Friday, June 22, 2012

Holding a Nation to Ransom

As has become customary, the murderous Islamist group, Boko Haram, attacked three churches in Kaduna state on Sunday, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Also, in what is becoming a saddening routine, youth affiliated to the Christian faith carried out reprisal attacks on nearby mosques and many innocent Muslims got caught up in the ensuing violence.


On Monday, not sated by the blood they drank on Sunday, Boko Haram launched another attack, this time on Damaturu, Yobe state. More blood flowed, more lives untimely taken.
As extreme as the news items above read, it is very factual and the final body count from the bombings, the reprisals and the Damaturu carnage is still being awaited as I write this.
While no one in Nigeria, at least anyone old enough to reason, can readily claim to be unaware of the activities of Boko Haram and the atmosphere of fear it has created across northern Nigeria, most people really can’t pinpoint why the group is hell bent on destroying the economic and social structure of a region they call home. Many have pointed to the very nature of Islamic fundamentalism, which they say allows for wanton killing and destruction as a means to an end, but the inconsistent posture of Boko Haram cancels this argument and makes it very impossible to understand what their target is. They have gone from randomly shooting police officers on the streets of Maiduguri, to bombing police station, government buildings, educational institutions, and, with increasing ferocity, churches.

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