Islamization: Bloody agenda of Boko Haram from Yusuf to Shekau

Over the years, Boko Haram insurgents have been ravaging the north-east part of Nigeria, destroying lives and properties with reckless abandon. In this feature, AANU ADEGUN Naij.com's editor writes on the transition of power from Yusuf to Shekau and examines their Islamization agenda in Nigeria

It is an established fact that since the emergence of Shekau as the head of Boko Haram in Nigeria, the country has known no peace as the sect has become more radical and carried out more killings.

Shekau, the Boko Haram leader believes that the powers in Abuja are corrupt and a better system of government would be a strict enforcement of Islamic Sharia law across Nigeria.

According to a report by the CNN, "with his twisted ideology of Islam, Shekau became the face of terror and the sadistic architect of a campaign of mayhem and misery.”

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The unmasking of Shekau as a terror kingpin and the evolution of Boko Haram as merchants of deaths and destruction in Nigeria however did not start in a day.

It all began sometime in 2002 with the man called Muhammad Yusuf.

Muhammad Yusuf

Yusuf was born in January 1970 in Jakusko, Yobe state. He dropped out of school and received Islamic education from his father and other prominent Islamic teachers in Nigeria, Chad and Niger. In the 1990s he was a member of a Shi’a sect, Islamic Movement in Nigeria, under the leadership of Ibrahim El-Zakzakky, but increasingly came to support a stricter interpretation of the Qur’an.

According Fr. Atta Barkindo, director for Faith and Public Policy at the Kukah Centre. By 2001, Yusuf had moved away from the Shi’a doctrine to align himself with Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam of Kano in the Izala movement.

“When Sheikh Ja’afar later broke away from that movement to form the salafi organisation Ahl Al-Sunna, he made Yusuf leader of its youth wing. Yusuf was seen as the likely heir to Sheikh Ja’afar on account of his brilliance, but after meeting Muhammad Ali he became further radicalised, adopting a stricter, Salafist interpretation of Islam that he found a home for within Boko Haram," he wrote.

Going further, Atta said Yusuf in 2009 published Hadhihi Aqidatuna wa Minhaju Da’awatuna - “This is our creed and the methodology of our propagation.”

The book calls for a return to the pristine age of Islam, in which the Qur’an, sunna and hadiths are the only guiding principles for Muslims.

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The text rejects democracy, secular constitutions and Western forms of governance, and seeks the gradual establishment of an Islamic state.

Yusuf’s death

In 2009, Mohammed Yusuf was captured by Nigerian military at his parents-in-law's house and was transferred to the custody of the Nigerian police force.

His death at the police custody was however enshrined in controversies as police claim he was killed while trying to escape while other reports said the police summarily executed him.

However, his death left Shekau in charge of the Boko Haram sect.

Abubakar Shekau

After the death of Yusuf, Shekau who was left with the sect vowed to strike back. In line with his promise, he promoted more vehemently and violently Yusuf’s worldview of establishing an Islamic state in Nigeria.

Regarded as a loner with ability to speak several languages fluently: Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri and Arabic, Shekau was regarded as a schorlar.

According to reports, though much of his early life was not known, he was believed to be born in Shekau village that borders Niger. He studied under a cleric and then attended Borno State College of Legal and Islamic Studies for higher studies on Islam.

He introduced to Nigeria the concept of takfirism, a jihadi-Salafi theological principle that declares non-Muslims and Muslims who have betrayed Islam as infidels deserving death. He considers Muslims who engage in dialogue with Christians as conspirators against Islam.

Atta said: “In one video I translated, Shekau is talking, in Hausa, to a group of young Muslim men, who have gathered to hear him speak about why they should reject global values and globalisation. Shekau is undoubtedly a very eloquent and persuasive speaker, but he is also sensitive to the environment in which he is speaking.

“At one point a member of audience interjects to ask “should we therefore also reject the structures of globalisation like phones and microphones?” Shekau’s response is revealing. He explains that that these technological creations are not a product of globalisation but of human intellect which is given to you by Allah. He contends that you obtain human intellect by following Islamic scripture, not from Western education," he wrote.

Shekau who had since overseen many devious atrocities in Nigeria married one of Yusuf’s wives and adopted his children.

His Islamization agenda of Nigeria, a product of extremist preaching from the North and inherited from Yusuf and aggressively pursued even though twisted and unrealistic has seen many dead.

But according to reports, extremism is still a worrisome issue in the North.

“Extremist preaching continues to prevail in the region,” writes Atta. “The leaders of Islamic sects such as Aljana Tabbas (“paradise is certain”) may not be as direct as Boko Haram’s in saying “go and kill”, but they do preach that “a Muslim should not shake hands with a Christian”. Such attitudes will only start to change when the Nigerian government attends to the region’s socio-political and economic environment.”

‘As it is now, the state is seen as predatory, rather than as the facilitator of development. Its representatives are simply unable or, with some exceptions, unwilling to set about eradicating chronic poverty and improving education," Atta said.