Boko

Boko (Western Education) Haram: From An Historical Perspective To Present Crisis

Sani Balashehu

I am a Muslim from south-west Nigeria who has been roaming the states of the north-east Nigeria and Kano since 1992. In these sixteen years, I have lived in Adamawa state, Bauchi state, Kano state, and from April 2006 till date in Maiduguri – Borno state. The first time I heard of the Boko Haram group was in 2004 when some Muslim families camped themselves around Yusufari in Yobe State apparently running away from the Nigerian system to establish the Shari’ah system for themselves before they were dislodged by the Nigerian Police and Armed Forces. But at that time they were known more for seeking an Islamic system for themselves and not as Boko Haram. From their action in Yusufari and the propagation of Boko Haram concept, many of my kind do not fall in love with both their method and approach, however as Muslims we do not hate them rather we sympathize with them and feel they got it wrong somewhere – A feeling I later understood they also have for us for been part and parcel of a bad and corrupt system that have disappointed both Muslims and non-Muslim alike. Therefore, on getting to live in Maiduguri I aligned myself with people who do not agree with their ideas but discusses with them hoping to get them to our side because we see abandoning western education at this time as disastrous to the Muslim Ummah arguing that after all lots of Muslim scholars laid the foundation of what is now called western education with the west only improving on it and giving it a cultural and secular outlook which could be removed if we work very hard, just has the west had worked very hard to make it secular despite the fact that they got it from religious Muslims.

The Origin of the Phrase – BOKO HARAM

This phrase in not new in the diction of the Hausa language speaking people of West Africa as it was coined by the Muslim scholars of the region during the colonial period to prevent Muslim parent from sending their children to the British supported Christian Mission owned schools aimed at subtly converting pupils and students to Christianity or cleverly making them non resistant to the colonial masters and their ideas. It should be noted at this juncture that despite the demand for local work force to help the British colonial masters to discharge their command in their new colony – Nigeria – the British government never establish schools in Nigeria for most part of the period of their administration of Nigeria but left that duty in the hands of the Christian Missionaries (see COMMERCE, CHRISTIANITY, AND COLONIALISM by Fafunwa B.). WHY? This is because a Christian or Westernized person will accept colonialism more readily than a non-Christian especially Muslims owing to their experience of the slave trade era, where most of the resistances and riots in the slave camps were carried out by Muslim slaves (as an example, see ROOTS by Harley).

Therefore, the then scholars were right by safeguarding the faith of the children and keeping resistance to oppression (colonialism) alive among the people. Comparatively, even though some Muslim scholar in the south-west also discouraged Muslims parents from sending their children to such schools at that time, the campaign was not as successful as in the north partly because of the scholars situation compared to the north and partly because they did not brand it as Haram like in the north. And to prove the scholars from the two sides right, many who attended the British supported Christian schools were either converted to Christianity or became ignorant and nonchalant Muslims with a carry-over effect on most of their children till today.

However, the post-colonial era was similar but different in approach, that is, although government and community owned schools existed side by side the Christian missionary schools, the curriculum was and is still secular till today because even though Religious Studies appeared in the time-table, it features only twice a week and placed towards the end of the day when learning is longer palatable and the students are yarning to go home out of exhaustion. More disheartening is that what is taught as religion is History of religion and not meant to have faith in God and act accordingly. Therefore left to the schools, children are not meant to be religious and God fearing but secular in thinking, thereby creating a conflict in the mind of the children, because the home emphasizes religion while the school emphasizes secularism. A conflict that had resulted in many tendencies as we are witnessing in the Nigerian society today, one of which is high level corruption by Nigerians especially the leaders who claim to be Muslim or Christian. Owing to this alone the concept of BOKO HARAM is still relevant to many northerners particularly the rural dwellers who still adhere to the Islamic principle of JUSTICE, HONESTY, CONCERN FOR NEIGHBOURS, ETC, which they could not see in the leaders all of whom have western education. In fact, there are other versions of the phrase like BOKO YANA HANA ALBARIKA (western education prevents blessing).

Another case is that people are presently rejecting western education in Nigeria because it has not given them the desired job they hope to secure at completion even though they may not label it HARAM. There was the story of a student whose father contacted a relation for loan to send the boy to school, the response of the would-be lender is a reflection of the Nigerian people on going to school nowadays. He asked his money seeking brother to put away the idea of sending his boy to school because those who had gone and completed their studies are now speaking English grammar to CASSAVA on the farm. Meaning after they have been sponsored for many years they are back to CASSAVA farm to get livelihood, why should others go for it again. Today, more than a million graduates are unemployed in Nigeria, yet what bothers the leaders is how long they stay in power and not how well the people fare during their tenure.

