-2007
1983-1985
1993-1993
1985-1993
-1993-
1993-1998
1998-1999
Map of Nigerian Ethnic groups and leadership - cultural representation and timeline
2007-2010
2010-current
Part of the problem is that Nigeria is one of the most fragmented countries in the world. The country is largely divided along overlapping religious and ethnic lines. Evidence suggests that ethnic identity matters more than just a source of pride. It is primary to citizens; while national pride is secondary and religion is tertiary. This sequence is true for the Igbos, but different according to Hausa-Fulani or Yorubas, all which makes up the three largest groups in a country where more than 400 ethnic groups subsist traditionally with very little in common politically, socially, or historically. Closely paralleling ethnicity is religion. However, religion is nowhere near as important as ethnicity in most of the south, where, for instance, Yoruba tend to act nationalistic as Nigerians more often than as Yorubas, although this gesture is largely met with distrust from other groups and the Yorubas themselves. In the north, however, it is hard to disentangle the impact of religion and ethnicity because so much of Hausa-Fulani culture is defined along Islamic lines. Traditional political and religious officials (who are often one and the same) have resisted attempts to "Westernize" the region, often with considerable success. Many northerners are afraid that southern (or modern) cultural values and economic practices will undermine their way of life. Women and men have separate lines to voting booths and while women enjoy improved opportunities to participate in public life, Sharia
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#BringBackOurGirls (Islamic law) statutes in northern states restrict their rights in relation to property, marriage, and other areas of civil right benefits. Southerners, by contrast, fear that a northern majority could seize power and leave them a permanent and aggrieved minority. Nigeria is not only fragmented, it is also polarized. However, Nigeria is less polarized by ethnicity today as it by religion and politics. In his book, ‘Thinking With You’ first written in 1963 (published 1965), Professor Tai Solarin, said “To be a Nigerian is to be real gambler” and endeavored to describe the country’s negligence to develop necessary institutions to raise awareness about the impact of high rate unemployment, political corruption, impunity and Laissez-faire in the private sector. He warned then, that if negligence persists, Nigeria could become the cruelest capitalist country in the world and corruption in government could encourage incubators for terrorist activity to develop. Most Nigerians live in abject poverty; in fact, poverty is one of the few things most Nigerians share across cultural boundaries. The gap between rich and poor has grown dramatically, in particular as the corrupt political elite has siphoned off public funds to support lavish life-style. Today, not much has changed in that aspect of Nigeria’s inability to establish the necessary institutions to curb political corruption, regulate Laissez-faire in the private sector, or to provide safety of lives and property and combat impunity. Nigerians are very quick in blaming its government as greedy and selfish, and Nigerian government in turn finds its defense by blaming the people as obtuse and undeserving in return. This explains the current culture of alienation, suspicion, distrust and disrespect as well as lack of essential cooperation between government and people.
Making Sense of it all (What does it all mean) The news of the Government College Chibok students (GCC) abduction came just less than 24 hours after Nigerians were trying to recover from the bomb blast perpetrated by Boko Haram at Nyanya park in the outskirts of the Federal Capital, Abuja, which claimed at least 80 lives, with over 120 injured. Why? Why? Why? Why should life be meaningful? This could very well be one of the questions in the minds of the girls from the Government Secondary school in Chibok as they were being taken away by Boko haram on that faithful night April 14, 2014. I thought it was the end of my life,” says Deborah Sanya, before she convinced herself and 3 of her friends to escape when one the trucks used by the terrorist group, broke down. 300 girls had been kidnaped in the middle of the night; taken from their school dormitory. Local elders in Chibok said that the kidnapped girls had been taken across the border into Chad and Cameroon to be “married” off to their captors for the sum of 2,000 Nigerian naira — or $12 US. There are rumors that the young female captives were sexually abused and forced to convert to Islam. Other rumors suggested that two of the girls have died of snakebite and about 20 are ill. This must be particularly sad for parents as the world celebrates Mother’s day on May 11, but their pain is somewhat mitigated by the shear sympathy and support that they continue to receive from the whole world.
Realities of the Nigerian Government Many members of the government, president’s political camps, including some government press, member of the police and military waged a campaign to cast doubts from the onset, that news about abducted girls in Chibok was in fact a plot to discredit the incumbent ruling party in lieu of the upcoming presidential election in 2015. The Nigerian military however made the matters worse, when it alleged that all the girls had been rescued, however forced by international protesters and parents groups to retract its claim 24 hours later. The circumstances of the kidnapping,
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#BringBackOurGirls and the military’s deception, especially, have confirmed a deeply troubling aspect of Nigeria’s leadership. In the wake of the military’s failure, parents banded together and raised money to send several of their number into the forest to search for the girls with just bows and arrows.
