Boko Haram And ISWAP, Using Religious To Perpetrate Evil In Nigeria

AGUNLOYE ADEWUNMI BASHIRU

The notorious Boko Haram Terrorist Group and its breakaway group Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) have continued to terrorise the citizens of the North East and some other parts of North-West Nigeria, perpetuating their barbaric act of massacring, slaughtering, killing and kidnapping mostly the civilian’s population.

Between the two groups, the lives of thousands of innocent Nigerians have been reported to have been lost in garrulous ways, while many kidnapped victims are still missing. The unfortunate case of the Chibok schoolgirls and Leah Sharibu, the Christian schoolgirl among the 112 students kidnapped by Boko Haram in Dapchi, Yobe State who have been in captivity for going to three years and seven months is still fresh in the minds of Nigerians.

Many of the kidnapped schoolgirls were forced into unholy marriages without their and parents’ consent. Force marriage is prohibited in Islam, but Boko Haram terrorists are forcing underaged girls into marriage, not to forget that killing of the innocent souls is not accepted in Islam, but Boko Haram and ISWAP are engaging in massacring and murdering of innocent civilians.

Muslim Holy Book (Quran 4:19) says “O ye who believe! Ye are forbidden to inherit women against their will”  

The pertinent question to ask the two terrorist groups in Nigeria, the Boko Haram and the Islamic States West Africa Province (ISWAP), is whether the barbaric act of massacring, slaughtering, killing and kidnapping of innocent citizens most especially in the North East of Nigeria, is justified in Islam.

The answer to the above question is not far-fetched, as the Holy Quran, the religious book of Muslims vividly in Chapter 5, Verse 32 (5:32) unequivocally states that “Whosoever killed a person…. It shall be as if he had killed all mankind”.

However, where did the terrorist groups; Boko Haram and ISWAP in Nigeria, and their likes such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) copy their doctrine from.
In Nigeria, Boko Haram and ISWAP continually carried out attacks on schools, security forces, markets and churches, kidnapping, massacring and displacing thousands of Nigerians.

Records show that the two groups have been responsible for the killing of over 500,000 people and many displaced, churches burnt down, schools and markets destroyed, while many kidnapped people are still missing without any trace.

It always lies upon lies by the Nigerian Army about the activities of Boko Haram and the ISWAP. The military authority has claimed severally that the insurgents have either been defeated or decimated, but the reversal has always been the case as the terrorists continued to terrorize and gruesomely murder civilians and military personnel and as well as kidnapping them at will.

In September this year, the military reported that close to 6,000 fighters from Boko Haram have surrendered. But the question begging for an answer is ‘if the claim of the surrender of 6,000 fighters claimed by the military is true, then how many thousands are the fighters of Boko Haram in North-East Nigeria and where their abode is?

According to a study published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), more than 300,000 children have been killed as a result of over 12 years of terrorist attacks in North-Eastern Nigeria.

Many thousands of school-age children are out of schools in northeastern states as a result of several burnt down of schools and the non-availability of teachers because many teachers have been killed or fled the area for safety.    

Dozens of aid workers have been kidnapped and many of them killed by both Boko Haram and ISWAP.
The insurgents are having a field day because the Nigerian military is overwhelmed and also there is no political will from the Federal Government of Nigeria to put an end to the barbaric activities of Boko Haram and the Islamic State’s West Africa Province.
There are also the troubles of herders and banditries being faced by the Nigerian Army. The Nigerian Army couldn’t even protect the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) was recently attacked by the bandits and two soldiers killed. How can the same institution protect the citizens of Nigeria against the terrorist groups, herders and bandits?

All this is pointing to the unfortunate fact that Nigeria is under siege and the citizens of the most populous black nation of the world could only survive this if they take their destinies into their hands.

Agunloye Adewunmi Bashiru can be reached via bagunloye@gmail.com.