The two scenarios depict a people disenchanted with the educational system because their leadership had failed to address their desires whether they call it BOKO HARAM or BOKO ‘OWULO’ (useless).

MUHAMMAD YUSUF AND HIS DAWAH (CALL)

The Dawah of Muhammad Yusuf can be divided into two viz: BOKO HARAM and the need for Muslims to return to Caliphacy System of governance, that is, Islamic System. While the group is popular with BOKO HARAM, it was the return to Caliphacy that took them to Yusufari as I mentioned earlier.

The reason for the group’s popularity with BOKO HARAM are two namely; it is a familiar phrase in his area of call and many still uphold it irrespective of his call, and secondly that is about the only difference between his call and that of many other Muslim scholars and enthusiasts. That is to say there is congruency on the aspect of Muslims return to Islamic system of governance among all right-thinking Muslims irrespective of their locations worldwide, though the approach may defer and the difference in approach is as many as you can think of. From the Yusufari camping saga, one could deduce that the group’s approach is for Muslims of similar thinking to segregate and rule themselves by Islamic system, but not forcing it on other Muslims.

On the other hand, the BOKO HARAM concept brought him to a sharp disagreement with the rest of the Nigerian Muslim scholars, because information available to most of us is that he totally condemns western education rather than picking the components of it that deserves condemnation and proffers solution(s). However, I am aware that some are claiming that he only criticizes some aspects, to me this is at best a change of approach may be after his meeting and debate with scholars like late Shaikh Jafar and Idris Abdulazeez of Kano and Bauchi respectively. I come to the conviction that his earlier approach was total rejection of western education because if it was as some now claim, his discussion and debate with the aforementioned scholar would not have centered on BOKO HARAM because all knowledgeable Muslims reject for instance THE EVOLUTION THEORY AND THEORY OF CONSERVATION OF ENERGY/ MATTERS and many such concept abhorrent to Islamic teaching.

In Islam as well as in scholastic environment, there is nothing bad for one to hold a view based on sincere conviction and later change it for another when he again sincerely believes the former was wrong and considered the latter better than the former, in fact, this happens frequently in academic arena. Therefore, it was a great pleasure to those of us who are on the other side of the fence with him for him to have conceded to our arguments and therefore no more blame on his side, he had only acted as a human being who could fall into error. However, the stigma BOKO HARAM remains and he may be helpless about that.

THE BURIAL CONVOY

Information available to me is that the present conflict between some members of the group and the Nigerian forces had its root in the 2004 saga and recent assault on the group by the Nigerian police during a burial procession for a member of the group. It was reported that the police acting on a tip-off that the group had killed one of its member and are taking him for burial intercepted the burial procession and demanded that the corpse be unshrouded for inspection. I learnt the procession refused and the police attacked and wounded/killed some of them. Hence the retaliation move. You should all help to confirm the authenticity of the story for I was not in Nigeria when it happened, I only got it from friends in Nigeria.

While most of us see this as an undue act of provocation and a molestation of a Muslim corpse by a government agent and that this should not go unchallenged, I do not accept the retaliatory move made by some of the brothers, because they are definitely not a match to the Nigerian police let alone the combine forces who will of necessity support each other whether on a wrong or right course.

THE GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

The government response to the group’s reprisal attacks shows, among other things, that the police assault on the burial procession was deliberate from the point of view that all about their desire for reprisal, the plan for it, and the extent of their strength were well known to the government yet they allow them to start so that they could be eliminated altogether. WHY? Your guess is as good as mine if you add the Islamic component.

