US Ambassador: Social Woes Fuelling Boko Haram in Nigeria

19 Nov 2011

Font Size: a / A

Boko Haram have attacked the Police Force Headquarters in Abuja

REUTERS

The U.S. ambassador to Nigeria has urged it to address "appalling" social problems in its restive north and ease off on heavy-handed security crackdowns if Africa's most populous nation is to overcome a growing Islamist militant threat.

Boko Haram, an Islamist sect whose name translates from the northern Hausa language as "Western education is forbidden", has been behind dozens of deadly bombings and assassinations in northern parts of the country this year.

The sect's home is at the base of the arid Sahel in the northeast, one of the West African nation's poorest regions and bordering Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

President Goodluck Jonathan has said Boko Haram needs to be dealt with like other militant groups around the world but many diplomats and aid groups have called for the government to look at some of the home grown issues that feed the violence.

Jonathan is deploying a growing military force to counter the sect's attacks but many residents say troops do more harm than good, while rights groups accuse soldiers of brutalisation and unlawful arrests that backfire into sympathy for Boko Haram.

"I think it's important for political and military leadership to impress upon soldiers on the ground that they need to do their duty but they need to do their duty in a way that doesn't violate the rights of the civilian population," U.S. Ambassador, Terence McCulley said in an interview with Reuters.

"At the same time I think it's important the government look at how to redress these social-economic indicators in the north. Pick any one you want, whether it be health, literacy or access to clean water, the situation is really appalling."

Boko Haram's ambitions are growing and its attacks are becoming more sophisticated. A car bomb exploded in the car park of police headquarters in the capital Abuja in June, narrowly missing the chief of police.

In August, the sect hit its first international target. A suicide bomber smashed a car full of explosives into the side of the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria's capital, ripping off the side of the building and killing 24 people.

Intelligence agencies and security experts believe Boko Haram has expanding ties with jihadist groups outside the country, including al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which operates in North African countries that border Nigeria.

"We've heard stories for years of individual members of so called Boko Haram or Nigerian Taliban travelling to northern Mali to train with GSPC (Group for Call and Combat), subsequently AQIM," McCulley said.

"Clearly extremists here are learning techniques and are adapting their methods based upon what they've learned, what they've seen outside Nigeria."

Jonathan won an election in April that international observers and many Nigerians said were the fairest since the end of military rule more than a decade ago.

He has since put in place an economic team, led by former World Bank Managing Director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that has been tasked with forging ahead with a reform programme, which is moving more slowly than international investors would like.

McCulley said Jonathan had made some "truly impressive appointments" and the U.S. was encouraged by the commitment he has shown to reforms, which include a sovereign wealth fund, removal of fuel subsidies and a plan to privatise the power sector, now a major drag on Africa's second-largest economy.

Despite being Africa's largest crude oil exporter and holding the world's seventh largest gas reserves, Nigeria only produces as much electricity as a medium-sized European city.

International investors have said Nigeria's population of more than 140 million offers huge potential gains but a common complaint is that corruption often stunts economic growth.

"It's a clearly a problem. Corruption not only saps the confidence in people in government, it also discourages both national and foreign investment and I think it's a problem Nigeria needs to tackle more aggressively," McCulley said.

He said a big step in Nigeria's development would be to put someone in charge of the country's anti-corruption agency with the integrity shown by Attahiru Jega, the man behind the successful elections in April.