The misconception that is woven around Islamism has necessitated the choice of discourse in this chapter. In Nigeria, Islam as a religion is at the center of the misconception because adherents of the religion, today, have adopted a violent method to protect its principles. It has, therefore, become important to analytically unravel the conceptual entanglement between the ancient Islamism and the violent Islamism. The ancient Islamists maintained the Islamic civilisation without inflicting other civilisations, especially the Western. On the contrary, violent Islamists have agitated for a new order that is destructive of other civilisations. This chapter contributes to the ongoing debate in the literature apropos of the conceptual entanglement associated with Islam and Islamism. This chapter is connected to the broader scope of the book as it makes a difference between the acceptable Islamism that accommodates other civilisations, and violent Islamism that embraces violent jihadism (armed struggle with infidels). This is important because the conceptual entanglement has blurred our understanding of Islam with its instrumental values. This chapter uses secondary data to analyse ancient Islamism and the contemporary Islamism that embraces violence in Nigeria. It concludes that Islam is not associated with violence and, analytically, separates the contemporary violent Islamism from the ancient Islamism.
United States African Command is a unified combatant, which means that it combines both civilian and military functions with its area of responsibility totally dedicated to Africa. Putting the civilian functions such as aids, building of schools and other civil functions hitherto performed by such agencies as USAID and State Department into the operational obligations of Department of Defence suggests that AFRICOM’s utilitarian value in terms of its benefits to Nigeria is nil. Nigeria cannot benefit from AFRICOM. This is because AFRICOM is militarily structured with less capability to deal with issues of development in Nigeria. As a result of this, Nigeria should see AFRICOM as an extension of the American foreign policy of militarism. This paper considers that Nigeria should not accommodate AFRICOM on its territory. The theory that AFRICOM would bring cooperation between America and African countries on one hand and between Nigeria and America on the other is a hoax as far as difficulties of cooperation in international politics are concerned. Such impediments as the Problem of cheating, Problem of relative gains, Problem of absolute gains and Problem of interdependence are distinct quandary to cooperation between United States and Nigeria. The assumed cooperation is a unidirectional relationship that will tend towards favouring America and creating problems for Nigeria. Such problems include the recycling of terrorism in Nigeria and encircling Nigeria with terrorists. Intuitively, in an era of globalization, national governments do not have much influence in shaping their own destiny. In this light, therefore, Nigeria needs to refocus its external relations within the context of globalization.
Nigeria has been fighting a war against terrorism for long time. It is uncertain if the war can be won because it has been exacerbated by lack of good governance. People have been deprived of economic opportunities, they are socially insecure and politically docile. This has had dire consequences for their human emancipation, which good governance attempts to build. Terrorism has found convenient marketability among the people as failure of the state in good governance has meant easy recruitment for terrorist activities. Therefore, for the war to be effectively prosecuted and won, sources of impediments to good governance need to be identified and addressed squarely. In other words, the curtailment of terrorism in Nigeria is hinged on abilities of the Nigerian state to promote good governance. Presently, Nigeria has been bedeviled with the twinning tragicness of terrorism and lack of good governance, the two signify failure for the state. Dishearteningly, today, Nigeria is on the verge of becoming a failed state because of its failure in good governance, Nigeria has continually witnessed decline in indicators of good governance. It has become incapable to provide security to citizens as acts of terrorism, banditry and kidnapping have been aggravated in the country.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.