The government was aware and refused to stop it because about two weeks to the start of the reprisal attacks, parents in Bauchi town have reported to so many police stations within the metropolis of their children (underage) allegedly being taken to a camp of a Muslim group that was preparing a ‘jihad’ around Maiduguri. I learnt of a similar report in Katsina, and while I am sure of the one in Bauchi because I know one of the parents and the boy that was allegedly taken to the jihad camp, I could not ascertain that of Katsina. But how many reports do we need to nip such move in the bud in a country that has all the paraphernalia of security even if the said jihad is between two Muslim groups. As I am writing this mail information are that suspected members of the group are being picked and killed by government agents just like Muhammad Yusuf himself died in the hands of police some days ago – extra judicial killing – WHY? Because they say BOKO HARAM, no, it can’t be for how many youths who want to go to school get a chance, some said that at present 2.5 million sit for University JAMB yearly out of which only 200,000 get admitted for lack of space. Is it not good for such government to have a section of the people opting to stay out of school? What have they done to improve facilities in schools over the years? Even now lecturers are on strike while their own children are outside the country. The answer to why the government acted on them this way is definitely on the second aspect of their call - that is return to Islamic Caliphacy as it brings them closer to the enemy of their master – The Taliban.

I came to this conviction that they are being treated this way because of the call to return to Islamic caliphacy because Nigeria being a land of crisis had witness lots of similar crisis but the perpetrators were not dealt with in this way. Going down the memory lane, Major Zamani Lekwot of southern Kaduna engineered a problem that killed hundreds of innocent children and women in the early 90’s, he was caught, tried, and sentenced, but later got a state pardon and released. Plateau state has seen many crisis that had led to many loss of lives and property within our 10 years of democracy, a panel has just completed its sitting where a foreign NGO had implicated Nigerian uniform men (police and soldiers) of killing innocent people in Muslim areas of Jos, no politician has been arrested. The Niger-Delta struggle has claim many lives including foreigners and properties worth billion of Naira, have you seen any of their members captured and killed immediately even when more lives and properties are involved and lasted for longer period and their member actually look more militant compared to Muhammad Yusuf who did not seem to have militant traits and so far in the crisis no civilian is targeted by the group and any civilian killed so far must have been by police cum army fire power because the government paraded the group’s highest capability as local guns that cannot go beyond few yards.

CAN GOVERNOR YUGUDA BE TRUE?

Police report from Bauchi says that the fight started when some members of the group attacked a police station around Dutsen Tanshi area of Bauchi town and began a shoot out with the police apparently to get hold of the station’s Armoury. To start with, the Dutsen tanshi area was under the Federal Lowcost “command” if there is anything like command in the whole area until I left Bauchi town in 2006. What that means is that Dutsen Tanshi is in the neighbourhood of Federal Low Cost housing estate and a relatively new settlement whose police related cases are handled by the one in the Federal Lowcost which is itself a 3 bedroom apartment call Federal Lowcost Police post under the GRA police station. If Federal Lowcost police post is a 3 bedroom flat, you can imagine what the Dutsen Tanshi police “station” would look like. I will not live you to your imagination because this is a place I know very well for I myself lived in the Federal Lowcost and Jahun street and these areas bordered Dutsen Tanshi in the south and north respectively and the so called Dutsen Tanshi Police station was initiated by my friends living in the area around 2004 when thieves were frequenting the area. As a matter of fact, up till 2006, the year I let Bauchi town the so called police station remain as it was started by my friends – a two room apartment linked together through an inner door, and as at Dec. 2008 the one of Federal Lowcost remain a 3 bedroom apartment which indicates that there would not have be any significant change in the one at Dutsen Tanshi as such it is not a police station and then WHERE IS THE ARMORY?

The Bauchi state governor claimed that they were militants and that they were responsible for all the crisis that had taken place in Bauchi state. This cannot be true because crisis in Bauchi is dated since early 90’s and that this group started in this decade somewhere in Yobe state, more so their base in Bauchi town is not more than two years. As a matter of fact, they are not popular compare to other groups and not known for violence even in Maiduguri which is the headquarters.

The Governor’s claim could therefore be seen as a move to start a war with Muslim groups in Bauchi state who helped him to power and now he may be looking for a way to break off from them which will naturally lead to open confrontation with the groups leadership and in readiness for that he created militant out of a less prominent group to scare the bigger groups that assisted him to power from making any trouble should he refuse to do their wish any longer, and if they do not desist they would face a similar or worse charges. This is the true picture of the Nigerian Political leadership. There could be other reasons for his utterances in this crisis which is bigger than usual, however that is the way I see it.

