The ugly face of the state: Nigerian security forces,human rights and the search for Boko Haram |
| |
Authors: | William Hansen |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Politics and International Studies, American University of Nigeria , Yola, Nigeria billhansen@aun.edu.ng |
| |
Abstract: | ABSTRACT This paper argues that the aggressive and gratuitously violent insurgency in northeastern Nigeria – Boko Haram – is the entirely understandable consequence of more than a half-century of misrule by what I call the parasitic and predatory Nigerian political class. Evidence of widespread human rights abuses including extortion, rape and theft comes from investigations by various international human rights organizations, international non-governmental organizations, church groups, press reports and interviews. I focus primarily on incidents and practices in the northeast but examples are adduced from other parts of the country as well. I discuss the policy of coercion and brutality embedded in the very nature of the colonial and post-colonial state using Crawford Young’s concept of bula matari (the state as rock crusher). |
| |
Keywords: | Boko Haram human rights violation security force counter-terrorism Nigeria |
|
|