African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Climate
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • Think African [Podcast]
    • #EndSARS
    • Into Africa [Podcast]
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Africa Science Focus [Podcast]
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Climate
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • Think African [Podcast]
    • #EndSARS
    • Into Africa [Podcast]
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Africa Science Focus [Podcast]
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Debating Ideas
Politics
Home›African Arguments›Politics›Borno State, Boko Haram and the Cycle of Human Tragedy – By Ahmad Salkida

Borno State, Boko Haram and the Cycle of Human Tragedy – By Ahmad Salkida

By Uncategorised
February 12, 2015
2779
3

AhmadSalkidaThere is a perfect picture of life’s most brutish menu on display in north-east Nigeria, particularly, Borno State. It is a cycle of human tragedy. The state that was once branded the “˜home of peace’ due to its hospitality and its people’s unique communal interactions, has now become a monster devoted to consuming its own.

This ugly descent to an almost unimaginable level of savagery was set off by the terror sect, known as Boko Haram. With its vicious display of bloodletting since 2009, the sect has ensured that the values that held society together have been brutally severed. The values, as they were, that exhorted the sacredness of life; of being your brother’s keeper; of patience; of love and tolerance and of the dignity of labour, have all been thrown to the dogs.

This hunger to eliminate the next suspected person first, fast and without remorse is spreading through the communities and even among the institutions of state, indicating that the sect is sadly winning us over with its doctrine of violence. How is this so?

As a society, our reaction to the violence unleashed by the sect says a lot about our own values and convictions. Today, we don’t seem to see anything wrong with throwing young boys of school age into the flurry of bloodletting in the name of the Civilian Joint Task Force.

As a result, we see nothing wrong in having our youths display the most barbaric tendencies, as they hack down suspected Boko Haram members and have their remains dismembered in public. Today, such action is greeted with applause by all in society, including the media and the institutions of state. What could have gone so wrong?

In these troubled and ravaged communities the answer is clear: The terror gang has abducted their women and men, maimed, slaughtered, and massacred people, even children. The military does not yet seem to be operating with any higher values. They have been known to swoop on villages rumoured to be hiding Boko Haram members without distinguishing between the lamb and the goat.

They have been known to mete out indiscriminate torture and have carried out horrifying executions. It started with a wave of vengeful killings following Boko Haram’s resurgence in 2010, having had its pioneer leader, Muhammad Yusuf, executed by the police. Abubakar Shekau and a handful of his dukes then launched one of the world’s most brutal insurgencies. The sect became more ruthless, more daring and indeed more fatalistic, introducing bombings in purely civilian settings that included places of worship, schools, markets and bus stations.

At what seemed to be the peak of these killings, the State called in the military, declared a state of emergency in select locations and encouraged the formation of civilian counter-insurgency responses in communities. But this response came with an unintended price. Some unruly troops seized upon local women and defiled them. Teenage boys were in the eyes of the military easy suspects and therefore liable to be treated as such.

The price of the insurgency and the response both from the military and the civilian JTF on community life in the north-east defies quantification and description. Women and children have been caught up to the extent that the very meaning and sacredness of womanhood, as well as the innocence of childhood, have quickly vanished into thin air. Will there ever be redemption for these communities?

Boko Haram is enlisting young men and women into its violent doctrines at great speed. As members of a civilized society that should constitute a counter-force to terror, are we showing our youths and children the values that cancel out and ultimately defeat terror? No doubt, there have been youth empowerment programmes initiated by the government at all levels, but how can such initiatives effectively engage with the teenagers that are presently wielding guns and machetes in villages in the guise of the Civilian JTF? For how long will institutions of state in Nigeria sleep while school-aged children remain on the front line?

In this cycle of human tragedy a pattern has recently emerged. Boko Haram goes out on a raid, abducts men and women, arms them and sends them out against the rest of society. If you hesitate to comply with this line of command you are summarily executed by the sect. If you comply and head out for war you are likely to be killed by the military or civilian JTF. If you make an escape and get caught by the military or civilian JTF and you will be killed anyway.

