• The presentation was focused on the Terrorism in the northern part Nigeria with the subsequent havoc they have committed in the Country. Dr. Oriola  stated that the Bokoharam terrorist organization started in the late 90s in the northern part of Nigeria as a small group of preachers but was transformed into terrorist group by 2002. on 14 April 2014 276 girls were adopted from their school at Chibok in the north eastern part of Nigeria, 57 of the girls escaped that night on transit to unknown location. The Bokoharam terrorist group claimed responsible for the adoption of the girls, the parents of these girls came together to campaign for the release or rescue of their daughter’s from the terrorist and was later joined by some prominent Nigerian women to form the ”Bring back our girls” campaign group. The major focus of the ”Bring back our girls” campaign was to put pressure on the government to rescue the girls, this brought a lot of international attention which made the Nigerian Government to lunch a major military campaign against the terrorist group. The rescue operation started with very little success but between 2016-2018 only 107 of the girls were rescued by the military, while others were presumed dead or married off to nearby countries like Niger and Chad. The ”Bring back our girls” campaign is still ongoing in Nigeria although with lesser momentum but are still campaigning for the 112 girls which are still missing.
  • The most interesting part of the presentation to me was the emergence of this terrorist group  the Bokoharam. According to Dr. Oriola this terrorist group started as small band of Islamic preachers  in the norther part of Nigeria clamoring for the establishment of the Islamic Sharia law in Nigeria. The Nigerian Government arrested them and killed their leader Yusfu Mohammed, the group then  grew into one of the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world with afflation with Alkeda and other international terrorist groups.
  • The area of the presentation that is relevant to my research is the methodology, the interviews Dr. Oriola conducted the field work back in Nigeria and his involvement with the campaign. My research is in Nigeria and will involve lot of interview with major government official and community groups.
  • Dr. Oriola is a very brilliant scholar and he answered all the questions very well but I would have asked him about his security concerns back in Nigeria when he was conducting those interviews.