There is a crisis in Nigeria. More to the point, there is always a crisis in Nigeria but this crisis is the worst so far. Not only are there no effective leaders or political agencies; no shortage of thieves and bandits in charge of every major institution in the land; an outrageous system of purloining the oil and gas wealth of the country; strikes in the health and education systems; the disappearance of the country�s road, rail and bridge infrastructure because of lack of maintenance; long delays in any payments due on pensions and salaries by the governments; a police and army structure that protects politicians and punishes citizens; a judiciary that is constituted as an auction of verdicts �rather than as a dispenser of justice; a fuel subsidy system that rewards the traders in often invisible products because of a failure of existing refineries to process petroleum domestically; an electric power system that requires generators to fill in for the constant �blackouts of the power supply; etc. but these have almost always been the curses of Nigeria and its chronic lack of governance. What is new is the wholesale killing, rape, kidnapping of Nigerian citizens by the Boko Haram gang of thugs.
Violence is not new to Nigeria; as anyone who has seen the aftermath of the 1965 election in the West, the Biafran War and the mass starvation and deaths the end of that war can attest. The constant raids between agrarians and herders in the North and Middle Belt states are not new, nor have they yet ceased. �Yet Nigeria was able to surmount these unfortunate lapses and continued to exist as a cohesive unitary state despite them. The Boko Haram problem is very different both in terms of scale and impact.
It is different and more important because it is the outcome of not dealing with several internal Nigerian political problems which have been swept under the carpet or ignored for years. The key problem is that the South-South of Nigeria encompasses the oil and gas wealth of the country. The North has had tens of billions of dollars of oil revenues from the Federal Government and the Northern military coup leaders who dominated Nigerian politics for decades and has wasted or stolen almost every penny. The North still remains in a semi-feudal state with no major industries, agricultural enterprises, transport links or technological centres of excellence. The North has practically nothing to show for all the money that was sent them over the last forty years. It is not equipped to face the world on its own as a functioning country if it separates from the rest of Nigeria.
In addition the semi-feudal structure has led to the introduction of Sharia Law which raises Islamic law and practice as the legal framework for the citizens of the North. The question of the legal co-existence of a Sharia law system in parallel with Nigerian civil law was raised in 1999 when the civil government of the former General Obasanjo was begun under a new constitution. Islamic law was allowed to exist under the British but elected Nigerian governments after independence did not recognise Islamic law as equal to civil law or binding on citizens unless they wanted to be so bound.
Despite many misgivings, in 2000 several states were given the option to use Sharia law. Since 1999 Sharia has been instituted as a main body of civil and criminal law in the Muslim-majority and in some parts of three non-plurality Muslim states. The key element of the recognition of Sharia law as the equal of Nigeria�s civil law was that it imposed penalties for delicts which were antithetical to precepts of the civil law; e.g. stoning, amputation, etc. �It put in charge of these Sharia courts a body of clerics who were never responsible to any electorate but who were responsible to the will of the Northern emirs and the other feudal power-holders. In addition these Islamic clerics received infusions of cash and inspiration from non-Nigerian Islamic sources (primarily Saudi Wahhabis) to set up madrassas across Northern Nigeria where a brand of fundamental Islam was taught to the Northern youth.
Because of their vulnerabilities as economic sponges as opposed to revenue-earners the Northern political elites engaged in a plan to protect themselves from being left out of the centre of domestic politics. When President Obasanjo, who, despite being a Yoruba from the West was very careful to promote Northern interests, �decided that he would demand a Third Term in office the North began to worry about this violation of the party agreement to have �zoning�; essentially a system whereby there would be a rotation of jobs by region. Obasanjo�s Vice-President Atiku was from the North and it was supposed that a successor to Obasanjo would be a Northerner (either Atiku or someone else acceptable to the Northern elite). When Obasanjo was frustrated in arranging his Third Term the Presidency was arranged for a Northerner, for Umaru Musa Yar�'dua, a scion of one of the most powerful Northern families. He kept Northern political hegemony in power during his time of office and most of his close associates were from the Northern elites.
Unfortunately Yar�Adua was not in good health. After several trips to hospitals in Germany and Saudi Arabia he died in office. His Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan, became the accidental president; much as he had become the accidental Governor of Bayelsa when his mentor. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the Governor was forced from office in 2005. In 2007 he was Vice-President and in 2010, at the death of Yar'Adua, he became President. This was seen as a warning light to the Northern elites. They embarked on a process to ensure that the next president after Goodluck would be a Muslim from the North.
