GOVERNMENTS and newspapers around the world attributed the horrific
Christmas Day bombings of churches in Nigeria to "Boko Haram" -- a
shadowy group that is routinely described as an extremist Islamist
organization based in the northeast corner of Nigeria.
Indeed, since the May inauguration of President Goodluck Jonathan, a
Christian from the Niger Delta in the country's south, Boko Haram has
been blamed for virtually every outbreak of violence in Nigeria.
But the news media and American policy makers are chasing an elusive
and ill-defined threat; there is no proof that a well-organized,
ideologically coherent terrorist group called Boko Haram even exists
today. Evidence suggests instead that, while the original core of the
group remains active, criminal gangs have adopted the name Boko Haram
to claim responsibility for attacks when it suits them.
Abubakar Shekau (C), the suspected leader of Nigerian Islamist
extremist group Boko Haram, flanked by six armed and hooded fighters
in an undisclosed place.
The United States must not be drawn into a Nigerian "war on terror" --
rhetorical or real -- that would make us appear biased toward a
Christian president. Getting involved in an escalating sectarian
conflict that threatens the country's unity could turn Nigerian
Muslims against America without addressing any of the underlying
problems that are fueling instability and sectarian strife in Nigeria.
Since August, when Gen. Carter F. Ham, the commander of the United
States Africa Command, warned that Boko Haram had links to Al Qaeda
affiliates, the perceived threat has grown. Shortly after General
Ham's warning, the United Nations' headquarters in Abuja was bombed,
and simplistic explanations blaming Boko Haram for Nigeria's mounting
security crisis became routine. Someone who claims to be a spokesman
for Boko Haram -- with a name no one recognizes and whom no one has
been able to identify or meet with -- has issued threats and statements
claiming responsibility for attacks. Remarkably, the Nigerian
government and the international news media have simply accepted what
he says.
In late November, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Homeland
Security issued a report with the provocative title: "Boko Haram:
Emerging Threat to the U.S. Homeland." The report makes no such case,
but nevertheless proposes that the organization be added to America's
list of foreign terrorist organizations. The State Department's Africa
bureau disagrees, but pressure from Congress and several government
agencies is mounting.
Boko Haram began in 2002 as a peaceful Islamic splinter group. Then
politicians began exploiting it for electoral purposes. But it was not
until 2009 that Boko Haram turned to violence, especially after its
leader, a young Muslim cleric named Mohammed Yusuf, was killed while
in police custody.
Video footage of Mr. Yusuf's interrogation soon went viral, but no one
was tried and punished for the crime. Seeking revenge, Boko Haram
targeted the police, the military and local politicians -- all of them
Muslims.
It was clear in 2009, as it is now, that the root cause of violence
and anger in both the north and south of Nigeria is endemic poverty
and hopelessness.
Influential Nigerians from Maiduguri, where Boko Haram is centered,
pleaded with Mr. Jonathan's government in June and July not to respond
to Boko Haram with force alone. Likewise, the American ambassador,
Terence P. McCulley, has emphasized, both privately and publicly, that
the government must address socio-economic deprivation, which is most
severe in the north. No one seems to be listening.
Instead, approximately 25 percent of Nigeria's budget for 2012 is
allocaated for security, even though the military and police routinely
respond to attacks with indiscriminate force and killing. Indeed,
according to many Nigerians I've talked to from the northeast, the
army is more feared than Boko Haram.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram has evolved into a franchise that includes
criminal groups claiming its identity. Revealingly, Nigeria's State
Security Services issued a statement on Nov. 30, identifying members
of four "criminal syndicates" that send threatening text messages in
the name of Boko Haram. Southern Nigerians -- not northern Muslims --
ran three of these four syndicates, including the one that led the
American Embassy and other foreign missions to issue warnings that
emptied Abuja's high-end hotels. And last week, the security services
arrested a Christian southerner wearing northern Muslim garb as he set
fire to a church in the Niger Delta. In Nigeria, religious terrorism
is not always what it seems.
None of this excuses Boko Haram's killing of innocents. But it does
raise questions about a rush to judgment that obscures Nigeria's
complex reality.
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