This week The New York Times published a front page story on the troubling situation in the north of Nigeria, where the Islamist terror group known as Boko Haram is flourishing, and allegedly reaching out far and wide to network and cooperate with similar terrorist groups, posing a considerable national security problem to the Nigerian government.  Today we spoke by telephone with Yusuf Tuggar, a former member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, and a candidate in the 2011 governorship elections in the Northern state of Bauchi, to get his views on the roots of these problems of violence and sectarian groups.  Amsterdam & Peroff LLP is currently working with Tuggar’s legal team to contest the results of the past election, which featured alleged massive fraud and ballot stuffing.

Q: What are some of the driving factors behind this emergence of terrorist groups in northern Nigeria?