Aug 182021PREFACE
One of the greatest challenges facing Nigeria today is the scourge of insecurity and its consequent instability and underdevelopment. It is so enormous that it affects all sectors of her economy and all efforts to develop the nation. The earlier this is addressed the better for the nation.
For over six decades after her independence, Nigeria as a nation has been making steady progress in terms of growth and development. In some few cases, it recorded a giant stride that makes her a point of reference in the global community.
Today, most progress so far made has been reversed by the scourge of insecurity and further complicated by the issues of corruption, bad governance, non-inclusion in governance, poverty, ethno-religious conflicts and lack luster leaders at all levels of her national life.
Today, most of the indices of development which has been use to measure progress in Nigeria show a negative slope of growth. This is sadly not a good omen for our country, and a fear that the country may fail in the nearest future.
A failed Nigeria will not only be disastrous for most of the African countries and the rest of the world, consequently all efforts must be put in place to arrest the situation in the country.
We must thus be very responsive enough in identifying and promptly addressing all related factors that is speeding Nigeria to a failed state.
We must address the roots of insecurity and all other challenges facing the nation. We must strongly put up a robust response to identify and nip in buds all causative factors of insurgency. We must critically analyze and reviewed the consequences of the terror groups on Nigeria, and evolve lasting solutions to address all these challenges, only then can we ever attempt to truly begin our journey to a genuine nationhood. We must all work and partner together to rebuild Nigeria and make it prosperous in the process. We must engage all sectors of the nation in building a truly great and resilient Nigeria and Nigerians.
Boko Haram is a Nigeria’s militant Islamist fighting to overthrow the government and consequently create an Islamic state. The group was established in 2002 by one Muhammed Yusuf, as a Sunni Islamist sect opposed to western education and keen on foisting Islamic authority on the people, especially Northern Nigeria.
Since its establishment and his campaigns, the Boko Haram group has caused series of massive havoc in Africa’s most populous countries, through campaigns of bombings and attacks, since 2009.
The Boko Haram insurgency has no doubt posed the greatest challenges to the peace, unity, and stability of the nation since its foundation, the earlier this is addressed the better for the nation and her development.
There are several causes of Boko Haram insurgency, some of which include
Some of the causes or triggers of Boko Haram are as follows.
Poverty, unemployment, wealth and economic inequality, high cost of governance, budget delay and manipulations, population explosion, massive national debt, corruption, illiteracy, the mismanagement of the almajiri system, ineffective security and defense architecture.
The earlier these challenges are addressed the better for our nation.
The high cost of governance as relates to the maintenance of the public officers, has gulped billions of dollars of the tax-payers money, and remains the source of wastages of the money that could have been used to develop infrastructures or better the lives of the ordinary citizens.
Uncontrolled population and its consequent inability of government to effectively distribute and track projects to the people remain one of the factors that create vulnerable member of the society.
Corruption is an anti‐social attitude awarding improper privileges contrary to legal and moral norms and impairs the authorities’ capacity to secure the welfare of all citizens. Corruption is a constant phenomenon in Nigeria.
In 2012, Nigeria was estimated to have lost over $400 billion to corruption since the independence. In 2018, the country ranked 144th in the 180 countries listed in Transparency International's Corruption Index (with Somalia, at 180th, being the most corrupt, and Denmark the least).
Nigeria as a country has extremely porous borders, yet successive governments have done little or nothing to address it.
Porous borders have aided illegal arms proliferation, especially through the northern borders, where criminals from different parts of the world stroll into the country, contributing immeasurably to the frightening level of insecurity Nigeria is grappling with today.
The loosely guarded borders also explain why illegal arms proliferation has continued despite the frequent exercise of mopping them up. Extreme political and religious ideology has been responsible for the incidences of Boko Haram evolution as well as other forms of terrorism.
The proliferation of security agencies in the country is a threat to national security. Creating more security agencies could breed rivalry and fragmentation of resources meant for the existing ones.
Today, one of the factors that have led to the increase in the spate of insecurity is the lack of failure of effective intelligence gathering strategies in Nigeria. The earlier this is remedied the better for the nation.
The broken down of values in the society has resulted in the increased cases of cultism, robbery, corruption, violence, and intolerance.
Illiteracy continues to be a significant problem in Nigeria today. According to the 2008 Global Monitoring Report, the most recent data for Nigeria shows an adult literacy rate of 69 % (78 % for men and 60 % for women). More than 22 million people are illiterate, 65 % of who are women.
The high rate of illiteracy partly accounts for the low level of development in Nigeria because the growth and development of any nation depend largely on the quantity and quality of all segments of its population. Illiteracy fuels conflicts as it despises all the needed platforms for dialogue and reasoning.
Almajiri commonly referred to derives from the Arabic word Al-Mahaajirun, which literally means a learned scholar who propagates the peaceful message of Islam.
Regrettably, the Almajiri culture which has since outlived its purpose has become a breeding ground for child begging and in the extreme cases, potential materials for recruitment into terrorist groups.
Bad leadership and poor governance remain the core cause of Boko Haram and the leadership failure the motivation for the insurgency.
Leadership ought to lead the people well, marshaling both human and natural resources, for the betterment of most of the people
Traditional ruler plays critical roles in the society. In the past they were responsible for helping to uphold and sustain the values and cultures of the people. The absence of clearly defined roles in the constitution makes traditional rulers vulnerable to the abuse of power, victims of blackmail and pawns and punching bags in the political chess game of their respective states.
One of the main causes of Boko Haram insurgency is the ineffective security and defense architectures in the country today. Nigeria’s security architecture is outdated and ineffective is not a doubt, in view of the inability to contain numerous security threats that affects the nation.
The consequences of the Boko Haram are multifaceted and affected Nigeria and Nigerians in so many ways. It has led to death of many people, destructions of properties worth billions of dollars and displacement of many people from the original place of residence. It has destroyed many families and institutions across the country.
Boko Haram has committed serious acts of violence. It has killed an estimated 37,000 and displaced over 4.2 million in the wider Lake Chad region. The psychological impacts of the abductions and kidnapping, has a negative effect on our drive for productivity and national development.
Boko Haram has killed an estimated 2,295 teachers, and over 19,000 teachers have been displaced by the conflict. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that more than 1,400 schools have been destroyed, damaged, or looted primarily in the northeast, and more than 600,000 children have lost access to education. In addition to the abuses committed against female students and teachers as an immediate result of an attack on schools and/or while held in captivity, the suffering and impact does not end once they are rescued or escape.
Attacks on education create a ripple effect, setting in motion a range of negative impacts such as loss of education, early marriage, early pregnancy, and stigma associated with sexual violence and children born from rape, all of which can dramatically affect female students’ futures.
These harms often exacerbate and are exacerbated by pre-existing forms of gender discrimination and harmful practices that negatively affect girls and women.
Government needs to put in place a policy and programmed that will genuinely address poverty and underdevelopment. It must constantly review and update all these policy and programmed to meet up with global best practices and be very impactful. Government needs to create more jobs, by establishing new industries or reviving moribund ones.
Government must strive to reduce or redress the high cost of governance in Nigeria which has become a very disturbing phenomenon of late. It must trim the bogus allowances and salaries of our public office holders and plug all loopholes that aided the leaking or wastages of public fund.
Uncontrolled population explosions have the tendency to lead to a fragile state because of unemployment and scarce resources. Government needs to partner with stakeholders to ensure their participation as regards the need for family planning, child spacing and resource managements.
Corruption is killing Nigeria and her economy. Government needs to boost its anticorruption campaigns and enforce stricter regulations such as death penalty for those found liable.
