Re-Examining Religious Insecurity in the Africa State: The Menace and Security Challenges of Boko Haram in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper focuses on the emerging threats posed by the Boko Haram sect. It probes into its historical evolutions, highlights its causes and effects, and analyses its radicalisation into a violent extremist movement. It contends that the sect’s growing capacity to mount both “low-scale” and “lone” attacks demands that the Nigerian security forces and perhaps the international community begin to pay more attention to the emerging security challenge posed by this movement, in order to abort its possible transnational terrorist potential.