HISTORY OF BOKO HARAM IN NIGERIA

The name Boko Haram is usually translated as "Western  education is forbidden". According to Wikipedia, Haram is from Arabic word Daram which means "forbidden". And the Hausa word Boko(the first vowel is long, the second pronounced in a low tone) means "fake" which is used to refer secular Western secular education. Boko Haram has been also translated as "Western influence is a sin" and "Westernization is sacrilege".

Boko Haram originated from a Muslim preacher named Mohammed Marwa, born in 1927 and died in 1982. According to "National Interest, June 6, 2014", at about 18 years, he moved to Kano, in what is today Northern Nigeria where he began a career as a preacher. His sermons were extreme and often bizarre. He raged against Western culture and its popularity in Nigeria so virulently(strongly and bitterly) that he became known as Maitatsine, meaning "the one who damns".

Mohammed Marwa declared that reading any book other than Qur'an was sinful and a sign of paganism. This included a prohibition on reading the Hadiths or Sunnah, the doctrinal equivalent of Catholic priest telling parishioners not to read the works of St. Augustine because they do not appear in the Bible. Near the end of his life, he came dangerously close to declaring that he, no Muhammad, was true prophet of Allah.

He was at first ignored by the political leaders of the country. But as his sermons became increasingly anti-government in the late 1970s, the government cracked down. The crackdown ended in an uprising in 1980, Maitatsine's followers in Kano began rioting against the government. The city became what scholar Elizabeth Isichei described as "virtually civil war". The death toll from the 1982 riots and subsequent military crackdown was over 4,000 and Maitatsine himself was among those killed.

However, his movement lived on; Maitatsine's followers rose up against the government again in 1982 in Bulumkutu, and 3,300 people were killed. Two years later, Maitatsine's followers rose up around Gongola state in violence that killed nearly one thousand people. Hundreds more were killed a year later in a rising in Bauchi state.

In 2002, a modern form of Maitatsine's followers emerged and the group was founded by Mohammed Yusuf(born 29 January, 1970), and referred to as Boko Haram. Mohammed Yusuf was their spiritual leader until he was killed in the 2009 Boko Haram uprising. The group was also reportedly known as Yusifiyya. Boko Haram derive inspiration from Mohammed Marwa preachings/teachings.

According to Borno Sufi Imam Sheik Fatah, Yusuf was trained by Kano Salafi Izala Sheik Ja'afar Mahmud Adam, who called him the "leader of young people". The two split up in 2002-04. They both preached in Indimi Mosque in Maiduguri which was attended by Borno deputy governor.

In a 2009 BBC interview, Yusuf described by analysts as being well-educated, reaffirmed his opposition to the Western education. He rejected the theory of evolution, said that rain is not "an evaporation caused by the sun", and that the earth is not a sphere.

After the death of Mohammed Yusuf came another leader named Abubakar Shekau. The group had alleged links to al - Qaeda, but in March, 2015, it announced its allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraqi and the Levant(ISIL). Shekau pledged allegiance to ISIL, and the group was officially named Wilayat Gharb Afriqiya(to designate it as a branch or "province" of  ISIL) Prior to the allegiance, the groups official name was Jama - atu Ahli is - Sunnah lid - Da' wai - Jihad meaning "People committed to the prophet's Teachings for propagation and Jihad". Boko Haram was led by Abubakar Shekau until August, 2016, when he was succeeded by Abu Musab al - Barnawi.

After its founding in 2002, Boko Haram's increasing radicalization led to a violent uprising in July, 2009 in which its leader was summary executed(i.e killed without trial or fair hearing). Its unexpected resurgence following a mass prison break in September, 2010, was accompanied by increasingly sophisticated attacks, initially against soft targets, and progressing in 2011 to include suicide bombing of police buildings and the United Nations office in Abuja. The government's establishment of state of emergency at the beginning of 2012,extended in the following year to cover the entire northeast of Nigeria, led to an increase in both security force abuses and militant attacks.

Since the current insurgency started in 2009, it has killed 20,000 and displaced 2.3 million from their homes and was ranked as the world's deadliest terror group by the Global Terrorism Index. Of the 2.3 million people displaced by the conflict since May, 2013, at least 250,000 have left Nigeria for Cameroon' Chad or Niger. According to Wikipedia, Boko Haram killed over 6,600 in 2014. The group has carried out mass abductions including kidnapping of 276 Chibok schoolgirls in April, 2014.

Corruption in the security services and human rights abuses committed by them have hampered efforts to counter the unrest.