With the fall of Kabul on 15 August, 2021, the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan, after many years of insurgency and clamour for a total sway of Sharia Islamic Law and political system. Afghanistan is a landlocked country in southern Asia; a mountainous nation with less than 15% of the land suitable for farming. Over 90% of its natural gas produced in the northern part of the country was piped across long distance into the former USSR. There was a civil war with the Soviet.
The Taliban emerged in 1994, after the Afghan civil war with the Soviet, whose membership consisted of Afghan students (Talib means students). Operating first as an advocacy group, the Talibans pursued the goal of strict interpretation and enforcement of Islamic Sharia Law, with increasing militancy. Four major ethic groups in the country (Pushtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks) are not all Moslem; rather, Budhism has a history of about 2,000 years in Afghanistan.
Long-standing ethnic conflicts have made it difficult to exploit the country’s large oil reserves; neither would the Pushtun ethnic group which is the strongest, create room for peaceful co-existence with other groups. Ethnic conflicts and animosities are not peculiar to Afghanistan alone, but what is sad is the refusal to shift group in terms of mutual tolerance and understanding which can foster expanded awareness. With bigotry, conceit and dogmatism, especially where mutual tolerance is lacking, then development would be hampered.
From Afghanistan comes this message for Nigeria that bigotry, conceit and dogmatic interpretations of the scriptures usually give rise to conflicts and animosities among various groups who share a common nationality. Religious ideological learnings which refuse to accommodate, examine or benefit from other different worldviews, rarely build an ideal humanity. Yet, human well-being and perception expand and improve better with a mind that is not hampered by bigotry, conceit and dogmatism.
Sadly, political and religious leaders, for the sake of expansion of power or fear of losing support, do foster dogmatic adherence to ideologies, thus fueling divisions and animosities among people. As a group of militant advocates and strict interpreters and enforcers of Islamic Sharia Law, the Talibans of Afghanistan since 1994, did not want to shift any ground or make concessions, but under the leadership of Mohammed Omar, the movement spread out, with a missionary zeal of total conquest. By 1996 the group transferred the nation’s capital to Kandahar from Kabul.
Situation changed with an American-led intervention force in December 2000, following the September 11 attack on USA. The Talibans were accorded diplomatic recognition by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Insurgency movements began again to fight the USA-backed Karzai administration and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The Talibans had been condemned globally for their extremist interpretations and enforcement of Sharia Law. They were called terrorists, not bandits!
Between 1996-2001 the Talibans and their allies had massacred thousands of people, denied UN food supplies to over 160,000 starving refugees and children and engaged in shocking public flogging of people for minor infractions. Specifically, girls and women were restricted from attending schools and engaging in certain jobs, except healthcare. Public whipping of girls and women sparked outrage among foreigners in Afghanisan, neither would journalists be allowed to photograph cases of abuses or publish any of such cases. It was a reign of terror!
Religious and ethnic minorities were heavily discriminated against during Taliban rule, with several unreported cases of genocide, destruction of other religious movements or sects, except Islam. The Pushtun ethnic group is the strongest and leading advocate of Sharia law, based on Deobandi fundamentalism, which adopts strict devotion to the Sharia. Since Russia withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, the country’s ethnic groups had had no peace among themselves, largely because of religious conflicts. Neither did USA-intervention efforts change the situation much.
There had been intelligence reports alleging that the military and security services provided support which kept the Talibans active for so long, especially during the founding stage. It was also reported that over 2,500 Arabs under the command of Al Qaeda leader ,Osama bin Laden, fought for the Talibans. But allegations about the Talibans having established cells or units in various African countries, including Nigeria, may not be taken quite seriously for now. There were reports of university students being indoctrinated.
During the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo, there was a large-scale clamour all over Northern Nigeria for the adoption and implementation of Sharia Law. Tactfully, that clamour was not allowed to plunge Nigeria into a state of large-scale instability, but there was more to the Sharia Law movement than met the eye. There were security allegations that several Islamic countries, including Afghanistan, brought serious pressure on the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to declare Nigeria as an Islamic state. Whether such allegation can be taken seriously or not, what is incontrovertible is that aggressive Boko Haram insurgency increased with the clamour for Sharia Law in Nigeria.
More specifically, the pattern which insurgency, militancy, banditory and killings by unknown gunmen took in Nigeria in the past 20 years, is similar to the Afghan scenario. Talibani movement may have started with students as the advocates for Sharia law as a better alternative to Western democracy and education. Northern Governors during Obasanjo’s Presidency mobilised Northern youths to raise the song of Sharia Law, in a secular state!
We cannot deny the fact that the Taliban credo and philosophy are similar to the Boko Haram posture. Neither are bigotry, conceit, dogmatism and the zeal to spread impact lacking in what we observe here. Kidnapping of school children, demands for ransom and discouragement of women education also featured in Afghanistan. Do we need banditry to have a united and peaceful Nigeria? What is truly at stake?

By: Bright Amirize

Dr Amirize is a retired lecturer from the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.