INSURGENCY AND COUNTER INSURGENCY IN WEST AFRICA: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO THE BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY IN NIGERIA (2009-2013)

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INSURGENCY AND COUNTER INSURGENCY IN WEST AFRICA: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO THE BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY IN NIGERIA (2009-2013)

Abstract:

Insurgency has come to assume global concern in view of its magnitude and spread. In Nigeria, while history reveals that insurgency is not entirely new as the nation witnessed the Maitasine and Niger Delta insurgencies among others in times past, the wave of violence unleashed by the Boko Haram sect in northern Nigeria has proved unprecedented and has also revealed the extent of the failure of governance in the country, the abysmally poor crisis management tradition by the Nigerian state and its palpable inability to provide security to its citizens. It has also brought to the fore the necessity on the part of government to make concerted and intensified efforts to evolve lasting solutions to intractable crisis in the country. This work is therefore an effort to assess the Federal Government of Nigeria‟s response to the Boko Haram insurgency. The objectives of the study are to identify and discuss the major issues leading to the outbreak of the Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria, to examine the Nigerian state‟s response to the Boko Haram insurgency with a view to determining its efficacy and suitability, to offer likely reasons for the inability of the Nigerian Military to contain the insurgency and to suggest possible measures for effectively managing insurgency in Nigeria. The study was conducted in five northern states including Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi, Yobe and Borno. It relied on both primary and secondary sources of data. The study revealed that the Boko Haram crisis has a long history stretching beyond 2009 and that there were early warning signs which the government obviously ignored. The study also unveiled that the various steps taken so far in response to the insurgency reveals government‟s insincerity and lack of political will to finally contain the crisis. It was recommended that there should be enhanced knowledge of the recruitment dynamics that feed and sustain the group which can lead to a more proactive counter-terrorism framework for the Nigerian state, a comprehensive approach necessarily needs to be built on a deep understanding of the drivers and dynamics of, in particular, the north-east Nigerian context, there is a need for the government to really monitor what is preached by any religious organization and if such is not in tandem with accepted standards there will be need to address it, to nip it in the bud, there is an urgent need for the defence budgeting system to be completely overhauled. Furthermore it was recommended that there is an urgent need for the prioritization of modern state of the art military equipments and weapons to be acquired, the attitude of Nigeria leadership to the welfare of military personnel also needs to be reviewed. Better welfare packages need to be introduced to boost their morale and ensure that they are better motivated, government also needs to demonstrate a sincere commitment to alleviating poverty in Nigeria especially in the Northern part of the country, enlightenment campaigns also need to be introduced on the need for education in the North. Leaders in the north should endeavor to encourage the people to embrace western education, the Nigerian state should desist from the heavy-handed military and police methods that risk pushing yet more restless, jobless and frustrated youths into violence and extremism, government should to be fair to all, especially in the utilisation of the country‟s resources and government should pay attention to the issue of religion. The government takes religion as the strict affairs of the clerics and their students

INSURGENCY AND COUNTER INSURGENCY IN WEST AFRICA: A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO THE BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY IN NIGERIA (2009-2013)

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