TERRORISM IN NIGERIA AND ITS CONTEMPORARY EFFECTS

Nigeria currently faces security and developmental dilemma with the crucible of terrorism largely enveloped in the foreign policy perspective with neighbors. In collaboration with elements of the Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, Boko Haram Islamic terrorist attacks have claimed over 3,000 lives including foreigners, prompting the Nigerian government to affect the deportation of 4,000 foreign nationals from Niger, Chad and Cameroun, the immediate neighbors on the north-east axis, who are giving soft-landing to the radical Islamic sect utilizing terrorism as modus operandi in pursuit of its political and religious beliefs. The paradox of Nigeria's Big Brother foreign policy towards her neighbors, in the past five decades, has entrenched religious fanaticism, criminality especially arms smuggling and borderless irregular migration in the northern parts of the country, exposing the beleaguered country to the whims of terrorists and comatose economy. The article attempts to draw out a complex characteristic of the contemporary situation in Nigeria regarding terrorist activity of Boko Haram movement and the direct repercussions it has on the internal and external policy of Nigeria.