The Bitter Harvest of Insurgency in Northern Nigeria -By Wonderful Adegoke

In the troubled Northern Nigeria, conflict rages like a wildfire, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Years of Insurgency have scarred the land and its people, leaving a legacy of loss and uncertainty. But amidst the turmoil, there’s still hope – a glimmer of light in the darkness.

This is the story of a region torn apart by violence, but not without resilience. Conflict, as noted by Chabal in 2005, happened to be a trademark of African societies giving reasons for rampant violence emanating from colonial violence on the violence; an oppressed person whose dream is to become the prosecutor.

Boko Haram, a well-known radical movement shaped by Nigerian context and a huge reflection of the poor governance and extreme poverty in the Northern Region, often referred to as Jam’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati came into existence in 2003 when a group of radical islamic aggressors driven by a young preacher Mohammed Yusuf, who relocated to a remote part of the Region where he and his members misinterpreted Islamic teachings and pronounced Western education as un-islamic. Having initially existed primarily in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa State has led to recent expansions to parts of North Central and North West.

A terrorist group partially concentrated in the North Eastern part from where several operations born out of the belief that western education is a sin, have been carried out in plateau where ethnic and religious conflicts has long been fierce and known to have received funds from kidnapping ransoms, bank robberies and theft of weapons from government armories.

Northern security challenges ranging from terrorism; an unconventional form of warfare aimed at destabilizing and disorganizing existing political orders, to insurgency; a protracted political military struggle directed towards subverting the legitimacy of a constituted government using irregular military forces and illegal political organizations, to armed banditry, militancy, ethnic agitations, religious fundamentalism, inter communal clashes.

The emergence of Fundamentalist Islamic sect led to the flight for security and safety of residents in the Northern Region and as well resulted in an accentuation of inequality and disaffection between Northern and Southern Region, a litmus for identified factors which catalyzed regional insecurity. Some among the many factors includes;

Ineffective and inadequate security architecture, proliferation of small arms and light weapons, multiplication of Socio- political and economic grievances, easy access to illicit drugs, failures to address structural constitutional deficiencies and ineffective criminal justice system, upheld by insufficient capacity and lack of deliberate efforts to take apprehended high profile criminals through the justice dispensation process.

Muhammed Et Al once made mention of prevalent attacks in Kano. He made mention of injurious attacks on trade and production which brought about loss in production capacity, factory closure and retrenchment of labour which led to exorbitant price charge on goods and thus difficulty in having access to them.

Insurgency in the North Eastern geopolitical zone of Nigeria that originally took the form of sectarian religious violence has escalated into terrorist activities with international linkages and affiliations making it a relatively difficult nut for the Nigerian Government to crack, and it’s worth noting that the dangers presented hasn’t just subverted the Northern Regions’ existence as a political unit but has also challenged the development of its’ marketplace thus leading to few among the many effects; depressed foreign direct investment, huge constraint on foreign investments due to the flagrant state of insecurity, multiple bomb explosions which led to highly insecure business and other meaningful ventures and growing waves of terror which has made inter- state road travels initially meant to be a pleasurable and exciting occurrence, to be an exceptionally dangerous ordeal.

International collaborations at global levels, strengthened judicial and legislative response will help avert serious implications to the international community so residents won’t conceptualize the idea of having leaders having their heads in the clouds.

Wonderful Adegoke is a 200 Level Medical Student from Department of Medical Laboratory Science. He’s a Member of Vanguard Press Board at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto.