Assumption I - Theoretical Application: Theoretical Explanation to the impact of Boko

3.3 Theoretical Application: Theoretical Explanation to the impact of Boko Haram

3.3.1 Assumption I

The first assumption of Frustration-Aggression theory postulates that, violent behaviour is the result of frustration. When an individual or groups of people are prevented from realizing certain desires of theirs, they get frustrated and their reaction will be aggressive. The major desires and demands of the Boko Haram insurgents and terror group have been varied, but they often focused on two main areas: the release of Boko Haram prisoners and the creation of an Islamic state. The Islamic sect believes that politics in northern Nigeria has been seized by a group of corrupt and false Muslims. It wants to wage a war against them, and the Federal

Republic of Nigeria generally, to create a “pure” Islamic state ruled by Sharia law (Walker, 2012). Even though their leader Shekau has pledged solidarity with Jihadists globally, Boko Haram’s demands have largely remained local and the insurgency has fed on poverty, hopelessness and unemployment in northern Nigeria.

These are some of the weaknesses the group took advantage of in recruiting idle youths teeming in the North-Eastern region, to cause mayhem in trading and other market places through bombings, kidnappings/taking hostages for ransom and among other ill menaces. All these frustrations have led to aggressive behaviours surfacing.

64 3.3.2 Assumption II

The second assumption holds that, aggression in behavior is due to the difference between what one has physically got and what he actually expects to get.

It implies that, if what has been given or provided for an individual or group of people is not commensurate to what they had expected, they will become even more aggressive. In this context, as discussed in the previous chapter having elements like corruption, unemployment, poverty and other ill menaces have contributed a lot to the group’s infamous story so far. The Boko Haram terrorists feel that they have not been given freedom to practice their religion, so they can do away with all the elements of bad governance in their societies to bring about justice and equity through the implementation of the Islamic law (Sharia). They strongly belief only through this struggle can they achieve their goal, and that any member of their group who dies in the course of their struggle will enter the kingdom of God (paradise).

This is despite the fact that Nigeria as a secular state has enshrined in its constitution, that citizens have the freedom to practice any religion.

65 3.3.3 Assumption III

The third assumption holds that, aggression is caused by a persistent rise in human expectations. These expectations are not constant, as when they are met, others would surface. Therefore, the more the expectations come up and are not met, it is more likely to generate aggressive behaviour. The nature of demands and desires of the Boko Haram has been rising over the years. Initially, they demanded that they should be left to preach and observe their religion (Islam) with the aim of propagating holy war (Jihad), and with western education and democracy as not permissible (Haram). However their method of preaching and ideology is not acceptable by the entire Islamic clerics in Nigeria and elsewhere. Other demands later on were that the government should release the members of their group whom were imprisoned for various crimes, ranging from killings and other violent activities. And also, Islamic law (Sharia) should be implemented in all the northern states of Nigeria. However, all the demands by the terrorists have not been fulfilled yet by the government, which is why the group has stepped up its attacks. Several attempts by the government to negotiate with the group have failed.

66 3.3.4 Assumption IV

The fourth assumption states that when people are frustrated they would usually direct their aggression towards the cause of the frustration and if this is not possible, it will be displaced unto another person or object. Frustration does not automatically result in aggression, but it produces a readiness for aggression if triggered (Akuva, 2012). According to the Boko Haram terrorists, the Nigerian state is not ready to give in to their demands, so they have embarked on several attacks on both the government (all security agents) and the civilian population. In effect, the terrorists have targeted government buildings, security personnel, places of worships, markets places, local villages and all other activities to cause mayhem and cripple the economy and the government at large. These attacks which were channeled were presumed as the cause of the frustration or plight of the region, as Borno State used to be known as the home of peace. Boko Haram has caused the short-fall in government revenues. Since the terrorists could not attack the Federal government directly, it attacks its source of revenue which often comes from trade and other business-related activities in that region.

