Nigeria, once known only as Africa’s most populous country, now mainly makes headlines for the eruption in its northeast of the brutal jihadist force, Boko Haram (“Western education is prohibited”). Boko Haram has occupied parts of Nigeria and invaded neighbors, including Niger, Cameroon, and Chad. It declares itself a West African province of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).
The four countries attacked by Boko Haram and another Muslim-majority state, Benin, have formed a coalition against it, with support from the United Nations, the United States, Britain, and France. But resistance to the jihadis has been weak. Nigeria is well-endowed with human and financial resources—before the shale revolution it stood alongside Saudi Arabia and Venezuela as a leading vendor of oil to the U.S.—but its political and social structure have left it vulnerable to a serious terrorist threat.
