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Full Project – IMPACT OF INSECURITY ON THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF NIGERIA: A STUDY OF THE BOKO HARAM NIGERIA

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and among its most diverse with over 400 ethnolinguistic groups. The country is affected by several conflicts based on overlapping ethnic, religious, political and regional divisions including over resources in the Niger Delta, Christian-Muslim divides in the middle of the country, and most recently, the rise of Islamist groups in the north, most importantly, Boko Haram. Boko Haram (‘Western education is a sin’) was founded around 2002 in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and largest city in Northeast Nigeria (Norwegian Refugee Council, 2013).

Insecurity and terrorism has been a major challenge to the Nigerian government in recent times. The activities of the Islamic sect (Boko Haram) had led to loss of lives and properties in the country especially in the Northern part of Nigeria. Some of these activities include bombing, suicide bomb attacks, sporadic shooting of unarmed and innocent citizens, burning of police stations, churches, kidnapping of school girls and women, etc. Kidnapping, rape, armed robbery and political crises, murder, destruction of oil facilities by Niger Delta militants alongside the attacks carried out by Fulani Herdsmen on some communities in the North and South have been another major insecurity challenge facing the country. Nigeria has been included among one of the terrorist countries of the world. Many lives and properties have been lost and a large number of citizens rendered homeless. Families have lost their loved ones. Many women are now widows. Children become orphans with no hope of the future. This has implications for national development. Government had made frantic efforts to tackle these challenges posed by terrorism and insecurity in the country and put an end to it but the rate of insurgency and insecurity is still alarming (Obi, 2015).

Increasing attacks caused by Boko Haram’s insurgency are making it difficult for development activities to thrive in Northern Nigeria. This is evident in the continuous relocation of businesses from the North to other more peaceful parts of the country and also, stagnation in development projects in the region. These developments require a critical examination to assess the impact of terrorism on national security and the national development of Nigeria.

This qualitative exploratory collective case study design explored reasons for the persistent insurgent activities of the Boko Haram sect with particular focus on factors that have sustained the phenomenon as well as assessed the implications of their actions on the development and security in Northern Nigeria. Data was collected through purposive interviews of fourteen (14) participants who have expertise on terrorism activities in Nigeria and its neighboring countries that provided insights into their understanding of how Boko Haram activities have affected national security and development of Nigeria.

There have been increasing concerns about the impact of terrorism and activities of insurgent groups on national security and development among scholars in the academia, policy makers, security experts, and ordinary citizens (Bernholz, 2006). The significance of these concerns reflects the responsibility of the government of Nigeria and those of others within the international community to ensure that the territorial boundaries of states, as well as citizens are secured; which is the ultimate goal and objective of national security and development. Since the emergence of Boko-Haram as a local terrorist group in the West African state of Nigeria, its operational dynamism brought to light one of the most daunting challenges for regional and global security professionals. The effectiveness of its operations and capabilities to operate and hit targets in a country dubbed as one of Africa’s military power remains to be a security nightmare for national security institutions in the sub-region and across global horizons.

Terrorism has been a major threat to national security and national development in most countries in the contemporary international system, particularly the Middle East and Africa, (Held et al, 2000). This is because terrorist activities pose a threat to state security as well as human security, thereby negatively affecting national development agenda (Buzan, 2008). Terrorism involves violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law; and appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or to influence the policy of a government through the use of force; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping (Perry, 2003). Fortna (2015) defined terrorism in its broadest sense as the use of intentionally indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror or fear, in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological aim. The Boko Haram insurgent group has been classified as a terrorist group which has carried out a series of attacks mainly in north-eastern Nigeria since 2009. This has posed a great challenge to the national security and the national development of the Nigerian state, particularly in the north-eastern part of the country. The human security of the inhabitants in the region has as a result, come under high risk due to the activities of this insurgent group.

