Tag: Terrorism

The war against terrorism being persecuted against Boko Haram has entered another phase in which the terrorists are trying to resurge. They were sufficiently degraded when they were defeated in Sambisa Forest in December 2016. The war against terrorism was fought at that time with the impression that Nigeria was up against religious fanatics, whose driving force was a burning desire to impose their own brand of Islam, a strict implementation of the Sharia Code. Recent events highlighted the significance of revisiting the ideology behind Boko Haram following their attack on a group of Nigerian workers that were out on an oil exploration mission. It revived the imperative of interrogating the relationship between Boko Haram’s campaign of terror and crude oil.
It is certainly not the first time that the allure of the revenue accruable from crude oil exploitation has been at the root of acts of terror. In Nigeria’s Niger-Delta, violent activities were once hidden behind agitation for better attitude towards the environment before it later degenerated into kidnapping to make demands and later full-blown acts of terror perpetrated by diverse militant groups in the region. Eventually the militants betrayed the impetus for their acts of terror: it was never about the environment but about them bunkering the crude oil – a process that did more damage to the environment than the legal commercial exploration while none of the accruing revenue trickled down to the impoverished population contrary to the funding claims. Even more perplexing is the trend of these militants bunkering oil with and for other nations.
Between Nigeria and Cameroon, the animosity over Bakassi Peninsula is well documented. Nigerians expelled from their ancestral homes continue to face harrowing experiences. Cameroon, drawing on the backing of its former colonial power, France, would like to argue the case as its efforts to correct a historical wrong but would it have been interested in Bakassi Peninsula if it were a wasteland without oil resources? But for the fact that the aggression against Nigerians that were forcefully evicted from the peninsula were committed by Cameroonian Gendarmes they would have squarely qualified as terrorism.
The conciliatory disposition of the Nigerian authorities, it appears, has not saved citizens from the harrowing experiences that come with resource conflicts. The peace bought in playing soft with the former French colony could well be the incentive that guaranteed that Nigeria’s north-east has been a killing field nearing a decade now. The Boko Haram insurgency, once explained away as religious fanaticism, has deftly transmuted into a war for the control of resources. Curiously, there is the French connection playing out again because Cameroon, Chad and Niger – all francophone neighbors in the northeast of Nigeria could have pitched in better than they did so far in the effort to rid the sub-region of terrorism.
The oil exploratory team that were killed are working in the Lake Chad Basin region, which could potentially be excised to join any of the three neighboring countries had Nigeria not fought hard to defend its territorial integrity. Of interest is the curious coincidence that saw a degraded terror group replenishing its ranks of fighters and apparently so from outside the borders of Nigeria.
While the military operations against the terrorists have been robust, responses on the political and economic have been tame, not much different from the peaceable approach to the Bakassi Peninsula affair. The military option would have to be continued, actually scaled up, to confront the deadliness that Boko Haram somehow manages to work up with the acquisition of sophisticated weapons that this group continues to mysteriously acquire each time it is degraded. Nigeria must therefore take that bold step to turn on the economic and other pressures of countries that are using Boko Haram for a proxy war to corner the oil resources in the Lake Chad Basin.
For one, there is no point feeding one’s enemies, even hidden ones. Saudi Arabia knows this principle well when it imposed its blockade on Qatar after establishing that it was a state sponsor of terrorism and regional instability. Further lesson from the Middle East nation is the way it got other nations to back its measures against Qatar. Nigeria must give strong consideration to imposing its own version of blockade, which should extend to access to over land haulage of goods to errant neighbors.
Nigeria should enlist the international community to leverage diplomacy in getting all those involved to back down and allow it have peace and enjoy the freedom to exploit its natural resources. In this, Western nations would be great assets in calling any of their own to order, as in the case of a country like France that have been mentioned as having geo-political interest in the region. For whatever it is worth, the positive disposition of the United States’ President Donald Trump is one to take full advantage of. It should be impressed upon the west that its options are limited as it were: the world is too interconnected to stoke crisis in one country and not expect matters to go full circle. A Nigeria wracked by terrorism would eventually become a global headache when the terrorists return to their francophone countries and from there into France and subsequently into other countries that have visa-free policy with the European Union.
This is where Mr Trump must prevail on his counterparts in these countries since he risks his anti-terror efforts being rubbished. If they create conditions that allow terrorists like Boko Haram to thrive it is a matter of time before they make landfall on the American continent in waves. In addition, he should escalate the sale of military hardware to Nigeria so that the country can locally contain this menace while there is still time.
There is no doubt that there are international NGOs waiting in the wings to unleash fake news propaganda against such genuine move to deal terrorism a decisive blow. They will do this with sole goal of slowing down any onslaught to crush Boko Haram’s Abubakar Shekau and what is left of his fighters using blackmail or any trick in the book to weaken the war on terrorism, which has mutated into something else anyway.
The world must know that Boko Haram in Nigeria is no longer a ragtag horde of religious fanatics frothing in the mouth. They have become an economic army, soldiers of fortune that have been commissioned to carve out a piece of Nigeria for their paymaster. Will the world boldly challenge their sponsor?

Babatunde is a conflict resolution expert and writes from Abuja.

Terrorism is a global tormentor. It is now the world’s biggest affliction, with most countries trapped in its quagmire completely helpless. In the Middle East and parts of North Africa where terrorism has a solid base, rages and spread tentacles to other parts of the globe, its being hell on earth on how to extinguish the fury of terrorism.

