THE IMPACT OF BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES IN NIGERIA (STUDY BORNO STATE)

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The safety of lives and property has been a major source of concern for Human right from time immemorial, the search for security forms part of the reasons why ―people aggregated into bands, tribes, kingdoms, and nation-states to join international organizations (PadelFord, 1976). Even in ancient times, the need for security was expressed in the form of fruit gathering and periodic expeditions for the aim of meeting the most important socio-economic requirements of the people. Perhaps, the physical security need of the people constituted part of the reasons why they preferred rocky and mountainous topographies for shelter, (Peterside, 2014). Thus, one of the most important roles of any state is to protect its citizens and inhabitants against any threat, be it physical, social, or economic. In the words of Aristotle ―The state exists for the sake of life and continues for the sake of the best life.

The impacts of terrorism on the socio-economic activities of any society cannot be over-emphasized. Terror attacks or mere threats of terrorism can have so many socio-economic consequences, for instance, terror attacks can lead to the diversion of foreign direct investment (FDI), reduction in the level of trade, redirecting of public investment funds to security, destruction of public infrastructure, internal displacement, refugee outflow, homelessness, personal insecurity, the proliferation of widows and orphans, loss of means of livelihood, low productivity in the society among others. Terrorist attacks may also have spillover cost on neighboring communities,

Societies or countries. Terrorism in Nigeria predates its creation. The British colonist used state terrorism to conquer hitherto independent nations within the territory called Nigeria today. Some years after independence, Nigeria was flood in many internal crises. Some of these crises included: The Tiv riots in 1962, post-election violence 1964-65, and the 1966 first military coup d'état, Isaac Adaka Boro uprising in 1966, the counter coup d'état of 1966, the Nigerian Civil war.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Since 2009 when Boko Haram initially started its insurgency and the aftermath of the killing of Mohammed Yusuf the leader of the sect, the activities of the sect have continued unabated despite the effort of the government to curtail the heinous crime of the sect, over 10,000 people have been killed by Boko Haram. Most of the operations of the sect are concentrated in the North-East of Nigeria. The sect has use kidnapping and raping of women as a weapon of war. The poor are the most victims of the sect cruelty and the implications of the sect insurgency fall on the ordinary Nigerians. The purpose of this study to examine the socio-economic implications of the sect where the sect operations are predominant.

The high rate of poverty, unemployment and political corruption in the region have been blamed on prolonging the conflict. Unfortunately, most of the foot soldiers of Boko Haram are youths which are frustrated because the lack employment, income and they have been disdained by politicians after being used by these politicians for their elections victory (Onuoha, 2014). He also asserts that the youths enlisted into Boko Haram because of the prevalence of poverty in the North. The poverty profile of Nigeria that was released in 2011 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated that the northern region has more poor people than people in the south. Apart from the killings, kidnapping and bombing of the sect, their activities constitute an obstruction to the socioeconomic development of the northeast where their operation is focused and Nigeria as a whole.  

Boko Haram’s origins lie in a group of radical Islamist youth who worshipped at the Alhaji Muhammadu Ndimi Mosque in Maiduguri a decade ago. In 2002, an offshoot of this youth group (not yet known as Boko Haram) declared the city and the Islamic establishment to be intolerably corrupt and hopeless. The group declared it was embarking on hijra (a withdrawal along the lines of the Prophet Muhammad’s withdrawal from Mecca to Medina). It moved from Maiduguri to a village called Kanama, Yobe state, near the border with Niger, to set up a separatist community run on hardline Islamic principles. Its leader, Mohammed Ali, embraced anti-state ideology and called on other Muslims to join the group and return to a life under “true” Islamic law, with the aim of making a more perfect society away from the corrupt establishment. In December 2003, following a community dispute regarding fishing rights in a local pond, the group got into a conflict with the police. Group members overpowered a squad of officers and took their weapons. This confrontation led to a blockade of its mosque by the army that lasted into the New Year. The siege ended in a shootout in which most of the group’s seventy members were killed, including Mohammed Ali (World Report, 2015).

Boko Haram is an Islamic sect that believes politics in northern Nigeria has been seized by a group of corrupt, false Muslims. It wants to wage a war against them, and the Federal Republic of Nigeria generally, to create a “pure” Islamic state ruled by sharia law. Since August 2011 Boko Haram has planted bombs almost weekly in public or in churches in Nigeria’s northeast. The group has also broadened its targets to include setting fire to schools. In March 2012, some twelve public schools in Maiduguri were burned down during the night, and as many as 10,000 pupils were forced out of education.

The trigger to the current conflict was the death of Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of an anti-government movement in Borno state, in 2009, which resulted in armed confrontations between his group and the government and soon escalated into a broad campaign of violence against the state and the civilian population. The tactics of the Boko Haram movement have been particularly violent and destructive, given the direct targeting of community leaders, churches, mosques, markets and other public facilities, including the use of terrorist attacks (suicide bombings), massacres and the abduction of hundreds of women and children. From 2014 onwards, the group escalated its attacks and considerably gained territory under its control (both in Nigeria and in neighboring countries) in an attempt to establish a ‘caliphate’. The Nigerian government’s response was in the form of a tough military operation which, in 2015, resulted in the progressive ‘roll-back’ of Boko Haram forces from most occupied territories in the bayq21 states. These counter-insurgency operations generated significant collateral damage to the civilian population, triggering further waves of displacement. This research intends to investigate the impact of socio-economic consequences of Boko haram insurgency in Borno state and suggest a possible solution to the problem. (World report and UN development programme 2017).