UNDERDEVELOPMENT, RELATİVE DEPRİVATİON AND INSURGENCY: A CASE-STUDY OF BOKO HARAM İN NORTHEAST NİGERİA

0
525

Chapter 1

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The political landscape of Nigeria in the past two decades of the Twenty-first Century has been significantly characterised by the upsurge of terrorist activities and insurgency by Boko Haram beginning from Northeast and spreading to the rest of the country. Thomas Hayden defined insurgency as “an organized movement aimed at the overthrow or destruction of a constituted government through the use of subversion, espionage, terrorism and armed conflict.” (Procon, 2008). His definition is corroborated by a more detailed version from the US Department of Defense (DoD) which perceives the phenomenon of insurgency as: 

an organized resistance movement that uses subversion, sabotage, and armed conflict to achieve its aims. Insurgencies normally seek to overthrow the existing social order and reallocate power within the country. They may also seek to (1) Overthrow an established government without a follow-on social revolution. (2) Establish an autonomous national territory within the borders of a state. (3) Cause the withdrawal of an occupying power. (4) Extract political concessions that are unattainable through less violent means  (Ibid.)

The appellation “Boko Haram” is interpreted in English as “Western Education is forbidden/sacrilegious”. As an entity, Boko Haram to be referred to as: “Jama‘atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda‘awati Wal-Jihad” which is translated “People Committed to the

Propagation of the Prophet‘s Teachings and Jihad” (Maiangwa, 2014; 2013). Since its establishment in 2010, Boko Haram has led an insurgency against the Nigerian government predominantly concentrated around the Northern Nigerian states of

Yobe, Katsina, Kaduna, Bauchi and Gombe. Presently in its ninth year, the Boko haram insurgency shows no sign of subsiding and is adding to the long history of marginalization and severe underdevelopment and an abysmal level of poverty, high unemployment and illiteracy. Since the beginning of the Boko Haram crisis in 2009, about 100,000 individuals have lost their lives, a huge number of women and young girls were kidnapped while children drafted as alleged “suicide” bombers into the insurgency. About 2.1 million individuals absconded from their homes due to conflict and the fear of Boko Haram, 1.7 million of whom are still at present displaced and near 200, 000 individuals still reside as refugees in Cameroon, Chad and Niger, after having no option but to abscond.