In Part 4 we looked at which Muslims were responsible for the jihad, noticing that they were fairly well-educated Muslims from Nigeria's middle class that sought to embrace a stricter form of Islam and wanted to bring it about in Nigeria violently. These radical Muslims are not part of the downtrodden segment of society, but rather are connected to a corrupt northern Nigerian Muslim elite, and claim Islamic ideology as the motivation for their violence. Also, we considered possible connections to the illegal trafficking of heroin and arms, possibly even leading through the Sahara/Sahel to Burkina Faso and into Côte d'Ivoire. Also in Part 4, we saw how Boko Haram personnel were training in Somalia alongside Al Shabaab terrorists, and anticipated how this could lead to a more violent conflict in Nigeria.
Finally, in Part 5, we considered evidence that some of Nigeria's politicians were connected to Boko Haram, and links between Nigerian organized crime and international criminal operations.
At this point, the picture was complete. Ideology - not poverty - drives the front-line leadership of Boko Haram to jihad, but at the top, the connections to organized crime are clear, and organized criminal activities supply the money and the weapons for the jihad; this pattern is typical among Islamic terrorists today.
In this series, we examine the increasing violence in Nigeria.
We begin with excerpts from Soldiers Blow Up Suicide Bomber In Kaduna, February 8, 2012:
Residents of Kaduna metropolis scampered for safety yesterday as bombs exploded at military formations and on a bridge. Boko Haram claimed responsibility, saying that Sokoto is the next target. A lone suicide bomber who forced his way into the 1 Mechanized headquarters of Nigerian Army, Kaduna, at 11.45 am was shot dead following which the explosives went off shattering windows and injuring soldiers on duty.
[snip]
Confirming the incident, the Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, 1 Division, Lt. Col. Abubakar Edun, said in a statement that a suicide bomb attempt was made on the headquarters complex of 1 Mechanized Division. According to the statement titled, 'Failed suicide attack on headquarters complex of 1 Division Nigerian Army', he said, "at about 12.18pm on Tuesday, 7th February, 2012, a failed suicide bomb attempt was made on the headquarters complex of 1 Division Nigerian Army, Kawo, Kaduna.["]
[snip]
Musa Ilallah, an official with the National Emergency Management Agency in Kaduna who confirmed the explosion near the bridge, said rescue workers had been deployed in the affected areas but were being refused access by soldiers. "From all indications, they gate-crashed into the military barracks," said Ilallah. One resident said he saw soldiers being taken out of the barracks with cuts thought to be from the shattered glasses. "Virtually all the glasses had been shattered," the resident said. "I saw soldiers with glass cuts on their bodies being taken out, but it's difficult to say if there were any (more serious) casualties."
Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of bomb attacks in northern Nigeria, including Kaduna. It claimed responsibility for January 20 co-ordinated bombings and shootings in Kano that left at least 185 people dead. It was Boko Haram's deadliest attack yet.
Presumably, the increased tempo of violence including suicide attacks on military installations might be tied to the recent training Boko Haram militants received while in Somalia.
Elsewhere in Nigeria, other bombings have the clear goal to inflict casualties among innocent passers-by. From Two bomb blasts rock flashpoint Maiduguri, February 10, 2012
Two explosions went off Friday outside a customs building in Nigeria's flashpoint city of Maiduguri, the base of Boko Haram Islamists blamed for a series of attacks, residents said.
[snip]
The explosions went off near a station where locals board rickshaw taxis, located outside the customs building, witnesses said.
"The first bomb was planted at the foot of the wall of the customs office when commuters were waiting for rickshaws," said Halilu Adam.
"The second one went off some meters away... The whole area has now been cordoned off by soldiers and it is very difficult to have an idea of casualties."
Boko Haram now seeks to implement a targeted assassination program, as well. From Wole Soyinka On Boko Haram's Hit List, dated February 6:
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has disclosed that he is one of the prominent Nigerians on the list of Boko Haram sect marked for assassination.
[snip]
He said: "The reason for this programme (elimination) which I know is very much their third phase, is that those pushing this agenda know very well that this could be the last straw that will break the camel's back. And they would rather this country broke up and possibly in an inferno than continue to accept the loss, even though temporal loss of power in this country. For these people, government is the only business around."
Professor Soyinka
Also targeted for assassination now is the US Ambassador there. From Boko Haram threatens U.S. - Security tightened at American Embassy in Abuja, February 10:
FOLLOWING the recent Bi-National Commission meeting between Nigeria and the United States, the Boko Haram sect is reported to have issued terrorist threats against American targets within Nigeria, including the assassination of the US ambassador in Nigeria, Terence P. McCulley.
The Bi-National Commission had recently concluded a wide range of anti-terrorism plans and agreements in Abuja with a further move to embody the conclusions in a Memorandum of Understanding to be signed by the governments of Nigeria and the United States.
Findings by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that the sect is threatening multiple suicide attacks on American targets if the United States get involved in the sect`s battle with the Federal Government through the signing of the MoU.
It was learnt that the sect believed that the intervention of the United States will internationalise the conflicts and destroy all hopes of a dialogue with the Federal Government.
The report even went as far as threatening to kill the American ambassador while unleashing what the group called international jihadist on the country.
Of course, Professor Soyinka's comments regarding Boko Haram's sincerity in negotiations are very telling. Returning to Wole Soyinka On Boko Haram's Hit List, from February 6:
He added that dialogue does not require a group to constitute itself into a terror, stating that PRONACO which he joined during former President Obasanjo's administration successful organised its conference, amended the constitution of Nigeria and presented the document to the government without violence.
Soyinka said he cannot be cowed into submission by the Boko Haram or any other violent group, stressing, "I believe that one should not beg for existence. If the price of not coming to table is that you want to eliminate me, and you can do so, please do so. I am 77.
"Please, come to the debating table, but you will not persuade me simply because you have the capacity to blow me and my family up. You can simply go ahead, blow us up if you think that is the way you can do your conversation. But you will not bomb me to sit with you at table," he insisted.
Soyinka said President Jonathan is underestimating the desperation of the forces behind the Boko Haram sect not considering the Islamic struggle in countries like Iraq where fundamentalist Islamic groups attack one another even in their sanctuary of worship and they retaliate with higher casualty figure.
Boko Haram's desire to target a Nobel Laureate who decries the violence and wants to negotiate peace telescopes the terrorist organization's goal of eliminating peaceful negotiation as a means to end the violence there: by eliminating anyone who advocates and is willing to work for peace, military options are all that remain to deal with the Islamic terrorist jihad.
Politically-correct defenders of the Religion of Peace should take note of that.
Elsewhere, the governor of Adamawa State has presented checks to the widows of those killed by alleged Boko Haram militants.
From Boko Haram: Peter Obi gives 14 widows N1 million each, February 6:
No fewer than 14 widows whose husbands were murdered by suspected Boko Haram members in Mubi, Adamawa State yesterday, received N1 million each as compensation from Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi.
Of course, on the other side, it is common for Islamic terrorist groups to provide financial rewards for the families of suicide bombers. Still, even after the monetary compensation, the families of suicide bombers live nowhere near as lavishly as the leaders of the terrorist organizations, who make real money via the organized crime that funds the terrorist operations and which provides a pool of money to subsidize suicide bombings.
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