One week after the abduction, there was yet no word from the federal government on what it was doing to secure the release of the girls, but there were clear actions to make sure that the annual World Economic Forum taking place in Africa for the first time is not to be affected. These are the types of extreme choices that make Nigeria a culture of real gamblers. Protestors began to demonstrate against government inaction on the GCC girls’ abduction everywhere when the hashtag “#BringBackOurGirls” launched by a Nigerian lawyer Ibrahim Abdullahi surfaced on twitter. The phrased “Bring Back Our Daughters” was first used by Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, vice-president of the World Bank for Africa, to send a message to the government to intervene and rescue the missing girls and diplomatically referring to the government’s inaction and doubts about the kidnapping of the Chibok girls during a televised opening ceremony of the Port Harcourt World Book Capital, 2014 UNESCO event.
Worldwide Protests So far, #BringBackOurGirls has been tweeted nearly 2 million times, including posts from President Obama, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a shooting by Taliban insurgents, and many others. As condemnation of the abductions spread, Saudi Arabia's grand mufti, the top religious authority in the birthplace of Islam, said Boko Haram rebels who conducted the abductions had "set up to smear the image of Islam". Sheikh also said Boko Haram had been "misguided" and should be "shown their wrong path and be made to reject it". “I am happy that the world is aware of the situation and the atrocities being committed by Boko Haram,” said Mr. Abdullahi. “The involvement of the international community is also putting pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan to live up to his responsibilities.” Nigeria has welcomed foreign assistances encouraged by a U.S. offer of logistics and intelligence support. Great Britain, France, China, Israel among others has offered to lend support in apprehending the local terrorist group. The global interest on the issue has unearthed several levels of insights about how and why Nigeria has managed to cultivate a terrorist group that became Boko Haram and at the same time, put the Nigeria government under close scrutiny of leadership, governance, integrity, and accountability. The underlying ideology of Boko Haram may have some characteristics that are very specific to Nigerian system and the local culture. One of the purposes of this report is to create a mosaic analysis that establishes the root of Islamic jihadist movement in Nigeria. It appears that the root is very deep, which means that the solution is going to
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#BringBackOurGirls be complex as Boko Haram would have only emerged as a leader among similar groups. Therefore defeating and disbanding Boko Haram would only provide temporary respite, not peace.
Laudable Government Programs The Nigerian government established Government Colleges in key locations around Nigeria in effort to boost standard quality secondary school education enrollment in the country. These are federally or State funded "Unity schools" designed to breed cross cultural and federalist or circular mindset by bringing uniform education standards and quality to students from regions across the state or country. The Nigerian Government Colleges have facilities for both boarding and day students. Students range from Junior Secondary One (JS1) through Senior Secondary Three (SS3). Students must complete the Federal Common Entrance Exams in order to apply for attendance. In fact, the Government Secondary School in Chibok is the only secondary school in the entire local government district, housing not only the students but also local government administrative offices as well. The school was first established in the mid-1970s as Women Teachers College and was converted to a Government Girls Secondary School in 1988. In 2011, the state ministry of education changed the school to a mixed institution, where male students are day-students and, with boarding arrangement are for female students only.
CHIBOK, Nigeria (Town of the Missing Girls)
Chibok is the only place in the state where the people only share a single language (Chibok) and the only town with an exceptionally large Christian majority population of nearly 90 percent, which accounts for the highest within any of the 27 districts Muslim-dominated Borno state. Unlike most of the tribes, other emirates, and chiefdoms of Southern Borno, the people of Chibok is still under neo-colonial control of Borno Emirate. Chibok’s district and Village heads answer the title “Mai”, while the princes there are called “Maina”, just like the Kanuri Royal Households of Borno, Dikwa and Bama do. The people of Chibok were well aware of their own vulnerability because of the proximity of the local government area to the dreaded Sambisa forest, where Boko Haram is believed to have its main operational base. It is the government responsibility to provide public safety and their emergency preparedness as well as security measure should be proportional to the expected risk.
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#BringBackOurGirls The Home of Peace, Borno State (Northern Nigeria) It is ironic that the State’s slogan is “The Home of Peace”; a phrase adopted for the state’s peaceful and hospitable nature. The name 'Borno', is an alternative name of the Kanuris who form the predominant ethnic group in the state. Kanuris are also known as Yerwa, Sirata or Beri Beri (known in places like Ilorin as Baruba or Bariba). However, another rendition has it that it means 'Barr Nuh', which is Arabic for 'The Land of Noah' as it was believed that the Ark of Noah landed there after the Flood. The State was created out of the defunct North-Eastern State in 1976 and is currently one of the 19 states that constitute the Northern Nigeria. Northern Nigeria was a British colony formed in 1900. The basis of the colony was the 1885 Treaty of Berlin which broadly granted Northern Nigeria to Britain, on the basis of their protectorates in Southern Nigeria. The Northern region make up a two-thirds majority of the whole Nigerian population which predominantly consists of Hausa and Fulani tribes, Nupe, Tiv, Kanuri and several other minorities to date. The overwhelming majority of the northerners are Muslim.