The security at Nigerian borders must be tighten up, couple with the deployment of satellite tracking technology to monitor, track and apprehend smugglers of goods and arms.
Government must work with all relevant stakeholders to regulate the importation of radical foreign ideology or indoctrinations to the country. The Nigerian intelligence community should be more proactive in these aspects.
The law enforcement agents and agencies must be empowered and well trained to meet up in containing the unfolding security challenges in the nation as well as repositioning to tackle terrorism and Boko Haram insurgency. The number of security agencies available should be kept at minimal level yet highly motivated and structures to seamlessly work together and to efficiently fit into the overall security architecture of the nation, to achieve stability and security.
Federal government must train and empower the intelligence community, to enable them to perform maximally and to boost their intelligence gathering initiatives across the country. Government needs to put in place policies and laws that will help to strengthen family values and bonding, without compromising the morality of the nation. Government needs to address all manifestation of social injustices and impunity in the state. With these done, it will go a long way to starve off all forms of discontents that led to ethnic nationalism and branded agitation and militancy.
Government needs to place priority on the development of education and national manpower, even as its reform and modernized the Almajirai systems. Government needs to build more educational institutions to empower the people with much needed skills and increased budgetary allocations to education as a way of boosting the sector.
The place of credible leadership in addressing the myriads of challenges facing the nation cannot be over emphasized. Government must ensure the emergence of a credible and trustworthy leadership instead of greedy and selfish leaders. Here in lies the need to put in place and sustain a robust electoral system that will transparently promotes the emergence of leadership that reflect the choice of the people.
Government must ensure that there is a constitutional role for the traditional rulers so as to enable them to perform optimally and assist in development of the nation.
The royal fathers play critical roles in the promotion of peace and unity and the security of their domain, hence the imperatives of their engagements.
With these strategies in place, the challenges of insecurity will be reduced to the barest minimum and the people will experience renewed vigor and better welfare as the nation witnessed growth and development.
1.0-INTRODUCTION
One of the greatest scourges to have infected Nigeria is the scourge of insecurity and its consequent instability and underdevelopment. Since the time of amalgamation till the present day, no single events have shaken Nigeria to her very foundation and threaten our collective existence as the issues of insecurity and insurgency.
If we must continue to progress and develop as a nation, we must be proactive enough to address these big threats. If we as a people must ever be taken seriously as with other members of the respected global citizens, we must realize that no security is as assured as our collective security.
For over six decades after her independence, Nigeria as a nation has been making steady progress in terms of growth and development. In some few cases, it recorded a giant stride that makes her a point of reference in the global community.
Today, and sadly so, the gains of the past years have been brutally reversed by the scourge of insecurity and further complicated by the issues of corruption, bad governance, non-inclusion in governance ,poverty multiple taxation, ethno-religious conflicts and lack luster leaders at all levels of her national life.
Today, all indices of development concerning Nigeria, has not given hope for rejoice, rather, these indices are pointing to the worrisome facts that Nigeria is on the verge of becoming a failed state. This realization should ginger all stakeholders to be proactive enough to evolve far-reaching, forward-looking strategies and reforms that will restore Nigeria and her lost glory.
A failed Nigeria will not only be disastrous for most of the African countries, that will witness a massive spillover of millions of displaced Nigerians but will catalyze an unimaginable misery and disrupt the global workforce supplies and Diaspora remittance and other engagements.
We must thus be very responsive enough in identifying and promptly addressing all related factors that is speeding Nigeria to a failed state.
We must address the roots of insecurity and Boko Haram insurgency across Africa. The Boko Haram insurgency has indeed metamorphosed to a Frankenstein monster that threatens to consume our nation.
The increasing lethality of its operations against both Muslims and Christians has been a source of concerns. The unrestrained spread of insurgence across Africa is a cause for concerns.
The damages of property worth billions of dollars and killing of innocent and in most cases defenseless Nigerians has been the topmost concerns of all security agents or agencies across the nation.
We must strongly put up a robust response to identify and nip in the buds all causative factors of insurgency. We must critically analyze and review the consequences of the terror groups on Nigeria, and evolve lasting solutions to address all these challenges, only then can we ever attempt to truly begin our journey to a genuine nationhood.
We must all work and partner together to rebuild Nigeria and make it prosperous in the process. We must engage all sectors of the nation in building a truly great and resilient Nigeria and Nigerians.
1.1-HISTORY OF BOKO HARAM
Boko Haram is a Nigeria’s militant Islamist group, fighting to overthrow the government and consequently create an Islamic state. The group was established in 2002 by one sheik, Muhammad Yusuf, as a Sunni Islamist sect opposed to western education and keen on foisting Islamic authority on the people, especially Northern Nigeria.
Since its establishment and its campaigns, the Boko Haram group has caused series of massive havoc in Africa’s most populous country, through campaigns of bombings and attacks, since 2009, including the 2011 bombing of the United Nations Building in Abuja.
Although it has strong ties to other African terrorist groups, it has few jihadist ambitions beyond Nigeria.
1.2-CAUSES OF BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY IN NIGERIA
The Boko haram insurgency has no doubt posed the greatest challenge to the peace, unity, and stability of the nation since its foundation, the earlier this is addressed the better for the nation and her development.
To be able to address a problem, one must know its causes or roots.The same with the present ravaging Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria and of late, some other neighboring African countries.
There are several causes of Boko Haram insurgency, it is not limited to only a cause, thus we must identify, detailed and document all these causes for our articulations that will give us a clear appreciation of the problems at hand.
Some of the causes or triggers of Boko Haram are as follows.
POVERTY
Poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living. Poverty means that the income level from employment is so low that basic human needs can't be met. Poverty-stricken people and families might go without proper housing, clean water, healthy food, and medical attention.
Poverty is one of the economic factors that caused the Boko Haram Insurgency. Other factors include wealth-inequality, unemployment, joblessness, deindustrialization, and economic downturn in the nation. When people are deprived of certain resources and opportunities, poverty can create resentment and cause some individuals to turn to terrorism or Boko Haram in order to express their outrage against the state.
Although some past research concludes that there is no connection between poverty and terrorism or Boko Haram Insurgency, the correlation between the two only exists where significant variables such as ethnic and religious differences and political freedom were excluded.
However, poverty can still have an important, if indirect, role in contributing to an individual or group's predisposition to participate in terrorism and Boko Haram Insurgency. One of the most apparent ways in which Boko Haram can capitalize on poverty is by exploiting the lack of social safety net that characterizes impoverished countries.
UNEMPLOYMENT
Unemployment is the state of being without any work yet looking for work. Unemployment in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy surged to the second highest on a global list of countries monitored by Bloomberg in 2019.
The jobless rate in Nigeria rose to 33.3% in the three months through December 2019, according to a report published by National Bureau of Statistics. That’s up from 27.1% in the second quarter of 2020, the last period for which the agency released labor-force statistics.
The number of people looking for jobs will keep rising as population growth continues to outpace output expansion.
Nigeria is expected to be the world’s third most-populous country by 2050, with over 300 million people, according to the United Nations.
Unemployment leads to slack hands for many people who desire to work but have none; hence in some cases they may resort to crime and criminality.
It is a fact that unemployment is the key driver of many youth who joined Boko Haram insurgency, and these must continue to be a source of concern to every stakeholder in Nigeria.
WEALTH AND ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
Income inequality is often accompanied by wealth inequality, which is the uneven distribution of wealth Distribution of wealth and incomes the way in which the wealth and income of a nation are divided among its population, or the way in which the wealth and income of the world are divided among nations. Such patterns of distribution are designed and studied by various statistical means, all of which are based on data of varying degrees of reliability.
