PERCEPTION OF STUDENT ON BOKO HARAM ACTIVITIES IN NIGERIA

    Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and its second largest economy, as well as one of America’s top oil suppliers. Despite a return to civilian government in 1999 after a long spell of military dominance, Nigeria remains a fractious nation, divided along ethnic and religious lines. Nigeria is a country with a history of rigged and violent elections, however, a watershed presidential election held in 2011 April peacefully brought a southerner to power many years since the end of military rule and colonial administration.

         The incumbent president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, a mild-mannered man, former vice-president and zoologist, won an easy election victory after a poll judged by many analysts to be the countries fairest ever after the 1993 general elections. Contrary to expectations, the outcome turned violent. Voting split along regional, religious and ethnic lines, with Mr. Jonathan scoring big totals of the vote in the south-south and southwest which are largely Christians and his rivals, former military ruler General mohammadu Buhari, leading the Muslims north after a much acclaimed zoning arrangement which bequeathed the north to favour Goodluck Jonathan of the south. The outcome of the election witnessed the pronouncement of some big wings in the north that the government of  Dr. Goodluck Jonathan will be ungovernable, thus, the sudden rise of BOKO HARAM. It cannot therefore be claimed that these people are behind Boko haram insurgent yet, they prove great evidence.

           The exact date of the emergence of the Boko Haram sect is mired in controversy. There are at least three perspectives. The first, which is shared by most local and foreign media, traced its origin to 2002, when Mohammed Yusuf emerged as the leader of the sect. However, Nigerian Security forces date the origin of the sect back to 1995, when Abubakar Lawan established the Ahlulsunna wal‟jama‟ah hijra sect at the University of Maduigiri, Borno State. It flourished as a non-violent movement until Mohammed Yusuf assumed leadership of the sect in 2002, shortly after Abubakar Lawan left the country to pursue further studies in Saudi Arabia. Since then, the sect has metamorphosed under various names like the Muhajirun, Yusufiyyah, Nigerian Taliban, Boko Haram and Jama‟atu Ahlissunnah lidda‟awati wal Jihad (Onuoha, 2012). For other scholars, Boko Haram’s evolution has a larger history, some of these scholars link the organization to the Maitatsine movement of the 1980s which is the second perspective. According to the third account, Boko Haram’s modern roots can be traced to the environment where extremists have the opportunity to mobilize and expand their operations. (Morgan, 2012) 

          Despite the existence of various conflicting accounts, it is agreed by most observers that in 2002, a 32 year old charismatic Islamic Cleric, Uztaz Mohammed Yusuf established a religious group with a mosque and an Islamic boarding school in Maiduguri, Bornu state, along with a prayer group which he called “Jamm’attul Allahu Sunnah Lidda Watti Wal Jihad” loosely translated from Arabic as “People Committed To The Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad’. Yusuf, a devout Salafist was not satisfied with the Sharia law in Maiduguri, Borno state as a whole. He preached that it was necessary to engage in active Jihad in order to defend the Ummah (the global Muslim community) and spread the Faith, and that a leader who does not enforce Sharia law completely, and wage active Jihad against infidels, is unfit to rule. (Forest, 2012)

           According to Danjibo (2010), the group gradually mobilized young people and unemployed university students and graduates, many of them animated by deep seated socio economic and political grievance like poor governance and corruption. In essence, Boko Haram as the group came to be called by locals and eventually by the government, because of it Anti-Western focus which simply means “western education is a sin” in Hausa language is rooted in Nigeria prevailing socio economic crisis. According to Yusuf, the leader of the group argued that Western education, or ‘Boko,’ had brought nothing but poverty and suffering to the region and was therefore forbidden, or ‘haram,’ in Islam. He began peacefully, mostly by preaching but very quickly gained a followership among disaffected young men in the Northeastern region of Nigeria.