THE IMPLICATION OF ARREST AND ASSASSINATION OF MUHAMMAD YUSUF ON THE REST OF US

In addition to our knowledge about the treatment of trouble makers in Nigeria, we also know that unsuccessful military coups had taken place in Nigeria and in all the cases the leaders are arrested and tried before execution. These are Dimka and Bisala 1976, Vasta 1986, and Okar 1990. In case of the last, he was caught in a shoot out around Obalende Lagos when he had exhausted his ammunition, yet arrested like the others and he was treated in the hospital, tried, and then executed not assassinated. All these happened under military rules and the figures involved were military men yet trial took place. Now Nigeria is said to be in a democratic rule but killings took place in the hands of police without trial.

The excuse given by police for killing Muhammad Yusuf was that while in police custody he attempted to escape, I am yet to know the reason for killing others like the former commissioner who was said to be member of the group, but let us examine the police claim in the case of Muhammad Yusuf.

It was reported that he ran to his in-law’s house and hid in the goat’s den and another one says he hid in an uncompleted building near his house from where he was caught and taken into police custody (which I suppose is the police headquarters in Maiduguri) from where he attempted to escape and was shot dead.

First, according to the government this is the supposed head of a militant group called Nigerian Talban seeking to impose the Islamic political system on both Muslim and non-muslim alike. If the group is as militant as we are made to believe and he is the head of the group and that jihad was going to be waged against the Nigerian state to establish shari’ah of which he is going to be the head, and in addition to their preparation some foreign fighters have slipped into the country (police said from the papers found on some of the fighters they were non Nigerians) to assisted them in achieving their goal. The following questions needed answers from the Nigerian government for the idea to sail through.

1) Is it reasonable for him to have remain in his house (clearly not fighting) days after his group had started the “Jihad” in the neighbouring state and that about 200 of his group member had been killed?

2) As at the time of his arrest he was in plane cloth hiding in the midst of goats, is this the behaviour of a militant leader in the period of war that foreign fighters have come to assist to take over a government?

3) For a group to lunch itself to power in a country, do they start by taking over police out post in a town about 300 km from the country’s capital with two military barracks out of which one is the headquarters of a military division?

4) Is it logical that a group of foreign fighters coming to assist someone to power will only be equipped with bow and arrows, and locally made guns?

5) Is it thinkable that someone who could not run beyond his in-law’s house when he was free to run would attempt to run away having been caught and in police custody in a premise hundreds of meters big surrounded by government institutions like mobile police and police training schools, colleges, and Federal government secretariat?

6) For the little we must acknowledge he knew about Islam, would he go to jihad with women and children without parents’ permission? That explains why he himself was not in the “war front”

Is it not possible that he was not a militant and may not be part of the reprisal attack but may hold information about who and why the reprisal attacks and some other secrets which accounted for why the government allowed the reprisal to start and then pick and kill extra judicially? Some people wanted him dead for a purpose we all need to demand.

WHAT SHOULD WE DO AS MUSLIMS IN THE CURRENT CRISIS?

The brothers involved in the retaliatory attacks are wrong on so many grounds, however the reaction of the Nigerian government from the assault on the burial convoy to allowing the retaliation to take place and the high handedness of the security agents in killing them and probably some innocent civilians to the assassination of Muhammad Yusuf and the former commissioner by the police is worse than whatever crime the so called militants must have committed. More so, the excuse of ignorance should not be tolerated from the government for they knew better the correct course of action than the rest of us. This means that all the above listed actions of the government on this issue are deliberate, thus we should all rise up to demand justice on behalf of the families of the dead and for our own sake because if these crimes go unchallenged, we have given our support for more crime to come from the people that are appointed to protect us and all of us are no longer safe. And should the reason for the crisis be political, then we might have unknowingly began another journey into a new season of political hullabaloo and scheming which we will all pay for directly or indirectly. May Allah forbid.

A FINAL WORD

The above narration may not be the whole you have to know about the group and the crisis, others with additional fact may add or react to this, for I have only done this to enlighten ourselves on the group as an outsider who is close enough to see the group better that most of us whose knowledge about them is scanty and from the press or government.

However, the real objective is for us as Muslims see the truth and act upon it. Many things has been happening to Muslims world over of which the best we often do is to lament and move on or wait till another one occurs and lament again and the cycle continues. We have to stop that approach as it has never taken us anywhere and it will not take us anywhere in the days to come. We should use this as a test case to see how better we can be at acting having known our strength at lamentation. I am waiting for our suggestions as per how to take up the Nigerian government on this issue in a long and tedious journey at safeguarding ourselves as Muslims and the Nigerian populace in general before they (the government) grow out of control and crush all of us under some pretext.