There is high economic inequality amongst Nigerians to the extent that it is motivating resentment from the poor against the rich in the society.
Nigeria has an expanding economy with abundant human capital and the economic potential to lift millions out of poverty. Economic inequality in Nigeria has reached extreme levels, despite being the largest economy in Africa. The combined wealth of Nigeria’s five richest men - $29.9 billion - could end extreme poverty at a national level yet 5 million face hungers.
More than 112 million people are living in poverty in Nigeria, yet the country’s richest man would have to spend $1 million a day for 42 years to exhaust his fortune.
Inequality in wealth and income distribution rarely leads to conflicts and of the cause of Boko Haram Insurgency, rather, Boko Haram insurgency or any form of conflict is three times more likely to break out where inequalities between different ethnic, religious, or regional groups are high than where they are average.
HIGH COST OF GOVERNANCE
The high cost of governance in Nigeria which has become a very disturbing phenomenon and has been widely acknowledged by many both within and outside the corridors of power as one of the points of unnecessary wastages of the nation’s resources and the increasing call to cut the cost of governance at this time.
The high cost of governance as relates to the maintenance of the public officers, has gulped billions of dollars of the tax-payers money, and remains the source of wastages of the money that could have been used to develop infrastructures or better the lives of the ordinary citizens and reduce the abject poverty that are snuffing life ordinary Nigerians,
The suffocating impact of the high cost of governance on our national life has made it to assume a national emergency dimension. With this high cost of maintaining the bureaucracy, the economic fortunes of the country has recently been pronounced as uncertain with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgrading the growth prospects of the economy for 2018 and 2019.
In addition, the minister of finance recently cried out that insufficient revenue has been the major problem in the effective implementations of the federal budgets.
Despite this hue and cry about revenue shortfall, not much has been seen to be done by the authorities to address this unsustainable level of the cost of governance, which invariably has not reduced despite these clearly identified revenue challenges. Thus, something drastic needs to be done in this regard to arrest this undesirable trend.
In this regard, Nigeria needs to borrow a leaf from many developed and developing countries that are making frantic efforts at reducing the cost of governance so as to conserve funds for infrastructural development that would impact positively on the lives of the citizens.
For instance, India introduced e-governance in administration in order to reduce the cost of running its government. Other countries such as Ethiopia, Thailand, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, have further resorted to reduction in the number of political appointees involved in the act of administration in their country. This has become imperative for Nigeria too.
BUDGET DELAY AND MANIPULATIONS
A budget is a preparation of an estimate of government expenditures and revenues for a specific financial year.
It is a key tool of economic planning and fiscal policy and for the government to control the direction of the economy and attain greater efficiency.
In Nigeria, according to tradition and for ease of implementations, the public budgeting and implementations is supposed to start on January 1 and end on December 31. This means that a budget proposal should have been approved by the National Assembly and accented to by the President before the beginning of a New Year.
Sadly, this has not been so; our budget has been manipulated and unnecessarily delayed, leading to un-desirous effects or adverse implications on the Nigerian economy.
A delayed or manipulated budget has dire consequences on the economy of the country as it’s among other effects, promotes corruption, stifles the economic growth, brings about uncertainty in the government fiscal policy direction and affects capital expenditure such as infrastructural development.
MASSIVE NATIONAL DEBT
One of the factors that cause Boko Haram insurgency is the mounting national debt in Nigeria. The growing public debt in Nigeria, which stood at USD 87.29 Billion, has been a source of concerns to all stakeholders in the country.
In essence, the nation’s debt is about where it was in 2005-06, just before Nigeria benefited from massive debt relief as part of a program coordinated by the Paris Club, IMF, World Bank and the African Development Bank.
To have squandered the debt reduction in just fourteen years and have no tangible economic progress to show for it is beyond disappointing. Public debts of the country have resulted in the inability of government to effectively respond to the yearning of the people, as regards the provision of infrastructure and establishment of industries, which could have created jobs for the unemployed citizens.The higher the debt, the more the numbers of people that would not have access to development or government palliatives.
POPULATION EXPLOSION
Uncontrolled population and its consequent inability of government to effectively distribute and track projects to the people remain one of the factors that create vulnerable members of the society.
Nigeria has the largest population in Africa, and it is growing at 3.2% a year. The U.S. Census Bureau says that at that rate, there will be an estimated 402 million people in Nigeria in 2050.
The major triggers for population increase include early marriages, high birth rates, religious doctrine, cultural values and lack of family planning access. Uncontrolled population explosions have the tendency to lead to a fragile state because of unemployment and scarce resources.
CORRUPTION
Corruption is an anti‐social attitude awarding improper privileges contrary to legal and moral norms and impairs the authorities’ capacity to secure the welfare of all citizens. Corruption is a constant phenomenon in Nigeria.
In 2012, Nigeria was estimated to have lost over $400 billion to corruption since the independence. In 2018, the country ranked 144th in the 180 countries listed in Transparency International's Corruption Index (with Somalia, at 180th, being the most corrupt, and Denmark the least).
Corruption remains a priority concern to the Nigerian Government and People. Corruption affects all aspects of public life, continues to undermine the social, economic, and political development of the country and is a major obstacle to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Corruption in governance and democratic space resulted in electoral manipulations, thuggery, vandalism, and cultism.
UNREGULATED MIGRATIONS
The term unregulated population migration has been adopted from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to mean movement of people that takes place outside the regulatory norms of the sending, transit, and receiving countries.
Drivers of unregulated population migration include nontraditional security challenges such as changing environmental and climatic conditions, disaster management, food and water scarcity, and pandemics.
Other drivers include manmade stresses such as civil conflict and fragile and unstable governments, growing interest from external actors, and organized crime. When several factors converge, they act as a multiplier causing instability among nation states as affected populations seek other sources of food, resources, stability, or safety. Unregulated population migration in the context of an interrelated system can lead to instability in the country as many terrorists are allowed free movements within and outside Nigeria.
POROUS BORDERS
Nigeria as a country has extremely porous borders, yet successive governments have done little or nothing to address it
Porous borders have aided illegal arms proliferation, especially through the northern borders, where criminals from different parts of the world stroll into the country, contributing immeasurably to the frightening level of insecurity Nigeria is grappling with today.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has repeatedly, since the inception of his regime in 2015, blamed the festering insecurity in the country on the influx of illegal arms from Libya and close associates of the country’s former leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed since 2011. In 2018, for example, Buhari said on April 11, during a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Webby, in London that gunmen trained and armed by Gaddafi did not only escape with their arms to countries like Nigeria after he was killed, but they also infiltrated the herders.
Interestingly, Libya does not even share a border with Nigeria, but it borders two countries – Chad to the South and Niger Republic to the South-West, both of which share an enormous land border with Nigeria.
While the northern part of Nigeria borders Niger Republic by about 1,497km; the North-East borders Chad by about 87km; the eastern part borders Cameroon by about 1,600km, and the western part borders the Republic of Benin by about 773km.
The then Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr David Parradang, revealed the number of illegal routes in 2014, adding that Nigeria had only 84 approved land border control posts.
`Across the over 4,000 square kilometers coverage, we have many illegal routes which are not manned.
As a result of this, many people have been killed, kidnapped, and displaced, while some are simply nowhere to be found. Most Nigerian citizens live in fear, except a few who could afford heavy protection.
The loosely guarded borders also explain why illegal arms proliferation has continued despite the frequent exercise of mopping them up.
BOUNDARY DISPUTES
A boundary dispute is a dispute that arises between owners or occupiers of neighboring community or states.
