*3.2. Boko Haram's Recruitment Strategy*

Before delving into the various strategies used by Boko Haram to recruit members, it is important to note that as an organization with over 6000 active fighters and transnational reach, Boko Haram has recruited individuals from Cameroun, Chad, Niger, Mali, and Libya (The Guardian News 2015; Walker 2016; Sampson 2016; Adelani et al. 2017; Mentan 2017; Rufai 2017). A discussion with an informant agreed with the position put forward by (David et al. 2015), that revealed three factors which contributed to the transnational reach of the organization to recruit foreign fighters. First, the poor state of Nigeria's border enabled people to illegally migrate into the country with no form of border checks by immigration o fficers. Second, the abuse of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) policy on the free movement of persons across the sub-region created the avenue for criminals and mercenaries to easily move around. Third, the societal, cultural, and religious ties of Nigerians in the northeast with citizens of countries in the Lake Chad and the Sahel regions, especially Chadians, Nigeriens, and Malians, allowed people to easily integrate with little di fficulty. These three factors have made Boko Haram more ambitious in increasing its membership and attracting fighters from these countries.<sup>9</sup> Therefore, the international composition of Boko Haram has downplayed the stereotype and negative perception that members of this organization are Nigerians, illiterates, and poor.<sup>10</sup> This is because various studies have revealed that Boko Haram attracts and recruits individuals from diverse socio-economic, educational, cultural, religious, and ideological backgrounds (Umar 2013;

<sup>9</sup> Interview with a Senior Lecturer, Center for Peace and Security Studies, Modibbo Adamma University, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria, 24 June 2019.

<sup>10</sup> Interview, 24 June 2019.

Mercy Corps 2016). Because of this, it would be wrong to claim that recruitment into Boko Haram is restricted to a certain group of people in society.

Terrorist organizations rely on people and manpower to carry out their activities (Asal et al. 2012; Clauset and Gleditsch 2012). Boko Haram, like most terrorist organizations, deploys several strategies for recruiting individuals. These strategies involve techniques such as coercion, consent, hypnosis, and the promise of financial incentives (see Campbell 2013; Torbjornsson and Michael 2017).

The alleged false *promise of better welfare and improved economic conditions* is identified as a strategy used by Boko Haram to recruit their members. Studies have shown that most individuals cite the lack of economic opportunities, poverty, unemployment, and access to better welfare as reasons for joining Boko Haram (Onapajo and Uzodike 2012; Zenn 2013b; Umar 2013; Fessy 2016; Mercy Corps 2016). Terrorist groups like Boko Haram capitalized on the inability of the Nigerian governmen<sup>t</sup> to provide these services and opportunities to its people by promising them these financial incentives if they are recruited (Fessy 2016). The narrative that Boko Haram pay as much as \$3000 daily to its fighters has further attracted and motivated individuals to join this organization, driven by the desire for better economic welfare (Nduka 2019).

*Forceful conscription* is another strategy used by Boko Haram to recruit members into the organization (Ajayi 2014; Walker 2016; Oriola 2017; Markovic 2019). Increasingly, research and reports have shown that since the activities of this terrorist group became manifest in 2009, the organization has enlisted over 8000 children who perform combat and non-combatant activities for the terrorist group (See Adnan 2019; BBC News 2019; Human Rights Watch 2019). It has kidnapped girls and women who have been forced into carrying out suicide attacks, while others serve as cooks and wives for members of the terrorist group (Brock 2013; Ameh 2014; Dixon 2014; Swails and David 2016; Nwaubani 2017, 2019). A report published by the Global Terrorism Database revealed that over 150 incidents of suicide attacks carried out by the group across Lake Chad were committed by children and women, making it the terrorist organization that recruits the highest proportion of women, as they constitute fifty percent (50%) of their suicide bombers (START 2018). In a conversation with one of the authors, an informant from Maiduguri further revealed that "it is no longer news that Boko Haram is forcing and using their women as suicide bombers; they constantly rape, and impregnate them, which they claim to be preparing the next generation of terrorists to continue their ideology"<sup>11</sup> This strategy of forceful conscription adopted by Boko Haram for recruitment supports the narrative that it reduces the financial burden on the organization to spend resources on paying for fighters. It further helps in projecting their publicity and propaganda, and justifies the perception that children and women can easily infiltrate their targets with little suspicion (Galehan 2019).

Using *cash loans traps* is another method employed for recruitment by Boko Haram (Zenn 2013a; Abrak 2016; Guilberto 2016). Boko Haram uses this as a business model to assist the youths that are not employed and traders struggling to sustain their businesses to start new ventures and also to sustain their ailing businesses (Sigelmann 2019). Those unable to pay back the loans are coerced into joining the organization or volunteer by providing sensitive information on the movements and activities of the Multinational Joint Taskforce (MNJTF), who are responsible for combating the activities of the group in Lake Chad (Abrak 2016; Gaffey 2016; Magrin and Montclos 2018). A transnational threats expert admitted when being interviewed that even though loan-traps is a strategy for recruitment by Boko Haram, the control of fishing activities in the Lake Chad area by the terrorist group allows them to recruit individuals who are unable to pay back their debts by employing them in this fish farms as a precondition for paying back their loans.<sup>12</sup> That has not only increased the organization's capacity to raise funds, but has also enabled it to increase its membership base.<sup>13</sup>

<sup>11</sup> Author's discussion with a resident of Maiduguri 18 March 2019.

