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| Nigerian journalist, Ahmad Salkida |
Introduction
Reporting terrorism is not different from reporting our normal,
everyday news; news must be current and mean something to people though
in different ways.
Terrorism means different things to different people as well. While
others see acts of terrorism as a crime against humanity some see it as a
religious duty that offers martyr status to the perpetrators.
In Nigeria, the concept of suicide bombings and armed robberies in
the name of religion was initiated by the Jama’atu Ahl-Sunnati Lil
Da’awati Wal Jihad otherwise known as the Boko Haram Islamist sect in
Northern Nigeria. The impact and depth of their destruction to the
institutions of government and public psychology is unparallel and at an
increase.
As a reporter for several newspapers in Maiduguri (the nerve centre
of the sect), I reported exclusively and predominantly on the activities
of the sect and painstakingly built and developed a network of
invaluable sources within the sect. And I strongly believe that what
gave the organizers of this forum the idea of inviting me to this
platform is the nature of my
involvement in reporting the activities of this sect. Therefore, I
will try to restrict my presentation to my personal experiences in
reporting the activities of Boko Haram.
Signals
Every major news outbreak frequently starts as a signal which is most
often ignored, sometimes by even acclaimed professional journalists.
Today’s terror monster in Nigeria or any society for that matter does
not erupt instantaneously. The big bang is usually preceded by a signal
that is often overlooked.
In 2002, two amateur clerics Mohammed Alli and Mohammed Yusuf (both
deceased) began to sow the seeds of intolerance. The sect argued that
Islam permits them to subsist under a modern government like the
Nigerian state but has explicitly prohibited them from joining or
supporting such governments in so far as their systems, structures and
institutions contain elements contradictory to core Islamic principles
and beliefs.
The group’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf, once described the cosmological
view that resulted from such an ideology “Western-style education is
mixed with issues that run contrary to our beliefs in Islam. Like
rainfall which we believe it is a creation of God rather than an
evaporation caused by the sun that condenses and becomes rain. Like
saying the world is a sphere. If it runs contrary to the teachings of
Allah, we reject it. We also reject the theory of Darwinism.”
Why are such signals ignored? I dare say that they are frequently
ignored because they don’t announce themselves at press conferences
neither do they bear the outstanding faces of our everyday politicians.
When does a signal that is not so self evident become something of
interest to a reporter? My first training as a reporter at the Abuja
bureau of the Insider Weekly Magazine in 2001 was premised on the
watchdog role of the media to reveal information not known to the
public.
I secured my first job as a reporter with the Insider without
presenting the usual smart curriculum vitae; mine was a Primary School
Certificate but my editors believed that information that is unique and
refreshing from someone with very little formal educational background
was more valuable than the frequent parading of cute ivory Tower
diplomas that offer so much ego and polish with no substance.
With the unusual lenses I earned from my training at the INSIDER, I
left the publication in 2002 but that entrenched nose that sniff up
signals did not leave me. And so, I dispatched the first newspaper
article on late Muhammad Yusuf, the leader of the ‘Boko Haram’ Islamist
sect on 23rd, July 2006 at a time the sect was virtually a non-starter
in Nigeria.
As a reporter I thought their doctrine was strange even if obscure.
I narrowed on that which appeared strange to me and filed my first
reports. My reports were no condemnation. No personal views. They were
no obfuscations. They were simple news items that crucially identified
the four “W”s and the one “H”.
Society:
As it is widely believed, the disposition of society can instigate
and perpetuate terrorism. Bad governance, corruption, unemployment,
poverty and widespread frustrations etc became the unassailable grounds
of social indoctrination by late Mohammed Yusuf, the pioneer leader of
the Terror sect. As a reporter I was pre-occupied with the curious
realities around me. How the sect was going about with extremely
dangerous doctrines without the intervention nor indeed any interest
from the law enforcement agencies in the country. I became a
lone-ranger.
Press conferences did not hold any appeals to me. I desired to speak
with the sect leader and I did. He appeared excited about the prospect
of featuring in a newspaper, offered me small cash as a compliment but I
declined. Happily my editors in Abuja saw some news value in what I was
dispatching and put some of the reports to use.
As my reports appeared, the confidence of the sect’s leadership in my
professional judgment grew. At a stage the leader asked me for some
professional advice on his intention to set up a newspaper. Soon ours
became a relationship, but for me it was simply the relationship between
a reporter and a vital news source. It was a relationship defined by
mutual respects.
The sect for instance made known its planned mayhem of July 2009 to
me hours before they attacked. I hinted the local authorities but they
were simply not interested in what seemed to them the outrageous ranting
of some obscure clerics. The sect seemed determined to decapitate the
Police and was spiteful of every structure or representation of civil
obedience.
Reporting terrorism has its challenging sides. For me, I was
stigmatized. Fellow reporters who were only interested in recycling
dubious claims of officials at press conferences peddled the report that
I was a member of the sect planted in the newsroom. I was being
stigmatized.
