Impact of Boko Haram Insurgency on Children in Adamawa State, Nigeria

Impact of Boko Haram Insurgency on Children in Adamawa State, Nigeria

 

Abstract of Impact of Boko Haram Insurgency on Children in Adamawa State, Nigeria

This study examined the impact of boko haram insurgency on children in Adamawa State, Nigeria. This increasing wave of insecurity has not abated but has taken a dangerous dimension which is threatening the corporate existence of the country. Boko Haram insurgency in northern Nigeria has posed a multifaceted threat to the nation since 2009. Consecutive governments have done everything possible to curtail it with no significant success achieved. Though, adequate attention has not been paid to its social, economic and psychological implications, which this study has examined.

The research objectives were to; assess the psychological impact of boko haram insurgency on children’s mental health in Adamawa State, Nigeria; determine the economic impact of boko haram insurgency on children’s welfare in Adamawa State, Nigeria; find out the social impact of boko haram insurgency on children’s childhood experience in Adamawa State, Nigeria; and investigate the measures or programs put in place by the government to help children who have been exposed to boko haram attacks in Adamawa State, Nigeria. This research work made use of qualitative source of data, through which data were gathered using interview technique and analysed using the content analysis.

The findings showed that, Boko Haram insurgency has psychological impact on children’s mental health in Adamawa State, Nigeria. The study as well found out that, Boko Haram insurgency has economic impact on children’s welfare in Adamawa State, Nigeria. It was further revealed that, Boko Haram insurgency has social impact on children’s childhood experience in Adamawa State, Nigeria.

The study recommends that, there is need for Nigerian government and stakeholders to strive very hard to make Nigeria a better place for children by providing adequate education and security. The study recommends that, victims of insurgency should be given adequate medical facilities and counseling towards recovering from the menace of insurgency. Lastly, the study recommends that, there should be provision of immediate and comprehensive mental health diagnosis, treatment, and counseling to children and individuals who are exposed to insurgency to recover quickly from emotional pains and trauma that comes with such exposure.

 

Chapter One of Impact of Boko Haram Insurgency on Children in Adamawa State, Nigeria

Background of the Study

Today’s discussion about Nigeria is almost inexorably replete with issues surrounding insecurity, militancy, insurgency, and terrorism, as a result of the linkages with economic, social, political and governance activities, with spiraling effects on regional and international relations, (Adewumi, 2014). Ever since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999, there has been an increase in violent activities in Nigeria with Boko Haram insurgency being at the forefront. The Boko Haram sect has turn out to be a great threat to both internal and international security as their activities have now gone beyond Nigeria to her neighboring countries. With growing and continuous violent attacks on security forces, civilians, churches and mosques, farms, media houses, schools as well as international bodies such as the United Nations in 2011, it has further compounded a number of challenges already experienced by the nation most especially in the North East of Nigeria, (Awortu, 2015).

The emergence of the Boko Haram sect, whose objectives or ideology is to introduce their ideology on people through bombings, slaughtering, and abduction of human beings, creating fear and sense of insecurity in the society to achieve their aims. Their strict ideology was enforced by radical religious beliefs, a terrorist outlook, a network of criminal gangs, and a political tool to ‘colonized’ territories with the aim of propagating their ideology, (Eze, Wosu & Agwanwo (2014). According to Mohammed (2015), Boko Haram has destroyed the economic activities of places they have spread their tentacles to as well as led to movement of people from the affected place due to restiveness. The trademarks of the Boko Haram are destruction of lives and property with reckless attitudes, through bombings, abduction and slaughtering of human beings especially in North eastern part of the country and other places. This has created fear and sense of insecurity in the polity, as opined by Anthony (2014).

The Boko Haram insurgency poses a great and severe threat to national security, however, it should be stated that, the concept of national security, in the post-cold war era, has gone beyond securing lives and properties of the people through the protection of territorial integrity of the state against threats of external aggressors, (Adedoyin, 2013) to encompass the protecting of citizens from the threats of diseases, hunger, unemployment, violation of human rights, displacements and shelter problems, conflict, political repression and environmental degradation, hence, human security. Boko Haram’s vicious activities which has been on the increase recently has largely undermined human security. According to Gilbert (2014), ever since the insurgency started, there has been over 12,000 deaths and 8000 persons maimed.

Children in Nigeria have experienced their fair share of the insurgency ravaging the north-eastern part of the country. Some children have been killed, abducted, forcefully recruited, and internally displaced, while others have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, (UNICEF, 2015). Throughout 2014 the armed conflict in north-eastern Nigeria was one of the world’s deadliest for children. Education was profoundly affected as a result of the targeted attacks on school children, teachers, schools and other education facilities, (Olamilekan, 2014)

Insecurity may as well trigger long-term consequences in the region, as Nigeria serves as Africa’s largest supplier of staples cereals, (USAID, 2014). The health sector has as well received its own share as the rates of injured individuals are escalating with little or no facilities to cater for them as well as health workers abandoning their post in fear of being killed. The killings and abduction of school children and college student by the sect has forced the closures of schools indefinitely and the withdrawal of children and wards by parents from schools still operating, as a result denying them access to education. There are inadequate shelters for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and yet, the number of IDPs is increasing drastically, (Awortu, 2015).