Inter- state boundary clashes are part of the raging insecurity challenges in Nigeria that have been recurring between states such as Abia and AkwaIbom; and Cross River and Ebonyi, leading to loss of many lives.
Boundary disputes promote easy access to arms and ammunitions that help to further fuel other forms of insecurity. It also leads to the hiring and retaining of mercenary, who had helped the concerned community to procure war in the past.
EXTREME POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEALOGY
Extreme political and religious ideology has been responsible for the incidences of Boko Haram evolution as well as other forms of terrorism. Most of those involve in the motivation of Boko Haram insurgency got the Salafist ideology from some foreign Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia and propagate it in Nigeria.
FEUDALISM
One of the key causes of Boko Haram insurgency is the feudalistic and oligarchic disposition of the supposed Nigerian leaders to the led. The feudal lords, who toady has transformed to a parasitic elite has been in the forefront evolving policies and programs that kept the poor poorer and the rich richer.
The elite would rather evolve policies that will make the less privilege in the society, lacks access to education and necessities of life, so he can be manipulated for the parochial interests. No wonder the failure to reform and address that intractable Almajirai problem, as the armies of poor homeless youths are good only for winning election.
The major inducements for governors who have for long lived in denial are the social challenges associated with continued ‘perpetuation of poverty, illiteracy, insecurity and social disorder in all the northern states.
LACK OF MOTIVATION OF THE SECURITY AGENTS AND AGENCIES
The security agents may not have been responsible for the evolution of the Boko Haram, but the way and manner it handles the killing of Mohammed Yusuf is the cause of the Boko Haram till date. A security agent that promotes extra judicial killings or impunity and brigandage is bound to get an equal measure.
A vulnerable Law Enforcement Agencies and agents cannot be efficient in helping to address insecurity or the Boko Haram insurgency. The worrisome spate of insecurity across the nation, most especially, kidnapping is a manifestation of the level or degree of neglects which the law enforcement agents and agencies has suffered neglects from government.
PROLIFERATION OF SECURITY AGENCIES
The proliferation of security agencies in the country is a threat to national security. Creating more security agencies could breed rivalry and fragmentation of resources meant for the existing ones.
The Federal Government should put in more energy towards strengthening the Nigeria Police Force, rather than creating more security outfits. The police force was the principal security agency in the country and needed to be strengthened to effectively carry out its statutory responsibilities.
The issue of sharing intelligence information is not mandatory; it is discretionary. If there is a law that makes it mandatory, there wouldn’t be conflicts among the security agencies. When there is proliferation of security agencies, the criminals might explore and exploits the weaknesses of inter security engagements to engage in crime and criminality.
LACK OF EFFECTIVE INTELLIGENCE GATHERING STRATEGIES
An intelligence collection plan (ICP) is the systematic process used by most modern armed forces and intelligence services to meet intelligence requirements through the tasking of all available resources to gather and provide pertinent information within a required time limit.
Collecting intelligence to build up a detailed knowledge of threats to the country is at the heart of Nigeria’s security agencies. The assessment and investigation process helps them to make decisions about how to respond to these threats and what protective measures to take.
It then anticipates some problems the ICP is likely to encounter—problems ranging from technical interoperability, secrecy and security, and cultural obstacles—and proposes solutions before making recommendations for how the ICP can leverage business analytics to improve its value and performance in achieving Nigeria.
Today, one of the factors that have led to the increase in the spate of insecurity is the lack of failure of effective intelligence gathering strategies in Nigeria. The earlier this is remedied the better for the nation.
WEAK FAMILY STRUCTURE
Family stability, defined as the consistency of family activities and routines. The family performs several essential functions for society. It socializes children, it provides emotional and practical support for its members, it helps regulate sexual activity and sexual reproduction, and it provides its members with a social identity.
Families, believe it or not, are the strongest building blocks in any community. If families are proactive and stable, communities would be just as proactive and stable in return.
A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often child neglect or abuse on the part of individual parents occurs continuously and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions.
The impacts of westernization and globalization has made the world a global village and thus imported bad or contrary values that is violent-prone.
CRUMBLING NATIONAL VALUES
Value can be said to be principles and ideas we hold and cherish as important and worthwhile, and which have positive effects. Values are important part of our lives because they influence and determine what we believe, hold to and stand for Understanding and recognizing our societal values helps us to resist the pressure to conform to other people’s values that are not acceptable.
There are various levels of manifestation of values in the individual, community, and society. The manifestations of values are seen in our lives, actions, conduct or character. The broken down of values in the society has resulted in the increased cases of cultism, robbery, corruption, violence, and intolerance.
ELITE CONSPIRACY
Elites are groups of persons who by virtue of position or education exercise much power or influence.
In Nigeria, elites are highly educated Nigerian government appointees or external critics that are good with problem analysis but often detached from reality and the Nigerian masses.
They are, through their manipulations, have been responsible for many challenges facing the nation, including ethno religious riots. Their manipulation as well as their intra-fighting’s to protect their greed and selfish interest foisted Boko Haram on the nation today.
NATIONAL FAULTY FOUNDATION
The founding fathers of this nation built a strong foundation for greatness and prosperity, sadly such vision was compromised on the altar of nepotism and sectionalism.
The introduction of the unitary system of government and the subsequent political manipulation of elections and the structures of the country was part of the faulty foundation that has made true development elude the nation.
It continues to promote exclusion, social injustice and ethnic nationalism that has manifested in ethnic agitations we are witnessing today.
The faulty foundation only makes many Nigerians swore allegiance to foreign countries with similar religious or political ideology instead of a faith in one indivisible Nigeria.
INDIGENE-SETTLER SYNDROME
The term settler referred to migrants who moved to areas outside their original homes and settled for the purpose of engaging in farming to improve their economic needs. Indigene refers to the original inhabitants of areas of economic exploitation.
These issues remain on the drivers of conflicts and motivations for the evolution and growth of Boko Haram insurgency, as the thrust of indigene-settler sub consciousness is influenced by religious intents and self-preservation
ILLITERACY
Illiteracy continues to be a significant problem in Nigeria today. According to the 2008 Global Monitoring Report, the most recent data for Nigeria shows an adult literacy rate of 69 % (78 % for men and 60 % for women). More than 22 million people are illiterate, 65 % of who are women.
The high rate of illiteracy partly accounts for the low level of development in Nigeria because the growth and development of any nation depend largely on the quantity and quality of all segments of its population. Illiteracy fuels conflicts as it despises all the needed platforms for dialogue and reasoning.
THE MISMANAGEMENT OF THE ALMAJIRI SYSTEM
Almajiri commonly referred to is derived from the Arabic word Al-Mahaajirun, which literally means a learned scholar who propagates the peaceful message of Islam.
Regrettably, the Almajiri culture which has since outlived its purpose has become a breeding ground for child begging and in the extreme cases, potential materials for recruitment into terrorist groups.
The pupils who were meant to be trained to become Islamic scholars have now had to struggle to cater for themselves, begging rather than learning under the watch and supervision of some semi-literate Quranic teachers or Mallams who themselves lacked the requisite financial and moral support. Hence, the system runs more as a means of survival rather than a way of life.
POOR LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE
Bad leadership and poor governance remain the core cause of Boko Haram and the leadership failure is the motivation for the insurgency. Leadership ought to lead the people well, marshaling both human and natural resources, for the betterment of most of the people.
Sadly, the leadership failures have the biggest impacts of poor governance and continue to undermine the much-needed development. Thus, the permanent state of need, poverty and not being able to bring about the required change in a country.
It keeps a country in a constant “developing” state, meaning that there is no job creation, improvement of the education system and a continuous state of poverty.
