The oil rich but poverty stricken West African country of Nigeria known for its ethnic fault-lines and socio-religious strife of serious dimensions is now facing a staggering threat to its territorial integrity, national security and social harmony from the escalating terrorist violence unleashed by the fundamentalist Islamist group Boko Haram. The principal objective of this hard-line Islamic resurgent group founded in 2002 is to demolish the secular structure of this most populous African nation and establish a puritanical Islamic state based on the strict implementation of Sharia laws.

   In fact, kidnapping, bombings, surprise attacks on schools and educational institutions, assassinations of politicians, religious leaders as well as prominent personalities and related terrorist violence spearheaded by Boko Haram has caused widespread havoc and spread fear psychosis in Nigeria known for its economic disparity of massive magnitude. Thanks to the....