CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY In recent years, there has been surge in both tempo and range of global insurgencies that get transformed into terrorist’s activities. Nigeria became one a recent addition to the list of states affected through the activities of the Boko Haram sect. According to Aderele 2012, insurgency is rebellion against a constituted authority. It is a movement unlawful by virtue of not being authorized by or in accordance with the law of the land. Insurgence can be cloaked in politics, economic, religious, and ethnic or a combination of factors. Each share different specifics but have the propensity to disrupt the central government by means considered illegal by the government. Insurgent groups have emerged at different points and in different forms in Nigeria’s political history. Some of these insurgent groups include. 1. The then Eastern Nigeria Biafran Sectarian Group of the Civil War 2. The Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) 3. The Odua people’s Congress (OPC) in the South West 4. The now Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) in the East. 5. The Northern region has always been a very fertile ground for religious activism, the beginning with the Jihad of Usman Dan Fodio in the early 18 century. The situation in the north is more manifest because of its relatively monolithic character. Many fundamentalist religious groups, the most prominent being the Maitatsine sect had evolved through several religious uprisings. The Maitatsine movement under the leadership of Alhaji Marrwa Maitatsine, an immigrant, was made up of a bunch of religious fanatics. Their modes of operation were assault and murder of both the rich and poor, irrespective of religious learning, who in their reasoning were not conducting themselves according to the dictates of the Quran. According to Ajayi 2012, the half –hearted implementation of the sharia laws especially the double standard or duplicity involved in the Northern States of Sokoto, Kano and Bornu elicited the justifiable anger of the puritanical Maitatsine group which proceeded to spearhead religious uprising in Kano (twice in 1950) and later Yola and Maiduguri in 1982 and 1983 respectively. Evidently, the Boko Haram sect has its root and drew inspiration from the Maitatsine in terms of objectives, but its organization, planning, armed resistance and modus operandi are more in tune with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The actual date when Boko Haram evolved in Nigeria remains unresolved. The years 1995, 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2003 have been freely ascribed to it The root of the Boko Haram is traced to a group known as Shabaab Muslim Youth Organization in 1995 that later became the Boko Haram in 2000.

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