LACK OF ROLES FOR TRADITIONAL RULERS
Traditional ruler plays critical roles in the society. In the past they were responsible for helping to uphold and sustain the values and cultures of the people.
At a point in the history of the nation, they had defined constitutional roles, sadly today; it is a different kettle of fish.
They have become a mere observer and limited in their ability to promote peace, unity, and security.
The absence of clearly defined roles in the constitution makes traditional rulers vulnerable to the abuse of power, victims of blackmail and pawns and punching bags in the political chess game of their respective states.
Without constitutional protection, traditional rulers will continue to be forced by their governors to behave like party executives or political appointees or be dethroned.
CLOSE DOWN OF VIBRANT INDUSTRIES
Economy of a country is sustained by vibrant industrialization policies and strategies. Nigeria was making effort to be truly industrialized until policies and foreign collusions that came and stifles such efforts.
Nigeria had one of the best textile industries in the world with more than 180 functional factories in the early 1980s. The country then was vibrant, and it used to be the second largest in Africa, after Egypt, providing more than 800,000 direct and five million indirect jobs for Nigerians.
Sadly, most of the industries have been closed or functioning at minimal capacity. Statistics also revealed that the nine textile mills in Kaduna were closed down by the end of 2007and their workers were thrown into the labor market.
INEFFECTIVE SECURITY AND DEFENCE ARCHTECTURE
One of the main causes of Boko Haram insurgency is the ineffective security and defense architectures in the country today. To say Nigeria’s security architecture is outdated and ineffective, is not a doubt, in view of the inability to contain numerous security threats that affects the nation.
Federal Government needs to adopt Threat Vulnerability Integration in improving the security conditions of the country.
Threat Vulnerability Integration involves the mapping of terrorist threats and capabilities both current and future against specific national assets and the vulnerabilities that could be explored by the threats to exploit the assets.
While government has expanded the number of security agencies – many with overlapping functions – the publicly available analysis of the threats shows that the risks are not mitigated.
1.3-CONSEQUENCES AND IMPACTS OF BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY IN NIGERIA
The consequences of the Boko Haram are multifaceted and affected Nigeria and Nigerians in so many ways. It has led to the deaths of many people, destructions of properties worth billions of dollars and displacement of many people from the original place of residence. It has destroyed many families and institutions across the country. Boko Haram has committed serious acts of violence. It has killed an estimated 37,000 and displaced over 4.2 million in the wider Lake Chad region. The psychological impacts of the abductions and kidnapping, has a negative effect on our drive for productivity and national development.
A key component of Boko Haram’s ideology is hostility toward secular education, and it has gained notoriety for its repeated attacks on schools and universities, as well as teachers, administrators, and students, wreaking havoc on an already fragile educational system.
Boko Haram has killed an estimated 2,295 teachers, and over 19,000 teachers have been displaced by the conflict. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that more than 1,400 schools have been destroyed, damaged, or looted primarily in the northeast, and more than 600,000 children have lost access to education.
In addition to the abuses committed against female students and teachers as an immediate result of an attack on schools and/or while held in captivity, the suffering and impact does not end once they are rescued or escaped. Attacks on education create a ripple effect, setting in motion a range of negative impacts such as loss of education, early marriage, early pregnancy, and stigma associated with sexual violence and children born from rape, all of which can dramatically affect female students’ futures. These harms often exacerbate and are exacerbated by pre-existing forms of gender discrimination and harmful practices that negatively affect girls and women.
Poverty has been the single greatest obstacle to education in northeastern Nigeria, and parents’ ability to pay for school expenses has been further impeded by the conflict.
Many schools were also closed for significant periods due to insecurity, or because the school had been destroyed or seriously damaged during the attacks. Nigerian government forces and pro-government militia have also used schools for military purposes.
While this report documents numerous abuses that female students and teachers have suffered during an attack on their schools and/or as a direct consequence of such an attack, there are also numerous risks for teenage girls who are not in school, including early marriage, early pregnancy, and lost opportunities for personal autonomy, employment, and economic independence.
Many survivors are also reported as suffering from mental and physical health problems because of the abuses they have suffered.
1.4-WAY FORWARD-SOLUTIONS TO ENDING BOKO HARAM POVERTY,
Government needs to put in place a policy and programmed that will genuinely address poverty and underdevelopment.
It must constantly review and update all these policies and programmed to meet up with global best practices and be very impactful.
One of the most apparent ways in which Boko Haram can capitalize on poverty is by exploiting the lack of social safety net that characterizes impoverished countries.
UNEMPLOYMENT
Government needs to create more jobs, by establishing new industries or reviving moribund ones. The place of development of skills must be taken into consideration as part of the overall strategies for job creations.
WEALTH AND ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
In as much as government cannot forcefully take the wealth of the rich and give to the poor, it must be conscious to the level of reducing the increasing widening wealth and inequality gaps between the rich and the poor, deploying incentives of taxation, subsidies, and waivers.
HIGH COST OF GOVERNANCE
Government must strive to reduce or redress the high cost of governance in Nigeria which has become a very disturbing phenomenon of late. It must trim the bogus allowances and salaries of our public office holders and block loopholes that aided the leaking or wastages of public funds.
BUDGET DELAY AND MANIPULATIONS
Government must ensure that there is consequence for the manipulations of delay in the budgeting process, Ministries, department’s sand Agencies that failed or defend their budget late must be made to face penalties that range from suspension to termination of appointment. Strict timeframe must be set by all stakeholders to ensure that the budget cycle rhyme with national planning.
MASSIVE NATIONAL DEBT
Compounding Nigeria’s debt problem is its Nigeria’s significant contingent liabilities.
Government must ensure fiscal discipline, put in place economic environment that will promote and sustain foreign investment drive and prioritize national aspiration in line with the desired expenditures.
POPULATION EXPLOSION
Uncontrolled population explosions have the tendency to lead to a fragile state because of unemployment and scarce resources. Government needs to partner with stakeholders to ensure their participation as regards the need for family planning, child spacing and resource managements.
CORRUPTION
Corruption is an anti‐social attitude awarding improper privileges contrary to legal and moral norms and impairs the authorities’ capacity to secure the welfare of all citizens. Corruption is killing Nigeria and her economy. Government needs to boost its anticorruption campaigns and enforce stricter regulations such as death penalty for those found liable.
UNREGULATED MIGRATIONS
In as much as there are protocols supporting regional and global movements, there is need for respective government to put in place policy and laws to monitor and regulate unregulated population migration into the country or out of the country. Because this has the tendency to encourage the movement of terrorist into the country, without notice or with little resistance.
POROUS BORDERS
The security at Nigerian borders must be tighten up, couple with the deployment of satellite tracking technology to monitor, track and apprehend smugglers of goods and arms.
BOUNDARY DISPUTES
Federal government must ensure a proper boundary delineation to avoid cases of inters and intra state boundary disputes. Those who live along the border corridor have most things in common.
Not until these boundaries are finally delineated, we can’t have an end to the boundary clashes.
EXTREME POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS IDEALOGY
Extreme political and religious ideology has been responsible for the incidences of Boko Haram and other forms of terrorism.
Government must work with all relevant stakeholders to regulate the importation of radical foreign ideology or indoctrinations to the country. The Nigerian intelligence community should be more proactive in these aspects.
Prioritize support to build inclusive, tolerant, and resilient communities. Promoting, supporting, and protecting the role of communities to address the challenges of violent extremism is critical.
Empowering the role of women, engaging youth, and faith leaders, and creating safe spaces for communities to develop authentic and local solutions to the problem of violent extremism is essential.
