There is a vicious streak of militancy raging on in northeastern Nigeria and not much is apparently being done to quell the savagery and brutality with which Boko Haram is striking at the civilian populace. A roadside bomb detonating in a crowded bus station in a village just outside the city of Mubi killed some 40 people, including five soldiers, on Thursday. On Friday, a car carrying explosives was rammed into a mosque in Kano — again in northern Nigeria — killing more than 80 people and injuring scores more. These bloody scenes are becoming an alarming fixture in this part of the African country where militants belonging to the ruthless Boko Haram group are inflicting death, fear and pain amongst the people and security forces to instil terror and establish their control. The bomb blast in the mosque in Kano is particularly terrible, not just because of the sheer numbers killed in the attack but also because peaceful worshippers, all Muslims, were targeted by what seems to be an organisation that prides itself on being radical Islamic. Responsibility has not yet been claimed but these attacks both carry the hallmark of the Boko Haram. However, Boko Haram is anything but Islamic; it is a terror outfit through and through, asserting itself through bloody campaigns and murder in an attempt to seize power and control, much like other new-age terror groups cashing in on Islamic fundamentalism.
Boko Haram is the same group notorious for kidnapping close to 300 young school girls in April this year, girls who have still not been returned to their grieving families and have been reported by Boko Haram’s leader as having been sold into slavery. It is the same group responsible for attacking schools and colleges, killing students in their dormitories because they dared seek an education. The group stands for being against western education (the word Boko means book) but it seems to have now moved on from attacking educational centres to attacking civilians wherever they may be. Boko Haram is to Nigeria what the Taliban are to Pakistan and Afghanistan and what Islamic State is to Iraq and Syria. They should not be taken lightly. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is taking a beating in his popularity ratings because of the fact that people are seeing him as ineffectively dragging his feet on the Boko Haram situation. There is no let up of the militants striking at will. Goodluck Jonathan needs to prioritise and prevent these terrorists from gaining an even more fearsome foothold in his country. Iraq and Syria are examples he needs to heed. *