Boko Haram epitomizes the growing public presence of Islam led by a Muslim counter-elite that came of age amidst a retrenching welfare state. As their critique of Westernization and secular elite in power and the principle of state secularism failed to gain much traction, they resorted to exploiting the pervasive anxiety among Muslims over their security, both physical and spiritual, in today’s northern Nigeria.
The primary cause of this anxiety is the misrule of the Northern elite, ‘the GRA Lords of the North.’ Their Machiavellian manipulation of religion helps to prop up their flagging legitimacy. Hence, they pander to the Islamist conceptualistion of the relationship between state and religion which contends that religion without authority is worthless (rejecting the converse liberal argument that religion without individual freedom is worthless). They bask in the spoils of Westernization and secularism; yet, they hypocritically support the traditionalist notion that the West has reaped decadence (greed, crime, materialism and lack of community life) and general amoral outlook of public life through separation of church and state. While benefiting from the liberal democratic principles of a secular state constitution, they disingenuously profess the politically correct doctrine that the duty of all Muslims is to adhere to, protect and spread dual religious and social characteristics of Islam, the Shari’a being the guiding principle, and above the constitution.
The problem, however, is that the implementation of revivalist Shari’a is possible only in an Islamic state; it cannot be carried out nor practiced by non-Muslims who are uncomfortably too many in Nigeria. Secondly, revivalists have made few converts in Nigeria because, contrary to public perception, Nigerian Muslims tend to be moderates. There is even more intra-Islam divisions today than inter-religious divisions with other religions. More importantly, the biggest losers of a true Islamic state, as evident in the 12 Shari’a states, are actually the GRA Lords of the North, not Christians, as is often claimed.
Yet, they exploit Muslim anxiety, partly millenarian, partly political, and seek to recreate a stronger sense of the ‘core North’ as dar al-Islam, with notionally ‘closed’ boundaries—just as it was in the often idealized pre-colonial Sokoto Caliphate. Meanwhile, the institutions that sustained social welfare obligations in the Old North, from the Northern Nigerian Development Corporation (NNDC) to textile mills, confectionaries, agricultural development projects, and other state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have all virtually been robbed blind and run aground by the very beneficiaries of this ‘Old North’ vision.
This Machiavellian manipulation of religion largely explains (a) the re-establishment, within 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states, of full Shari‘a law and (b) the formation of a sometimes large corps of hisba--wrongly called “vigilantes”– despite Nigeria having a constitution that both is secular and reserves to the federal government institutions like police and prisons. This has, sadly, exacerbated the problem of ‘dual citizenship’ where pious Muslims see themselves at the same time both as Nigerians and as members of the wider Islamic ummah.
Recently, some high-profile attempts have been made by northern leaders to publicly condemn Boko Haram’s reign of terror. While this is laudable, the doublespeak of some of these GRA Lords is underlined by the recent claim that some of them actually had the group on a monthly payroll of ₦10 million. Of course, the GRA Lords of the North have their counterparts aplenty in every other geo-political zone of Nigeria.
Boko Haram must therefore cease targeting fellow victims, including international institutions and Christians. Their basterdization of founder Yusuf’s message misses the point that Islamic education didn’t create the Internet which they so gleefully deploy to get their largely inchoate message across (see online publication 247ureports.com). How absurd that some of their captured militants wear boot-ledged Nike shoes and Hollywood branded shirts!
By attacking mostly north-east Nigeria and killing mostly innocent Muslims (although you’ve been able to hit distant major cities too), you seriously violate the rules of war which the international community actually copied from Islam. In the early 7th century, for instance, the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, whilst instructing his Muslim army, laid down the following rules concerning warfare: ‘Stop, O people, that I may give you ten rules for your guidance in the battlefield: … Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man … You are likely to pass by people who have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them alone.’ The United States Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) is pretty much a carbon copy of Abu Bakr’s instructions.
Your want ‘southerners’ to leave the ‘North,’ while ‘northerners’ return to the North. How confused you are, and how little you know about Nigeria’s geography and faith communities, and the imperatives and values of inter-faith relations. Your cowardice and the inability of our security forces to contain your madness have elicited calls by some Christians for retaliatory or reprisal attacks on Muslims. In practice, that means I’ll first kill my Muslim driver; while my parish priest may have to kill the Muslim Mai Guard at the church before giving me Holy Communion. I know that’s what you want, but most Christians know better.
The common enemy, the GRA Lords, have created the prevailing crises of violence, poverty and morality in the country. Your prime target in the north should be to get them to stop their double-speak, and possibly clean up the image of Islam which they have soiled irretrievably through the abuse of their Western education and state-sanctioned brigandage while they chop off your fingers for stealing chickens. The recent nationwide strike and revolt against fuel subsidy removal succeeded, thanks to an unprecedented ecumenical group of Muslims and Christians united by their anger against the predatory Nigerian state. Why not exploit the potential for this ecumenical and activist theology to create new institutions to express your agency, and possibly, forge a Nigeria where all of us have dignity and a future?