FEUDALISMs
The life saving realized the damages they have done to the nation must undergo soul searching, have a rethink and patriotically worked towards repositioning the nation for renewal and greatness. The civil society organization must be proactive in helping the serve as check and balance the centrifugal and divisive tendencies of these selfish and self-serving elites.
LACK OF MOTIVATION OF THE SECURITY AGENTS AND AGENCIES
The law enforcement agents and agencies must be empowered and well trained to meet up in containing the unfolding security challenges in the nation as well as repositioning to tackle terrorism and Boko Haram insurgency.
PROLIFERATION OF SECURITY AGENCIES
The number of security agencies available should be kept at minimal level yet highly motivated and structures to seamlessly work together and to efficiently fit into the overall security architecture of the nation, to achieve stability and security.
LACK OF EFFECTIVE INTELLIGENCE GATHERING STRATEGIES
Federal government must train and empower the intelligence community, to enable them to perform maximally and to boost their intelligence gathering initiatives across the country.
WEAK FAMILY STRUCTURE
Government needs to put in place policies and laws that will help to strengthen family values and bonding, without compromising the morality of the nation.
The national orientation agency along with other civil society groups must be empowered to be very proactive in achieving these nationalistic goals of building a patriotic, formidable, and good family with high moral standard and fidelity.
ETHNIC MILITIA AGITATAIONS
Government needs to address all manifestation of social injustices and impunity in the state. With these done, it will go a long way to starve off all forms of discontents that led to ethnic nationalism and branded agitation and militancy.
This will help to mitigate the fall out discontents and agitations, arising from the faulty foundation of the country. The issues of the indigene-settler syndrome must also be addressed as much as the issues of illiteracy.
ILLITERACY
Government needs to place priority on the development of education and national manpower, even as its reform and modernized the Almajirai systems. Government needs to build more educational institutions to empower the people with much needed skills and increased budgetary allocations to education as a way of boosting the sector.
POOR LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE
The place of credible leadership in addressing the myriads of challenges facing the nation cannot be over emphasized. Government must ensure the emergence of a credible and trustworthy leadership instead of greedy and selfish leaders.
Here in lies the need to put in place and sustain a robust electoral system that will transparently promotes the emergence of leadership that reflect the choice of the people.
LACK OF ROLES FOR TRADITIONAL RULERS
Government must ensure that there is a constitutional role for the traditional rulers so as to enable them to perform optimally and assist in development of the nation.
The royal fathers play critical roles in the promotion of peace and unity and the security of their domain, hence the imperatives of their engagements.
The scourge of the Boko Haram insurgency is undermining national security and integration to the extent that it calls for urgent interventions, to arrest the lethal trends.
REFERENCES
1. 2015 implication of BokoHaram terrorism on northern Nigeria Mediterranean journal of social science,6[3],371-379.
2. Dunn, G, [2018], the impact of the Book Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria on childhood wasting; a double difference study conflict and heath journal, 12[1]1-12.
3. Galula, D,[1964]counter –insurgency warfare theory and practice, London.
4. Akinwotu,E,& Sahabi,H,[2020 June ,3]waves of ‘bandit ‘massacres rupture rural life in north –west Nigeria ,the Guardian Nigeria.
5. Gurley, S.M.[2012],Linkage between BokoHaram and Al-Qaida; a potential deadly synergy Global security studies ,3[3],1-14.
6. Black RE,Victoria CG ,WALKER SP,etal ,maternal and child under nutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income countries ,lancet 201338[9890]427-51.
7. Buvinic m ,DAS Gupta m,Casabonne U,Verwinmp p. violent conflict and gender inequality and overview, world bank RES-OBS,2013,28[1];110-28
8. Brewer m, crossly TF, Joyce R, Inference with difference in differences
9. Rutsein SO, Johnson k, the DHS wealth index Calverton; the DHS program; 2004.
10. Mohammed K, the message and methods of Boko haram ,in Perouse montclos M.A, editor .Boko haram; Islamism, politics security series ,leiden Netherlands ;Africa studies centre ,institute François de recherché en Afrique ,2014,p,9-32.
11. ACAPS, secondary data review -24 august 2015 northeast Nigeria conflict, -Adamawa,Borno,Gombe,and Yobe state,2015.
12. Reinert M,Garcon L,Boko Haram ; a chronology in ;Perouse de montclos M,A. editor, Boko haram Islamism ,politics security, and the state in Nigeria Vol 2,west African politics and society series ,Leiden, Netherlands ;African studies centre institute François ,de Recherche en en Afrique ;2014,p,237-45.
13. Liolio, S.(2014).Rethinking Insurgency: A study of Boko Haram in Nigeria. A thesis submitted to the European Peace University, Austria.
14. Iyeke kpolo, W.O.(2019).The Political process of Boko Haram insurgency: Critical studies on terrorism.
15. Moore, R.S (2007).The basics of counter insurgency. Small wars journal, pp 1-24.
16. Galula, D.(1964).Counter insurgency warfare: theory and practice. London.
17. Aljazeera News.(2018, February 28).110 Nigeria school girls still missing after attack: Minister said. Aljazeera Media Network.
18. Adewunmi, A.(2014).The Battle of the minds; the insurgency and counter insurgency in Northern Nigeria. West Africa insight, May 2014.
19. Abolurin ,A,[2011]Terrorism ;Nigeria and Global Dimensions, Ibadan Gems unique multi ventures.
20. Abdu A, & shehu s.s.[2019]the implication of Boko haram insurgency on women and Girls in north east Nigeria .journal of public Administration and social welfare research m4[1]9-21.
21. Achodo C.C [2019],Boko haram insurgency ;A rethink in strategic and tactical response toward resolving the crisis ,special report, nastier issues 23 January
22. Watch list on children and armed conflict ‘’who will care for us?’’Grave violations against children in northeastern Nigeria New York watch list on children and armed conflict; 2014.
23. "Boko Haram at a glance". Amnesty International. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
24. Helen Chapin Metz, ed. "Influence of Christian Missions", Nigeria: A Country Study, Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
25. Penney, Joe (24 March 2015). "Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds in northern Nigeria town: residents". Reuters. Archived from the original on 25 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
The book is dedicated to all my passing off’’ mentees and mentor’s of chief Sunday Awoniyi the [Aro of Mopa ] Alhaji Maitama Sule, chief Gani Fawehinmi S.A.N,S.A.M.N. Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Chief Chuba Okadigbo the [Oyi of Oyi] and the innocent Nigerian’s citizen’s of youth and children, adult that are being killed by insurgency of
Aug 062019
IA/AD/HR/07 05/08/019
HIS EXCELLENCY,
PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI [GCFR]
PRESIDENT FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA,
NIGERIA PRESIDENTIAL COMPLEX,
ASO ROCK VILLA,
FCT, ABUJA,
NIGERIA,
Dear Sir,
RE- OUR ADVISE LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI ON SHITTE CONFLICTS ON PROSCRIPTION OF THE SHIITES//IMN;AND THE NEED FOR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO EXERCISE CAUTIONS FOR THE AFFORDANCE OF GURILLA WAR FARE IN THE NIGERIAN NATIONS
We are patriotically Buharism /Yemism and from our diligent responsive of intelligent’ we believe in the Nigerian project for Nigerians, we are using these medium to express our resolutions towards addressing the myriads of the security challenges bedeviling the nation vis-a-vis the on-going crisis foisted by the confrontations between the members of the Islamic Movements of Nigeria, IMN and the security agents, leading to loss of lives and national apprehension, prior to their proscription.
