There is no justification whatsoever, when citizens begin to take up arms against their nation and their fellow citizens in any form. But this is our story in northeast Nigeria’s Borno State, also known as “Home of Peace”, where peace is hard to find these days.

In northeastern Nigeria, more than 20,000 lives have been lost, more than 2.3 million people displaced, children orphaned, widowed women and many more unidentified maimed, while property worth millions is destroyed and human trust derailed. completely until then. This one is bitter, with a state that was known to be so peaceful until politics got mixed up with religion, when things fell apart.

There was a group of young people who came together to fight for a cause for the establishment of a new religious order with the aim of ending corruption in Nigeria. That group was founded in the state of Borno with the capital at Maiduguri; a cosmopolitan city. What has become of this group is amazing as a date.

Boko Haram is a youth group founded by Mohammed Yusuf, popularly known as “the youth leader” in some circles. Mohammed was a cleric who preached and appealed to poor, uneducated and unemployed youth in impoverished communities in north-eastern Nigeria. His preaching style was aimed at reaching the most underserved groups and vulnerable youth in the communities, which made it possible for his message to penetrate from the roots and attracted an easy traffic flow of followers. His message was how to change society using religion as a tool to take leadership of Nigeria. This was and still is the drive behind the group. This message was new and exciting, and it sparked hope in the minds of vulnerable youth who had hitherto craved in vain for identity and class in society. That message of hope is the engine for the incorporation of new young people to the group to date.

“Yan Yusufiyya” was his name when the group was formed and not Boko Haram. Boko Haram is a name given to the group by the media. The group existed for a long time and was peaceful. Although popular at the base, popularity became a threat to politicians in Borno state. Meanwhile, other politicians saw the group’s popularity as an opportunity to launch their political ambition, so they began aligning themselves with the group in an attempt to mobilize grassroots support for political power. But that was just a monster of hatching security issues.

When mixing the two is dangerous-

That’s when we mix religion with politics. It will always be the violence of the birth of war and nothing less. Anyway, I will prefer to be more specific when making my presentation. That it was in preparation for the 2003 election year that the group entered politics. The group single-handedly saw their entry into politics as Clear Avenue to actualize their mission of taking over the government of Borno State to the nation. From the perspective of the group’s preaching, this was a window for them to jump into politics, and this political conceit caused many vulnerable young people who never joined the group to believe in the group’s sovereignty and join them.

The group signed the terms of an agreement with politicians who were interested in leveraging their platform to reach out to grassroots members. The crux of the deal was; if the group supports any politician, and chances are the politician wins the Borno State Government House election, then the state will be governed religiously according to the principle and belief of the groups.

To beat their imagination, the aspirant/politician the group supported won the elections and was sworn in as Governor of Borno State for the term 2003-2007. Politicians had previously armed this group to the teeth as foot soldiers to fight the opposition before and during elections. Unfortunately, after the elections, the politicians never disarmed the group! However, to straighten out the deal that was struck, the group was rewarded with a commissioner’s post at Government House. But the group wanted a full-scale implementation of the deal, not just a political appointment. Then the group began to ask the Governor for more: make the agreement they signed before 2003 a reality. But how sad the agreement became unachievable.

In the run up to the 2007 election year, the interest of the incumbent government was to contest the elections again, and the group was recruited again with renewed terms of the agreement for full implementation of the first agreement should they be extended to the second. finished. After the elections, the Government won the elections for a second term that lasted from 2007 to 2011. And between this term, was it when the group became crazy and violent? A once peaceful group finally morphed into a terrorist group, why? Because the Government realizes the impossibilities of actually translating the terms of the agreement that they re-entered with the group for the second time. The group was disillusioned.

In an attempt to weaken the group, the government, instead of dialogue, established a joint special police force and military anti-robbery squad called “Operation Flush” to drive out the groups they armed before the elections. Operation Flush then began arbitrary arrests and detentions of the group and other civilians in an attempt to weaken the group, knowing full well to what extent the group had been armed. It is clear that since 2007 the group had several confrontations and misunderstandings with the Government, although no violent acts were recorded.

But in 2009 the group got tired and rebelled by announcing the refusal to recognize the authority of the State Government. They then declare their “authority status” and criticize the government for being callous, greedy and corrupt. That the government only used the poor politically to achieve its selfish goals and throw them into deeper poverty due to their vulnerability. The group viewed the government’s action as a breach of the agreement. They call the renegade as “THE RICH EDUCATED, using THE POOR WITHOUT EDUCATION” for selfish reasons. That, the uneducated poor must resist and say – “NO” to the educated rich antics in all ramifications. That was how the media came up with the name of the group as BOKO HARAM.

BOKO is a Hausa language and means “Western Education”.

Haram is Arabic language and means “No”.

So Boko Haram simply means: No to Western education. What that means is that it is Western education that has caused the elites to enslave the uneducated poor and must be resisted and stated that it does not fit.

The explosion started-

On Thursday 11 June 2009, an Operation Flush detachment near the Custom Market in Maiduguri intercepted this group; who were in the funeral procession of their member and were asked why they were riding motorcycles without wearing a protective helmet. The group saw the challenge as a slight to their plight and before long became involved in a heated argument with Operation Flush. Amid a heated argument, an armed member of Operation Flush opened fire on 17 members of the group, injuring many more, who were admitted to Maiduguri University Teaching Hospital. After that incident, there was no government reaction on the bloody shooting and the group considered it an affront and deliberate to exterminate them.

A few days later, the group’s founder (now deceased -Mohammed Abubakar- killed by police) issued a statement stating that the Borno state government’s action did not condemn or sympathize with the shootings, and has not established an investigative panel on the facts. the shooting is a clear indication that the shooting was orchestrated with the aim of eliminating his followers. And he boldly promised retaliation as justice. He called on his followers to dust off their weapons in preparation for self-defense and eventual Jihad to shoot 17 followers.

On Sunday 26 July 2009, around 10 PM, the group retaliated by disabling all GSM networks in Maiduguri and hit different police station and resident police officers and killed them in revenge. In return, the federal government immediately intervened and mobilized military force in Maiduguri and then attacked the members of the group whose houses were bulldozed and burned. The approach has been an eye for an eye, to which everyone has become blind.

Beginning in 2010, the group began using motorcycles to assassinate police officers at guard post checkpoints. Then they also started killing soldiers. Government workers, politicians and community members later joined. The reason is that they are the ones who allegedly point the members of the group to safety in order to arrest and kill them.

To date, it’s quite unfortunate how the whole episode between the group and the government has played out and is playing out, and how we couldn’t handle the conflict until it turned into a crisis and now a monster. The world didn’t really know about the group until the group kidnapped 276 girls from school in Chibok. Then international media like CNN, Aljeezera, etc. they cast their light for the news headlines.

But the group had been around for years. It is mystifying in my opinion how this group has become the world’s deadliest terrorist group according to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index. Leaving one wondering why.

Why is this happening in Nigeria for so long? How we are using hardware militarization techniques to solve all our problems. How technique always gives us a constant and sustainable problem to handle. And why we wouldn’t learn about the technique of software is to solve social problems.

Pray for Nigeria that peace will prevail. Peace to Nigeria, peace in Africa, Peace throughout the world.