67 3.3.5 Assumption V

The last assumption of the Frustration Aggression theory is that frustration sometimes does not lead to the perceived threats and sanctions from the source of frustration. Among the most notable of these kinds of terrorist groups was the Maitatsine uprising, which began in Kano in 1980-1985 by Muhammadu Marwa (leader) and which spread to Bulumkutu in Maiduguri (Borno State), Jimeta in Yola (Adamawa State) and Kaduna (Kaduna State) in Nigeria. Their ideology was a complete rejection of affluence, western materialism and western technology (Watts, 2005). This was during the military era in which the constitution was suspended and military decrees were installed. The Maitatsine were crushed through military force, the group was gunned down, some even fled to neighbouring Republics of Cameroon, Chad and Niger, but the government still followed them and made sure they were entirely killed or apprehended. As such, the series of similar notions of some of these Islamic fundamental sects could be viewed as being self-motivated to achieve selfish goals and not for religious purposes as they often claimed.

Figure 3.1 Diagram of the Frustration – Aggression Theory Model Source: Adopted from John Dollard and his research associates in 1939

Drive to goal

 need to win Obstacle to goal Anger

Catharsis

Frustration

Aggression

Achieved once aggression has been released

Punishment

In conclusion, based on some of the facts above on the mainstream theories of international relations, the researcher chose the Frustration-Aggression theory from a psychological perspective as the leading theory to explain and apply its postulations in this research. While liberalism as an IR theory was adapted based on its most suitability to support and complement the Frustration-Aggression theory in this research. It is evident that the Frustration-Aggression theory has applied more on the Boko Haram situation in the North-East region and how it has affected trade more than the liberalism applications to the scenario in the North-East region of Nigeria.

Finally, this chapter was able to connect liberalism, an IR theory and the Frustration-Aggression theory from the psychological perspective. The two theories were applied to this research and were found to be suitable in explaining the impact of Boko Haram on trade in North-Eastern Nigeria. The next chapter will show case the methodology of the study.

CHAPTER FOUR

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.1 Introduction

The series of terrorist incidents have been subjected to investigations by various scholars. Terror activities occur in Nigeria just like any other country globally leading to significant political and socio-economic consequences. The terror incidents and violence are experienced with relatively greater intensity in the North-East of Nigeria than any other regions in the country. This research work attempts to explore the impact of the on-going terrorism and violence on trade in North-Eastern Nigeria. The available literatures on the issue of terrorism with trade in the North-East region of Nigeria are relatively scarce compared to other countries where terrorists operate. This study has employed the use of qualitative research technique and build upon the secondary data gathered through empirical study/materials, books, journals, statistical bulletins, newspapers/magazines and other online data bases and sources done by other related researchers, with emphasis on trade that were exposed to terrorism and violence in the region under review. Thus, relevant literatures which are related to the researcher’s subject area were employed to enable for a clear and more articulated (scholarly) work.

The researcher has employed the use of content analysis as a tool for qualitative research to further strengthen the quality and reliability of the study. Krippendorff (1980) defined content analysis as “a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from data to their context”.

However, a careful examination of the definitions of the method shows emphasis placed on aspects such as system, objectivity, quantification, context and validity - with reference to the inferences drawn from the communication content about the

sender, the message or the receiver of the message. Thus, content analysis is all about making valid, replicable and objective inferences about the message on the basis of explicit rules. The material for the content analysis can be letters, diaries, newspaper content, folk songs, short stories, messages transmitted from radio, television, documents, texts or any symbols.

Furthermore, Krippendorff (1980) claims that like any other research method, content analysis conforms to three basic principles of scientific method.

They are:

i. Objectivity: This means that the analysis is pursued on the basis of explicit rules, which enables different researchers to obtain the same results from the same documents or messages.

ii. Systematic: The inclusion or exclusion of content is done according to some consistently applied rules, where there is the possibility of including only materials which support the researcher’s ideas – is eliminated.

iii. Generalizability: The results obtained by the researcher can be applied to other similar situations.

