10 things we learnt from Max Siollun’s New York Times article on Boko Haram

Max Siollun of the New York Times wrote a piece on Boko Haram as an insurgency group and how the federal government of Nigeria has been tackling it, of late.

Here are 10 things we learnt from the article;

 

  1. It’s no longer about the cause, it’s now business

With its fighters frequently being killed by the military, Boko Haram has resorted to mass kidnapping and extortion to replenish its ranks.

 

2. It gets even harder to tackle Boko Haram 

“Boko Haram is no longer occupying large parts of Nigeria. Instead, it has morphed into a group of well-organized bandits. The military’s successes changed Boko Haram’s threat, but didn’t eliminate it. In fact, vanquishing the group may be a quixotic goal.”

 

3. Boko Haram, as a group, is diminishing.

“Boko Haram is unrecognizable from the proselytizing group it was 15 years ago, and from the semi-guerrilla army it was two years ago.”

 

4. The recruitment process includes children and criminals.

“The cadre of hard-core members [Boko Haram] inspired purely by devotion to a jihadist vision is being reinforced by child soldiers, forced conscripts and criminals.”

 

5. Greed was the fertilizer for the insurgency group. 

“As ideology has become less important for recruitment, other incentives — money and jobs, access to loot and women — have become bigger draws. As a result, the group now seems to spend as much time engaged in banditry as it does fighting “Western education.” When officials from Nigeria’s Office of the National Security Adviser interviewed Boko Haram prisoners, they were told that most of the group’s soldiers “have never read the Quran.””

 

6. The fight against Boko Haram isn’t just a millitary duty. It involves everyone in every way. However, keeping plan B in mind.

“Many politicians and counterterrorism experts say that the military alone cannot defeat Boko Haram and that economic development will be needed to stop violent extremism. As Gen. Martin Luther Agwai, the former chief of defense staff, has said, “It is a political issue; it is a social issue; it is an economic issue, and until these issues are addressed, the military can never give you a solution.” This may be true, but measures to improve the economy will take years or even decades to have an effect. In the short term, Nigeria has to find another way.”

 

Three possible ways to tackle Boko Haram

  • The military deserves some praise for learning on the job. Last month, it announced a program called Operation Safe Corridor for insurgents who surrender. A team of behavioral psychologists is working to deradicalize and rehabilitate detained Boko Haram members. This is a good start. But for this program to succeed, the security forces must behave with uncharacteristic restraint, avoid summarily executing Boko Haram adherents (as they have been accused of doing in the past) and keep them alive long enough for the psychologists to do their work.

  • The Nigerian government could also try to set off a mass defection from Boko Haram by granting amnesty to its foot soldiers who enter the rehabilitation program. But it’s unlikely that all of the group’s members, especially the hard-core jihadists among them, would accept such an offer. And even if they did, it would teach Nigerians a dangerous lesson: Violence pays.

  • For now, Nigeria can use the de-radicalization program to dry up the reservoir of disenchanted youths from which Boko Haram recruits. Then the military can continue fighting the inveterate ideologues who are unlikely to lay down their arms voluntarily. This selective application of force and persuasion will help deal with this longstanding insurgency.

10. That the war continues regardless of these solutions, if not properly tackled.

“An “iron fist in a velvet glove” strategy will significantly degrade Boko Haram’s ability to carry out mass-casualty terrorist attacks, but it will not guarantee harmony. Isolated pockets of violence will remain for years. Boko Haram remnants are likely to fracture into isolated rural bandit groups roaming Nigeria’s borders for several years. Boko Haram may eventually become similar to Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army: a wandering, religiously inspired cult that periodically lashes out. That would be a problem, but it would not be an existential threat to the country.”

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