Colonialism In Nigeria Research Paper

The origin of BH is commonly known to have started in 2002 due to the voracious activities of

Mohammed Yusuf who founded the sect. Tracing the origin of BH from 2002 without its link to the effects of colonialism in northern Nigeria will be deemed as a "half-baked" and an incomprehensible intellectual exercise. According to Owolade, 2014, the Western influence of British colonialists caused a division among the people of Northern Nigeria, who were once united by Islam. This division polarizes the region into two factions, on one side, the so-called "civilized", by Western standards, elite who were used by the British as tools for colonization; and on the other side, the commoners, who vehemently resisted Western influence in the region. Dissatisfactioned

Two years later, Maitatsine’s followers rose up around Gongola State in violence that killed nearly 1,000 people. Hundreds more were killed a year later in an uprising in Bauchi State.

Furthermore, prior to colonialism, in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, Sharia was the law of the land in northern Nigeria. Sharia law, Islam's legal system, acts as a code of living for which all

Muslims should adhere. All the inhabitants of northern Nigeria during this era lived in accordance to the dictates and doctrines of this Islamic law. Judges were still the qadis, learned Islamic scholars who sat as Islamic jurists and applied religious law, of traditional Islamic practice. When Nigeria began its transition to independence in 1960, as a result of Western influence, Sharia law was almost entirely done away with as part of the Settlement of 1960 because Nigeria is a secular state. Under the Settlement of 1960, Nigerian Muslims traded away the right to impose Sharia law across the board in exchange for concessions in other areas, as independent Nigeria began drafting its first constitution. This was to pave the way for secularism and for nation-building. Sharia now

The Boko Haram official name is Jama’atu Ahlis

Sunna Lidda’awatiwal-Jihad, which means “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s

Teachings and Jihad.” Members of the sect are known to reference the Islamic verse that states,

“Anyone who is not governed by what Allah has revealed is among the transgressors” (Mauro,

2014). “Boko Haram” is the popular moniker for an Islamist movement that calls itself the “Sunni

Community for the Propagation of Islam”. Unlike al-Qaeda and its affiliates, its focus is specifically on Nigeria and adjacent countries rather than an international jihad (Campbell, 2014). In the beginning, Boko Haram was radical, but not yet violent.

In 2009, a law was passed requiring motorcycle riders to wear helmets. Members of the sect refused to comply with the new law. Rather, they campaigned against it as being un-Islamic. This recalcitrance led to the arrest of several members of BH and thus, subsequently sparked a riot in which Boko Haram had its first large clash with Nigerian police leading more than 800 people dead

(Ford, 2014). It is important to note that the ideology of the contemporary Islamic