Ten years ago this month, Mohammed Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram was killed by Nigerian security forces "while trying to escape" when in custody. The terrorists have marked the occasion with yet another bloody outrage. A group drove up on motorcycles to a funeral in a village just outside the Borno state capital Maiduguri and gunned down mourners. At least 65 people were murdered. It is highly informative that a senior local government official blamed the massacre on the slaying of 11 terrorists a fortnight ago. While that may have outraged the bigots, it is surely clear they wished to demonstrate their continued existence ten years after their founder died at police hands. The unfortunate reality of the insurgency by this close ally of Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS) is that successive Nigerian governments have too often buried their heads in the sand. Their military efforts to crush the terrorists have been largely ineffective. In 2015, Nigeria's then new president Muhammadu Buhari fired incompetent police and army commanders and organized a coordinated military strikes with forces from Chad, Cameroon and Niger. Boko Haram lost most of the 50,000 square kilometers of territory it had seized in Borno state, including key forest bases. This led a senior Nigerian commander to declare the terrorists defeated. Four years on, this is anything but the case. Boko Haram's murderous thugs continue to rampage through Northern Nigeria and their deadly canker still threatens the security of neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger. Life for ordinary citizens in Borno state remains perilous. They have learnt the bitter lesson that the government's security forces cannot protect them. At night, the terrorists arrive, intimidate, plunder and murder anyone who opposes them. Worse, when police and soldiers have swept through their towns and villages in search of Boko Haram thugs, they have behaved hardly less violently, in some cases shooting first and asking questions afterwards. This, of course, has alienated many and from such people, the terrorists have drawn new recruits, with their blasphemous claim they are acting in the name of Islam. In this last bloody decade, tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and more than two million locals turned into refugees, fleeing their homes and livelihoods, many into neighboring states. Besides its phony siren claims to be defending Islam, poverty has been a significant Boko Haram recruiting sergeant. The fact that this huge region is still pathetically poor is an indictment of successive Nigerian governments. This is a country rich in natural resources that ought to be the wealthiest in Africa. But corruption, breathtaking incompetence and rampant mismanagement have seen billions of dollars filched by shameless politicians. Throughout the country, the benefits of considerable oil wealth have not filtered down to the little people. Tragically, decent ethical standards have been undermined by the egregious example of those at the top. If so many of those in power are on the take, only a fool among the ordinary people will try to stay honest. The answer to Boko Haram bandits and the kidnappers and oil thieves who have emerged in the oil-rich east of Nigeria is to stop the rot of corruption, which has lost the country at least $400 billion since independence in 1960. President Buhari was reelected this February promising again to end corruption. He still has a mountain to climb.