Terrorism’s multiplication into subsets or splinter rebellious or extremists groups has drenched most parts of the world in its consuming fire. Before now, emphasis on combating terrorism was centered on field combats alone. But happily enough, nations suffering the menace of terrorism are collectively working round the clock to tame the tide, by also exploring alternative means of battling terror groups.

Both individuals and opinion leaders are involved in concerted efforts to overcome terrorism, as aside direct confrontation with violent extremists sects, campaigns have now shifted focus to checkmating sources of funding for terror Organizations. America’s President Donald Trump had launched a crusade, appealing to nations to check and severe sources of funding for terror sects.

This was after Qatar was accused of funding terrorists and extremists groups to trouble other parts of the world. Fighting terror is now also a battle between the rest of the world and individuals in nations that fund terrorists’ atrocious operations.

Gladly, Qatar responded positively and instantly to the emerging reality on terror wars as it agreed to act accordingly. In a public statement credited to the foreign minister, Qatar explained that “This is in light of its commitment to fighting terrorism, drying up the sources of the funding of terrorism, combating extremist ideology and the instruments of spreading and publicizing it, joint action to end it and fortify societies from it.”

Following Qatar’s positive and favourable disposition, it led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the United States as part of the commitment to curtail financing for terrorists and enhance the battle to defeat terrorism across the globe. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was impressed with Qatar’s Emir for “being the first to respond to President Trump’s challenge at the Riyadh Summit to stop the funding of terrorism.”

Nigeria is in similar dilemma with Qatar. Funding of the remnants of Boko Haram Terrorism (BHT) in Nigeria by internal forces is largely responsible for the splashes of terrorism in parts of the country, especially in Borno state.

The Federal Government of Nigeria, under the leadership of President Muhammedu Buhari has done all at its disposal to defeat and finally end terrorism in the country. The Buhari Presidency overhauled the military hierarchy and appointed a committed set of Service Chiefs whom he charged with the responsibility of ending Boko Haram insurgency.

The President restocked Nigeria’s military weaponry and provided funds to carter for the welfare of troops on the battlefield in the counter-insurgency war. Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and counter-insurgency campaigns leader, Lt.Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai, also left no stone unturned by deploying various strategies and tactics in battling terrorists to a standstill. The defeat of Boko Haram terrorists is the reward of the unflinching efforts and priceless sacrifices of the courageous Nigerian troops.

But the veiled forces, suspected to be politicians, some of whom have links with neighbouring countries, which economically reap bountifully from festering insurgency have refused to stop their devilish acts of financing terrorists. Occasionally, suicide bombs have continued to be detonated in Borno state, in Nigeria’s Northeast, just like abductions of adults. And while the dreaded Islamic Boko Haram sect has been defeated, the prospect that terrorism will finally be smothered in Nigeria is bleak on account of its funding by both internal and external forces.

However, a fresh angle in the global battle against terrorism has now been introduced, with the Qatar example. What the whole world is canvassing is that ending terrorism is not only about the combat engagement of terrorists on the battlefield. There is so much to be done upon the realization that the military fighting terror sects anywhere usually makes tremendous gains against the terrorists.

In combat, terrorists sometimes get killed or their weapons destroyed or confiscated. But their sponsors freely replenish the stock, thus, empowering them to wax stronger to commit more atrocities.

The Saudi-led coalition against Qatar and America’s plea to improvise the direction and approach in the counter-terrorism war, by adding the relentless and determined search for sponsors of terrorists sects or organizations is one strategy that has remained too long in the cooler. It means the remedy of eradicating completely, the scourge of terrorism in the world is the total clampdown on the sponsors or those who fund it to flourish.

Money, weapons and food supply are central to the ferocious operations of terror groups around the world, Nigeria inclusive. And once the consensus to block these avenues of strength to terrorists is enforced, terrorists would have been too weakened to operate and the phenomenon would gradually fizzle out.

The current appeal to the conscience of humanity is that it is not enough for the rest of the world to willfully consent to the satanic minds of those who use terrorism to nourish their political or economic interests. Such human beings must be identified and compelled to face lawful penalties for their sins as accomplices in the heinous crimes against humanity via the instrumentality of terrorism.

And finally back to Nigeria, it’s obvious that the people and victims of terrorism are demanding and crying for justice. Certainly, security authorities, like the DSS, NIA, the Police and the Civil Defence should know the sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria. The Qatar example is encouragingly informative enough and conveys in clear terms that terrorism does not operate in a vacuum. It is nourished; funded and protected. These security agencies are yet to identify to Nigerians the internal sponsors of Boko Haram insurgents to massively arrest and arraign them for prosecution. It’s a challenge that has questioned their competence.
They must therefore make haste to go after them in consonance with the Qatar example in order to bring them to justice to serve as deterrence. This is just the only fair thing to do so as to sustain the military’s gains in the defeat of terrorism. This would also block the current streak of funding for terrorists, which has unabatedly continued to shatter the peace and coherence of parts of Nigeria. It will finally end terrorism in the country.

Failure to toe this plank of reasoning and action would only amount to raising an army of terrorists, which suffers destruction after military onslaughts on them; but would resurface again because the sponsors are allowed to go scot-free. The thought of quelling terrorism in Nigeria would be a mirage if the sponsors are not made to pay for it. Thus, the Qatar example becomes very germane for Nigeria and the security agencies responsible must tighten their seat belts.

Goulding is a researcher with the Global Amnesty Watch, London.‎