Most people have asked the question, ‘Who is Boko Haram’ and how did they come into existence? We bring the history and origin of how Boko Haram came to being in Nigeria.
Origin Of Boko Haram
The group known as Boko Haram is said to have emerged in 2002 under the leadership of Mohammed Yusuf in Maiduguri.Yusuf had a strict, fundamentalist interpretation of the Qur’an and believed that the creation of Nigeria by British colonialists had imposed a Western and un-Islamic way of life on Muslims.
He set up a religious complex, which included a mosque and an Islamic school.Many poor Muslim families from across Nigeria, as well as neighbouring countries, enrolled their children at the school.But Boko Haram was not only interested in education. Its political goal was to create an Islamic state, and the school became a recruiting ground for jihadis.
The most commonly accepted translation of the name “Boko Haram” in the indigenous lingua franca Hausa, is: “Western education is forbidden”. Boko originally means fake but came to signify Western education, while haram means forbidden. It has also been translated as “Western influence is a sin” and “Westernization is sacrilege”
The group’s official name is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which in Arabic means “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”.
Boko Haram is also active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon.
Emergence of attacks and Violence in Nigeria
Authorities from a task force known as Operation Flush II in Maiduguri confronted Yusuf’s followers in 2009, wounding at least 17 Boko Haram members. Yusuf angrily denounced the security forces and called on his followers to rise up against them.
In a violent campaign that stretched some five days they attacked police stations and engaged in gun battles before the military brutally cracked down. Yusuf was eventually captured by soldiers and then handed over to police, who shot him dead. Police claimed he tried to escape when they killed him, but witnesses said he was executed.His body was shown on state television and the security forces declared Boko Haram finished.
A video later emerged of alleged security forces ordering people they suspected of being Boko Haram members to lie on the ground before shooting them dead. Around 800 people were killed in this round of violence.
Boko Haram re-emerged in 2010 with assassinations and a major raid on a prison more than a year going underground.Yusuf’s deputy, Abubakar Shekau, who police claimed had been killed in the 2009 uprising, began to appear in videos as the group’s new leader.
Attacks gradually grew more deadly and sophisticated, particularly with the use of explosives. A suicide attacker rammed a car bomb into UN headquarters in the capital Abuja in August 2011, killing 23 people in the most high profile of several incidents. Such violence gradually became frequent in parts of northern and central Nigeria.
Boko Haram’s trademark was originally the use of gunmen on motorbikes and has maintained a steady rate of attacks since 2011 till date, striking a wide range of targets, multiple times per week. They have attacked politicians, religious leaders, security forces and civilian targets. They are allegedly partnering the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Chibok Girls
In April 2014, attackers raided Chibok deep in northeastern Nigeria and kidnapped 276 school girls, generally between 16 and 18 years old. Many of the girls are still missing.Shekau claimed credit for the kidnappings in a video and threatened to sell them.
Private security management professionals in Nigeria, under the agies of American Society for Industrial Security, ASIS International, yesterday, expressed worry that the way and manner the Federal Government is handling the Boko Haram insurgency and clashes between herdsmen and farmers will determine whether the 2019 general elections will hold as planned or not.
Speaking ahead of its 2018 ASIS International Security conference slated for 26th and 27th of July in Lagos, Chairman, African Advisory Council of the Association, Dame Victoria Ekhomu said that the government needs to understand the risk involved and manage it. Ekhomu said: “Aside from the fact that the incident has left thousands of people dead, many people can no longer carry out their business activities. If the issue is not properly addressed, it will definitely affect coming election negatively. “Government needs to use intelligence to understand why this group is operating, where their source of funding is coming from and take an appropriate step before the election period.” Speaking on the forthcoming conference, Chief Executive Officer ASIS International, Peter O’Neil said: “We have highly skilled experts who will be proffer solutions on cybersecurity and impact of insecurity on the economy.” “ASIS International is an international NGO that represents 35,000 global security practitioners, who practice in different aspects of security related.”