On the first day of 2015, Boko Haram, the infamous Nigerian terrorist group, set off two suicide bombs in the northeastern city of Gombe. One was in front of a church. This should be shocking, but unfortunately suicide bombings have become an all-too common practice in Nigeria. There is almost one every week. These bombings are organized by Boko Haram, which is fighting for an Islamic state.
This pains me greatly. I lived in Nigeria over 20 years ago, and I have no illusions about the country. I know the country is riddled with corruption and mismanagement, running water and power are infrequent and you have the occasional case of ethnic violence. I lived in Ilorin and Akure in the Southwest, in two fairly cosmopolitan cities. Muslims and Christians lived together in relative peace. They went to school together, played together and even sometimes intermarried. I knew one girl, who had a Christian mother and a Muslim father. Muslims recognized Christian holidays, some even celebrated Christmas, because they liked the festive season. And Christians acknowledged Muslim holidays by going over to their Muslim friends’ homes and sharing dinner with them. Most of the Muslims I knew were fairly secular. They watched English soccer, American movies and loved rap and R&B music. I heard stories about the northern part of Nigeria, which was majority Muslim, where there were infrequent clashes between Muslim extremists and Christians, but this was largely contained.
Although Nigeria fought a brutal civil war in the 1960s, that was a generation ago. The country has suffered through several coups and minor ethnic conflicts, but never had to deal with terrorism. Most Nigerians nowadays are practical people, who are loathe to fight for anything, for better or worse. A common saying in Nigeria is the political corruption will never change unless the people rise up. But Nigerians are so laid back and fun loving, it’s widely believed that they would be too worried about their own skins to fight for anything, even a noble cause. They are too worried about their families, fancy cars and flat-screen TVs to go and fight a war. When I lived there, Nigerians used to look down their noses at failed states like Liberia and Somalia, and say that kind of thing could never happen in Nigeria.
Something has changed in the years since I have been gone. I have been following the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Nigeria. First, there was a move to establish Sharia (Islamic) law in some Northern states. The reasons behind this were complicated. Unfortunately, religion has always had a political element to it.. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Nigerian military governments were dominated by the Hausa ethnic group, who are mostly Muslim. The Hausa believed they were born to rule forever and they were not happy when retired Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, a Southern Christian from the Yoruba ethnic group, won the presidential election in 1999. The seeds of Boko Haram were sown during the Obasanjo administration, when he turned a blind eye to the states that wanted Sharia law. However, Boko Haram militants were not happy with just Sharia law, they wanted to form an Islamic state carved out of northern Nigeria. These fundamentalists believed that a Sharia state would check rampant political corruption.
It should be noted there is a big difference between northern fundamentalist Muslims and Southern more educated, secular Muslims. The northern Muslims are often less educated and favor a strict interpretation of Islam, making them more susceptible to Boko Haram. The Southern Muslims are more educated and liberal and tend to take a live and let live attitude towards society.
However, it is still shocking at the lengths that Boko Haram has gone to. I have read stories of Boko Haram utilizing female suicide bombers who are as young as 14. That kind of thing was unthinkable when I was living in Nigeria. These attacks have horrified both Christian and Muslim Nigerians. I have studied Islamic fundamentalism in depth and it is easy to say that Islamic militants are motivated by poverty and lack of education. However, that is inaccurate. Some of the men who carried out the 7/7 bus bombings in London were college graduates from middle-class families. Also, there have been cases of middle class, educated young people joining ISIS. However, I have noticed you don’t see any international playboys giving up their lifestyles to join ISIS. And although Osama Bin Laden was a millionaire, he never sent any of his children to become suicide bombers. In fact, he warned them against following in his footsteps.
I can’t for the life of me understand how you convince a person to strap a bomb to his chest. In my opinion, something has gone awfully wrong in political discourse if a person has grown so frustrated they are willing to kill themselves to make a point. But, I think Nigerians need to realize, that religion can be a force for good or for evil. Christianity has its share of atrocity. The Crusades were several hundreds of years ago, but more recently we had the Jonestown temple mass suicide and abortion clinic bombers. No religion is beyond criticism.
Nigeria has an election coming up in February, so hopefully the populace will sweep out the incompetent Goodluck Jonathan administration and elect former military strongman Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who can better handle the Boko Haram situation. Nigeria shouldn’t become a country where suicide bombings become an everyday experience.
