How many of us have received emails with startling financial offers totally millions of dollars to help high-ranking “Nigerian officials” expatriate their money? Corruption is a way of life here. Seems like a national pastime – “Cyber-Fraud R Us,” but there is a vastly more sinister force moving across this rather large and heavily populated (155+ million) north-central West African coastal nation, where English is the language of commerce and law. It is also a country wracked with violent religious struggles. Fundamentalism abounds, particularly Islamists in the north, and Nigeria’s brand of Evangelical Christianity (they’ve even sent missionaries to the United States) in the south. Most Nigerians are in that vast “just leave me alone to live my life” place, a few practice only ancient tribal faiths, but extremists are each trying to one-up the other for political control.
Oh, did I mention that the big prize? Aside from having the second largest stock exchange in Africa, it is a massive net oil exporter: “Nigeria is the 12th largest producer of petroleum in the world and the 8th largest exporter, and has the 10th largest proven reserves. (The country joined OPEC in 1971). Petroleum plays a large role in the Nigerian economy, accounting for 40% of GDP and 80% of Government earnings. However, agitation for better resource control in the Niger Delta, its main oil producing region, has led to disruptions in oil production and currently prevents the country from exporting at 100% capacity.” Wikipedia.
Two years ago, Nigerian authorities operating with what they thought was violent efficiency, believed that they had at least eradicated the nascent Al Qaeda presence that was fomenting militant Sunni unrest: a local group with ties to Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, was literally slaughtered virtually out of existence as they tried to fight back with the most primitive weapons. Or so the government believed. But as global forces in Central and Southeast Asia seemed to circle and decapitate Al Qaeda’s effectiveness in those regions, these malevolent Islamists refocused on various parts of Africa to rebuild their crumbling political power. Nigeria was a natural for this resurgence.
“Now, insurgents strike at the Nigerian military, the police and opponents of Islamic law in near-daily assaults and bombings, using improvised explosive devices that can be detonated remotely and bear the hallmarks of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Western officials and analysts say. Beyond the immediate devastation, the fear is that extremists bent on jihad are spreading their reach across the continent and planting roots in a major, Western-allied state that had not been seen as a hotbed of global terrorism.
“In the past two years, Boko Haram has met and trained with Qaeda affiliates outside the country, American and Nigerian officials and analysts say, and the group has begun waging a propaganda campaign that includes conference calls with reporters — another sign of its growing sophistication.
“‘Where are they getting this knowledge of I.E.D.’s?’ said Kashim Shettima, the new governor here. ‘Some of them went as far as Sudan. Why? I believe they are making efforts to reach out to the global terrorism network.’ … The Nigerian government appears to have only a shaky grasp of how to confront the threat, responding with such a broad, harsh crackdown that many residents see the military as more of a danger than Boko Haram. Shops are shuttered, vans laden with refugees can be seeing heading out of town and the normally wide, traffic-choked streets lined with neem trees are unexpectedly clear.” New York Times, August 17th.
Boko Haram has infiltrated the police, the military, and virtually every relevant urban security force. They are well-trained now, have access to modern weapons, and seem to outmatch the incumbent authorities at every turn. Heavy-handed military assaults have only played into Boko Haram’s search for new recruits. Nigeria seems so far away; its problems certainly couldn’t mean anything for American interests, could they?
I’m Peter Dekom, and foreign policy seems increasingly like a deadly game of whack a mole.
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