We are no doubt convinces that your government will subscribe to our suggestions, applying it to address the current security challenges in Nigeria to prevent dangerous degeneration to precipice.
IA/AD/HR/ 08/05/019
To remain aloof to the need for urgent mediations has dire effects on national security, more when the nation is already over burdened, its security over-taxed and its dwindling resources, unnecessarily wasted in needless prosecutions of war against self-inflicted insurgency.
Your Excellency, the security fragility may be further worsened if restraint, utmost cautions is not exhibited in the handling of every attempts to put the ravaging Shiites under collective control, particularly, on the issues of its proscriptions. Few days ago, specifically, Friday 26, 2019, The Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the proscription of the Shiites’. The judge gave the order following an ex parte application by the Federal Government marked FHC/ABJ/CS/876/2019 which was filed in the name of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Thursday, July 25, 2019, barely 72 hours after a protest by members of the group in Abuja led to a bloody clash between them and the Police.
Justice Nkeonye Maha issued the order in a ruling in which she designated the activities of the Shiite organization in any part of Nigeria “as acts of terrorism and illegality. The court consequently restrained “any person or group of persons” from participating in any form of activities involving or concerning the IMN “under any name or platform” in Nigeria.
The Shiite group was accused of “nefarious activities”, murder, attacks on security agents, provocative preaching and hate speeches while working towards an agenda of creating an Islamic State in Nigeria. The Federal Government had earlier obtained a court order to proscribe the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, popularly known as Shiite.
The court also ordered the Attorney-General of the Federation “to publish the order proscribing the respondent (Islamic Movement in Nigeria) in the official gazette and two national dailies” to complete the process of proscribing the group.
The Shiites have for over two years been regularly taking to the streets, particularly in Abuja, to demand the release of their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, and his wife, Zenab, arising from court pronouncement to the effect, yet they were held by the state.
Since proscription, several reactions have trailed the actions of the Federal government, most of it angrily expresses in expletives, and derogatory terms. The clear verdict of most respondent is that the proscription of the Shiite movement was unconstitutional, illegal, discriminatory, and hypocritical, under an administration that had refused to take such step in dealing with killer herdsmen who had murdered thousands of Nigerians.
IA/AD/HR/ 08/05/019
The action it was noted negate and undermine the fundamental right of the Shiites to freedom of religion as constitutionally guaranteed, under sections 38, 40 and 41 of the constitution.
The justifications of your government decision to ban the group, it was reported is based on attendant violent protest that lead to the death of over a dozen people as well as its threats to national security.
No doubt, the confrontations between members of the sect and security operatives have been perennial, often resulting in violence of massive proportions, the most devastating of which arguably occurred in December 2015 when over three hundred members of the sect—including three of the Sheikh’s children—were murdered by the military during a brutal crackdown in Zaria, Kaduna state.
Yet its dismay the way and manner in which the past as well as the present conflicts had been managed give much cause for concerns, more rooms for suspicious of a calculated state inspired attacks to decimate the groups.
There is a well laid down laws or conditions for groups or movements threatening the corporate existence of the nation to be proscribed, one doubts if such had been adhered to in this instance.
Since proscriptions several reactions have trailed the actions of the federal government, most of it angrily expresses expletives and derogatory terms.
The response is worrisome in view of past similar approach in the case of the ravaging Boko Haram insurgency. With the court order proscribing the IMN, the military ought not to have been given a green light to take every step necessary to stop the violence being unleashed by the group on defenseless Nigerians.
To do this, is an invitation to an unending anarchy, guerilla warfare, and a further complication of the already worsened security situation in the country. Aside the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, little other organization, such as IPOB, MASSOB was proscribed, government in its own wisdom realizing the security threats, they allegedly posed.
IA/AD/HR/ 08/05/019
With the need to subscribe to the rule of law, Federal government should be guided in policy, particularly relating to proscription of any organization in Nigeria, by the constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria. This remains the antidote to anarchy within the state.
The implications of the proscription of the Shiites and others is no doubt, far-reaching, the government’s latest action could lead to the emergence of another violent sect. It may lead to an amorphous metastizing of the sect to a faceless threats group, more potent than the Boko Haram, and very difficult to identify for control or future negotiation, as presently experience with the faceless Boko Haram. Your Excellency, we urge your government to exercise great cautions in handling the issues relating to the group, realizing the fact that there presence and consequent actions is a symbolic representation of Iran-the foremost promoter of Shish globally.
The root of the present quagmire in Nigeria cannot be divorce from the overarching influence of Foreign nation on Nigeria, particularly, the import of religious ideology of extremism fuelled by radicalization-the growth of religion to the point of threats to national security, The influence of Iran, Saudi-Arabia and Israel USA on Nigeria has been enormous to the point of threats and concerns.
Yet, the recent action of your government must find a delicate balance, in the recent proscription of the Shiite, which its followers say was neither an association nor a political party that could be proscribed by fiat, but a mass movement and could not be made to abandon its religion just like that your Excellency.
The lessons we would like the Nigerian government to note is the need for the reform of the nations foreign policy as well as our bilateral relationship with nations with reputation of radical religious ideological export. The policies must restrict such, not the present proscription as in the case of medicine after death. With this not adhered to, the nation may witness the sprouting up of many anti-state religious groups.
IA/AD/HR/ 08/05/019
We noted the recalcitrant pose of the Iran leadership, and its unwavering backing of the groups, irrespective of the threats they posed or May posed to our nation. This call for caution and renewed diplomatic engagements devoid of confrontations. No doubt, several nations are looking to expand bilateral ties and increase cooperation on regional and international issues; this must not be at a security cost to our country. Nigeria must not be a wiling pawn in the Iran’s expansionist strategy in Africa. To do so is to make Nigeria the battlefield of proxy ideological wars between Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Tehran is trying to gain control of strategic waterways along the African coasts, recruit loyal proxies, and cause problems for the West by eliminating traditional Western allies, Nigeria's leadership must realize this. If it is positive, it is welcome, anything contrary should be resisted.
There is no question that Saudi Arabia had significant influence over the development of Salafism in northern Nigeria and also some such in the western region of Nigeria. Much as it does not impinge on our national security, it should be welcome.
Sadly, Iran’s bid to further its hegemonic desires over Nigeria, has translated to the actions of all groups loyal or with religious affinity to it in Nigeria.
Iran’s interference in Morocco led it to cut diplomatic relations with Tehran, over the so-called Iranian diplomat’s support for the Polisario Front, the group that is fighting for control of the Western Sahara, an area where Morocco controls about 90 per cent of the territory. This informed the reasons why we urge for caution in the present case, realizing the reported population of over 21 millions of Shiites in Nigeria and their conflict values.
The fact is that ,through its interferences in Syria war Iran has gained access to the Mediterranean sea where through its dominance of the sahara region ,it will be able to gain access to the Atlantic ocean , and through this gain a firm foothold in the area ,from which to pursue its interest in west Africa ,this ought to be uppermost in the mind of Nigeria leaders as its.
IA/AD/HR/ 08/05/019
With increasing challenges in the nation, its agents could easily recruit thousands of Shiite youths from impoverished areas in the country, who can be used by the Iranian regime to destabilize the country and create a monster bigger than Boko haram
Today, Iran is constantly on the lookout for allies in Africa, and particularly, Nigeria. The mullah regime is desperately trying to get its claws into Africa, and has used its usual method of buying friends, and arming and training Shiite rebel groups in places like Senegal and Nigeria, to allow it to gain a solid foothold in the region. The leadership response to Shiite must take the form of ideological dialogue moderated by diplomacy and if need be isolations in the national interest. The nation cannot afford the past mistake as it did with Boko Haram .by then leadership of their administrative failure to yield to our cogent responsive thought of advice, on boko haram cause us Nigerians the colotial damage to our existing as a nation.