Their first reaction was to ensure their physical competence. As a result of the demographic changes in the Nigerian Army the old cabals of Northern officers (the Kaduna Mafia, the Kano boys, etc.) were leaving the army. The new officers were from the Middle Belt (Tiv, Jukun, etc.) who didn�t share the same loyalties as the Northern generals. The Northern elite decided that they had better see to it that they would have group whom they could command and guide. They activated the Boko Haram jihadists whom they had been cultivating for a number of years...
They had arranged to send many Fulani and Kanuri children from the Northern madrassas to Libya and the Middle East for training. Under the pretext of sponsoring youngsters to study in the Middle East, they sent them to terrorist training camps. Although Boko Haram officially started in 2002 there had been several terrorist activities which preceded it.
In the early months of May 1986, thirty-six Jihadist hardliners went on a rampage, attacking Christian students of the University of Sokoto. According to a participant in that raid in that same week, the Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of General Babangida mobilised the jihadists and provided them with some military vans and Army uniforms which they used to �start killing innocent and defenceless Christians all over the Northern states
The following year, March 5, 1987 to be precise, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida secretly armed the jihadists through one of his close aides by the name of Captain Hassan Abubakar. They attacked Christians and foreigners across Kano and Borno. The raids on Christians increased. The militancy exhibited by the leaders brought out a lot of support from Northern youth. This was not entirely because they had become hard-line jihadists but mainly because the substantial financial support from the Northern emirs, President Babangida, the Northern governors and the Northern PDP political and business elite made jihadism a career choice. As the Christians fought back, it became easier to recruit jihadists.
The use of Boko Haram by the Northern elites has been an important weapon in the hands of the Northern elites in demanding that the next president of Nigeria must be a Northern Muslim. Unfortunately for the Northern elites these Boko Haram militants made contact with other West African jihadists and many foreign jihadists have taken on prominent roles in Boko Haram. Boko Haram no longer takes its orders entirely from the Northern elites. They have gone into the kidnapping and ransom business and are making a good living by doing so. Many of the Northern elites are paying Boko Haram a protection fee for fear of their lives.
The Northern elites are determined that they should take power again in 2015 when the next election takes place. On the other hand, Goodluck Jonathan has announced that he will seek a second term in 2015. This has precipitated a major battle between the North and the South-South in the corridors of power. The rise of Boko Haram is an important aspect of this battle.� The constant question raised in Nigeria is what the role of the Army should be in this process. This is a difficult question as much of the arms and weaponry of Boko Haram were sold to them by the Nigerian Army. Eleven people have been questioned about this, six of whom are serving generals. The soldiers of the Nigerian Army were underfunded because their wages and benefits were being taken by the generals and their equipment was being sold to Boko Haram by the brass. This left them unwilling to fight Boko Haram who were better equipped than the Army and who had lots of cash in hand from the kidnappings and protection money.
There has been a great deal of unrest in the Nigerian Army. There have been three unsuccessful attempts at a coup so far and several attacks on senior officers by the enlisted men and the NCOs. The Army does not want to fight as it is ill-equipped, underpaid and without the support of the politicians in the North who fear reprisals from Boko Haram if they support the Army. This is why Goodluck Johnathan took more than three weeks to respond to the abduction of the girls in Chibok. He does not know what to do and cannot trust his Army to do it for him. So, he dithers.
Western military officers sent to help him are disgusted and frustrated. The U.S. has a satellite providing an accurate picture of the movements of Boko Haram which they have made available in real time to the Nigerian Army. The Nigerian Army has used this information to steer clear of the areas where they have been reliably informed that the Boko Haram is operating. This is one reason for the lack of progress in freeing the girls. Everyone is frustrated and feel their hands are tied. Each day more people are killed; more churches and villages burned; more people are kidnapped and ransomed.
The world community, including Nigeria�s neighbours, are asking how will this end? Who will stop Boko Haram? The answer comes down to the fundamental question; has endemic corruption, greed and lack of governance stopped any hope of progress in Nigeria? No one can want progress for Nigeria more than the Nigerians themselves. No foreign assistance can do it for them and no domestic institutions are functioning to allow the Nigerians to solve the problem themselves. One thing is clear � no election in 2015 will be a solution to the problem.
No one seems to have the answer to the problem, only the gnawing sense that something must be done and done soon. It is a great pity.
[i] Keeping� faeces in your gut will not stop hunger
