Understanding the Political Economy of Boko Haram Terrorist Activities in North East Nigeria

The present North Eastern Nigeria with its progressive economic endowment, political freedom and social attachment is now clouded in fear, impotency and social disintegration caused by the Boko Haram insurgency, which has serious political cum economic implications on both the lives of the people of the North East in particular and Nigeria in general. The impacts of the terrorist activities have placed a huge burden not only on the political and economic institutions of the most affected areas, but have found its ways deep down into the very fabric of the social relations and relations of productions. The major thrust of this paper is that the prolonged terrorist activities of the Boko Haram group is a resultants effects of the failure of the Nigerian state and its leaders in providing the focused political leadership for the citizens and a promising economic blue prints where every member of the societies is carried along. This paper shows the linkage between the Boko Haram terrorist activities and the failure of the present political and economic policies pursued by our leaders. This paper therefore examines the political and economic indices that gave birth to and the rise of Boko Haram terrorist activities in North East Nigeria. The paper adopted the secondary method of data and is anchored on Mass Society Theory. The paper analyses the effort of the present administration on the political and economic development of the North East region and Nigeria in general through the fight against corruption and the adherence to the rule of law in the conduct of public office. The major findings of the paper reveals that, the rise of the Boko Haram terrorist group is under scored by both politicalapathy and the failure of the political elites in the economic spheres. As part of recommendations, the paper posits that to curb the present and future terrorist activities in Nigeria, the government must concentrate on building a strong political and economic system that is all inclusive.