The radical Islamist group has dominated headlines in recent weeks following a series of attacks that targeted Muslims and Christians in oil-rich Nigeria.
But the ferocity of the attacks has sparked doubts about whether the group was the real mastermind behind the recent bout of violence.
“The bombings are designed to ignite religious war between Christians and Muslims in the whole country,” Professor Ishaq Lakin Akintola, a prominent civil rights activist, told OnIslam.net.
“They wish to create mutual suspicion, complete chaos and a total breakdown of law and order.”
Boko Haram, which says it wants a broader application of Shari`ah, has escalated attacks in Nigeria in recent weeks.
In the deadliest attacks in years, more than 150 people were killed last week in coordinated attacks by the radical group in the northern city of Kano.
The group also claimed attacks against a number of churches in Africa’s most populous country on Christmas Day.
But doubts about the group began to surface after two truncated attempts to burn down churches last month.
Police arrested Lydia Joseph, a Christian, over her attempt to raze a St John’s Catholic Church near the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadiun in the north-eastern state of Bauchi, one of the Boko Haram’s strongholds.
Joseph claimed her action was driven by frustration after she was “jilted” by her boyfriend but the police are currently investigating the attempted arson.
Another suspect, Wisdom King, a Christian, was arrested for attempting to blow up a church in Bayelsa, the home state of incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan. A third attempt was also reported by Nigerian dailies.
“Had these suspects succeeded in bombing the churches, the prime suspect would have been member of the elusive Boko Haram and the casualty, again, would have been the Muslims and Islam,” said Sherifah Yusuf-Ajibade, spokesperson for the Al-Mu’minaat, a large network of professional Muslim women and a civil rights activist.
Nigeria, one of the world’s most religiously committed nations, is divided between a Muslim north and a Christian south.
Muslims and Christians, who constitute 55 and 40 percent of Nigeria’s 140 million population respectively, have lived in peace for the most part.
But ethnic and religious tensions have bubbled for years, fuelled by decades of resentment between indigenous groups, mostly Christian or animist, who are vying for control of fertile farmlands with migrants and settlers from the Hausa-speaking Muslim north.
Mere Front?!
Commentators argue that Boko Haram may be a mere front for established interests wanting to exploit the country’s ethno-religious complexities to cause confusion.
“The first thing that I must say is that I have always held that the so called Boko Haram phenomenon is not a religious phenomenon but that all kinds of different interests have been capitalizing on poverty and unemployment to advance an agenda of terror and horror,” Professor Pat Utomi said last week.
Utomi, a former Christian presidential candidate, said all hands must be decked to expose whatever conspiracy theories behind the violence.
Some commentators also argue that the current violence aims to plunge the country into a civil war to enable arms dealers ply their trade.
Sultan of Sokoko Alhaji Abubakar Muhammad Sa’ad, the leader of the Nigeria supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has repeatedly said the whole thing about Boko Haram remains a mystery.
He has called on Nigerian authorities to launch a thorough probe “to get to the bottom” of the Boko Haram issue.
“Unless we do this, somebody will just wake up one morning, blow up a whole state and get away with it because he knows quite right that the prime suspect is Boko Haram. No serious headway can be made under such circumstances. I believe there is a larger picture nobody is seeing except those behind it.”
Security expert Abiodun Aremu also called for the security establishment and politicians to be placed under surveillance “to unearth their unholy alliance with certain forces, internal and external, whose agenda is to realize a disunited Nigeria for their selfish gains.”
On Thursday, the Nigerian president challenged the Boko Haram group to identify themselves and state their demands as a basis for talks.
“If they clearly identify themselves now and say this is the reason why we are resisting, this is the reason why we are confronting government or this is the reason why we destroy some innocent people and their properties … then there will be a basis for dialogue,” Jonathan told Reuters.
“We will dialogue, let us know your problems and we will solve your problem but if they don’t identify themselves, who will you dialogue with?”
Boko Haram, a Hausa term meaning “Western education is sinful”, is loosely modeled on Afghanistan’s Taliban.
The sect focuses its attacks mostly on the police, military and government, but has attacked Christians more recently.
It says it is fighting enemies who have wronged its members through violence, arrests or economic neglect and corruption.
Source: www.onislam.net