THE COMPOUNDING OF GRIEVANCE: A MULTI-CAUSAL ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND RELIGIOUS INTERACTION IN THE BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY
Keywords:
multi-causal conflict, horizontal inequality, Boko Haram, religious ideology, gendered violence, conflict reintegrationAbstract
Purpose of study: This study examines how economic deprivation, social inequality, political exclusion, and religious ideology interact to compound grievances and sustain the Boko Haram insurgency in northeastern Nigeria.
Methodology: The study employs a qualitative, multi-causal analytical approach based on a critical review and synthesis of recent empirical and theoretical literature. Scholarly studies on poverty, horizontal inequality, governance, religious ideology, gendered violence, reintegration, and climate-conflict dynamics were examined and applied to the Boko Haram case to identify interacting causal mechanisms.
Findings: The analysis demonstrates that no single grievance adequately explains the persistence of Boko Haram. Multidimensional poverty and livelihood insecurity created conditions of vulnerability, while horizontal inequalities transformed socioeconomic disadvantage into collective grievance. Political exclusion, weak governance, and the repressive 2009 state response converted accumulated grievances into organised insurgency. Religious framing subsequently provided ideological justification, identity, mobilisation, and organisational resilience. Patriarchal structures enabled gendered violence, including abduction and forced marriage, while environmental degradation around Lake Chad continued to intensify livelihood insecurity. Reintegration efforts have also encountered community trauma, mistrust, and persistent structural grievances, demonstrating that individual deradicalisation alone cannot resolve the broader conflict system.
Conclusion: The study concludes that durable peace requires multidimensional interventions addressing the reinforcing relationships among economic deprivation, inequality, political exclusion, religious ideology, gender, and environmental vulnerability. Military operations and individual deradicalisation may suppress immediate threats but cannot independently dismantle the structural conditions sustaining insurgency. Integrated development, governance reform, ideological engagement, gender-sensitive reintegration, and environmental livelihood restoration are therefore essential.
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