Explore the vast range of titles available.

Porous borders continue to be the principal source and conduit for small arms and light weapons (SALWs) throughout Africa, particularly Nigeria. Presently, Nigeria’s security environment is severely endangered by the operations of the Boko Haram insurgent group, which often uses smuggled firearms and ammunition. Scholars have paid little attention to analyzing the smuggling problem in SALWs and their threat to Nigeria’s internal security amid the Boko Haram menace. This study addresses the SALWs smuggling, and Boko Haram challenges to Nigerian security by using the Benin-Nigerian Porous Border as a case study. This paper discovers that the porous Nigeria-Benin border and the lackadaisical attitude of both governments have enabled transnational crime of the Boko-Haram sect. The paper recommends adequate coordination between security services and residents to battle the scourge of cross-border proliferation of small guns and light weapons between Benin and Nigeria. This study recommends a West African regional security network structure to regulate borders and coordinate security to curb SALWs and other criminal activities.

This article reviews the early history of Boko Haram (1994-2009) in the light of the trans-local entanglement of Nigerian political and religious actors in the global paradigm of the War on Terror (WoT). Empirically, the article shows evidence of Nigeria's early involvement in a counterterrorism strategy based on the surveillance of actors (who gradually morphed into Boko Haram) believed to be connected to international terrorist networks. Such a strategy was mainly designed to sever such alleged international ties. Methodologically, the article draws on the idea that terrorism and counterterrorism are two structures that take shape in parallel ways in any given context and suggests that Nigeria's counterterrorism strategies need to become part of the historical narrative on Boko Haram. Theoretically, it argues that the early history of Boko Haram was shaped by a specifically Nigerian configuration of WoT politics. It submits that two incidents that occurred in 2003 and 2009 should be viewed as WoT preemptive strikes rather than as insurgencies. Finally, it argues that such WoT policies have contributed to transform a small, embryonic group of militants animated by a global agenda into an all-out, local insurgency against Nigerian institutions and civil society.

The literature shows that there are six different perspectives on the rise of Boko Haram in Nigeria. While some authors ascribe the formation of Boko Haram to religion and religious identity, the second group cite widespread socio-economic and religious insecurities, driven by an ideology is rooted within a particular community due to both a historical narrative and modern grievances. However, other authors argue that the rise of Boko Haram is deeply rooted in political ideology, namely resentment of the shift of political power from the North to the South, exemplified by the Jonathan presidency. Thus,Boko Haram is seen as a child of political rascality. Another account seeks to establish a nexus between the Mohammed Marwa-led Maitatsine movement of the 1980s and Boko Haram, because of their shared objectives of purifying Islam. The former had latched on the economic hardship of the period, which was complicated by the deteriorating conditions of Nigerians brought on by structural adjustment policies with attendant riots, to wage war on the Nigerian state. The fifth group is the good governance school, while the sixth group is the conspiracy theory school. In light of the forgoing, making use of the historical method of discuss and analysis, this paper analyses the various discourses on Boko Haram and their concomitant failure in fully explaining its emergence. The paper posits that Karl Marx’s historical materialism and class struggle is a useful analytical toolfor making sense of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria.

This anthology is an outcome of literary writers� reaction to the Boko Haram insurgency in the north-eastern part of Nigeria.Lives therein have not only been extensively disrupted by the group�s violent tactics and the mind-numbing levels of physical destruction and thousands of deaths, but also in the dislocation of millions of people, with most.

The gender-based violence in recent times has become an integral part of the on-going Boko Haram Insurgency in North-East Nigeria. Since the full-scale declaration of combat between the Nigerian state and the insurgent group, the asymmetrical tactics of the group have been evolving, based on its capabilities. The recent spike in the targeted raid and attack on female schools, markets, and female institutions purposely for abduction and kidnapping of women and girls indicated this assertion. Due to the depletion of its fighters and loss of territories, there is a surge in mass deployment of ‘women and young girls’ as material instruments of warfare: fighters, suicide bombers, human shields, bargaining tools, sex slaves, informants, and so on. This article appraises the gender push-pull factors responsible, motivation behind the current behavior, and proffers some policy guidance.

Nigeria is the most populous black nation in the world, member of the UN Security Council and largest economy of Africa. In addition to its globally acknowledged qualitative oil, it also has large deposits of mineral resources including tin, coal and gypsum, gold and lead. The country is not only engaged in a passionate competition with South Africa to attain the position of a continental superpower preparatory towards becoming a globally acknowledge giant but also comfortably playing a big-brother role among Africa nations. This paper uses documentary analysis to examine Nigeria’s social, economic and global potentials of fulfilling its dreams vis-a-vis the potentials of its competitor(s). The paper found out that Nigeria faces multidimensional challenges on its path towards continental leadership ranging from domestic problems of rising crime, incessant insurgency, dilapidated infrastructure, growing unemployment, over-reliance on dwindling oil income and leadership crises among others to intense competition from other strong African countries like South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia. The paper concludes that the country’s goal of a regional superpower status is achievable but Nigeria must address its domestic challenges to win the race of attaining continental hegemony.

Abstract This essay examines the religious discourses articulated by Boko Haram and its opponents through analysis of sermons and debates recorded on cassettes, CDs and DVDs. Rather than simplistic application of economic deprivation theory, the essay argues that Boko Haram is driven by a will to power, and the religious and temporal dimensions should be equally taken into account. By locating the religious worldviews of Boko Haram and its opponents within the history of Salafi/Wahhabi movement in Nigeria, the essay demonstrates that Salafism/Wahhabism should be understood as a complex phenomenon comprising ideas and tendencies.

An arc of instability stretching across Africa's Sahel region, an area of strategic interest for the United States and its allies, is plagued by violent extremist organizations (VEOs). These organizations, including Boko Haram, al Qaeda, and other terror groups, have metastasized and present a serious threat to regional stability. Now these VEOs are transitioning. Under sustained pressure from French and regional security forces, and reeling from the loss of senior leaders, many of these groups feel backed into a corner. Despite setbacks, the groups continue to plague the region. To enhance policymakers' understanding of these threats and how to respond to them, CSIS experts from the Africa Program and Transnational Threats Project conducted field-based and scholarly research examining the broad range of factors at play in the region. This research provides little ground for optimism. Chronic underdevelopment, political alienation, failed governance and corruption, organized crime, and spillover from Libya help foster and sustain violent extremists throughout the Sahel

This article provides an overview of the internal conflicts within Nigeria, doing so primarily through explaining the role of Nigeria's youth in either igniting or sustaining the types of insurgency that have plagued the country in the post-military era. In pursuing this, this article focuses on the activities of the Niger Delta militants, which dominated the start of the current democratic dispensation, and those of the Boko Haram insurgents in the north. This article suggests socio-economic empowerment of the youths as an antidote to youth unemployment, and, by extension, as a way to avert future armed insurrection and other forms of violent conflicts that have become synonymous with Nigerian youths.

This book analyses the political and ethnical tensions that characterize Nigeria, which derive both from colonial and contemporary conflicts. It points out three major factors why Nigeria has not yet collapsed like many other African states: ethnic power sharing amongst the political elite, the military with its national outlook, and oil wealth.