The Boko Haram Impasse: Community Policing as a Nostrum for Conflict Resolution

Abstract

Virtually a decade of Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria has described the Islamist Jihadist as the most notorious and intractable insurgent group that has ever featured in the country, because they have irrepressibly posed great threats to national security by destructively attacking organizations, both local and international, and laying viable foundation for immanent underdevelopment of the Nigerian state. The study adopted a qualitative methodological approach of one-on-one semi-structured in-depth interviews to examine the phenomenon within a functionalist and ethno methodologist frame work. The findings suggest community policing approach, among other preventive policy recommendations, as a new paradigm shift in counterterrorism strategy to resolve the crisis in Nigeria, as well as, prevent future occurrence of such menace in this part of sub-Saharan Africa.

The Intractable Malaise: Understanding the Patterns That Maintain the Terrorist Stronghold in Nigeria

“…A second leading factor that launches the boat of Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria is community support and its affiliations with supportive international organizations. Based on the information received from the participants, it becomes crystal clear that the Boko Haram terrorists have strong support from covert members of the civil society through whom they obtain adequate information and financial and economic resources which are pivotal to the sect’s continued insurgency activities (Agbiboa, 2013b; Okonkwo, 2019; Olofinbiyi & Steyn, 2019a). Regardless of publicized claims to the contrary, attempts by the government to repress the group and rid the Nigerian system of this scourge have, on different occasions, proved futile.…”

“…As far back as 2009, studies have shown that Boko Haram reinvented violence and commenced what could best be described as the bombardment of northern Nigeria with [a] frequency and intensity that are quite unprecedented in the history of violence in Nigeria, because those who escape death by day, sleep with one eye open by night. (Chukwurah et al, 2015, p. 12) The jihadist sect has hitherto generated pervasive threats across the north-eastern socio-cultural communities, where it has, on daily routine, disrupted commercial enterprises and frightened investors to the degree that their activities have propagated heavy concerns not only among average Nigerians but also with an extension to the neighboring countries (Olofinbiyi & Steyn, 2019a). This unplanned state of anarchy by the Nigerian jihadists has truncated the peace and scenery of life in the traumatized region of the nation.…”

“…The jihadist sect has hitherto generated pervasive threats across the north-eastern socio-cultural communities, where it has, on daily routine, disrupted commercial enterprises and frightened investors to the degree that their activities have propagated heavy concerns not only among average Nigerians but also with an extension to the neighboring countries (Olofinbiyi & Steyn, 2019a). This unplanned state of anarchy by the Nigerian jihadists has truncated the peace and scenery of life in the traumatized region of the nation.…”