Like Boko Haram, like Taliban 10 reasons why Boko Haram still shoots and bombs despite defeat
At the rate Boko Haram terrorists launch suicide attacks, lay siege on the military, kill helpless civilians, and kidnap the vulnerable in the North-East in spite of their sack from Sambisa Forest, it is apparent that the violent jihadi sect has been deflated but not conquered. Not even when the sect is torn apart by the power struggle between Abubakar Shekau and Abu Musab al-Barnawi. It is, however, simplistic to conclude that such division is a blessing to the army, as examples from religious terrorist groups who rose against the 1918 partitioning of the land of Islam, the Ottoman Empire, show that Mujahedeen do not have defeat in their linguistic repertoire.
Right wing; left wing; narcotic; other religious; dissident, and criminal terrorists could lose ground, face, momentum and even vision when their efforts are contaminated by division. But that is hardly the case with jihadi terrorists who consider death as victory. The following are some of the reasons why Boko Haram, like other jihadi terrorists sects, fight on despite being decimated.
1. The Base: For Al-Qaeda, Taliban and ISIS, having a base, a community in which they could blend with, and where they could use for to coerce the people to accept their authority, has been vital. Osama bin Laden migrated from Saudi Arabia to Sudan and later to Afghanistan before he could execute anti-American project. The oneeyed leader Mullah Mohammed Omar of the Taliban in Afghanistan was holed up in Kandahar all the years he led the Jihadi sect, though his fighters went to all wings of Afghanistan to win battles and rule. It is for the same reason that ISIS founder, Abu Musah al-Zarqawi, migrated to Iraq to blend with the Sunni sect from where he declared the Islamic Caliphate. Abubakar Shekau and al-Barnawi apparently still have a base in the North-East, communities from where they could hide, sneak in and out, impose the Sharia rule, and do damage to the Nigerian state and people, hence they can still fight in defeat.
2. The Taliban thrived in Afghanistan as a result of the high supply of ignorant and ignoble youth population from impoverished tribes and refugee camps in Pakistan. Of course, the name ‘Taliban’ literally means ‘the pupils’ who learn under selfstyled ‘mullahs,’ in an atmosphere similar to the informal almajiri educational system. Unfortunately, this setting is similar to what we have in the North-East, where displaced youths, out of school and wallowing in hopelessness are ready harvests for Abubakar Shekau and al-Barnawi. Tens of thousands of illiterate, orphaned youths leading rudderless lives and facing a blank future get recruited into either Shekau or al-Barnawi’s camp. They live ‘nobody-cares-for-me’ lives, giving them away as armies of jihadi