Now, if content of communication forms the material for content analysis, where does a content analyst find itself in the communication process? Figure 3.1 below shows the communication process and where the analyst figures.

Figure 4.1 Where does the content analyst find itself?

Source: Adopted from Holsti (1968).

As can be seen, the analyst figures at the point of the message, and as Holsti (1968:601) points out, draws inferences about sender(s) of message, characteristics of the message itself, or the effects of the communication on the audience – that is the researcher interprets the content so as to reveal something about the nature of the audience or of its effects. Lasswell (1965) incorporated these components in his classical formulation: WHO says WHAT to WHOM with WHAT EFFECT?

Thus: Source-Message-Channel-Receiver-Content-Transmission- Analyst.

4.2 Content Analysis

Content analysis is a technique for gathering and analyzing the content of text in various forms. The content refers to words, meanings, pictures, symbols, ideas, themes, or any message that can be communicated. The text is anything written, visual, or spoken that serves as a medium for communication. It includes books, newspaper or magazine articles, advertisements, speeches, official documents, films or videotapes, musical/song lyrics, photographs, articles of clothing, or works of art (Neuman, 2006). For example, Carulo (1989) studied national anthems.

Source Message Channel Receiver

Content Analysis

Transmission

Also, content analysis goes back nearly a century and is used in many fields;

literature, history, journalism, political science, education, psychology, and so on. At the first meeting of the German Sociological Society, in 1910, Max Weber suggested using it to study newspapers (Neuman, 2006).

Furthermore, content analysis integrates both data collection method and analytical technique as a research design to measure the occurrence of some identifiable element in a complete text or set of messages (Keyton, 2006, p. 233). It allows the study of recorded human communications, such as books, magazines, web pages, poems, newspapers, songs and paintings among others and allows for the transforming of raw data into a standardized form (a process referred to as coding) to investigate manifest or latent meanings. The first are the visible surface content, while the latter the underlying meanings (Babbie, 2013, pp. 295-301).

Weaver (2007, p. 144) explains that the term “frame” can be applied to many different aspects and types of messages. But Gunter (2000, p. 9) subscribes to the need to provide interpretations, which are imperative for accurate description and explanation of the significance of communications in all contexts.

This study acknowledged that every research design has its strengths and weaknesses. Hence, content analysis as a research design can only be used to study recorded communications despite its economy of both time and money, as against other designs like survey. However, Babbie (2013, pp. 306-307) notes that content analysis allows the researcher to revisit recorded human communication in an unobtrusive manner. These corroborate the strong argument put forward for content analysis, that is, its amenability to high validity and reliability in empirical research.

73 4.3 Research Design

The research design for this study shall be the qualitative technique. The qualitative method is chosen because the study is concerned with the in-depth understanding of the impact of Terrorism on Trade in North-East Nigeria. This is due to the fact that the study deals with a phenomenon which cannot be broken down to numerical variables and numbers. As such, the researcher found it imperative to adopt the qualitative technique. Microsoft Excel was used to answer research questions 1 and 2 for easy presentation of some data on pie charts and line graphs to establish some facts which the researcher will arrive at in answering the questions.

4.4 Data Collection

The study has employed the secondary and tertiary data for analysis. The secondary data are those collected by the government or organizations but not yet processed. Meanwhile, tertiary data are those already collected and analyzed for another study (Blaikie, 2003), which most certainly was found useful for this study.

4.4.1 Secondary Data

The secondary data include documents from the Nigerian government such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) of Nigeria. The agency is responsible for the collection of various taxes and revenues for the Nigerian government at various levels. Also relevant documents from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and other relevant government agencies would be used for this study.

In this phase of data collection, the researcher having gone through several online archives of these relevant agencies mentioned earlier, the researcher travelled back to Nigeria (with an introduction letter from his supervisor) and visited libraries

of the government agencies concerned and met with officials discussed ways of getting more data to suit the study at hand.

