Full report on how a small Boko Haram group becomes a deadly scourge

AFGHANISTAN! That was what it called its base in Kanamma, Yobe State. It uses guerrilla tactics as a means of doing devilish things, yet it professes Godliness.

Drive-by and ride-by sporadic shooting of police officers and innocent passers-by have become another way of wreaking havoc.

Bombs have recently come in handy; and bombs are being deployed with maximum effectiveness.

This is the world of Boko Haram, the Islamic fundamentalist sect that appears to be fast replacing the militants of Niger Delta.

It was for this reason that top politician, Sir Tunde Olowu, pejoratively told Sunday Vanguard that “the Federal Government should create a special ministry, in the mould of the Niger Delta Ministry, to handle the scourge that has become Boko Haram”. So much for a solution!

Yet, there are questions, many questions that need answers: How did it come about? Who are the sponsors? How did Boko Haram grow from strength to strength? Why has it been difficult for the authorities to clamp down on the sect members? Where do they get their support?

How do the members operate?
There are frightening scenarios that are playing out daily.  And, whereas the military defeated Boko Haram last year, the sect members regrouped after the killing of its founder.  Today, one Abubakar Shekau, Yusuf’s former deputy, is said to be in charge.

Death & Destruction,
Thy Name is Boko Haram
The members of this sect do not spare royalty or religious leadership. Take: On May 30, this year, suspected members of the sect shot dead Abba Anas Umar Garbai El-Kanemi, the younger brother of the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Kanemi. Also, a renowned Islamic Scholar, Shiekh Ibrahim Gomari, amongst other religious scholars, was also shot by the sect members in front of his mosque in Gomari Airport ward in March.

For policemen and law-abiding citizens in Maiduguri, Borno State, the fear of being targets of drive-by shooters is now commonplace. In addition, most citizens now avoid clustering around.  Even those who go to the markets now do their buying in a very brisk manner.  These, for the incremental fear members of Boko Haram!

Consider this trail of deaths and destruction!
Prior to the events of July 2009 when the sect’s notoriety waxed strong, its members had been involved in dastardly incidents in Yobe in 2003 and in Kano in 2004. In April 2007, 10 policemen and a divisional commander’s wife were killed in an attack on the police headquarters in Kano.

On November 13, 2008, Muhammed Yusuf was arrested following an attack on a police station in Maiduguri, in which, 17  of his followers were killed. On January 20, 2009, he was granted bail by a High Court judge in Abuja. This was to be an error.

On October 7, 2010, the members stormed a federal prison in Bauchi and set free hundreds of their members as well as other inmates and threatened reprisals against those they accused of persecuting their members. Obviously, the military did not defeat Boko Haram last year when a five-day long clash ended with the alleged extrajudicial execution, in police custody, of Ustaz Yusuf.

Although scores of the militants were killed or wounded, several also escaped, simply melting into the surrounding environs.

The uprising actually began in Bauchi State on July 26, 2009 when several hundred Boko Haram adherents launched an attack on the Dutsen Tanshi Police Station. This attack failed, with reports of at least 50 people being killed.

During the next four days, the group carried out further attacks, with gun battles between members of the sect and the police being reported throughout Bauchi, Kano, Yobe and Borno states.

The worst of the violence occurred in Maiduguri, where the group had again relocated from its Yobe base. (See Box For Catalogue of Carnage)

Unto them, a child was born

On January 29, 1970, a boy was born into the Yusuf family; the name, Mohammed. But,  some 32 years later, Mohammed put to bed his own baby, a brand of Islamic sect.

With four wives and 12 children, plus Mohammed himself, making 17, this number was indeed, enough to begin a crusade.

His background could not have suggested the output which Yusuf engendered.  Born to parents said to be of humble disposition, he acquired a degree through Western education which his group, Boko Haram - Boko, meaning “Animist, Western or Islamic education and the Arabic word Haram figuratively meaning, “sin” (literally forbidden) – so heavily loathes.

The group, which seeks the imposition of Sharia in the northern states, believes that Western or non-Islamic education is a sin. It became known following the sectarian violence in 2001 and became even more active in 2002. Its leaders are Yusuf and Mallam Sanni Umaru – the former has since been killed.

Boko Haram opposes not only Western education, but Western cultural and modern science as well. In a 2009 BBC interview, the late Yusuf, their leader, stated that the belief that the world is sphere is contrary to Islam and should be rejected, along with Darrorism and the theory that the rain comes from water evaporated by the sun.

Founded in 2002 in Maiduguri, the group soon found Kanamma in Yobe State, a better abode and, therefore, moved base, like Rev. Jim Jones of the Guyana Tragedy fame.

The beginning of a crusade
Then a rag-tag group of zealots, the members of the sect used to attack nearby police posts, killing police officers in the process.

The late Ustaz Yusuf was hostile to democracy and secular education. In his time, he vowed that, “this war that is yet to start would continue for long”, if the political and educational system was not changed.

Before Yusuf, there was the Maitatsine movement which caused more loss of life in Maiduguri and Kaduna in October 1982 and in Yola in February and March 1984.

How members are recruited
Before his death, Yusuf claimed to have no fewer than 3,000 students.His followers were said to include university lecturers and students as well as illiterate, jobless youths. They wore long beards, red or black headscarves and refused to use Western-made goods. All those who did not subscribe to the sect’s strict interpretation of Islam were regarded as infidels. This included not only Christians but also the majority of Nigerian muslims, who follow the moderate Maliki school of Sunni Islam.

Recruitment for membership into Boko Haram is based on indoctrination. The leaders try to persuade people who are willing to join the group. Apart from some of their members who are not Nigerians, the majority of their memers are northerners, who are overzealous for Islamic knowledge and  they are very sccretive about their membership.---------Vanguard editorial