Escalation of the Insurgence: July 2009, Leadership and the Remaking of Boko Haram

Abstract

This chapter examined the two critical watersheds in the history of Boko Haram. While the 2009 face-off between the sect and security agencies catapulted Boko Haram from a local insurgence to national notoriety, the kidnapping of the Chibok school girls in April 2014 gave the group international reckoning. The events of 2009 which were instrumental in remaking Boko Haram were further helped by the change in leadership. Therefore, the leadership qualities of the leaders of the sect through time should be recognized as crucial in understanding the activities of the sect. Also, the wide-ranging international and local condemnation of the Chibok incident affected the Islamic credentials of the group even among mainstream Muslims and may have cost it significant political support and emboldened the response of the Nigerian state against it. Chibok was not a random action of a resurgent group but was in tandem with both the anti-western ideology and intolerance of contrary beliefs which characterize Boko Haram.