Insurgency in Nigeria: Boko Haram Phenomenon and the Poverty Debate

Abstract

The focus of this paper is to unravel who Boko Haram members are, what brought about the rebellion against the Nigerian state by the group and the platform on which the sect operates. The paper further seeks to examine the raging debate that poverty is principally responsible for the emergence of Boko Haram insurgency. The paper made use of content analysis such as the use of newspapers, books, published articles, internet library sources available. The conduct of this research involves structured and semi-structured interviews used to interview respondent such as academics in the field of strategic studies and political science. The research found out that there are factors that motivate terrorism other than poverty and unemployment. Such factors are seen to be religion, ethnicity and political interest.