Boko Haram, Girl Abduction and the War on Terror in

Northern Nigeria
Fr. Atta Barkindo
The Mood in Chibok
Initially, there was fear, sadness and confusion with regards to the abduction of about 234 girls in
Chibok, but more so with the sense of uncertainty as to who may be next. As the seeds of time
grew, the lack of true and consistent information on the whereabouts of the abducted girls, turned
fear into frustration and disbelief. Parents and relatives of the abducted schoolgirls have threatened
to take matters into their own hands and search for the abducted girls.1 Public frustration has been
linked to what appears as complete lack of interest, lack of strategy, if not policy, on part of the
government to locate and rescue the abducted girls. After the April 14 bomb blast, President
Jonathan went for a political rally the next day in Kano. Critics, particularly the opposition party,
APC, accused the government of insensitivity and playing politics with the lives of Nigerians.
Analysts suggest the same pattern seems to emerge as the President plans to attend more political
rallies in Adamawa and other states while the abducted girls remain missing. A relative to one of
the missing girls, who refuses to be identified for security reasons, accuses the government of
President Jonathan for complicity. He wondered why insurgents will convey more than 200 girls
in different trucks without detection and without opposition from the army.2 What appears as
inaction on part of the Nigerian government has prompted parents and relatives of the abducted
girls to organize their own search for the missing girls into the Sambisa forest.
The government had an expanded security meeting on April 24, 2014. Second, it gave the military
an order to locate and rescue the girls immediately.3 Governor Fayemi of Ekiti State reported that
during the meeting, the government adopted the anti-poverty strategy, soft approach in addition
to hard approach.4 It further discussed about the importance of ensuring capacity building of
media organisations to ensure to objective reporting and avoid putting the lives of the schoolgirls
at risk. However, he did not specify the details of these anti-poverty strategy, soft and hard
approach to the issue of the girls abduction. Nonetheless, in the last few days, evidence suggests
the heightened level of security in the north-east, especially around Borno, Yobe and Adamawa
states. The number of military check points have dramatically increase alongside incessant search
of vehicles on all highways.
It is necessary to concede that the difficulty for the Nigerian army is that an aggressive military
assault could put the lives of the girls in danger. In addition, the vast border area provides a mobile
cover for the sect, making the sect illusive and the search more complicated. I believe the measures
adopted by the government, like most measures, are linked to the symptoms and not the disease.
So far, these measures are geared towards crushing the insurgency and ensuring military victory.
The problem here is not the victory per se, but what is done with the victory. The real challenge
therefore is how Nigeria has made governance a criminal enterprise rather than a vocation for
service. Consequently, the government must promote policies that deal with the issues of
corruption, job provision, environmental degradation and the building of accountability

Interview with Rev. Fr. Gregory, a Catholic Priest based in Maiduguri with relatives and friends in Chibok,
An Interview with Abubakar Chiroma (a representative name) from Chibok, April 25, 2014
3 Olalekan Adetayo, 2014. Jonathan, Govs to Military: Rescue Abducted Schoolgirls, Punch Newspaper, April 24, 2014.
4 Ibid.
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institutions otherwise the abduction remains a tragic that signifies something worse for the future
of the country.
Government Policy
For the past three days, the obvious policies likely to be adopted by the government are; military
action to rescue the girls, the implementation of complete emergency law in the three states of
Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, north-eastern Nigeria and the militarization of the entire zone. For
example, speaking in Abuja yesterday, Edwin Clark, the former Federal Commissioner for
Information and South South Leader, Chief Edwin Clark, yesterday, called for the suspension of
all democratic institutions in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states to allow the military have full
control of the states until peace and order return.5 So far, President Jonathan has warned state
governors and senior government officials to to desist from making inflammatory statements that
will further jeopardize the efforts of the Federal Government in rescuing the abducted schoolgirls.
This warning, analysts argue, was to a large extent, directed at Admiral Murtala Nyako, the
governor of Adamawa state, who wrote a letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing the
Federal Government of using the military to carry out genocide against Fulani Muslims in the
north-eastern region. However, there is no specific statement from the government suggesting
that it will negotiate with Boko Haram for the release of the abducted schoolgirls. I believe
negotiations are likely to commence if all the abducted school girls are to be rescued alive without
putting their lives at risk.
The need for negotiations, in my expert opinion, remains invaluable. First, the sect has become
ruthless, hyper-violent and seems to spare no one, Christian or Muslim, northern or a southerner.
Again, the difficulty of carrying out military operations in this regions is made more complicated
by the sense of mutual distrust amongst the adherents of both Islam and Christians, the
instrumentalization of ethnic and the ideology of indigene settler concept. Consequently,
security personnel posted to this region find it difficult to obtain information, and even if they do,
the information remains unreliable. In addition, most of the security personnel themselves cannot
speak Hausa, Kanuri or some of the local languages of the region. This makes communication
difficult, deception high and the environment fertile for Boko Haram infiltration.
Over the years, Kanuri across the different territories of Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria, have
considered the entire border area as borderless territory. They freely moved round, inter-married
and enjoyed social engagement to an extent that both formal and informal forms of solidarities
have been established. This aids free mobility for the sect, in addition to intelligence gathering.
Moreover, the dilapidation of school structures and lack of modern educational facilities make
such adoptions very easy for the insurgents. Thousands of Government schools in the north are
overpopulated. Some of the schools have no classrooms, some classrooms are roofless. There is
no means of transportation and children are forced to trek for hours to get to school, some without
uniforms and therefore not identifiable. These structural and systematic failures make it necessary
for the government to negotiate with the sect to avoid further risks to the lives of school pupils.
Interestingly, in a phone interview with the Executive Director of Socio-Economic Rights and
Accountability Project (SERAP), Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, he expressed the need for the United
Nations to urgently intervene to secure the safe release of 230 students of Government Girls