By our diligent responsive intelligent The Shiite has come to stay with us, we can do little to eliminate them or proscribe them, and rather, we must work to accommodate them within the framework of national interest without tolerating any threats whatsoever.
To forcefully proscribe them and use of the military on them is to risk the underground sabotage of critical assets and infrastructure, the cost of which may be too high to comprehend, particularly as all indices of failed state confronts us in face.
We are critical stakeholders in the Nigerian projects. We are patriotically desirous of a better and great Nigeria. We frown at everything that will undermine our sovereignty or common humanity. There is never a good or justified war; neither is there a profit in conflicts and confrontations.
The present ban or proscription of the Shiite by the federal government will only further influence the interests of foreign radicalism element to infiltrate the nation security more, to sympathize with Shiites, whom they see as being persecuted and in the process may conspired to kill innocent citizen of Nigerians and inflicts incalculable damages on our hard or soft targets.
IA/AD/HR/ 08/05/019
One of the far reaching ways by which the lingering issues and other related ones should be addressed is for the government to as a matter of urgency improve its human rights protections to an unquestionable level of international acceptance, by strictly observing the rule of law or internationally ratified protocols and conventions.
Your Excellency sir, initiate the place of dialogue or establishing a common ground to find lasting solutions to the crisis should be promptly explored now to avoid second foisting the worst manifestations of Boko Haram, as guerilla warfare that can ravage Nigerians nation, signaling a descent to a failed state. We must therefore dialogue.
We must put in place, through legislations, clear cut stipulations to define the process or parameters leading to proscription of an organization or declaring individuals or group to have been fouled of treasonable felony. To do otherwise is to risk revolts motivated by government’s irrationality.
Your Excellency as the presidency of federal republic of Nigeria is a product of the constitution, and thus behoove on it to adhere to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Government should be more tact in the handling of the conflicts to avoid it snowballing to a larger uncontrollable conflict in the magnitude of Boko Haram .We can only secure the unity of the country through impartial enforcements of laws and order in line with the rule of law by simply obeying court orders.
Government refusal to obey Justice Gabriel Kolawole’s order on the release of the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem el-Zakzakky, because it appealed the ruling, further complicates the issues on ground and exposes the government as arbitrary.
The continued detention of the revered Sheikh El-zakzaky despite his deteriorating health condition is only an act of torture and waiting for his death which can instigate widespread of violence in the country using the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.
The Federal Government should therefore comply with the orders of the Federal High Court and the ECOWAS Court of Justice for the release of all detainees in the country.
IA/AD/HR/ 08/05/019
It should without delay immediately and unconditionally release of Sheikh Ibraheem and Hajia Elzakzaky zenab. However, if the Federal Government has evidence that they have committed any criminal offence whatsoever, they should be arraigned to court.
In the interim, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari to allow Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky access to health care and not to allow the leader of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) die in their custody due to deteriorating health conditions, as part of his right to life provided by the law
The government must work to shed the toga of impunity and the consistent violations of the fundamental rights of Nigerian citizens particularly the rights to dignity of human person and right to personal liberty but also infringed on the Constitution in several ways.
There is lack of accountability for human rights violations by security agencies and other militant elements including armed herdsmen must be revisited with a view to addressing it and the only solution is RANCHES; it must avoid heavy-handed violent responses to peaceful protests across the country.
The police must exercise restraint at all times and use force only when strictly necessary as the nation cannot afford to complicate the already challenged security. While the porous borders of our nation must be guided and secured Banning or proscribing the Islamic Movement in Nigeria is not the solution and will never be as it is ideologically motivated, and can only be moderated to operate within the scope of the nation's laws and constitutionality.
A protest is a formal objection by subjects of international law, usually a State, against a conduct or a claim purported to be contrary to or unfounded in international law. This exactly is what the members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria subscribe to in defending their rights, while been out daily. The right of peaceful protest is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in GENEVA of December 1948. Today, this right is recognized in the constitutions of 182 countries, Nigeria inclusive, in spite of the present postures by the state. However, we are still far away from universal acceptance of this right in practice.
IA/AD/HR/ 08/05/019
Without allowing latitude of freedom to protests there may not be effective development of an engaged and informed citizenry nor strengthen representative democracy by enabling direct participation in public affairs. At the same time, we are using this medium to call on the federal government to enter into dialogue with the group so as to find lasting solutions to the lingering problems. In a democratic and pluralistic society as our, government need to put in place policies and programs that will promotes inclusiveness, patriotism and sense of belonging, such as the Bill of rights.
A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and private citizens. Much as the government is determined to protect the rights of all Nigerians, we urge Mr. President to without delay send a bill on Nigerian Citizenship Commission bill to National Assembly for passage so as to douse tensions that threatens our national unity. We urge Mr. President to without delay Appoint an Attorney General of the Federation that isn’t inept that will be more proactive in using his office to deepen the rules of law and unwavering subscription to all relevant of the international norms of laws, for the overall development of our dear nation.
Every policy should be geared towards the promotion of good governance and over all prosperity of the people. That’s the only surest security against foreign ideology. Government should be very decisive in taking decision to address these issues, just as it had done in the recent case of renewed contract with Siemens of Germany.
We urge government to put in place robust mechanism and laws to promote patriotic citizenship that will readily comply with the rules of laws of the nation. The realization of the emergence of foreign-backed ideological organization, government should periodically review its foreign policies to make the interest of the nation, the centre piece of its actions and objectives.
IA/AD/HR/ 08/05/019
We call on government to further train the security agents on adherence to the rules of engagements in conflicts, to minimize casualties. We call on government to put in place policies and programs to eliminate all factors that promotes insecurity or radicalization of groups or movement making them amenable to strange anti-nation ideology, so as to starve the adventure of foreign terrorist groups in Nigeria.
The record of the human rights of your government in the first term of your administration, gives much for concerns, it also has a great impacts on your international engagements, this realization, and thus imposed a great responsibility to carefully choose an Attorney General of the federation that is fully committed to defend human rights while complying with the laws of the nation.We urge government to put in place robust mechanism and laws to promote patriotic citizenship that will readily comply with the rules of laws of the nation. The realization of the emergence of foreign-backed ideological organization, government should periodically review its foreign policies to make the interest of the nation, the centre piece of its actions and objectives. We call on government to further train the security agents on adherence to the rules of engagements in conflicts, to minimize casualties.
We call on government to put in place policies and programs to eliminate all factors that promotes insecurity or radicalization of groups or movement making them amenable to strange anti-nation ideology, so as to starve the adventure of foreign terrorist groups in Nigeria The implications on your leadership will be undesirable with its accompanied backlash of killing weekly around the nations, Government must do everything within its powers to manage the present challenges relating to the security, particularly restructuring our security architecture. Government must review its foreign policies to mitigate the impacts of importations of threatening religious or political ideologies to the country. Government must review its human rights responses in line with global best practices. Government must de-proscribe the group and set laws to regulate funding links between religious groups in countries with potentials threats to our national sovereignty.IA/AD/HR/ 08/05/019
The Nigerian security forces should be trained or indoctrinated to abide by the United Nations Officials. The leadership needs to promote equity, rule of laws and patriotism, to make every Nigerian have a sense of belonging. With these, the myriad cases of security challenges beveling the nations will be addressed.
Yours in support of diligent responsive leadership.
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COMRADE, BATURE JOHNSON T.
PRESIDENT [I.A.A.D.H.R] International Association for Advancement and Defense of Human Rights.