As the seventh richest terrorist group on the American terrorist list (American Foreign Policy Council, 2013), Boko Haram receives its funding through several avenues including abductions, robberies, donations, extortion, and financing through its network of alliances with other terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State (ISIS), (Kingsley et al, 2015). It receives funding and support from Al-Qa-ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQLIM), (American Foreign Policy Council, 2013). The group was founded in 2002 by Mohammed Yusuf and was based around Maiduguri in the north-eastern state of Borno, Nigeria. Maiduguri is a community highly dominated by Muslims. The movement was originally labeled as the Nigerian Taliban because of its ideology and methods. Boko Haram is loosely translated in the Hausa language to mean “Western education is forbidden,” (Oniwide, 2014, p.1). Boko means “fake” but now signifies “western education and culture” whiles Haram means “forbidden,” (Oniwide, 2014, p.1).

The official name for the group is “Jama’atu Ahl as-Sunnah li-Da’awati wal-Jihad” which in Arabic means people committed to the propagation of the prophet’s teachings and Jihad. Its followers are said to be influenced by the Koranic phrase which says: “Anyone who is not governed by what Allah has revealed is among the transgressors,” (Okemi, 2013, p.2). Boko Haram promotes a version of Islam which makes it “haram”, or forbidden, for Muslims to take part in any political or social activity associated with Western society. These include voting in elections, wearing shirts and trousers or receiving a secular education (Okemi, 2013). Boko Haram regards the Nigerian state as being run by non-believers, even when the country had a Muslim president, and it has extended its military campaign by targeting neighboring states. The agenda of Boko-Haram is to implement and impose Sharia Law in the Northern states of Nigeria, (Iduh, 2011). The group believes Northern politics has been usurped by a group of dishonest, counterfeit Muslims. “It wants to wage a war against them and the Federal Republic of Nigeria generally, to create a “pure” Islamic state ruled by Sharia law,” (Walker, 2012, p. 2).

Boko-Haram is just an adopted name given to the group by residents of Maiduguri because of the strong tendency to reject western education, viewed as corrupting Muslims (Olawale, 2010). The group was not a violent movement at its inception until 2003, the time when its charismatic leader became radical. In 2003, Yusuf led the sect in a movement, which espoused a conservative theology that opposed the Nigerian secular state referring to it as corrupt and un-Islamic (Odo, 2012). The group was seemingly quiet and had remained off the radar and was not known by the larger Nigerian population and the international community until July, 2009, when Boko Haram carried out fatal attacks on police stations and other government buildings in Maiduguri. Consequently, the Maiduguri attacks were met with counter attacks from the Nigerian security forces which resulted in hundreds of Boko Haram supporters being killed and thousands of residents fleeing the city for the safety of their lives. The Nigerian security forces also made some arrests and seized the group’s headquarters (Onuoha, 2014).

The Maiduguri incident led to the killing of Mohammed Yusuf, whose body was shown on state television and the security forces declared that Boko Haram had been vanquished and eliminated from the system. The group’s fighters, however, regrouped under a new leader, Abubakar Shekau, and have since stepped up their insurgent activities (Odo, 2015). These operations expanded Boko Haram’s theatre of activities from the north-eastern state of Maiduguri to other parts of the north such as Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, and Abuja (Walker, 2012). After 2009, several organized attacks were perpetrated by Boko Haram against the Nigeria security forces and later extended the violent attacks to neighboring countries such as Cameroun, Niger, and Chad. According to (Alozieuwa, 2012), the challenge posed by the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria is not only about the viciousness of the terror campaigns, or the sect’s avowed mission to impose Islamic law on the country, but about the confusion regarding the exact cause(s) of the violence. To this end, Boko Haram is seen as a threat to national security and to the continual and harmonious co-existence of the component nations that make up the Nigeria state. It is therefore essential to examine the influence of the activities of the Boko Haram insurgent group on national security and development in Nigeria in order to recommend measures to address the problem.

Statement of the Problem

The increasing strife in Nigeria caused by Boko Haram’s insurgency is making it difficult for development activities to thrive in the north-eastern part of the country. This is evident in the continuous relocation of businesses from the North to other more peaceful parts of the country (Egbemode, 2012). This has led to stagnation in development and insecurity especially in Northern Nigeria which pose major threats to the human security of the country at large. This qualitative exploratory collective case study examined, from the perspectives of fourteen (14) security experts, the influence of Boko Haram’s activities on national security and development covering the period 2009 through 2016, with the objective of proffering suggestions for resolution of the security threat to Nigeria’s development.

