Nigeria: Yusuf Abubakar's Antidote to Violent Extremism

21 October 2019
book review

The book titled "In God's Name we Fight; embracing and renouncing violent extremism" by Yusuf Abubakar Mamud speaks to young Nigerians especially those living in Northeast Nigeria. The author used very unconventional style to narrate the story of radicalization and de-radicalization. The inherent objective of the book is to communicate to the Nigerian youth the ills of imbibing violent extremist behavior and to illustrate to the government of Nigeria and the world at large some tips useful for de-radicalization.

Abubakar used a simple method to narrate the story in such a way that it will easily appeal to the average Nigerian youth who is not keen about reading nowadays. This therefore informed the size of the book which is less than 60 pages. Abubakar deliberately made the chapters very short and infused a bit of local language in the storyline in order to attract even those who are not intellectual but can read and write. It is a known fact that countries adopt different de-radicalization and counter violent extremism strategies. In Nigeria, our counter violent extremism strategy is espoused in the National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism. The book tried to explain in loose language that these national strategies often do not help to address the pains of the victims. Instead such strategies are weaved to evolve an elitist class in the fight against violent extremism.

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