The South African Institute of International Affairs and the Afro-Middle East Centre (SAIIA), is billed to hold a one-day seminar on the Islamic insurgents, Boko Haram, and their impact on Nigeria?s future.
The event, which is to hold on August 7 at the Jan Smuts House, East Campus, Wits University, Johannesburg, is tagged: ?Understanding Boko Haram: The Impact on Nigeria?s Future??
SAIIA in a statement made available to reporters, said seminar topics include, 'Boko Haram: Origins and Context,' which would be delivered by Professor Mohammed Kyari, and 'North-South Economic Imbalances: Reasons Informing Boko Haram?s Rise and the Subsequent Civil Society Responses', by Dr. Hamid Bobboyi.
Also to be delivered by Dr. Usman Bugaje is a topic on 'Domestic and International Responses to Boko Haram: Co-optation and Confrontation'.
Kyari is the Vice-Chancellor, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State, and was previously a professor of history at the university where he had also chaired the Centre for Peace and Security Studies.
He is a leading scholar on the Boko Haram insurgency and counter- insurgency, and has researched into the security and politics of northern Nigeria and the role of Boko Haram in the region?s security.
On the other hand, Bobboyi is the Director of the Centre for Regional Integration and Development, Abuja, and serves as Chairman, Funding and Partnerships, Madrasa Education Implementation Committee, of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja.
He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Northern History Research Project, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and subsequently Director, Centre for Historical Documentation and Research, otherwise called Arewa House, at the same university.
He has written widely on the history of northern Nigeria, intellectual culture, and peace-building and regional integration. He had also served as visiting scholar to several universities in the United States of America, Africa, Europe and Asia.
Bugaje on the other hand is a Visitor in African Politics, Programme of African Studies, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. For over three decades, Bugaje has earned a reputation as one of northern Nigeria?s most distinguished public intellectuals and civil society activists.
His career cuts across education, political office and civil society and has published over fifty academic articles, book reviews, op-eds and commentaries on topics, ranging from the role of shari'a in the Islamic revival and good governance in Nigeria to the rights of Muslim women to reproductive health services.
SAIIA is an independent, non-governmental research institute on regional and international issues- for the purpose of encouraging wider and more informed awareness of the importance of international affairs.
It has been voted the leading think tank in Sub-Saharan Africa for the fifth consecutive year in the University of Pennsylvania's Global Think Tank Survey.