The social dynamics of the “Nigerian Taliban”: fresh insights from the social identity theory

Abstract

Although the ongoing terrorism of the “Nigerian Taliban”, widely known as “Boko Haram”, in northeastern Nigeria has elicited numerous works, there is yet to be an analysis that adequately accounts for the social dynamics of the group’s identity and belonging in the Nigerian polity. This paper is the first systematic attempt to draw on the social identity theory to develop a conceptual discourse that explains the relationship between religion in Nigeria as a force of mobilisation as well as an identity marker, and to show how its politics, practice and perception are implicated in the resilient insurgency of Boko Haram. Along the way, the paper considers the social dynamics of poverty and relative deprivation in northern, especially northeastern, Nigeria, and their contributions to the escalating terrorism of Boko Haram.