Appraising Boko Haram Insurgency in Northern Nigeria: Between Distorted Islamic Radicalism and Poverty

September 11, 2001 attack brought the whole world to its standstill and bore a general recognition that terrorism is a global problem that required urgent attention. The response was a war on terror against groups defined as murderous oppressive, violent and hateful and whose. Islamic radicalism is fingered as responsible for the attack and seen as threat to peace, security and prosperity of the global community. In Nigeria, The radicalization of Boko Haram insurgents since early 2000 and their convergence as a tiny group in Kanama popularly known as (Taliban) along Nigeria-Niger boarder, to the stage of proselytisation (Da’awah) and their subsequent suppression by security forces in July, 2009, to the point of their re- emergence with new tactics of indoctrination, radicalization and armed violence has been grossly mismanaged by successive governments. Extra-judicial killings of sect members in 2009, militarisation of war against insurgency, feeble civil-military relationships, politicisation of the issue, ignoring early signals among others represent a metaphor that exacerbates the Boko Haram crisis in North-eastern Nigeria. If Boko Haram crisis was properly managed from its premature stage the wholesome destruction to lives and properties could have been avoided or minimized with lesser consequences. This paper depended on analysis of existing secondary sourced data with recent examples. Within the context of Frustration Aggression Theory, the paper concludes that, youth extremism, radicalism and fanaticism in Nigeria today, is greatly influenced by accumulated problems of poverty, unemployment and injustice arising from bad governance which necessitate their rebellion against the state out of share frustration.