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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Different sets of groups had arose in Nigeria with little or
real militancy approach in pursuance of their different objective and goals. Among
them are Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) within Yorubas, Bakassi Boys and
Movement for Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) among Igbos,
Niger-Delta Militant in the South-south region as well as Boko Haram that is still
the object of discussion today. The major problems with Boko in Nigeria is that
they are without a particular identity within Northern part of Nigeria.
Boko
Haram was founded as an indigenous group, turning itself into a Jihadist group
in 2009. It proposes that
interaction with the Western World is forbidden, and also
supports the position of Muslim establishment and government in Nigeria. The
members of the group do not interact with the local Muslim population and have carried out assassinations in
the past of anyone who criticises it, including Muslim clerics (Bartolotta,
2011).
According to Baiyewu
(2012), of all the terrorist groups that have ravaged Nigeria, the Boko
Haram is undoubtedly
the most blood-thirsty and destructive, both in terms of its demonic brutality,
mindless savagery and increasing scope of operation. From the beginning,
the group made its manifest known: rejection of western education and all
institutions and agencies that go with it, including government
institutions. It prefers to have Sharia law applied all over the country,
but if that is difficult to grant, they would rather have a separate Islamic
state carved out of Nigeria, where they can practice their religion unhindered.
The activities of Boko Haram pre-dated 2011 general election; because there are
the generation of people that have been engaging in different political and
ethnical crisis courtesy of religion in the Northern part of Nigeria.
The official name of Boko Haram that is Jama’ atu Ahlis
Sunna Lidda’ await wal-Jihad which in Arabic Language means “People of the
way of Prophet Muhammed (peace be unto him) and Community (of Muslims) in line
with the earlier generation of Muslims” and not Boko Haram which simply means “Western
secular education is Islamically prohibited”. Boko Hara has also been defined
to means that evangelism deceptively camouflages as Western Education is
Islamically unacceptable (DCCN, 2009: 2).
In pursuance of their objective, Boko Haram members use
bombing of Churches, Mosques, Police Stations, Schools; Universities inclusive
and other Government owned Properties. As well as privately owned property
without excluding innocent souls through the machinery of suicide bombers as
well as slaughtering and kidnapping people; alien inclusive which have resulted
to demise of the larger percentage of the Captives.
The most pitiable fact is that most of those suicide bombers
are teenagers which can be summarily belief to be the resultant effect of
brainwashing. Boko Haram during the cause of prosecuting their objective has
done great harm to this Nation order than other set of militants that have
emerged in Nigeria. In line with this, Emmanuel Oladesu (The Nation Newspaper,
2013: 4) stated thus:
Since the end of the civil war no calamity of
enormous proportion has befallen the fledging nation – state more than the
harrow unleashed by the dreadful sec – Boko Haram. Many lives have been lost
property worth billions of naira have been destroyed. Nobody is insulated from
the attack. Government officials and buildings, traditional rulers, police and
military formations and church worshippers are targets. On daily basis, there
is panic. The fear of the invincible agitators has become the beginning of
wisdom.
This is the situation of things until 28 January 2013 when
the sect announced temporary ceasefire through one of her leader Sheikh
Mohammed Abdulazeez Ibn Idris (The Nation Newspaper, 2013:1) which were latter
counter to be untrue by another member of the group. It should also be noted
that Federal Government of Nigeria have offer members of Boko Haram amnesty
which have not yield any positive result to the extent that different Committee
has been set both at State and Federal level for the purpose of putting end to
the activities of Boko Haram.
Boko haram insurgents have
negatively affect Nigeria economy especially with the areas of operation.
According to Nwankwo (2013), Boko Haram has negatively affected Nigerian
economy especially on its revenue generation and utilization. For instance, the
United Nations Humanitarian Service (UNHS) (2013) reported that attacks by
Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria has led to the closure of the
Nigeria-Niger border and expulsions of foreigners by Nigerian security forces. According
to the report, this is beginning to hurt the economy of the neighbouring Niger.
Also the news agency reported that Diffa, the major economic hub of Niger in
Southern part of the country, is witnessing unprecedented economic paralysis,
even as there are fears of a spillover of the Boko Haram insurgency following
the discovery of a sleeper cell of the sect in Diffa among others. Since the
beginning of this terrorist attacks in the Northern part of the country, there
has been seizure of government activities in the area. These activities
including tax collection and other revenue generating activities.
Statement of the Problem
There are many methods of which
government can generate revenue in the state. These methods include; tax
collection, import and export duties, collection of business premises fees,
taxes from industries and business organisations among others. For the smooth generation
of these funds/revenue, there must be a conducive and enabling environment for
the officials to be able and successfully generate the funds/revenues and
utilise them adequately.
Unfortunately, in the Northern part
of the country, there has been series of problems, social unrest, terrorism,
kidnapping, bombing among others. These problems have made it difficult for
government officials responsible for the for the collection of this fund to
stop their work thereby reducing total amount of money government suppose to
generated from the part of the country where Boko Haram members are.
Also,
there has been many reports showing the stagnation of economic activities in
the areas. For instance, it is on record that Nigeria closed its border with
Niger and have made the economic activities of the people in the area stagnant.
In other to cub this situation, there is need that government and its agents
should strategize means of reducing the high rate of insurgency in the country.
It is in line with these problems that made the
researcher to investigate the effect of Boko Haram on government revenue generation
and utilization in the Northern part of the country,
