The counterinsurgency campaign of the Nigerian army : the fight against the Boko-Haram insurgency in north-east Nigeria, 1999-2017

Yalmi, GL

Abstract

The emergence of civilian democratic governance in Nigeria in 1999, which came after three decades of armed forces rule, has been a watershed in the nation’s five decade history. This period is associated with recurrent crises, including militancy and ethnoreligious violent conflict in most parts of the country: one of the deadliest insurrections has been the Boko-Haram insurgency. The militant group has been identified as one of the deadliest insurgent groups globally; it started as a fringe group of enthusiastic youths in North-East Nigeria, growing to become a sophisticated international force, threatening the existence of Nigeria and neighbouring countries. Their radical activities claimed many lives and displaced considerable numbers of people. The then government under President Goodluck Jonathan adopted an armed counterinsurgency approach to counter Boko-Haram in the North-East regional states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States, the epicentre of the violence. This thesis examines the determined counterinsurgency efforts of the Nigerian armed forces in fighting the activities of the Boko-Haram group to ascertain the level of success in the operations. This study adopts the contextual assessment approach of the study of counterinsurgency using the qualitative method for data collection and analysis. It also relies on the interdisciplinary theoretical framework of historical, sociological and political perspectives to analyse the impact of the insurgency in Nigeria. Using the qualitative content analysis method in the collection of data, the findings show that the civilian leadership’s limited knowledge of armed forces’ affairs hindered them in developing a proper counterinsurgency framework to guide policy. But this should not be seen as a one-sided criticism because it should be qualified by: the lack of modern equipment and training for the armed forces; inadequate levels of manpower; low morale; over-extended deployments; and corruption that likewise hindered the success of the campaign in the North-East.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: May 7, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: May 7, 2021
• Additional Information: Funders : Plateau State University (Needs Assessment fund)
• Award Date: Sep 1, 2020