Much of the world never thought much of Boko haram until they kidnapped more than 200 schools girls from a school in Chibok Borno state in April 2014.  The global silence was despite the fact that even before the kidnap of the Chibok school girls Boko haram had already become one of the most murderous terrorist groups in the world with near daily bombings and killings that surpassed any other terrorist group in the world.  By March 2014 it was estimated that more than 1500 people had been killed by Boko Haram. This casualty level exceeds that by groups such as the Taliban engaged in full blown asymmetric warfare.

The kidnap of the Chibok schoolgirls finally brought the much needed global attention to a nihilistic terrorist organisation that takes great delight in medieval barbarity.  But the conversation by the global audience has revealed that there is little understanding of the dynamics that made such a terrorist group possible in Nigeria.  Much of the conversation has centred on poverty and injustice being the main drivers of Boko haram, but there is poverty and injustice across Nigeria and indeed most of Africa yet that has rarely resulted in the rise of apocalyptic terrorist organisations elsewhere on the continent.  Terror experts such as Dr Alex Schmid have also conclusively surmised that it’s not been possible to establish a link between collective or individual poverty with terrorism. 

Poverty is usually a ready culprit in most acts of violence, but terrorism is driven by factors and dynamics that go beyond poverty. It should be obvious that organised violence on the scale of terrorism doesn’t happen accidentally. There must be a history; usually, ethnic, cultural, political, religious or other such cleavages that inspires, creates and sustains terrorist activity. In the case of Boko haram, a long history of violence related to ethnic, religious, political and cultural differences in Northern Nigeria laid the foundation for its emergence.  Much of the conversation on Boko haram ignored the fact  that Northern Nigeria has for more than half a century been a theatre of an ever worsening spectre of ethno-religious violence  that often targeted Christians and people of other ethnic groups.

Beginning in 1945, the first major act of ethno-religious violence in Northern Nigeria was recorded in Jos in which several people were killed and maimed.  In 1953, following the call for independence by Anthony Enahoro in the federal parliament in Lagos, Northern  leaders who were vehemently  opposed  to the independence request  by the South  organised   riots in Kano  that killed scores of people,  injured several  others  and destroyed numerous properties.  The 1953 Kano riots clearly indicated the involvement of Northern political and religious leaders in sponsoring   riots and mass killings.  By 1966, a military coup and counter-coup provided yet another pretext for the pogroms/mass killings on a genocidal scale that preceded the horrors of Rwanda organised by the Northern political, religious and military leadership that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 50,000 civilians including women and children that eventually led to the Nigeria-Biafra war.

A brief interregnum occasioned by the civil war was halted when the Maitsatsine riots in which upwards of 10,000 people are estimated to have been killed resumed in 1980 in Kano spreading to several   parts of the North. Since then, riots and other such terrorist acts of mass killing have been routine. Among a long list of endless mass killings in the North since 1980, the Zango Kataf riots, Sharia riots, the beheading of Gideon Akaluka and the parading of his severed head on the streets of Kano in 1996, the Denmark cartoon riots, miss world riots, Kaduna riots, Jos massacres, invasions and serial mass killings by Fulani herdsmen amongst others are notable incidents of an unending culture of terrorism/mass killings in the North.

Through several decades, tens of thousands have been slain and countless property destroyed in the now routine incidents of mass killings/terrorism in the North. Most often than not such killings were sponsored by Northern religious and political leaders and targeted at Christians. It was not unusual for Mosques   in the North to openly preach hatred and incite attacks against Christians.  Indeed   incidents of mass killings of Christians were always followed by a revealing silence by Northern religious and political leaders.  An unwritten licence to kill was long ago surreptitiously handed to Islamic terrorists as Nigeria’s predominant Northern Muslim leadership made sure that such mass murderers were never punished. Thus overtime terrorist acts of mass killings acquired a rare legitimacy and evolved into a sub-culture in Northern Nigeria.   

This is the background that birthed the current reign of terror by apocalyptic terrorist groups such as Boko haram. With the rise of Islamic extremism and the franchising of terrorism by groups such as Al Qaeda, it was a natural transition for extremist Islamic groups in Northern Nigeria that was already well ensconced in ethno-religious violence to align and drift into real time terrorism. In sum, Boko haram is a product of a sub-culture that over many decades legitimated ethno-religious violence and a bankrupt leadership that failed to punish acts of mass killings. It is a deep rooted terrorist group that is here to stay. The world must understand the true background and dynamics to Boko haram’s emergence and seek solutions accordingly if they can ever hope to diminish and defeat what has since become  one of the most murderous, nihilistic   terrorist groups in the world.

Lawrence Chinedu  Nwobu
Email: lawrencenwobu@gmail.com