Ruthless

Laying Bare The Violent Boko
Haram Leader Abubakar
Shekau

The Islamic militant group, Boko Haram, which
means ‘western education is sinful’, has engaged
in several atrocious enterprises but their recent
kidnapping of 276 girls from the Government
Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, » tops
all forms of man's inhumanity to man and has
brought amplifying world attention to their
diabolical activities.
With the US, France, China, and other countries
joining hands with Nigeria, it is the hope of
everyone that the ruthless leader of the
insurgents, Abubakar Shekau, be captured and a
crackdown of his ring of commanders.
We bring you a CNN's special feature on the
dreaded Abubakar Shekau, rightly calling him a
ruthless leader with a twisted ideology. »
According to CNN:
He is the face of terror. A ruthless leader with a
twisted ideology. And the sadistic architect of a
campaign of mayhem and misery.
And yet, very little is known about Abubakar
Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram.
He operates in the shadows, leaving his
underlings to orchestrate his repulsive mandates.
He resurfaces every once in a while in videotaped
messages to mock the impotence of the Nigerian
military. And he uses his faith to recruit the
impressionable and the disenfranchised to his
cause.
Religious scholar
Shekau was born in Shekau village that borders
Niger Republic. He studied under a cleric and then
attended Borno State College of Legal and Islamic
Studies for higher studies on Islam. That’s why
he’s also known as ‘Darul Tawheed,’ which
translates to an expert in monotheism, or the
oneness of Allah.
Polyglot
He speaks several languages fluently: Hausa,
Fulani, Kanuri and Arabic. But English isn’t one of
them. After all, he heads a group that rejects all
things Western.
Elusive
Even his age is unknown - estimates range
between 38 and 49. The U.S. State Department
has Shekau’s year of birth listed as 1965, 1969
and 1975.
Loner
Analysts describe Shekau as a loner and a master
of disguise. He does not speak directly with
members, opting to communicate through a few
select confidants. He uses many aliases: Abu
Bakr Skikwa, Imam Abu Bakr Shiku and Abu
Muhammad Abu Bakr Bin Muhammad Al Shakwi
Al Muslimi Bishku among them.
Unruly
Boko Haram was founded by Mohammed Yusuf, a
charismatic, well-educated cleric who drove a
Mercedes as part of his push for a pure Islamic
state in Nigeria. He wasn’t too effective as a
leader and had a hard time keeping his second-
in-command in check. Shekau was more radical
and had grander designs.
Merciless
Mohammed Yusuf was killed in a security
crackdown in 2009, along with about 700 of his
followers. That left Shekau in charge. He vowed to
strike back, and his group has spared no one:
government workers, police officers, journalists,
villagers, students and church-goers. Human
Rights Watch estimates that in the past five years,
more than 3,000 people have been killed.
Back from the death
The Nigerian military has touted Shekau’s death
several times, only to retract its claim after he
appeared alive and vibrant in propaganda videos.
They almost got him in September 2012 when
they raided his home, where he had sneaked in
for his six-day-old baby’s naming ceremony,
according to the International Crisis Group. He
managed to get away with a gunshot wound to
the leg; his wife and three children were taken by
the military.
Uses Islam to recruit and radicalize
The northeast, where Boko Haram has been most
active, is economically depressed and among the
least educated regions in Nigeria. Shekau has
done a good job of convincing residents that the
powers in Abuja are corrupt and a better system
of government would be a strict enforcement of
Islamic Sharia law across Nigeria. And his
promise, coupled with a weapon and a license to
plunder, has been enticing to hundreds of young
men.
Government response
The central government’s heavy-handed and
frequently untargeted anti-terrorism campaign has
just helped create more members to sustain Boko
Haram. The country’s own Human Rights
Commission last year accused the military of
arbitrary killings, torture and rape, in its campaign
against the group. This makes for fertile territory
for Boko Haram.
Exporting terror
There’s no firm evidence as yet that Boko Haram
has ambitions beyond Nigeria. But its campaign
of terror has spilled into remote parts of
Cameroon and it appears to have informal links
with militant Islamist groups in Mali and Niger.
Brutal threat
It was in May 2013 that Shekau first announced in
a video that Boko Haram would start kidnapping
girls. The kidnappings, he said, were retaliation
for Nigerian security forces nabbing the wives and
children of group members. The most horrifying
instance was last month’s abduction of 276 girls
from a girl’s school.
He also released a video in which he claimed
responsibility for the abduction:
I abducted your girls. There is a market for selling
humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands
me to sell.
$7 million bounty on his head
Shekau has been on the radar of U.S. officials
since he came to power in 2009. Last June, the
United States put a bounty on him, offering a
reward of up to $7 million for information leading
to his location.