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ID:
191633
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| Summary/Abstract |
Scholarship on the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) movement mainly focuses on its success in generating global attention to the 2014 kidnapping of Nigeria’s Chibok girls. This paper focuses on an unintended consequence of the movement—the establishment of a social problem industry around the Chibok girls and their community. The paper draws on a dataset with over 160 interviewees and focus group discussion (FGD) participants, including 42 #BBOG activists. The findings demonstrate the interplay of contextually situated actors with particular values and interests engaged in claims-making regarding the Chibok girls. The #BBOG turned the Chibok kidnapping into a social problem in a sociological sense. In the process, the BBOG engaged in an ideational battlefield with three other entities. The paper contributes to the sociology of social problems by articulating weaknesses in social problem theory. This helps to suggest how to make social problems theory more applicable to developing world contexts. The paper’s approach avoids the unilinearism and determinism of existing theory. It argues that not all social problems are resolved in ways that are favourable to those affected. The exploitation of the Chibok girls and their community provides an example of the persistence of social problems: social problems are useful in appropriate hands.
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| 2 |
ID:
160522
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article draws on frame theory to explore the ideational dimensions of the Boko Haram phenomenon. Speech acts by Boko Haram's leaders are analyzed to interrogate how the organization conducts its three core framing tasks. The article argues that Boko Haram deploys three major master frames. These are the return to true Islam frame, the injustice frame, and the war against the infidel frame. Boko Haram's framing strategies draw on the social conditions and cultural reservoir in its domain of operations. This includes antipathy toward the West and Western education, patriarchal beliefs about gender roles and the “place” of women, and the contours of a widely popular Islamic movement that emerged in the early 1800s. Boko Haram's framing approach is also shaped by state repression and the post-9/11 cosmic war discourse. Overall, the article contributes to the limited literature on nonstructural aspects of Boko Haram's terrorist activities.
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| 3 |
ID:
178092
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| Summary/Abstract |
This study explores two main questions: What are the experiences of soldiers who have fought against Boko Haram? What can these experiences teach us about the seeming incapacity of the Nigerian military to defeat Boko Haram? Six major themes are explored. These are perspectives on the mission, morale of troops, military equipment and weapons, suicide and murder–suicide among troops, intelligence leaks, and relationships of troops with the Civilian Joint Task Force, an extralegal militia. Soldiers’ discourses on the mission against Boko Haram reveal three overlapping dimensions. First, there are suspicions about the sponsors and political godfathers of Boko Haram. This suggests a belief that Boko Haram is a conspiracy involving the government and top brass of the military. Second, the patronage system involved in deployment into key positions on the war front. Third, participants believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged because it is a moneymaking machinery for the political and military elites. The evidence suggests that availability of weapons varies by unit and the agency of commanders—their networks and influence within the military and willingness to disobey orders from superiors if their demands are not met. This situation produces radically variegated wartime experiences among troops. Non-commissioned soldiers believe senior commissioned officers perpetrate intelligence leaks and are responsible for the protracted war. Senior Army Generals interviewed in this study support this perspective. The study has major policy implications for successful operations against Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin area and the broader war against terrorism in the Sahel.
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| 4 |
ID:
189921
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| Summary/Abstract |
This study interrogates the experiences of Nigerian troops in the war against Boko Haram. The paper’s contribution is bi-dimensional. First, it adds to the empirical literature on Boko Haram by analyzing the perspectives of rank-and-file troops. The study finds 10 forms of corruption affecting troops. These have contributed to the inability to defeat Boko Haram. Second, the paper adds to theoretical scholarship on civil–military relations and persistence of small wars. It challenges the bureaucratic-organizational model and the focus of civil–military relations theory on civilian control of the military. The study emphasizes the need to focus on the texture of the relationship between civilian and military leaders. The paper argues that the bureaucratic-organizational model has limited relevance to militaries in the postcolony and proposes a civilian–military leadership interest convergence thesis. The findings are relevant for understanding the spread of terrorism in sub-Saharan Africa and the persistence of small wars in non-Western, illiberal quasi-democratic societies.
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| 5 |
ID:
156150
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| Summary/Abstract |
The kidnapping of 276 girls at Government Secondary School Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria, on 14 April 2014 has brought into international prominence the organization Jama'atu Ahlis Suna Lidda'awati Wal Jihad or Boko Haram. This incident heralded a new trajectory in Boko Haram's tactics and strategies. This article focuses on Boko Haram's strategic deployment of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against women. The gendered performativity of Boko Haram, its methodology for sourcing for women and young girls, and its concomitant utilitarian/instrumental approach vis-à-vis SGBV against women are analyzed against the backdrop of the political economy and patriarchal ideational infrastructure of the Nigerian society. The article argues that Boko Haram's deployment of SGBV against women is an extension of the “repertoire of violence” ingrained in the sociopolitical and cultural milieu of Boko Haram's primary area of operation. Boko Haram's instrumental approach to SGBV is fourfold and hinges on the sociobiological utility of women. Boko Haram construes women as the bearers of its future despite its brutality toward them. The consequence is a strategic plan for procreation of a new generation of children raised through the cyclical constellation of mass rape of women, consequent impregnation and kidnapping the offspring of such rapes. Overall, this article contributes to the burgeoning scholarly literature on Boko Haram's terrorist activities.
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