Nigeria: Boko Haram Continues Deadly Attacks

Image Courtesy: Michael Fleshman - Some Rights Reserved - Liscenced Under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommerical 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)

“Western education is a sin! … It’s the definition of ‘Boko Haram’, the Islamist group of which I, Abul Qaga, am the spokesman. .... Our goal? The application of Sharia law throughout Nigeria. How do we go about it? Through kidnappings, bombings and suicide attacks...” (Peters).

Over one hundred girls are missing in Dapchi after an attack on the Government Girls Science and Technology College by Boko Haram, a terrorist organization whose name translates to “western education is forbidden”. During the attack, over nine hundred girls were studying at the Northern-Nigerian school (Adebayo – Busari).

This abduction comes three years after a similar kidnapping in Chibok, where Boko Haram kidnapped two-hundred fifty-six girls from the Chibok Government Secondary School in a demonstration against western education (Peters). In the process of de-westernization, at least two million people have been displaced, and twenty-thousand people have been left dead. (Wilson). But what factors allowed Boko Haram’s influence to become so widespread? The growth of Boko Haram’s insurgency can be attributed to many factors, including the divisive role of religion in Nigerian society and a lack of government intervention and protection against Boko Haram’s violence.

Culturally, Boko Haram exploits Nigeria’s religious barriers justify their extremist actions in the eyes of the people. In Nigeria, over three-fourths of Christians and nine-in-ten Muslims believe that a candidate's religion is the “most relevant” factor in political discourse. Masaryk University’s Lenka Vybíralová describes this idea of religion as a “legitimizer of power”; parties need to emphasize their relationship with Nigeria’s religious groups to become popular among the people. Similarly, Boko Haram exploits a culture of religious division to create hate against Nigerian Christians, scapegoating an entire religion to gain influence over Nigeria’s Islam population (Vybírlová).

On the political homefront, citizens believe that the Nigerian government’s lack of military action against Boko Haram has allowed its insurgency to thrive. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhai made a statement two days after the attack on Twitter: he had mobilized Nigeria’s police force to locate the missing girls (Adebayo – Bursari). However, many Nigerians believe that this reaction occurred too late. In a silence similar to that of the Chibok kidnapping three years ago, protesters believe that the government's lack of initial military reaction was, again, a failure of Nigerian security that allowed the insurgents to escape with their victims (Dionne – Akinwotu).

The failure of the Nigerian government to enforce such protective measures allows Boko Haram to use fear to influence Nigeria’s citizens. Acts such as the “Safe Schools Initiative” have promised to protect schools by moving students and teachers from “danger zones” to schools outside of Boko Haram’s influence. However, teachers and pupils report that the government has not enforced this act (AFP). Consquently, Boko Haram has been able to destroy over one-thousand schools and kill two-thousand teachers (Busari – McKenzie), and parents become reluctant to send their children to unsafe schools. Thus, Boko Haram dominates, keep children out of schools for western education (Busari – McKenzie).

But despite the Nigerian government’s lack of action against Boko Haram, protesters are taking matters into their own hands. After the Chibok kidnappings, the Bring Back Our Girls Organization fought for the release of the Chibok girls. Currently, parents of the victims at Dapchi are creating a second organization. Alhaji Deri, one of the organization’s leaders, made a statement earlier this month: “ My demand now is to see our children back. That is our demand. We are pleading for every single community, whether it is international, Nigerian, whoever, to rescue our children in a civil manner” (Busari – McKenzie).

Works Cited

Adesoji, Abimbola. “The Boko Haram Uprising and Islamic Revivalism in Nigeria / Die Boko-Haram-Unruhen Und Die Wiederbelebung Des Islam in Nigeria.” Africa Spectrum, vol. 45, no. 2, 2010, pp. 95–108. JSTOR, JSTOR.

AFP. “Boko Haram Kidnap Raises School Safety, Education Fears.” The Guardian, 7 Mar. 2018.

Bukola Adebayo and Stephanie Busari. “Schoolgirls Still Missing after Suspected Boko Haram School Attack.” CNN, CNN, 22 Feb. 2018.

Busari, Stephanie, and David McKenzie. “Into Danger's Arms: Chaos as Schoolgirls Flee Boko Haram.” CNN, Cable News Network, 5 Mar. 2018.

Fleshman, Michael. “BBOG3MAYNYC_DSC_0394.” Flickr, 3 May 2014, www.flickr.com/photos/fleshmanpix/14115898005/in/photostream/.

Searcey, Dionne, and Emmanuel Akinwotu. "Nigerian Schoolgirls Are Feared Abducted in an Attack by Boko Haram." New York Times, 22 Feb. 2018, p. A10(L). Global Issues in Context. Accessed 8 Mar. 2018.

Peters, Michael A. “Western Education Is Sinful: Boko Haram and the Abduction of Chibok Schoolgirls.” Policy Futures in Education, vol. 12, no. 2, 2014, pp. 186–190., doi:10.2304/pfie.2014.12.2.186.

Wilson, Mark. “Nigeria's Boko Haram Attacks in Numbers - as Lethal as Ever.” BBC News, BBC, 25 Jan. 2018.

Vybíralová, Lenka. “Nigera and Boko Haram Insurgence: The Roots of Political Violence.” Department of International Relations.