THE EMERGENCE OF THE TALIBAN IN THE NORTH-EAST NIGERIA

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

By Seyi Oduyela

Published: December 29, 2009

 

The Emergence of The Taliban in North East Nigeria

By  Samuel ‘Seyi Oduyela

One will never understand the whys and how the so-called Taliban came into existence without knowing the history of the Izala movement in Nigeria.

The Izala Movement

 Since the advent of the Islamic jihad by Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio in the West African sub-region about one hundred years back, there was no major attempt to revive or purifies the Islamic religion in the sub region.

Thus sheik Usman Dan Fodio not only waged his jihad to purify the Islamic religion but to also do away with the corrupt feudal system of the Hausa rulers of the time that suppress and exploit their helpless subjects.

It was with this in mind that Dan Fodio and his disciples gallantly fought to victory and into the history books.

The Izala movement was formed by some Islamic scholars led by the late Sheikh Abubakar Gumi in the late 1970s with these revival and purification of Dan Fodio in mind.

Thus it was given the name in Arabic. “JAMA ATU IZALATUL BID AH WA IQAMATUS SUNNAH;” meaning ‘AN ORGANISATION FOR THE ERADICATING OF INNOVATIONS AND UPHOLDING THE WAYS OF THE PROPHET’.

This group engaged in preaching and propagating the pure Islamic religion in every nook and corner of the country for years. Their preaching activities attracted hundreds of thousands of people, both young and old, the educated and uneducated, the low and high of the society etc.

With the advent of the economic collapse in Nigeria, with its multiple consequences of unemployment and low and poor standard of living, the youths turned to radical Islam, especially in the north. Thus the Izala movement was the natural choice. The youths especially in the north massively joined the Izala movement, and there was massive preaching congregation every weekend throughout the country. The scholars preached to faithful to purify Islam and follow the path of the prophet in honesty and everything they do.

The preaching sessions were touching and emotional. In spite of their preaching, the youths and the intellectuals could not see any change in the way things are going. As regards the elites and the high government’s officials it business as usual for Muslims and non Muslims alike.

Thus some youths decided to withdraw themselves completely from the society and into the bush in Yobe state. Their reason was that the society is so corrupt and rotten that they want to be part of it.

That it is better for them to stay and farm in the bush and survived than to be part of the society.

The youths rebuked the Izala scholars as being part of government agents and so being oppressors themselves. They accused the scholars of helping to suppress the masses by their calls to respect the constituted authority. They despised the constitution and those who worked with it.

Thus the youths started migrating en-mass to a bush at kanamma village in Yobe state.

Kanamma village is about one hour to a village in Niger Republic. Their main activities in the bush of kanamma were fishing, collection of woods for sales and preaching at their free time to the surrounding villages.

All the villagers testify to the honesty and politeness of the boys. The youths were peacefully coexisting with their villager hosts for sometimes until suddenly the village head of kanamma [local chief] ask the boys to leave his domain immediately. The boys pleaded with him to rescind his decision, but the head refused. On the insistence of the local chief, the boys decided to search for another place to relocate, but they decided to put their belongings in the custody of the same local chief, pending their settlement in their new location. After settling down in their new location, they return to the chief for their belongings, only to be informed by the chief that he has handed it over to the police, and that they should go and claim it from the police. The boys were bitter about it but finally decided to go to the police with a delegation of four or five of their leaders. But on reaching the police station all of their leaders were detained by the police for no reason.

The arrested and detention started the conflict of the youths [taliban] and the government of Nigeria in the northeast. On getting information of the detention of their leaders by the police, the rest of the boys quickly mobilized them and attacked the police station to set their leaders free. The boys over-ran the police station in less than an hour.

They not only free their leaders but took as a booty all the arms and ammunition in the police station. The following morning they heard information that the police have mobilized and were advancing towards them. They decided to pre-empt the police attack. To the surprise of everybody, according to an eye witness these few untrained undergraduates ‘captured’ five local governments in a single day, not only that , they were able to  overrun the police headquarters at Damaturu  the Yobe state capital, a distance of about three hundred Kilometres in one day.

All that the security forces in Yobe did was to run for their life, while the so-called taliban looted their armory.

So the main source of supply of arms and ammunition to the taliban were the police armory.

From that day on, there are periodic clash of the taliban with the police and the result most of the time was for the army to intervene on the side of the police to tamed the boys.

 

 

 

 

 Email This Post