National security entails the maintenance of state survival through the use of economic power, diplomacy, power projection and political power. In order to achieve national security, a nation needs to ensure economic security, personal security, environmental security, food security, health security, community security and political security; all of which are encapsulated under promoting the human security of the citizenry (Adebayo, 2010). To a very large extent, all aspects of human endeavor and development, be it health, environmental, food, economy, political, social, and physiological can be jeopardized, if there is a state of insecurity or the national security of a state is threatened (Adebayo, 2010).

Objectives of the Study

The main objective of the study is to examine the impact of insecurity on the national development of Nigeria. The broad objectives of the study are stated below:

To explore the influence of activities of Boko Haram on the socio-economic development of Northern Nigeria.
To explore options that could contribute to the development of an effective management of the threat posed by Boko Haram.
To review national strategies used to deal with the issue of Boko Haram.

Research Questions

The following questions were developed from the research objectives to guide the study into activities of Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria:

What are the effects of Boko Haram’s activities on the national security and national development of Nigeria?
What are the factors underpinning the rise and apparent sustained activities of the Boko Haram insurgent group in Northern Nigeria?

What is the general influence of activities of the Boko Haram insurgent group on national security and development of the Northern parts of Nigeria?
What has been the official response to the terrorist situation in Nigeria from 2009 to 2016?

Significance of the Study

The significance of this study is to add to the growing literature on conflicts in Nigeria. It would also highlight what measures the Nigerian government is employing to resolve conflicts in the country. Limited success has been achieved by governments of African states, as well as the African Union (AU), and the regional bodies in Africa towards addressing the menace (Adebayo, 2010). Findings from this qualitative exploratory collective case study provided insights into understanding the threats posed to national security and development by activities of the Boko Haram insurgent group from the perspectives of the 14 research participants purposely selected to participate in this study.

The findings inform the decision of policy makers, governments of African states, the ECOWAS, and the international community as a whole, including the UN, regarding measures and mechanisms to put in place to eliminate or reduce terrorist activities on the Continent. The study also brings to light the various forms of influence of the activities of Boko Haram to national security and development of Nigeria. This will enable security agencies in the country, the sub-region, the continent of Africa, and the world at large to know the extent to which terrorist activities threaten national security and development. The study was also a modest contribution to the body of knowledge and literature on issues concerning national security and development.

Delimitations

Though the activities of terrorist groups have become commonplace in the contemporary international system, especially in the Middle East and Africa, this qualitative exploratory case study with a collective design investigated activities of the Boko Haram insurgent group in Northern Nigeria from 2009 to 2016 from the perspectives of 14 expert research participants. These participants were purposively selected on the basis of their association with the fight against terrorism and their expertise in issues of security and national development in West Africa. The study focused on the effects of Boko Haram’s activities in the north-eastern part of Nigeria on national security and development.

Definition of Terms

National security and development are not confined to a particular activity, but generally regarded to encompass a broad range of activities across different fields. Terms used in this study are defined as follows:

Terrorism: This involves violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law (Forna, 2015). It also involves violent acts intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.

Security: Security connotes protection and safety from all forms of harm whether internally or externally (Collins, 2016).

Development: Development implies improvement in the quality and wellbeing of all citizens, not the most powerful and rich alone, in a sustainable manner such that today’s consumption does not imperil the future (Lawal & Oluwatoyin, 2011). It also demands that poverty and inequality of access to the basic necessities of life are removed or drastically reduced. It seeks to improve personal physical security and livelihoods and expansion of life chances.

National Security: The protection and safety of the territorial integrity of a state, as well as ensuring the promotion of the human security of citizens (Buzan, 2008).

Human Security: Human Security is an aspect of national security which focuses essentially on ensuring and promoting the well-being and welfare of individuals within a country, as well as the protection from internal threats and harms (Blatz, 2016).

National Development: National development involves ensuring growth and progress in all sectors of an economy across every region or state in a country (Lawal & Oluwatoyin, 2011).

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