Blog #1 Terrorism in Nigeria

On August 26^th a bomb was set off in the capital city of Nigeria, Abuja. The target of this attack was the offices of the United Nation (UN) which resulted in the deaths of 26 people who where closest to the blast area. This is now the second time that the capital city of Abuja has been attacked by what the government calls a growing threat of Muslim fundamentalist terrorism. The sect which has been blamed for the series of attacks is called the Boko Haram which translates to “Western education is sinful” and has been a growing threat to the security of the government and the overall stability of the country. Nigeria’s political history is one fraught with violence and constant political change stemming from the transition of power from the military to a civil control over government. This instability has led to civil discontent which could be the contributing factor for the sudden and rapid growth of this fundamentalist group which seems to have to clear mission or ultimate goal.

As previously stated, this marks the second attack to a government instillation in Nigeria yet the significant factor is that it is the first time that this extremist group (Boko Haram) has set out to attack a international institution. The speculation for the motivation of the attack is uncertain yet we can assume that it must have to do with the growing unhappiness of the populations due to the backlash response of the government which has tried to stamp out future attack by clamping down on the population through violence and coercion. The danger of this sort of aggressive tactic is that it further isolates the people from the government and disenfranchises those whom are in support of the government which can lead to a shift in support of the people away from the legitimate government and further the terrorist cause. Nigerias case with regards to overall trend in growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Africa is of specific interest to use in the US and other Western States because it represent a continuing growth of grassroots “cells” of terrorist groups which lends itself to the question why is there a growing propensity for terrorist groups and acts in Africa? This question I believe is one that deals not with the idea of there existing an overarching pan-Islamic movement with a clear mission but rather that the issues over social inequality and the lack of government stability, which characterizes the types of countries where terrorism has been growing, is a huge contributing variable to the ability for any sort of counter institutional movement to take root. The danger is that Islamic terrorist groups have the funding and structural foundation which lends itself for filling the void that these societies seem to have as a way to act out against the actions of the government.