When the Americans invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein, who was a Sunni minority, the biggest beneficiaries where the Shia majority who eventually ended up dominating the newly minted political structure that was put in place.
Taking advantage of the Sunni minority dissatisfaction of being bit players in an Iraq in which they had previously called the shots for over two decades, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia launched its campaign of terror against American and Iraq armies from Sunni controlled territories.
Flocking to the cause of Al Qaeda who they now saw as a platform for venting their economic and political frustrations against the Shia dominated central government in Baghdad were former Sunni soldiers who had been in the military under Saddam Hussein.
However, a stubborn Al Qaeda insurgence energized by Sunni political frustrations, eventually came undone when Sunni's in Anbar province of Iraq, fed up with Al Qaeda excesses and atrocities, rejected Al Qaeda and teamed up in large numbers with American and Iraqi security forces against Al Qaeda.
Known as 'the Anbar Awakening', this allowed the US, Iraq and Sunni coalition forces to rout Al Qaeda from its strongholds in the Anbar Province resulting in their defeat and in political negotiations with the Maliki led government to politically accommodate the Sunni.
Following the power vacuum created by the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, Nura Al Maliki increasingly resorted to sectarian biases in favor of the Shia majority, to the detriment of the Sunni minority, to maintain his hold on power.
Resort to suicide bombings and other acts of violence by the Sunnis against the Shias especially in Bagdad merely made Maliki more divisive in his rule in Iraq, and it was this sectarian divide that the Islamic State has exploited like Al Qaeda before it, to propel its lightening fast operations in Iraq.
Again as with Al Qaeda, Sunni fighters have carried their economic and political frustrations to join the Islamic State, energizing what has become a near rout of Iraqi forces who this time did not have the support of American ground troops.
Alarmed by the possible takeover of Bagdad and the overthrow of the central government, the falling of vast oil and gas resources into the hands of hardcore Jihadists, the Americans insisted on the stepping down of Nura Al Maliki as the Prime Minister as the key condition for coming to the aid of the Iraqis.
The Americans also requested for the formation of a more broad based government to accommodate the interest of the Sunni minority and the appointment of a new Prime Minister, conditions which have now been fulfilled.
In response, the Americans and its international coalition partners have began an air bombing campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq, the supply of military equipment to the Iraqi army coupled with training of its soldiers.
The expectation is that over time, Sunni fighters who have flocked to the camp of the Islamic State will welcome their political accommodation in the central government in Bagdad and eventually reject the Islamic State and better still, take up arms against the Islamic State.
The crisis situation that occurred in Mali centered around long standing claims of economic and political marginalization of Tuaregs in the north of Mail against the central government in Bamako resulting in the taking up of arms against the Malian army by various Tuareg groups.
Following the collapse of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, many Tuareg soldiers who had fought on the side of the Libyan army flocked back to northern Mali with their arms and ammunitions and joined the Tuareg groups fighting the Malian army.
More critically, these Tuareg groups came together and formed an alliance with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, AQIM, an Al Qaeda affiliated group, to assist the Tuaregs in their fight for economic and political emancipation from the central Malian government in Bamako.
This loose coalition of groups succeeded in routing the Malian government from the northern parts of the country after which AQIM turned its guns against its Tuareg partners in the coalition and took complete control of the northern parts of Mali, imposing its own strict version of Islamic rule.
This in effect meant that the Tuaregs had unwittingly replaced its perception of economic and political oppression by the central government in Bamako for the harsh and oppressive Islamic rule of AQIM, and this was the situation on ground until France supported by Malian troops halted AQIM's March to take over Bamako.
By the time France launched an offensive to retake the northern parts of Mali, the major Tuareg groups had rejected AQIM rule and switched support to the central government in Bamako on the understanding that issues regarding their economic and political marginalization would be addressed.
In 2009, following a request by the Borno State Government, then President Umaru Yar'Adua sent in soldiers to quell a budding religious insurgency by a local group known as Boko Haram by the local populace because of its total rejection of Western education.
This resulted in a military onslaught against Boko Haram, the capture of its leader Mohammed Yusuf, his key aides and many of its foot soldiers who were handed over by the military to the police but subsequently killed under claims that they were attempting to escape.
Boko Haram was defeated but it's remnants simply disappeared to resurface later in a very complex context of the emergence of a Southern Christian president, Goodluck Jonathan, claims of the political class in the north of Nigeria of being cheated out of the presidency, and claims of economic and political marginalization of the North East.
This is the complex context within which Boko Haram has thrived and flourished and sadly in which the Federal Government and security agencies have waged their response to the Boko Haram insurgency or war, without the wholehearted support of political, traditional and religious groups in the north of Nigeria.
From seeing the war against Boko Haram as the sole responsibility of the Federal Government, to refusing to comment and condemn Boko Haram atrocities, to alluding to different versions of Boko Haram with that supported by the government as being more virulent, to ascribing a political agenda to Boko Haram.
We have also seen calls for full amnesty to be granted to Boko Haram and for them to be similarly compensated as the Niger Delta militants, will calls have been made for a Marshall Plan for Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States with N300 billion to be spend over five years to redevelop these states.
We have seen responses of the military against Boko Haram classified as crimes against humanity and genocide by the very people who are experiencing the excesses of Boko Haram, and these oppositions against the military have come from the political, religious and traditional leaders in the North.
While these calls have been going on, Boko Haram has been gaining in battlefield experience, acquiring more sophisticated military equipment, securing battlefield victories against the Nigerian army and more importantly seizing villages and towns, hoisting its flag and imposing its own version of strict Sharia rule.
More than any other thing, the loss of territories in parts of the Borno and Adamawa to Boko Haram, has riled the political, religious and traditional class who have now being jolted into confronting the reality, that victory for Boko Haram will result in loss of authority and power for them.
Emirs of Gworza and Mubi have had to flee their domains and are refugees, elected local government chairmen and councillors of areas under Boko Haram control have also fled and become refugees, likewise Islamic clerics who have had to abandon their mosques and Koranic schools for safety.
The changing reality occasioned by Boko Haram control of physical territories and imposition of their rule in these territories is finally making the political leaders in the north of Nigeria call for full-blown war to be declared against Boko Haram and especially for them to be crushed.
This is a welcomed and long expected development that signals a rejection of Boko Haram by the political class in the north of Nigeria, a development that should also be amplified by traditional rulers at all levels and Islamic clerics who must publicly reject Boko Haram and lead the people in doing likewise.
Expelling Boko Haram from the communities where they have long since used violence to suppress their rejection will precipitate more violence, but this will only be of limited duration, like happened in the Anbar Province in Iraq and Northern Mali, to Al Qaeda and AQIM, Boko Haram will soon be uprooted from the North East of Nigeria.
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