THE POLITICAL SYMBOLISM OF UNMARKED GRAVES: THE KILLING AND SECRET BURIAL OF THE NIGERIAN LEADER OF BOKO HARAM, MUHAMMAD YUSUF

Abstract

Fewscholarly articles show interest in the study and impact of the dead-on politics and society, especially in Nigeria. This paper is a breakaway from the norm into an unharnessed field of political inquiry, the perceived possible influence of the dead. History shows that the socio-economic standing of an individual shapes the final disposition of his body either in a marked or an unmarked grave. The dead has now overridden ideological significance in domestic and international politics. Some were given recognition and respect even in death by having deserving monuments, as witnessed in Ancient Egypt, for example, while others died with their history completely erased and buried with them in an unknown or unmarked place for fear of influencing the living. Thisessay discusses the strategies adopted in disposing the dead body ofMuhammad Yusuf, the leader of Boko Haramin an unmarked and unknown graveyard outside Maiduguri, Borno State and its political implication. This research uses the public safety theory to explain the denial of a burial ground to the leader of Boko haram, Muhammad Yusuf.

Keywords

• Grave
• Boko Haram
• Shi’ism
• Mahdism
• terrorism
• revivalism