Behavioral scientists have found that instead of delivering justice, revenge often creates only a cycle of retaliation, in part because one person’s moral balance rarely aligns with that of another. As a civilized society we are not offering any higher values to the region’s people than those the sect itself unleashes. This path will not bring us the victory we so earnestly desire.

Salkida is a journalist and a conflict analyst. He can be reached on twitter: @contactSalkida

Previous Article

Attacks in Beni, Congo: Behind the Violence ...

Next Article

Obasanjo attacks Jonathan and Yar’Adua, defends Buhari ...

Uncategorised

3 comments

  1. Auwal 12 February, 2015 at 13:46

    The truth is Almighty Allah is watching to see amongst us who is more faithful. I never support Civilian JTF and I will never support them even if they are the only forces fighting against BH. The injustice being made to this young Nigerians can never be healed, imagine one young person as the prosecutor and the executioner of BH members, lots of things needs to be checked in our country. I am so sorry brother but I believe the only solution that will last in Nigeria is not even being discussed at the moment and I’d rather not mention it too.

  2. Hidar Aiman 12 February, 2015 at 17:03

    You said it all Salkida…unfortunately the Nigeria of today doesn’t know who to contact to get such vital information. Young boys take the frontline, while Nigerian army are fleeing, shouting “Oboy maiduguri boys na ghost”. The president has not even acknowledged the existence of C-JTF not to talk of recruiting them..I think C-JTF will be the next monster after BKH

  3. KAMSELEM BUKAR 12 February, 2015 at 18:11

    Thanks, yr post is interesting, is a very sad development, the CJTF Have excesses but we need Defence, their -VE can be corrected. At least they’re instrumental in securing Maiduguri. We don’t have any other option at the moment. “A drowning person can hold sharp edge knife for rescue or survival.”
    The NA equally did more terrible things,if an organized constituted authority could have such excesses in the operation, what would you expect from this ‘Children of Necessity’ the born out of REACTION, is the government and society duty to regulate and Control them. Remember every body including the C in C, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria applauded them, at the onset.
    Hence, the issue is; HOW DO WE MONITOR, REGULATE AND CONTROL THEIR OPERATIONS, rather than condemning this poor, desperate youth who rose to depend their land and people from extinction.

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Politics

    Kenya: Truth, Justice, Reconciliation, and… Land Tenure Reform?

  • Politics

    African Political Thought, Part 4: The Degeneration into ‘Big Men’

  • Covid-19COVID-19Debating IdeasPublic Health

    Same but Different? A Comparison of Ebola Virus Disease and Covid-19 After the Ebola Epidemic in Eastern DRC (2018–20)

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter


  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • The two defining challenges facing South Africa
  • ‘Don’t Agonize, Organize!’ Remembering Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem’s Advocacy on Sudan
  • Four actions vulnerable countries need from COP28
  • Afrobeats: The birth of Afro-Adura
  • Sudan: How the generals disappeared the people on the way to the economy

Editor’s Picks

ClimateEditor's PicksKenyaTanzania

“My house is crumbling”: Living in limbo along the East Africa pipeline

People along the route of the proposed 1,443 km oil pipeline talk of confusion, uncertainty and lives on hold. Following the recent signing of accords, the construction of a hugely ...
  • uganda 2021

    How Museveni mastered violence to win elections in Uganda

    By Kristof Titeca & Anna Reuss
    November 19, 2020
  • Where we belong: Inside the reckoning for queer rights in Namibia

    By Chris de Beer-Procter
    August 5, 2021
  • President Emmanuel Macron of France during his three-country tour in Africa. Credit: Présidence de la République du Bénin.

    Liberté, Egalité, Impunité

    By Billy Burton
    August 16, 2022
  • Dr Stella Nyanzi at a human rights conference in 2018. Credit: Chapter Four Uganda.

    Stella Nyanzi: The rude vagina-poem-writing hero Uganda needs

    By Rosebell Kagumire
    July 9, 2019

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.