The boko haram crisis in northern Nigeria

The “Boko haram” crisis in Northern Nigeria
DR Abdullahi Dahiru
28th July, 2009

The recent simultaneous attacks by renegade Islamic group called “boko haram” in many states in Northern Nigeria is unfortunate and is another pointer to the deteriorating security situation in the country.
The militants attacked mainly government establishments especially police stations in Bauchi, Yobe, Borno and Kano states.This is not the first time that this type of heretic Islamic groups have caused violence and destruction of properties in Northern Nigeria. It started with Maitatsine riots in Kano in 1980, then Jimeta in 1984 and has occurred in many similar incidences afterwards. Recently in April, 2007 a group of alien militants attacked a police station in Sharada killing police men, then attacked road safely corps office and then besieged Panshekara, a Kano suburb killing many policemen.It has to take the combined effort of mobile policemen and soldiers to dislodge them from their stronghold after fighting for about 2 days and the militants just disappeared into the air. They were claiming to avenge the murder of Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam who was killed few days earlier.
The militants are said to have wage a war on the government and the west; and have declared that attending modern western schools is an act prohibited by Islam.
This type of heretic belief can be linked to profound ignorance of Islam and its teachings on the parts of the militants. Islam enjoined its followers to seek for knowledge as evidenced by the first revelation to the prophet Muhammad who was commanded by Archangel Gabriel to read. The prophet is also known to have commanded Muslims to seek for knowledge even if it is in China.
Poverty is also another cause of this type of heretic behaviour; because most of the militants are known to be unemployed youth or engaging in petty jobs like itinerant manicuring and cobbling. Most of them believe that the government is not just and have declared a jihad against it in order to establish a just government.
We also know that security situation in the country has deteriorated, and even after similar occurrences the government just form committees to investigate; the result is not made public or recommendations by the committees implemented.
Muslims should condemn this act and also dissociate themselves from this type of activity because the militants are using Islam as a red herring to perpetrate their evil acts; their belief is not known to be in conformity with any form of orthodox Islamic teaching. Muslim scholars should also educate people on the evil activities of these miscreants; so that Muslims will not be deceived into joining these types of deviant activities. We should also condemn the gruesome murder of the leader of the sect and innocent civilians that lost their lives in the crisis.
Government should improve the security situation in the country, because there appears to be a monumental intelligence failure; the security agencies should have pre-empted this type of simultaneous attacks by the militants and prevented it.
The government should also improve the welfare of the citizens in terms of job creation and poverty alleviation, so that the less privileged will not fall victims of joining this type of militant groups.
Recommendations by committees investigating this type of clashes should be implemented to avoid future occurrences and the murder of the leader of the sect, Mohammed Yusuf and his followers should be investigated and perpetrators of the gruesome murder be punished.
Certainly, this type of clashes need intense evaluation to determine the security lapses and some of our socio-cultural values that made our society vulnerable to proliferation of these heretic sects and their activities, so that we can avert similar occurrences in the future.The crisis should also serve as a wake-up call on the northern leaders to wake up from their slumber and address the region's problems like poverty and ignorance that predispose to proliferation of these type of crisis in Northern Nigeria
DR Abdullahi Dahiru writes from Kano