Militia Counterinsurgency: Implications of Pro-government Militia Participation in Counterinsurgency in Northeast Nigeria
- December 22, 2020
- Posted by: RSIS Team
- Categories: IJRISS, Public Administration
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue XII, December 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186
Modu Lawan Gana
Department of Public Administration, Mai Idris Alooma Polytechnic, Geidam, Yobe State, Nigeria
Abstract: This article analyzed the implications of pro-government militias’ participation in the counterinsurgency operation in northeast Nigeria. The militias that that has been engaged in the counterinsurgency operation since 2013 appeared influential in the reduction of the Islamist Boko Haram hostilities in the northeast. Prior to the pro-government militia participation, the counterinsurgency campaign of the State is challenged with lackadaisical performances. However, even as the militias are successful, there is still growing fear that the continued engagement of the militias has adverse consequences on the autonomy of the state and the community. This case study, therefore, investigated the implications of the militias’ involvement in the counterinsurgency operation in Yobe State of northeast Nigeria. The empirical data
collected through the techniques of an in-depth interview, focus group discussion, and on the site non-participatory observation. The primary data was triangulated with secondary data from published materials. The study revealed that in the absence of urgent authoritative action to regularize the militias, they will post imminent threats to the stability of the state and their immediate communities. In addition to the instigation of ethnic polarization, the militia will incubate internal feuds, hence destabilizing the peace situation of the communities. The study recommends the government to take urgent measures to verify the participants and weed bad eggs among them. The government should also provide legal procedures for their operations and recruitment process to curtail abuse and excessiveness.
Keywords: Pro-government militia; Counterinsurgency; Participations; Implications
Introduction
Nigeria once colloquially regarded as the giant of Africa and the largest contributor to the peacekeeping and peace enforcement mission on the Africa planet appeared to a protracted insurgency by an Islamist group Boko Haram. The insurgency that began as a kind of disgruntled youth movement however turns violent in 2009 causing colossal damage to the socio-economic and political livelihood of the country. To date, conservative estimates have shown that the insurgency coupled with the brutal state counterinsurgency have claimed the lives of over 100,000 people, displaced nearly 3million people, and rendered over 100,000 as orphans and widows (Onuoha, 2018). Indices by Global Terrorism suggest that Boko Haram’s armed rebellion was responsible for 1639 terrorist attacks between 2009 and 2018 with not less than 14436 fatality rates (Global Terrorism, 2015). The rapid escalation of the violence has since scored Nigeria’s Islamist as a serious security challenge since the end of the Nigeria civil war in the 1970s.