Borno state is located in the North Eastern corner of Nigeria, the State occupies the greatest part of the Chad Basin and shares borders with the Republics of Niger to the North, Chad to the North-East and Cameroun to the East. The state constitutes the Kanuri and Babur ethnic groups and also a few Shuwa Arabs mainly descendants of Arab immigrants, and is an example of the endurance of traditional political institutions in some areas of Africa. There, the emirs of the former Kanem-Bornu Empire have played a part in the politics of this area for nearly 1,000 years.
HISTORY OF BORNO The ancient Sefawa dynasty is said to be Second only to the Ming Dynasty as the longest ruling dynasty in man’s history. The current dynasty gained control in the early nineteenth century through the British and established a new capital for the dynasty at Maiduguri in 1905, which remains the capital to this day although the emirs still exist, and serve as advisers to the local government. At that time, the portion of Northern Nigeria under effective control was small, and Britain's chosen Governor, Frederick Lugard whose task in organizing this
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#BringBackOurGirls vast territory was made difficult by the refusal of the sultan of Sokoto and many other Fula princes to fulfil their treaty obligations. Lugard was “efficient in negotiating with limited resources and sometimes coerced the emirates of the north into accepting British rule, finding that the only way this could be achieved was with the consent of local rulers through a policy of indirect rule, which he developed from a necessary improvisation into a sophisticated political theory.” From the time of Usman dan Fodio there were twelve caliphs, until the British conquest at the beginning of the twentieth century. By 1903, the British had gained control over the whole protectorate by defeating the emir of Kano and Bornu Sultanate and Sokoto Caliphate and the entire Nigeria was being administered under the control of British residents. There were several uprisings that were brutally put down by Lugard's troops.
Root of Neo Islamist Jihadist Movements
A WAVE of revolutionary Mahdism swept through the western emirates of the Sokoto Caliphate during the years of the colonial conquest (I897-I903). It culminated in an insurrection that began at Kobkitanda in French Niger late in the year 1905 and spread to Satiru, about 220 kilometres away in British Northern Nigeria, early in I906. The revolutionary Mahdists sought the overthrow of all established authority, including the colonial regimes and local officials who collaborated with the Europeans. The uprising of 1905-6 revealed strong divisions on the basis of class. So the movement was designed to attract radical clerics, disgruntled peasants and fugitives. A Mahdi rebellion in 1906 at the Satiru, a village near Sokoto resulted in the total destruction of the town with huge numbers of casualties. Many revolutionary Mahdists like Usman Dan Fodio inspired a legacy of jihadist complex. The likes of which can be compared to one of the most famous such fundamentalists, Mohammed Marwa, also known as Maitatsine, who was at the height of his notoriety during the 1970s and 1980s. He was sent into exile by the Nigerian authorities, refused to believe Muhammad was the Prophet and instigated riots in the country, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. Boko Haram clearly has its root in Mahdism, although it may have not been directly related as an extension of the Maitatsine riots. There should be no doubt whatsoever that all of these groups are related and united by their goal their common enemy, westernization. In a video, the new leader of Boko Haram called on Muslims from Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria to join his jihad. He said in Arabic and Hausa: : “My fellow brethren from all over the world, I assure you that we are strong, hale and hearty since they launched this assault on us following the state of emergency declaration. When they launch any attack on us you see soldiers fleeing and throwing away their weapons like a rabbit that is been hunted down.” Islamist Jihadist all adheres to the same principles and there are so many of these types of Islamic ideology advocating a return to the fundamentals of Islam by force: the Quran and the Sunnah through the principles of Salafist-takfiri jihad. Islamic fundamentalist groups include Al-Qaeda, Abu Sayyaf, Ansar al-Islam, Armed Islamic Group of Algeria, Army of Islam, Boko Haram, Taliban, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-
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#BringBackOurGirls Mohammed, Jemaah Islamiyah, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Indian Mujahideen, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan among many others.