<sup>12</sup> Interview with a Senior Researcher, Transnational Threats, and International Programme, Institute for Security Studies, Pretoria, South Africa, 7 January 2019

<sup>13</sup> Interview, 7 January.

Recent studies on terrorist recruitment shows the transnational e ffect of advancements in information and technology, where the internet and its tools, especially *social media*, has become a recruitment hub for terrorist organizations to recruit fighters (Guadagno et al. 2010; Archetti 2013; Gates and Podder 2015; Weimann 2016; Ette and Joe 2018). This assertion has been supported by the statement credited to His Royal Highness Sanusi Lamido Sanusi the Emir of Kano, who said that the increasing exposure to and obsession with social media among youths and children, especially Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp, has had a negative impact on entrenching ethical values (Madugba 2015). This is because through personal networks and friendships developed in this virtual space, children are sometimes exposed to this negative indoctrination and manipulation of ideas by these extremist groups (Ibid). In a conversation with the author, a community leader in *Angwan Rimi* in Jos shared a sad experience that involved his niece who left home in November 2015 and travelled to Maiduguri (Borno State) to meet a *Saurayi* (Boyfriend) whom she supposedly met on Facebook. Unfortunately, this was the last time that she was seen as she disappeared and several searches produced no successful results. The last news the family received regarding her was that she had been married to a unit commander of Boko Haram. This story is one of many in which young people are deceived by strangers they meet online who have the ulterior motive of recruiting them into violent extremism. He concluded that it is the responsibility of parents to carefully monitor what children do with their phones.<sup>14</sup> Therefore, it is important to note that terrorist groups such as Boko Haram increasingly use such platforms to share their videos, promote their ideology and propaganda, and transnationally appeal to individuals sympathetic to their cause to motivate them to join the group in their aim of eradicating the supposed moral decay in northern-Nigeria because of the influence of Western civilization (UNDP 2017; Ette and Joe 2018; Slutzker 2018).

*Instrumentalizing Religion negatively* is another strategy and instrument used by Boko Haram to recruit members (Onapajo and Uzodike 2012; Voll 2015). Most studies on terrorism and Boko Haram have cited radicalization, false teachings, and misrepresentation of religion by rogue clerics to hypnotize, and recruit unsuspecting individuals into joining terrorist organizations.<sup>15</sup> Studies by Onuoha (2014a, 2014b; Olojo 2017) revealed that these radical clerics capitalized on the socio-economic and cultural challenges facing the northeast region to indoctrinate people into believing that their problems resulted from Western civilization. This negative sentiment about western civilization was re-echoed by a journalist who conducted a series of studies on the insecurity in the northeast<sup>16</sup> and a former commander<sup>17</sup> of the MNJTF, who maintained that since 'Boko Haram' is against 'Western education and civilization', which it perceives to be anti-Islam, it should not surprise people that the organization uses the false narrative to appeal to the hearts and minds of people. This is because Muhammed Yusuf, the founding leader of Boko Haram, attracted followers because of his anti-Western sentiments and teachings, who were largely uneducated, unschooled, impressionable, poor, and frustrated by the status quo.<sup>18</sup> This is a strategy the organization continues to use to recruit and expand its base across the Lake Chad region (See Sigelmann 2019).

The *negligence and inability of the government* to address certain basic fundamental issues a ffecting the northeast region contribute to increasing the space for Boko Haram to thrive and expand its activities (Sigelmann 2019). The inability of the Nigerian governmen<sup>t</sup> to address the problems of unemployment, human rights abuses, poverty, social exclusion, radicalization, illiteracy, inequality, and the provision of basic social services to its citizens created the opportunity for radical, violent extremist, and terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram to not only assume the place of the government, but also expand its membership (Campbell 2013, 2018a, 2018b; Matfess 2016, 2017; Magrin and Montclos

<sup>14</sup> Author's Interview with a Community Leader in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria, 21 June 2019.

<sup>15</sup> Authors' findings from most studies on terrorism and Boko Haram.

<sup>16</sup> Interview with an Author, Journalist, and Researcher on Violent Extremism in Northern Nigeria, 30 December 2018.

<sup>17</sup> Phone Interview with a former Commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force against Boko Haram, 6 November 2018. 18 Phone Interview, 6 November.

2018). The abdication of responsibility by the governmen<sup>t</sup> in the northeast resulted in people resorting to seek help from Boko Haram to provide basic services such as water, food, and medical supplies (Sahara Reporters 2019). A former resident of Bama in Maiduguri revealed that Boko Haram not only supply food in some of these villages, but they also collect taxes and provide security for members of such communities. Through that, members of such villages not only see an alternative governmen<sup>t</sup> in Boko Haram, but it motivates them to join the organization.<sup>19</sup> Therefore, so long as the governmen<sup>t</sup> continues to show this level of negligence and failure in addressing the issues and challenges affecting the people of the northeast and the Lake Chad region, Boko Haram will continue to exploit these lapses and attract more fighters into its ranks.

These tactics reflect why and how the terrorist group continues to expand and consolidate its base across the Lake Chad despite the various measures countering it.

The figure below (Figure 1) presents a pictogram map of the four countries of the Lake Chad region affected by the activities of Boko Haram.

**Figure 1.** The affected countries of the Lake Chad region. **Source:** Smith 2016. "The Lake Chad crisis explained".
