I posted an article post about this topic earlier but I thought it seemed like an interesting topic to write an analysis post on. Last week Boko Haram attacked a small city up in Northeastern Nigeria where 18 people were killed and nearly 100 people were injured. Although attacks like this seem to be occurring at least once a month up in this region of Nigeria, the reason this one is so interesting is because it came at a time when both the Nigerian Government and Boko Haram were discussing a [cease fire] just days before this attack, and apparently those talks were getting somewhere. I feel like if possible it would definitely be a good story to follow up on in the future although the attack happened approximately a week ago and so far there has been no follow up with it. Although I believe striving for peace with the Boko Haram was perhaps a step in the right direction, I do not believe it is perhaps the most practical and realistic. When dealing with a radical group like that negotiations must be near impossible I feel like because the entire purpose of Boko Haram is to combat any type of western progressivism in Nigeria– and frankly with Nigeria’s massive population and the will to progress towards a more westernized culture– I feel it would be more trouble than it’s worth to come up with some type of agreement with the Boko Haram. Even if a resolution of sorts was reached there would obviously be some dissenting opinions among some of the Boko Haram members, and they could still strike out with attacks; this of course assumes that there is a lack of organization among the group. Nonetheless I think it’s an interesting story and perhaps some good–or bad–or nothing could come of it.
