Roundtable: When Life Means Nothing: Nigeria's Metamorphosis into a Killing Field

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Sessions

Abstract/Description

Nigeria, the most populous Black country in the world and a former British colonial contraption, has constantly degenerated into a killing field. With the emergence of the Boko Haram terrorist group as the revolutionary arm of the movement for the Islamization and Fulanization of the country, indigenous ethnic groups are being slaughtered daily with no truthful response from the government of the country. Since 2011, Boko Haram has steadily found its way into all facets of Nigeria’s sociopolitical economy. Nigeria is not only contending with Boko Haram, it is also confronted by ISWAP, bandits, Fulani herders, and other non-state actors. This year 2025 alone, Boko Haram has taken over six military bases in Borno, Yobe, and Niger States. This roundtable will discuss the political economy of violence in Nigeria; state failure and the collapse of security architecture; religious and ethnic conflicts: from tensions to massacres; terrorism, banditry and the privatization of violence; the role of media and civil society in documenting and resisting violence; and rebuilding the value of human life: legal, moral, and social imperatives.

Sub Unit

• Area XIV. Roundtables

Chair

• Festus Obi, East Texas Baptist University

Discussants

• Ifeoma Okoye, Virginia State University

• Lucy Tsado, Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas

• Edidiong Mendie, California State University, Sacramento

• Obinna Ezeihuoma, University of Pittsburg

• O. Oko Elechi, Mississippi Valley State University

• Declan Onwudiwe, Texas Southern University