Situating Shekau’s ‘Latest Death’

As the Nigerian Army probes the ‘latest death’ of factional Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, the old posers resurface, writes Louis Achi, who examines the long-winding narratives and the possible consequences

Factional Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau’s reported ‘latest death,’ last week, presents his bruised Nigerian audience with a quirky Shakespearean dilemma. According to the Elizabethan Era literary sage, in Julius Caesar (Act 2, Scene 2): “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once…”

Except as a metaphor, a person can’t physically die multiple times in a single lifetime. But the second part of Shakespeare’s quote departs from metaphor when he held that the valiant never taste of death but once. In effect, when the valiant physically dies, it is the only time he will know death because he has never been afraid to face the challenges of life.

Pushing the seething, dark inner vision of his life, Shekau, deputy and eventually successor to the group’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf, who was executed in 2009, it could not be denied that he has shown extreme courage in prosecuting his very damaging anti-state convictions. Shekau is (was) instrumental to the killings of thousands of people and displacement of over three million in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States over the years.

Between 2009 and 2021, Shekau’s death has been claimed or reported several times by the nation’s security agencies. The Shakespearean ‘coward label’ then hardly sits well on the insurgency leader’s neck given the scope of audacious, bloody damage he has done to the state. But this scenario essentially contradicts the old insight that only cowards die aplenty before their final death. The big question is: Has Shekau finally died?

Apparently, to avoid a comparable dilemma, US President Barrack Obama, out of the options he was offered during Operation Neptune Spear, which killed Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, chose one that’ll ensure the US Navy Seals physically retrieved Osama’s dead body. This was subsequently buried at sea, according to reports. There were no speculations and long-winding narratives.

Nigerian authorities believed that Shekau was killed in 2009 during clashes between security forces and Boko Haram, until July 2010, when Shekau appeared in a video claiming leadership of the group. He has subsequently been regularly reported dead and is even thought to use body doubles.

In March 2015, Shekau pledged allegiance to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Shekau is a Salafi, until 2016, when he ended his relation to ISIL; the two groups were however allies until 2021, when they became enemies and ISIL gunmen tried to assassinate him.
Before the now defunct Shekau-Baghadi alliance, the Nigerian Army in mid-August 2013 stated that Shekau was fatally wounded, when soldiers raided a base of Boko Haram in Sambisa forest and had died between 25 July and 3 August.

However, a video in September 2013 was released in which a man purported to be Shekau claimed he had not been killed. The Nigerian Army also claimed to have killed him during the 2014 Battle of Kodunga that lasted from September 12 to 14th.

The Cameroonian military posted a photo and also claimed their forces killed Shekau in September 2014. In response to these reports, security analyst with Red24 Ryan Cummings commented, “Is this his fourth or fifth death? He dies more often than an iPhone battery.” In early October 2014, a video was obtained by AFP news agency that showed Shekau alive, in which he mocked the Nigerian military’s allegations that he had been killed.

Late Chadian President, Idriss Déby claimed in mid-August 2015 that Shekau had been replaced by Mahamat Daoud without exactly specifying his fate. An audio message attributed to Shekau was released a few days later, in which he purportedly stated that he had neither been killed nor ousted as chief of the group.

More, Shekau was reported to have been “fatally wounded” during an airstrike in Taye village on 19 August 2016 by Nigerian Air Force, which also killed some senior leaders of Boko Haram. On September 25, a video of a man purported to be Shekau was released on YouTube, in which he claimed that he was alive and in good health.

On 27 June 2017, Shekau released a video in which he claimed responsibility for the abduction of Nigerian policewomen and criticised the Nigerian government for claiming that Boko Haram had been defeated. This video would seem to be further evidence of Shekau’s continued survival.
In February 2020, Shekau released a video threatening the Minister of Information and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami, and making reference to what was done to Islamic scholar Ja’afar Mahmud Adam in Maiduguri, when he preached against Boko Haram.

Most recently, on Thursday, May 20 2021, Nigerian intelligence officials claimed that Shekau was killed or critically injured after detonating explosives in his house to avoid capture from the rival IS–West African Province faction. This is yet to be finally established.

According to AFP news agency, over 300 fighters loyal to ISWAP, in a fierce battle on Wednesday, lasting several days between the ISWAP-Boko Haram factions led to the death of dozens of commanders and hundreds of foot soldiers from both sides and that Shekau has killed himself or fatally injured himself to the extent that he might not survive.

The Nigerian Army has said that it is probing the reports. According to military spokesman, Mohammed Yerima, the reports on Shekau’s death or injury could neither be denied nor confirmed.
The emerging consensus is that Shekau’s final death would birth some consequences. A security expert, Kabiru Adamu, stated that, “If it turns out he has been truly killed, his top commanders that are still alive will have a choice of either joining the group that killed him – ISWAP or break out and form their own group. If that happens, it is likely we see the proliferation of smaller groups as against the former single one.”

It would also further signal the military is allowing ISWAP to increase their operational strength and their activities and therefore sending a wrong message to the groups that are active in terrorism. Adamu also held that penetrating Sambisa was the long-term mission of ISWAP towards establishing a caliphate in the Lake Chad Basin.

“Irrespective of whether he was killed or not, what is obvious as a group, ISWAP is growing in strength, and we all know that ISWAP is affiliated to the global jihadist terror group called Islamic State (IS) and we have seen what IS had done in Syria and Iraq,” he observed.