What is Boko Haram about?
Our aim
is to spread Islam all over Nigeria, that is our mission and I want
people to understand that our correct name is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna
Lidda’awati wal-Jihad. Those calling our group Boko Haram do so to
discredit the group and it ideas. It was formed at three fundamental
levels.
The first level from which our group emerged was
from people in this country who, for selfish reasons, recruited young
people and sometimes children and sent them overseas for education. In
reality, these people are totally ignorant of the reasons why these big
men take them abroad. In the name of education, these young men are
taken to mostly Arab countries and turned into militants who respect
only those who sponsored them abroad. Those big men who sponsor these
youths don’t have any conscience and no love for this country.
It all started in 2004 when the Government of Mauritania fell. It
is similar to what is happening in Libya now, though slightly
different. When the government in Mauritania fell in 2004, some
individuals from that country came into Nigeria to recruit some youths
as mercenaries to join forces with them to overthrow the government in
power.
The second level of our membership is made up of
young men who were recruited by our late leader, Mohammed Yusuf. Yusuf
was approached by some people from Mauritania to recruit more Nigerians
to continue with the struggle in Mauritania. The grounds were that this
young people were being recruited to further their Islamic studies. They
were to serve as a support group to the Mauritanian army. But our
leader Mohammed Yusuf rejected the plan. But a number of Nigerian big
men who were involved in the Mauritania struggle were angry with Yusuf.
This led to a disagreement which pitched the young men loyal to Yusuf
against those backing the big men. Yusuf, however, insisted on genuine
Islam whereas those opposing him were mercenaries who were willing to
serve their master’s interest in Mauritania.
At what point did they leave perfect Islam and become violent?
Whatever
I am telling you now I have already made available to the SSS when they
arrested me. There was a misunderstanding within the group and this
disagreement was between those who received military training in
Mauritania and those who were loyal to Yusuf. The SSS infiltrated our
ranks and began to arrest many of those who were militants. However, as
they were arrested some big men moved in to ensure that the court
released them and they came back caused more problems within our group.
In
2009 the disagreement developed into a crisis in areas where our group
was spreading Islamic ideals. I was in charge of our operations in
Bauchi, Gombe and Plateau. The crisis was more in Bauchi State in two
locations and in Kano in one location. In Bauchi, a group began to lay
claim to a mosque that was built by our group. This caused a major
crisis again and a young girl was kidnapped in Bauchi and taken to Borno
State. Our group was fingered but we told one intelligence officer,
Bala, who was investigating the case that her relations took her to
Borno and if the issue was not handled well it could cause a crisis.
The SSS directed us to contact the Commissioner of Police in Borno State
to secure the girl’s release. We were still in the process when the
Bauchi State governor directed that members of our group should be
driven away from the state. That was how our people started to resist
the forced evacuation and the crisis with the government spread to Borno
State. In fact, the crisis began in Bauchi and not Borno.