Security is among the core areas of focus in the internal and external development of states’ affairs, (Marc, Mogaka, & Verjee, 2015). Thus, at country and international levels, policy makers are putting varying mechanisms in place to address issues of insecurity in order to create a safe environment for all. Adamawa State hasn’t known true peace for more than a decade now and as a result of the ongoing restiveness and insecurity, it hasn’t been able to realize its full potential. In Adamawa and its neighboring Nigerian states, these scenarios have played out in recent years with the uprising and escalation of the activities of Boko Haram in the Northeast region of the country, (Adesoji, 2010; Adibe, 2012; Ahmed-Gamgum, 2018; Alao & Atere, 2012).

Boko Haram’s activities have included recurrent attacks; killing of persons; and wanton destruction of property, population displacements, and other forms of aggression. These terrorist activities were particularly severe between 2008 and 2015, (Oyeleye 2016), the years during which Boko Haram operated with impunity in the northeast axis of the country, killing thousands of people and destroying properties worth several millions of dollars. According to Akinbi (2015), the activities of the sect especially since 2009 have constituted a major security threat to the nation and have made Northern Nigeria, most especially the Northeast, which is the epicenter of Boko Haram activities, the most dangerous region in the country. As a result of the Boko Haram insurgency, Nigeria is labeled a major global center of violence, crime, and terrorism, (Oyeleye 2016). The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), reported on December 11, 2014, that more than 5,000 people were killed worldwide that November as a result of jihadist violence, Nigeria shared the dubious honor of being one of the four countries, along with Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, that accounted for 80% of all deaths from terrorists’ attacks.

Since 2011, the scenario has deteriorated with the Muslim fundamentalist sect Boko Haram instigating quite a lot of bombing attacks, which have led in killing people aimlessly, as well as children and older adults, (Adagba et al., 2012; Odita & Akan, 2014). The origin of terrorism in Nigeria could be traced to the Maitasine Islamic sect in Northern Nigeria in the 1980s, then continued through what is known as the Sharia riots of 2000-2001, and this has continued since 1999, (Ewetan, 2014; Oviasogie 2013). According to Ewetan and Urhie (2014), terrorism in Nigeria started as a result of religious, economic, cultural and sociopolitical components. Islamic fanaticism provided the basic building block for terrorism; however, the driving factors now are the growing gap between the rich and the poor in the country as a result of economic deprivation (CITE).

Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sin”, (Cook 2011; Murtada, 2013), is an Islamist jihadist terrorist organization that sprang up from a religious commune established by Mallam Mohammed Yusuf in 2002 in Maiduguri, Borno State, (Adebayo, 2014). It started as a peaceful organization, advocating a strict interpretation and implementation of Islamic law in Nigeria, (Blanchard 2014; Shuaibu, Salleh, & Shehu, 2015). Loosely modeled after Afghanistan’s Taliban movement, (Simon, 2009), the Boko Haram organization’s ideology is influenced by orthodox Islamic doctrines that forbid Western culture and its system of government. This is why the terror group is called and known as Boko Haram, (Boyle, 2010).

 Statement of Problems

The issue of Boko Haram’s terrorist attacks has been particularly on the rise in Adamawa State which, since 2011, has lost all scintilla of peace and so had turn out to be one of the most dangerous states in Nigeria to live in. Some of Boko Haram’s noxious attacks in Adamawa State included maiming, kidnapping, raiding, etc., For instance, On July 16, 2013, Boko Haram attacked on schools in Yobe State, where over 42 persons were killed; on February 25, 2014, Boko Haram attacked on federal Government College in Yobe State, where about 59 students were killed while some were killed through throat slitting by militants; on September 19, 2013 Boko Haram attacked on Guiba College massacre, Yobe State, where over 50 student were killed; on February 19, 2018, one hundred and ten schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram from the GGSTC Dapchi, which led to the closure of the school and other schools within the region for security reason.

Boko Haram fighters have continued to viciously attack various spots in the North-East of Nigeria, particularly several parts of Adamawa State such that, the UN Office for Coordination of Human Affairs expressed its concern that, growing attacks by non-state armed groups suspected to be Boko Haram terrorists were triggering new displacements in northeastern Nigeria, especially in Adamawa State with more than 2,000 newly displaced people in the IDP Camp in Yola, (Silas, 2018).

The resurgence of Boko Haram’s ferocious attacks has created a deteriorating security situation in Adamawa State and posed severe threat to efforts to reignite the state’s socio-economic development and political stability. According to Silas (2018), it was believed that, the resurgence in Boko Haram activities in Adamawa state was as a result of a reported split in the Boko Haram rank and a raging battle for supremacy between the two emerged factions, the main group under Shekau’s leadership and a splinter group called The Islamic State in West African Province (ISWAP), the faction that is affiliated to ISIS, and is led by Abu Mua’ab Albarnawi. The battle for supremacy had ignited the resurgence in terrorist attacks in Adamawa State in particular and other parts of the Northeast. The increased spread of the destructive activities of the Boko Haram terror group as a direct result of the schism and fight for superiority posed a new threat for the Nigerian military.

It is against this backdrop that this study examines the impact of Boko Haram insurgency on children in Adamawa State, with a view to proffering viable counter measures to ending the Boko Haram menace, and to alleviate the pains and agonies of the victims of Boko Haram insurgency, especially the children in Adamawa State.