Nigeria's Boko Haram is threat to US

Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram have threatened the US embassy in the wake of their Christmas Day attack on a church in Madalla, Niger State which killed over 40 people. Nigerian newspaper The Moment said today the White House had intelligence reports indicating that the next target is the Lagos US diplomatic mission. The Moment said security analysts have advised US ambassador to Nigeria, Terence McCulley to get local police to fortify security around all US diplomatic missions and investments in the country. (Photo: AFP)

Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in four states (Borno, Yobe, Niger and plateau states) in the wake of the Christmas Day attack. Jonathan said what began as a sectarian crisis in the North East has gradually evolved into terrorist activities across the country. “The crisis has assumed a terrorist dimension with vital institutions of government including the UN Building and places of worship becoming targets of attacks,” he said. Jonathan also closed the borders adjacent to the four affected states.

Jonathan made the announcement on a visit to the Catholic Church in Madalla near the capital Abuja where 44 people were killed by a bomb as they were leaving a Christmas Day mass. During his address in the church, many worshippers cried uncontrollably, including two women who lost their husbands and four children in the attack. Parish priest, Reverend Father Isaac Achi, said the church had forgiven the attackers.“On behalf of the whole Christians in this country and Christ lovers… we have forgiven them from the bottom of our hearts,” he said. “We pray that such thing will not occur again in any place in this country.”

But others remain unhappy with the president. Nigerian newspaper The Nation said the governors of the affected states were annoyed they were not consulted in the president’s state of emergency. Some of the governors told the Nation the magnitude of the Boko Haram problem required collective effort. An unnamed governor said most of his colleagues were not happy being sidelined. “[Jonathan] has forgotten that whatever affects the nation is a collective burden we need to bear,” the Governor said. “"If governors are supposedly Chief Security Officers in their states, it presupposes that they must be part of solution to the spate of violence in the country.” The governors want a say in the choice of a new inspector general of police. Hafiz Ringim is due to retire within the next three months and the restructuring of police is central to Jonathan’s security overhaul to combat Boko Haram.

ND Danjobo from the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at the University of Ibadan said the rise of Boko Haram was related to the long-term failure of governance in Nigeria. Mohammed Yusuf, the movement’s founder was a Nigerian who was radicalised on Qur’an study visits to Chad and Niger. In Hausa language, the word “boko” can mean either “Western” or foreign; while the word “haram” is an Arabic derivative meaning “forbidden”. Yusuf wanted to forbid all Western influences and replace the modern state formation with the traditional Islamic state. His followers were school drop-outs and underemployed university graduates who believed that their hopelessness was caused by a government that imposed western education and failed to manage the resources of the country to the benefit of all.

Islamic Northern Nigeria has always been suspicious of western ways and there were major riots in 1980 against Christian interests that claimed 4,000 lives. The rise of Islamism elsewhere in the globe has strengthened hardliners and they were involved in a major outbreak of violence in 2009 with riots across six provinces and 1500 dead. Security forces killed 500 extremists in Borno alone. Despite, or perhaps because of the riots, Boko Haram enjoyed a wide spread of support within a short period of time. Yusuf was captured in 2009 and was "shot dead trying to escape". His followers treated his death as martyrdom and the group enjoyed renewed strength. In August 2011, Boko Haram attacked the UN headquarters in Abuja with a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, killing 23 people and injuring more than 80 others.

A US Committee on Homeland Security report of November 2011 said Boko Haram was a direct threat to the US developing alliances with Algerian-based Al Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb and Somali al Shabaab. The report said the US Intelligence community largely underestimated the potential for al Qaeda affiliate groups to target the Homeland, wrongly assessing they had only regional ambitions and threats against the US were merely “aspirational.” They urged increase its intelligence collection on Boko Haram, outreach with the Nigerian Diaspora in the US and better liaison with Nigerian security and counter-intelligence services.

Nigeria executes Islamist leader

Nigerian police have shot dead the leader of the Islamist sect responsible for the spate of deadly violence across the north of the country for the last week. According to police Mohammed Yusuf was killed on Thursday as he attempted to escape from a compound in the city of Maiduguri which had been attacked for the previous 48 hours. However Reuters and local journalists say he had been captured alive and unhurt which suggest it was probably an execution style killing.

These claims are backed up by Colonel Ben Ahanotu, commander of the military operation against the compound who said he personally captured Yusuf who was unarmed and had given himself up willingly. "All I know is that in the attack, I was able to pick him up from his hideout and hand him over to police," he told the BBC. "I asked him why he did what he has done and his response was that he would explain to me later. But he was OK. As I got him alive, I handed him over to the authorities."

While the Nigerian government has promised to investigate the killing, there is little doubt that they are happy to see Yusuf removed from the picture. What is less clear is whether his death will end the violence that has beset the north all week. At least 300 people have died so far and another 4,000 have been forced to flee the area. The violence started in Bauchi before spreading to the neighbouring states of Yobe and Borno. It began on Sunday when Boko Haram, a group often called the Nigerian Taliban, launched a series of attacks on police stations across the north of the country. In retaliation, the army shelled Yusuf’s compound in the town of Maiduguri, Borno state, on Tuesday. Yusuf managed to escape with about 300 followers, some of them armed. His deputy, Bukar Shekau, was killed in the attack,

Mohammed Yusuf was 39 years old with four wives and 12 children. He had considerable private wealth with Western-style schooling. However, he completed his education in Iran. Yusuf, a self-proclaimed Islamic scholar, formed the group in 2002 with the intention of imposing Shari’a law across the rest of the country and removing Western influences. Based in Maiduguri, capital of Borno, his followers are a mix of former university lecturers and students and illiterate, jobless youths. The name Boko Haram means "western education is a sin” in the Hausa language common across the north.

Roughly half of Nigeria’s 140 million are Muslim. 19 states in the north are predominately Muslim with the remaining 15 states in the south Christian. In 2000 and 2001, 12 of the Northern states re-Islamised their legal system which added new Koranic offences related to theft, sex, robbery, defamation and alcohol. The Shari’a law also brought in the concept of retaliation or monetary compensation. The move alienated Christian minorities in the north and helped spark sectarian clashes that killed thousands. Meanwhile groups such as Boko Haram wanted to spread Shari’a to the other 24 states.

There is no evidence to infer from the fighting that Boko Haram or the other fundamentalist Islamist groups owe allegiance to al-Qaeda. And Nigeria’s Muslim president Umaru Yar'Adua has been trying to play down the violence. But he is only too aware that Yusuf tapped into widespread disaffection and the perception that liberal economic policies have benefited the south while entrenching poverty in the north. Unemployment, official corruption and injustice have also alienated many in the north. American Africa expert and author Douglas Farah says there is now a large and radical Muslim population in the north. "The radicalisation is mixed with a deep sense of grievance against the south and the central government, as well as antagonism towards the sizeable Christian minority," said Farah. "Not all Muslims in the north are…seeking a violent change. But those in the lead of the new Taliban want to push Shari'a law to a more extreme form."