Date & Time: Tuesday, February 12th, 2019 5:40 pm - 7:10 pm
Venue: Room 322, Research and Lecture Building, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Speaker: Adama Ousmanou (Senior Lecturer at Maroua University, Cameroon / Research Fellow at National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka)
Theme: Boko Haram Insurgency in Northern Cameroon and Nigeria
Report:
On the 32nd ASC Seminar, held at TUFS on the 12th of February 2019, Dr. Adama Ousmanou delivered a comprehensive lecture titled "Boko Haram Insurgency in Northern Cameroon and Nigeria" in which he broadly explained the origins of the Boko Haram, their ideology, activities and connection with jihad and salafism, the key leaders of the movement, their followers motivation, the connection between Northern Nigeria and Cameroon as well as the responses by the government and international community to tackle the terrorism.
Dr. Ousmanou initially explained how Boko Haram designation comes from the Hausa and arabic language (Boko, education in Hausa language and Haram, sin in arabic) and how their ideology is based on jihad and the rejection of any type of system of government that is not the islamic system which clashes with the secular nature of the Nigerian State.
He then talked about the evolution of the Boko Haram from a youth group dedicated to helping the poor under the rule of Lawan Abubacar, to the beginning of the use of violence in 2002, under the leadership of Mohamed Yusuf who established a religious complex in his hometown, Maiduguri, where he set a mosque and a school that was actually a recruiting ground for jihadists without the community knowledge. But it was Shekawu who led the movement to become twice violent and to propagate this violence to other countries such as Chad, Niger and Cameroon. This, the presenter considers to be an important fact for recruitment, the fact that the leaders of the movement used their reputation and trust that the community had on them to recruit poor children, providing them with education, food and shelter while training them based on the Salafi radicalism ideology. He went further to argue that the religious dimension of the conflict has tended to be considered the main cause but actually it were the disenfranchisement and inequality at the root causes. He went forward to explain that the socio-economic deprivation is the main factor behind Boko Haram's campaign of violence in northern Nigeria along with the deteriorating social services and infrastructure, as well as the weak and dwindling productivity in the northern region.
Then, he explained the essence of the education given by Boko Haram, that involved materials from scholars from the past that used to justify the fatawa and rebellion against leaders, but these sources are rejected even within the islamist community in Cameroon and Northern Nigeria. He argued that what gave international visibility to the movement was a video of Shekau determining war against christians which represented a turning point that placed Boko Haram in the map of global terrorism.
Establishing a connection between Nigeria and Cameroon, the presenter explained that Boko Haram uses the historical and cultural similarities in the Chad Basin region to recruit people. And the significant part of the link with Cameroon is that the followers are not muslim but they join them because of the payment they receive, seeing it as a job opportunity. Another important factor related to the recruitment is the psychology behind the suicide bombings, when it comes to gender, they use men disguised as women and they also use children as young as 7 years old, by tricking them to carry packages.
Talking about the domestic and international responses, he mentioned that there is a need of reform in the Humanitarian intervention approach because people are profiting from the humanitarian aid while the refugee crisis escalates.
On his concluding remarks, he mentioned that providing higher education could help in the prevention of extremism, there is a need to further combat the perceived disadvantages that undermine muslims confidence in the Cameroonian and Nigerian governments commitment to religious equality making them more willing to future participation in counter-violence actions. And he proposed some solutions such as: an inter-religious dialogue, participation of youth, women and all the stakeholders in the inter-religious committees, and formation of a comprehensive rehabilitation and reintegration programme that provides jobs and education for all.
The questions asked in the debate session were related to the multiple factions of Boko Haram and how they conduct their activities, the identity factors playing along the economic deprivation, the differences between Cameroon and Northern Nigeria, and the leadership background connection to other terrorist groups around the continent such as Al Shabab and Al Qaeda.