Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Friday, July 25, 2014

Terrorism in Nigeria moves west

Boko Haram's "home" territory is in the northeast corner of Nigeria. Kaduna, well-known as the home of the Nigerian Defense Academy and the focus of politically active military officers and retired officers, is further west. Some of those military figures lead the opposition to President Jonathan, so not everyone is convinced that this attack was the work of Boko Haram. If Boko Haram is shown to have been the attackers, it made the some very powerful enemies.

42 Are Killed in Bombings Aimed at Nigerian Figures

Bombs targeting two prominent Nigerians, a cleric and a leading politician, exploded in the northern city of Kaduna on Wednesday, killing at least 42 people but missing the intended victims, officials said.

Both Sheik Dahiru Bauchi and Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler of Nigeria, have recently been critical of the violent Islamist sect Boko Haram and suspicion immediately fell on that group…

Kaduna is a major city of more than one million people. And Mr. Buhari, the leading figure in the main opposition party, and Mr. Bauchi each have millions of followers in the populous north…

Buhari's car

Mr. Buhari, who ruled Nigeria with an iron hand in the early 1980s and was later deposed in a coup, has since made a comeback as the leading opponent to Mr. Jonathan and is likely to be a candidate against him in next year’s election…

By striking at two leading figures in Nigerian public life, Boko Haram has shown its capacity to reach beyond its narrow base in the northeast and inject itself — violently — into the center of the country’s national discourse…

In a statement on Wednesday night, Mr. Jonathan denounced “the dastardly targeting of the prominent political and religious leaders by terrorists and enemies of the nation in an odious attempt to inflame passions.”