On Tuesday 29 July, 2009 at the height of the Boko Haram mayhem,
after I informed the Police of my intention to embark on a reporting
trip to the Boko Haram enclave in Maiduguri to interview late Mohammed
Yusuf, the local authorities practically declared war against me and my
organization. I was arrested accused of fraternizing with Boko Haram at
the seat of power of in the state.
Indeed, I was dramatically ordered to lie down flat, the first
necessary step before the Police would normally pull the trigger on its
victims but somehow the two Police officers each with an AK47 nuzzle
pointing on me began to argue between them over who was going to pull
the trigger on me.
More dramatically again, the governor of the State on whose orders I
was arrested in the first instance seemed to have had a rethink and sent
word that he did not want to see a corpse at the Government House. My
point is that I was judged guilty by association and such remains one of
the major challenges of reporting terror in a society with extremely
weak institutional structures.
I was then taken to the state Police headquarters where I would have
been executed were it not for an intervention by a Police undercover
agent with the sect who affirmed that I was indeed, a journalist.
During my 5 days detention at the Police headquarters in Maiduguri
Muhammad Yusuf and hundreds of some of his unarmed followers were
killed.
Earlier in this discussion, I focused on signals that herald news
breaks. Eve amid the bloodletting of terror and efforts at curtailment
there are still other sub signals with the potentials to erupt into
other disturbing cauldrons of widespread violence. In Nigeria for
example, the attempts by the security agencies to curtail terrorism is
typified by harsh, inexcusable crimes against the helpless and hapless
members of the society.
In my own case, after I exclusively reported on the suicide attack by
a member of Boko Haram, on the headquarters of the Nigerian Police, few
meters away from the Presidential villa in Abuja on June 16, 2011 as
well as the bomb attack on the United Nations House I started getting
death threats on daily basis and I became a frequent guest in several
offices of security agencies.
Potential Disasters
One of the major problems in the Boko Haram war with the Nigerian
state is the lack of accurate information and analysis in the media that
probes into the mindset of the terrorist’s visions, operations,
strategies and structure. From my experience, the perspectives of the
security agencies and those of professional reporters can run in
opposite directions.
For instance, the recent botched attempt by a combined team of
Nigerian and British security officials to rescue some foreign nationals
kidnapped by suspects with direct links with Al-Qaida in Sokoto,
Northern Nigeria has brought more confusion and little clarity to
members of the public. It seemed acceptable to the Nigerian security
outfits to argue that the suspects were members of a Boko Haram splinter
group.
My journalistic investigations suggest and indeed clearly point in
different direction. Al-Qaida cells are already at work in Nigeria and
the security agencies as in 2006 are again leaving in denial. It is
worthy of reporters to ensure that their reporting on sensitive national
issues do not undermine national security. But how does operating and
living in denial of the existence of a nightmare help society or advance
national security or indeed promote journalistic ethos? That’s where I
frequently find the gap between the values of journalism at grave cross
with the kind of security mindset we have in Nigeria.
Choosing between Two Evils:
It serves society well to pay due attention to signals that may
herald disasters. Most Nigerians take their religions personal because
they perceive that in their religion lives are preserved, a better
eternal future is determined and stability is guaranteed within society,
yet without being watchful, it is within these religions that disasters
regularly erupt. Doctrines that preach intolerance or social
disobedience are usually the breeding ground for radical violence.
These are as disruptive to social stability as the display of
high-handedness by agents of the state who come in the guise of
curtailing the initial volleys of violence. A woman once stopped this
reporter in Maiduguri and said “I was told you have access to Boko
Haram, please take my telephone number and give them. I lost my husband
and two of his brothers in the hands of some soldiers’ right before my
eyes and the trauma made me to have a miscarriage. I want to kill as
many soldiers as possible before they kill me”
If care is not taken women may soon join the band of suicide bombers in Nigeria?
Another potential for disaster that may befall Nigeria is the massive
recruitment into the nation’s security agencies to contain the rising
challenge of terrorism in the country. But nobody is paying attention
to the very little background checks of the candidates that are now
forming a battalion in the Nation’s Defense Force.
Conclusion
Many expert accounts argue that reporting terrorism presents a number
of dilemmas and paradoxes to journalists, especially reporters whose
sole objective is to reveal information not known to the public.
In the case of Boko Haram, millions of US Dollars is spent every day
on security with little challenge to the activities of the sect.
Therefore when a reporter has a rare and robust professional access and
penetration into the minds of the men who work and vend violence, he or
she needs to be respected principally by the security agents.
Reporting terrorism on the other hand must however not be for the
reporter with the motive to lift the profile of the terror operatives.
Very high level of discretion is required.
Being the text of a lecture presented by Nigerian journalist, Ahmad Salkida in Dakar, Senegal
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