Henry Umoru, 2014. Declare Full Emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe Edwin Clarck, Vanguard
Newspaper, April 25, 2014.

Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, who were abducted by members of the Islamic sect, Boko
Haram.6

Abuja after the Bombing

Most residents of Abuja have been far off from the north-east region, a zone infested by the Boko
Haram conflict. However, after the bombing, Abuja has not been the same. There is a sense of
shock and disbelief. Shock that fellow Nigerians could carry out this heinous crime against poor
and helpless civilians who do not appear to know if government exists in Nigeria, and disbelief
because, what they have heard over the news all these years has finally come to their door steps.
Mr Cosmas Bai, reported that he lost seven of his close friends in just one day. 7 At the scene of
the incident, Paul Patrick, whom I met on the bridge overlooking the bus station told me its the
worst thing I have ever seen in my life. I never thought Boko Haram will come this close. Thus,
the militarization of Abuja appears to have increased tremendously. The military and police check
points in strategic locations within the city of Abuja have increased. Military presence is also visible
around bus stations, motor parks and most public places. Churches, mosques and most religious
places of worship are well guarded, particularly on Sundays and Fridays.
However, it remains questionable of these measures have improve military-civilian relationships.
This is because the militarization of Abuja also comes with its own disadvantages; the harassment
of civilians, illegal arrests and detention in addition to police taking bribes from motorists. The
militarization has also added to the layers of traffic congestion which before now has been a
burden on residents of the Federal Capital Territory. This level of traffic congestions is most
significant along the Abuja-Nyanya expressed way, adding to the number of security problems and
creating a fertile opportunity for terrorists to strike at congested vehicles and occupants. The traffic
congestion also sets up its own independent market, mostly for hawkers selling everything from
bread, to sugar, torch lights, knives and other implements easily usable if violence erupts. Finally,
there is palpable fear in Abuja. Most residents believe the government is not capable of protecting
them and Boko Haram could strike anytime, anywhere and anyhow.

Interview with Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni in Abuja, April 25, 2014.

Interview with Mr. Cosmas Bai, Aso-Pada, Nyanya, Abuja, April 16, 2014.

(I took these pictures this evening along the Abuja-Nyanya Express way)
Reasons for the Actions of Boko Haram
I believe there are ideological and strategic reasons why Boko Haram is carrying out the abductions
of girls in addition to some recent bombings in northern and central Nigeria. Ideologically, the
sects actions are based on the principle of salafism. Salafism comes from al-Salaf al-Saleh meaning
pious predecessors, the companions of the Prophet. It means that temporal proximity to the
prophet is associated with the truest form of Islam. It calls on the adherents of Islam to return to
this truest form of Islam.8 In Nigeria salafism flourished under the career preaching of al-Shaykh
Abubakar Mahmud Gumi around 1978. Boko Harams ideology is therefore the ultra-salafi
radicalism; the call to return to the fundamentals of Islamic religion and rejection of everything
deemed un-Islamic. Consequently, their ideological justification for the abduction of girls is always
linked to this Sunni ultra-salafi radicalism. According to Lela Gilbert, women are traditionally
treated as second-class citizens under this salafi ideology.9 The ultra-salafi ideological mindset cast
women as lesser beings who, to varying degrees, require male guardianship. Female sexuality is
generally perceived as a powerful and dangerous force, a predatory threat to male spirituality and
family honour. It is simply categorize as a perilous feminine element that demands stringent
supervision.10
According to Daniel Pipes for example, Muslims often see the woman as the hunter and the man
as the passive victim of her ardor; indeed, sexual needs make her the symbol of unreason, disorder,
the anti-divine force of nature and disciple of the devil. Although this view remains controversial
in some Islamic doctrines, what is generally accepted is that female sexuality is thought of as being
so powerful that it constitutes a real danger to society.11 This ideological worldview, experts argue,
have influenced the humiliating circumstances women in Muslims states, including northern
Nigeria have found themselves. This includes widespread domestic violence, rape and murder. In
8 Haykel, Bernard. 2009. On the Nature of Salafi Thought