Thus, a set of data collected at the office of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) of Nigeria, an office which is responsible for the collection of all government revenues, was used to portray the trend of the North-East revenues from 2009-2015 using line graphs, so as to show case the trend of the revenue vis-à-vis the trend of attacks within the same period.

The FIRS office is located at the Nigerian capital city of Abuja, where the researcher went in person with an official introduction letter from his supervisor, and after going through printed copies, online archives and other relevant materials, found out that revenues for the country were based on states (as Nigeria has 36 states) and had statistical labels attached to them, which needs to be simplified for easier imputation into Microsoft Excel. So the researcher approached the data analyst of FIRS who simplified the data (just for the North-Eastern [states]) to enable for a clearer comprehension of the data, later sent as an email attachment.

The attachment could be found in the appendices section as Appendix A. It allowed for a simplified and clear imputation of values in Microsoft Excel to arrive at the said line graphs in the data analysis section.

Next, the NEMA office is in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria and the researcher went in person and was able to access their library with a duly signed official introduction letter from his supervisor, stating that he is undergoing a data collection phase of his study. The researcher was able to get current materials for his study, among them are Annual bulletins and other current printed journals and magazines which show case the various attacks (by Boko Haram in the NE) which took place

within the period under review for the study. All these attacks were presented using a pie chart (as nature of attacks), together with percentages and a line graph (for the number of attacks).

The NBS office in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria was another office (library) visited by the researcher and useful materials with relevant insight on the North-East and Boko Haram activities were retrieved by the researcher which helped him in harmonizing and articulating such data to arrive at comprehensive outcomes in the data analysis phase of the study.

4.4.2 Tertiary Data

The tertiary data are data from renowned peer-reviewed academic journals, textbooks, collaborative research reports on the Boko Haram and Terrorism, and also documents from civil societies in Nigeria. The opportunity derived from the tertiary data will enhance the researchers’ ability to understand other peoples’ views, comments and opinions on the impacts caused by the Boko Haram and terrorism to the Nigerian State. As such, these ideas and opinions will form the basis for conceptual analysis.

4.5 Data Analysis

Data Analysis is the process which involves processing data collected in such a manner that it answers the research questions (Blaikie, 2003). As such, the researcher aims to present the various data collected to enable him to analyze them, so as to reach a logical conclusion.

4.6 Qualitative Data Analysis

Qualitative data analysis is the reflexive process of identifying themes (Bouma & Atkinson in Keyton, 2006, p. 290) to generate multiple plausible

contextual interpretations. It is stated that the process involves two distinct steps;

analysis and interpretation. The former requires labeling and breaking down raw data to find patterns, themes, concepts and propositions, while the latter is making sense of or giving meaning to those patterns, themes, concepts and propositions (Keyton, 2006, pp. 290-291).

Finally, this chapter was able to explain the methodology for this research and has connected it to the next phase of the research, which is the data analysis and findings section, in which the various data collected by the researcher was analyzed to arrive at the results for this research.

CHAPTER FIVE

DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 5.1 Introduction

Boko Haram as the name implies, is a combination of two words from Hausa and Arabic languages. It signifies that western education that came to Nigeria through colonial domination is forbidden. According to the sect’s ideology, the nation shall be Islamized as the current system is contaminated. To achieve this goal, revolution must be on the move. Therefore, the group embarks on insurgent activities as the only alternative to make its ambition realistic. This, in a more stylish form, accelerates the strength of the sect in an ever-unexpected fashion.

Consequently, the advent of these insurgent activities had caused and is still causing a great loss to the economy and social setting of the Nigerian polity (Achumba, Ighomereho, & Akpor-Robaro, 2013). Some researches carried out have identified unemployment among the teeming youth, as well as illiteracy and poverty as responsible factors for supporting the insurgents’ movements (Azahalu, Akwara,

In document Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of (halaman 76-0)