Boko Haram: how it all started
…Plus details of how the late Yusuf’s father began the ideology in the 60’s
From ISMAIL OMIPIDAN
Friday, June 17, 2011




Until recently, the group was never known as “Boko Haram (Western education is a sin),” but it is known to be against Western education and forbids one working in any government establishment. The name Boko Haram, may have been given to it by members of the public, because of the group’s opposition to Western education.

The group, which initially drew membership from the South-West, started off as “The Taliban.” It was first invited to Yobe State during the build-up to the 2003 elections, in the wake of Sharia implementation in some states in the North. However, because the election in the state did not assume the dimension their host thought it would take, the group was said to have been abandoned to its fate, before the state government ordered them to vacate its vicinity.

The group first struck in Yobe State in December 2003, precisely on December 22, a day after according to the then governor, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim, they had promised to leave the state. The group equally struck again on December 31, 2003, in Yobe State, while on their way to Borno State on the New Year’s day, when they engaged in a gun duel with military personnel drafted to the borders between Borno and Yobe states, a situation that left two of the members dead.

Findings indicate that the group’s initial abode was Burkarti, in Bursari Council of Yobe State before leaving for Kanamma, a border town between Nigeria and Niger. Kanamma is the headquarters of Yunusari Council, also in Yobe State. It is also not far from Gaidam Local Government, where the leader of the group, Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf hails from. Their first strike in Borno State was recorded on Tuesday, September 21, 2004, when they invaded Bama and Gwoza in Borno State, where the Area Commander-in-Charge of Bama, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Ismail Sirajo, was brutally murdered.

This forced former Borno Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, to call for assistance from the Federal Government. And after about four days of gun battle between them and a combined team of army and mobile policemen, the group was subdued, with about 40 of the members killed.

A year later, the late Yusuf, leader of the group resurfaced in Maiduguri in Bayan Quarters, where members of the group from all over the country, especially the North converged. In one of the encounters with Ustaz Yusuf in 2005, shortly after one of his arrests, he confessed to this reporter that he had since severed his relationship with the Taliban group because of their “extremist” tendencies. He was, however, quick to admit that his group would not relent until an “independent and a just state devoid of anything haram (unGodly) was established.”

Since that 2005 till their attacks in 2009 in Kano, Bauchi, Yobe and Borno, he was always a guest of the security operatives in Abuja. And as at the last count, before his brutal murder, allegedly by the police, his release was facilitated by a frontline Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) chieftain and a former presidential aspirant from one of North Central states in Nigeria.

Details of how the late Yusuf’s father began the ideology in the 60’s
Scary details have emerged on how the Boko Haram ideology was actually started by the late Yusuf’s father, in Gashua, Bade Local Government Area of Yobe State, which was then under the old Borno State.
Unknown to many, the late Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf, Daily Sun can authoritatively reveal actually inherited the idea of condemning Western education from the father, who started it all in the 60’s, while he was still living in Gashua.

How it all started
In the past, and even till date, there are certain Islamic scholars, who obviously out of ignorance, believe strongly that any Muslim who attends the conventional schools, other than Islamic schools would certainly not enter Paradise. It was, therefore, common to find the Almajiris who roam most streets in the northern part of the country telling anyone who cares to listen that “Mallam ya ce du wan da eje makaranta boko, wuta ze shiga (my Islamic teacher says anyone who goes to seek Western education would enter hell fire.)”

Daily Sun’s investigation reveals that the late Yusuf’s father was one of the numerous Islamic scholars popularising the ideology that views Western education as anti-Islam. Unfortunately for him, the emir of his area at that time, who is now late, Umar Suleiman, whose son, Alhaji Abubakar Umar Suleiman, is the present emir of Bade, with headquarters in Gashua, was well educated, both in Islamic and Western education, and such could not stomach the Boko Haram ideology within his domain.

From available records, the late Suleiman who became emir at a very young age of 26, memorised the Holy Qur’an when he was just six years old. He was said to have invited the late Yusuf’s father to his palace, to ascertain from him if it was true that he was preaching against Western education. Once investigations confirmed the earlier reports received on Yusuf’s father, the emir did not hesitate to banish him from the town. And that was how he relocated to Ngazaragamo emirate, which is based in Gaidam.

Ngazaragamo to Kano
Before now, the Ngazaragamo emirate, which covers up to Damaturu, the now state capital of Yobe extends to as far as Chad and Niger, the neighbouring countries. But today, in Yobe, the emirate has been split into two, making Damaturu a separate emirate from that of Ngazaragamo. Daily Sun further gathered authoritatively that contrary to Yusuf’s claim that he was born in Gashua, he was actually born in Gaidam, while the father was still in exile.
While in Ngazaragamo, Yusuf’s father was said to have continued his preaching unhindered until the Maitaisine crisis broke out in Kano. Although, he was not known to be a Maitaisine, he felt he owed it a duty to rise in “defence of Islam.” He left his base, and moved to Kano.

Unfortunately for him, however, by the time he was arriving Kano, most of the entery points were said to have been condoned off by security men, and that was how he lost his life in a crossfire.

Yusuf raised by the father’s friend
Daily Sun can authoritatively reveal that the late Yusuf never knew his father in the real sense of it, as he was raised by the father’s friend, Mohammed Fugu Alhaji, who later became his in-law. He grew up with the in-law, who may have told him (Yusuf) about the activities of his late father, because as it later turned out, Yusuf grew up harbouring serious hatred for Western education, and any Muslim who sought the knowledge.

This, perhaps, may have explained why till his death, he never saw the four walls of a conventional school, even at the primary level. And it was the father-in-law that relocated him and other family members to Maiduguri, where the gospel of Boko Haram ideology spread like wildfire. In fact, in the early stage of the group, he was able to attract membership from the families of the high and mighty in Borno and Yobe states. In fact, at a point, one of the sons of a former SSG in one of the States in the North-East region, was a member of his group.