and Action, In Meijer Roel, Global Salafism: Islams New Religious Movement.
Columbia University Press, p. 34. Cf. Kepel, Gilles. 2003. Coming to Terms: Fundamentalists or Islamists? Martin Kramer, Middle
East Quarterly, p. 65-77. Roel Meijer, 2009. Global Salafism: Islam's New Religious Movement, pg. 49. New York: Columbia University
Press. Also see Richard, Gauvain. 2013. Salafi Ritual Purity: In the Presence of God, New York: Routledge, p. 41.
9 Lela Gilbert, Gender-Based Violence as an Expression of Christian Persecution in Muslim Lands, US Hudson Institute, p. 1.
10 Ibid p. 5.
11 (http://www.danielpipes.org/9637/male-female-relations).

many instances female genital mutilation, kidnappings and forced marriages of young women
including pre-pubescent girls to much older men.12 Thus Boko Haram deems western education
as un-Islamic. The abduction of girls who attend western education is therefore justified on the
basis of returning people to the truest form of Islam. If Muslim women could be treated based on
this ideology, how would Christian women then be treated? Based on this kind of radical ideology,
Boko Haram has justified it attack on women and girls, it has destroyed banks in Ganye Local
Government of Adamawa State and Jalingo, Taraba state because they are headed by women.
A classic example of this is For example, Jennifer Gyang was abducted on May 1, 2013 after her
parents and brothers escaped. Jennifer and other five Christian women were kept for two weeks
within a hideout in Maiduguri and repeatedly raped. Some of the reasons advanced by their captors
was that Jennifer Gyang and the other women were Christians. Islamic law allows Christians to
pay the jizya; a special tax for Christians under Islamic law paid for their own protection.
Consequently, the rape of these women was justified on the bases of sex as jizya. More than this,
Jennifer and the other Christian women were considered as settlers. The name Gyang is suggestive
of the ethnic Berom from Jos, central Nigeria. This seems to confirm the messages of Boko Haram
on youtube videos calling on Muslims to revenge against the ethnic Beroms for the killing of
Muslims in Jos north.13
Strategically, Boko Haram is thrives on fear and publicity. Matthew H. Kukah, a social
commentator and the founder of the Kukah Center for Faith, Leadership and Public Policy in
Abuja-Nigeria argues that strategically, Boko Haram wants to limit the ability of government
Nigerian government and serve as an alternative source of provider for public services including
security. The sect wants to win over neutral but critical segments of the Nigerian population;
media, academia, and other Islamic religious groups. It wants to enhance this by sabotaging of
public utilities, transport facilities and social centres. Again, the sect wants to increase its own
visibility and publicity at the expense of the government, destroying the confidence of government
in its legitimacy.14 The abduction of these girls is to instil fear into the society, demonstrate that
the government it weak. In addition, it wants to show that it has the capacity to strike when and
where it wants. For example, on February 19, 2012, Boko Haram kidnapped a seven-member
French family in Waza National Park, Cameroon, transferred them to Borno, and issued two
proof-of-live videos showing the family. In the second video, Shekau said, we are holding them
hostage because the leaders of Cameroon and Nigeria detained our women and children under
inhuman conditions. The search for publicity and the need to instil fear seems to be consistent
with the strategy of Boko Haram. After the recent Abuja bombings, Shekau (the leader of Boko
Haram) stated in a video released to claim responsibility for the bombing that that neither
President Jonathan nor the security agents can arrest him even though he presently lives
somewhere within the federal capital territory.15

Lela Gilbert, Gender-Based Violence as expression of Christian Persecution in Muslim Lands, US Hudson Institute, p. 1.
Please Cf my Report Our Bodies, Their Battle Ground Boko Haram and Gender Based Violence Against Christian Women and Children
in North-Eastern Nigeria Since 1999 2013, p. 22.
14 Phone Interview with Matthew Hassan Kukah by the Author, April 25, 2014.
15 Translation of the Shekaus Video Claiming Responsibility for the April 14, 2014 Abuja Bomb Blast.
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