HISTORY OF BOKO HARAM In 1995, Mallam Lawal formed Muslim Youth Organization named Shabaab. When Lawal left to continue his education, Mohammed Yusuf took over leadership of the group. Yusuf’s leadership opened the group to political exploit. In 2002 Yusuf officially re-established the Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad in Maiduguri, capital city of Borno State with the mission of establishing a Shari'a government in Borno State under thenSenator Ali Modu Sheriff. He established a religious complex that included a mosque and a school where many poor families from across Nigeria and from neighboring countries enrolled their children. In 2004 the complex was relocated to Yusuf's home state of Yobe in the village Kanamma near the Niger border. The group conducted its operations during the first seven years of its existence without public violence until 2009 when the Nigerian government launched an investigation into the group's activities following reports that its members were arming themselves. When the government came into action, several members of the group were arrested in Bauchi, sparking deadly clashes with Nigerian security forces which led to the deaths of an estimated 700 people. Mohammed Yusuf was arrested during this incident and was killed while in police custody. Click here for the transcript of his interrogation and other relevant information about his final hour alive. After Mohammed Yusuf’s death, Abubakar Shekau, also known by the alias Darul Tawheed ("the abode of monotheism") (Arabic: ﺩﺍﺭ ) ﺍ, became Boko Haram’s new leader, and declared jihad on the government of Nigeria. His campaign has been effective in the northeastern Nigerian states of Borno, Adamawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Yobe Kano and Abuja. In this region, a state of emergency has been declared. Boko Haram has proven itself not only a worthy enemy of the state but also one commanding world’s attention and sending the Nigerian government running for help. Boko Haram translates directly from Hausa to English as “White education is an abomination.” The group assault arsenal has grown from initially using fuel-laden motorcycles" and "bows with poison arrows" to more sophisticated military capabilities and weapons arsenals that include some tanks (and allegedly helicopters) and rocket and so on. While the group is now in the lime light, hopefully maintained that we now have a full analysis of the organization, it is important to keep a perspective that particular issue presents a very complex problem. One must understand the underlying cause of this insurgence finds its root in colonial history as well as the role of the Nigerian government as provocateur.
HOW TO DEAL WITH BOKO HARAM AND OTHER JIHADIST INCUBATOR The Nigerian government could choose to address this issue in various ways. None of the options should include negotiation with the terrorist group. The first priority should be orchestrating the safe return of the Chibok girls. Then the government should release an RFP seeking intelligence and logistics from a wider pool of international intelligence to design sustainable intervention pilots for short and long term solutions for increased access to education, economic opportunities, public safety, Industrial and corporate employment. The intervention programs must include social programs that provide exposure to youths and youth adults to interact with the modern secular states.
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#BringBackOurGirls In addition, jump-starting economic development in the region, particularly through programs that target the unemployed youth, establishing a more representative system of local governance that includes a broader spectrum of the populace, improving social services and infrastructure to widen the safety for the disenfranchised, and strengthening the hand of civil society organizations that operate in the region, are some of the measures that can help diffuse the Islamic fundamentalist incubators. Here are some outstanding questions and thoughts to be discussed during the program:
Why has Boko Haram attacked Chibok and abducted the girls? Where does Boko Haram acquire its weapon? How is Boko Haram funded? To what extent is the government to blame in Boko Haram’s development? Is a similar pattern of abductions being recognized in the Northern Uganda crisis with Joseph Koni, and Charles Tailor of Liberia and Sierra Leone? Nigerian government’s lack of well-established emergency measures against terrorism is a permanent weakness that can be exploited at will? The United States of America has designated Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in November 2013, and is offering a US$7m bounty for information leading to Shekau’s arrest. How is the Nigerian government translating and resounding that information in several local languages and encouraging citizens to act up? The Nigerian Office of the National Security Adviser has also signed a $3 million-a-year contract with K Street firm Patton Boggs to “provide comprehensive security advice, including the donation of excess military and law enforcement equipment,” according to documents filed with the U.S. Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The Nigerian wish-list included “protected ground mobility for security forces” and “current imagery, surveillance, reconnaissance (day/night) product and analysis, initially for the Sambisa Forest Region, Borno State, and for other designated areas of interest,” as well as the communications and individual night vision equipment according to sources. How this working out, and what is the terms of the lobby? Why haven’t we found the Missing Girls? Will and should the Nigerian Government negotiate with Boko Haram over the missing girls? Should the Nigerian Government concede to releasing Boko Haram prisoners in exchange for the girls? Should Nigerian Leadership make a speech in thanking people around the world for their support? How can we effectively deal with terrorist organizations? If the fundamental principle behind Boko Haram is revolutionary Mahdism, how can this be deconstructed? The network of Islamist in Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Northern Nigeria share the common history of the Satiru and are united in the cause of avenging the relative colonial experience, what would it take to heal this type of mind set?
Sources: Revolutionary Mahdism and Resistance to Colonial Rule in the Sokoto Caliphate, 1905-6 Author(s): Paul E. Lovejoy and J. S. Hogendorn Source: The Journal of African History, Vol. 31, No. 2 (1990), pp. 217-244 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/182766 www.Nairaland.com/ www.premiumtimes.com/ www.wikipedia.com/ CIA Fact book Contribution form AV country directors and AV associates
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