Who Are Boko Haram – And What Do They Want?

Mallam Ali

31 May 2011

opinion

In July 2008, residents of the Maiduguri metropolis woke up to witness attacks on police stations, public properties, innocent citizens and members of the Operation Flush security squad from followers of one young Sheikh Mohammed Yusuf in reaction to what they considered an attempt to force their members to use crash helmets which the Borno state government had directed all motorcyclists to use and the brutalization of the sect’s members by security operatives.

Before this incident, the relationship between the late Imam Mohammed Yusuf, his disciples and the Nigeria community in the North-eastern part of the country was very cordial. What could be clearly grasped is the issue of his usual lecture and preachings which he delivers according to selected residential areas and on one important aspect of Islamic religion or the other.

This gave the learned Sheikh a wide range of followers and supporters because of his powerful and captivating religious preachings as he was known to be a very intelligent scholar. However, some of his most captivating doctrines was his abhorrence to western education as infidel type of educational system which Muslims should not cherish and accept by all means and advocacy for imbibing moral values as well as the entrenchment of Sharia into the constitution or the total establishment of an Islamic state (Darul-al-Islam) where Muslims shall be governed according to Islamic laws not according to western concepts like democracy.

Sheikh Imam Mohammed Yusuf was so outspoken and very frank in his preaching’s to the extent that he got the support of many young people both al-majirai and even the non-al-majirai to support his course. His prominent base is the, Maiduguri state capital at Goni-Damgari and there are other bases spread across the north-east of his supporters who have sacrificed themselves to the course of propagating ideal norms of Islamic religion However while this could be possible under an ideal situation, the Sheikh and his followers seem to be along in this noble task which demanded his corporation with the co-Ulama and the entire Islamic community in the northern-east Nigeria.

Although the focus of this write up is to propose possible solution that may resolve the crisis, it is important to look at the five days war in Maiduguri which took place from 27th -31st July 2008 which compounded matters for both parties; especially the Borno state government which continued to witness menace of the Boko Haram Militia following the gruesome elimination of their leader without trial or due process of the law being followed to its logical conclusion. Apart from the sudden capture and execution of the sect leader less than three hours of his arrest what might have ignited more tension and restlessness on the part of his supporters was the allaged mass killing of their members during the conflict and no compensation was paid to any member or to their immediate families, the destruction of their holy place of worship at Goni-Damgari known popularly as (markkash), the scattering of their members and hitherto well organize Islamic propagation community by the state security operatives and the re-enforcement of the Operation Flush security network in the state.

The same situation applied to those in Bauchi, where many of the sect members were detained in prisons without trial. Both the police and the judges failed to try the matter successful because it was a war between sect members and the security operatives with very little element of Jihad (holy war) in it because, first, it was very difficult to establish a concrete evidence to try a simple Yussuffiya members for causing any damage or for war crimes because of the heavy magnitude of destruction on both side. The matter is even very difficult to try on the basis of establishment a war. Crime tribunal and the state bye law have no provision for any religions disturbance or civil disturbance act to try arresting Boko Haram members.

The matter is even more complicated because the Borno state government did not even try or bring to book the perpetrators of the February 18th 2006 disturbance in Maiduguri in which many shops belonging to Igbo business group resident in Maiduguri were burnt including churches and it went so without compensation but the victims had no option rather than to take the pain faithfully.

It was a sudden occurrence indeed because the outbreak of the war and its subsequent escalation was between the hours of 10-11pm an Sunday night of 27th July 2008 and the attacks were not on the innocent civilian populations of the Maiduguri metropolitan area but on prisons, police stations, schools, the state police headquarters and out post/ patrol units of the operation flush squad which the state chief executive has established all over the state capital to contain the possible outbreak of nuisance in the state capital. Battalions of the sect members came out from their base at Goni-Damgari in batches to continue attacking soldiers and policemen whom the held in deep animosity for manhandling and maltreating their members especially on the occasion of the burial of a death person at the Gwange cemetery in Maiduguri

The war however lasted for five days and it kept all the civilian population of Maiduguri indoors and it had the effect of imposing a great hardship on the people as they could not come out to participate in their normal economic activities nor to work in their offices to earn a living in fact to the civil servants in Maiduguri it was a very terrible experience because the war broke out at a time when most workers were in the state, Local Government and Federal Agencies and Parastatals were anticipating for their month end salaries.

People survived under terrible conditions for five days as there was no movement from dusk to down until when the Federal Government deployed soldiers to crush the rebellion which eventually resulted in the death of the sect leader himself Imam Muhammad Yusuf, his father in-law Alhaji Buba Fugu Mohammed and Alhaji Buji fia a native of kaga town and one time state commissioner in the Ministry Religious Affairs and special Education in the government of Governor Ali Modu Sheriff before voluntarily resigning from the government to pursue a humble, religious and non-ostentation private life.

Alhaji Buji Fai, was killed alongside Mohammed Yusuf, who was a one-time chairman of Kaga Local Government Area. The five days war finally ended with the capture and execution of the sect leader and the destruction of markkash the holy place of worship of the sect and their strong hold indeed. At the end of the crisis, the state capital witnesses the evacuation of a large number of death bodies and ugly site of destruction of public building and properties.

The sect members fled the state capital en mass, some went into hidding in unknown destinations and some few were capture and detained and some were sought as wanted person by security personnel in collaboration with spies and local government community leaders. After the crisis, the state government set up a committee under the chairmanship of Ambassador Usman Gafi-Galtiman which invited memorandum and verbal from concerned indigenes of the state with the view to forestalling future occurrence.

The committee finished its assignment and submitted a report to the government but nobody knew its content and it was not published for the sect of public consumption and public enlightenment. Nobody knew of the recommendations contained in the report except government and the committee is suppose to look at the matter from both side and make meaningful recommendation that will appease both government, the civilian in Borno and members of sect and the security agents who should be adequately compensated for the loses or death resulting from the crisis to the settle the matter amicably but neither the sect member, the police and other security operatives and the CAN whose churches were burnt were compensated by the Borno state government.

The government rather pinched so much hope on heavy security presence and public operatives to deal with the matter decisively, but to no avail, it was bounced back, as militants belonging to the sect begun to attack and kill their enemies in vengeance for the mass killing of their members and the unlawful execution of their leader and other prominent persons associated with the sect.

Despite the heavy presence of security personnel in the state capital, the isolated killings of prominent personalities and those in the record of the sect members continued including killing of soldiers and policemen involved in the state capital.

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