Ibrahim Zakzaky’s arrest by the Nigerian Army has illustrated, again, how one man can turn heads around the world by being well-spoken. It requires a certain charisma  for a person to inspire devotion by appealing to people simply by articulating their desires and wants, but this is also made easier by rough economic conditions and a perceived lack of government involvement in the lives of everyday people. President Buhari’s perceived slumber as oil prices fall and the Nigerian economy slides towards a possible recession has lead to is an increase in the vocality of angry self proclaimed “leaders” and “heros” eager to fill the gaps that government has left unattended.  From the patently evil and extremely dangerous Abubakar Shekau of  Boko Haram to the almost comedically populist Asari Dokubo, here are four Nigerian demagogues who are filling in the leadership gaps left by Nigeria’s government.

Abubakar Shekau

The infamous leader of Boko Haram,  Abubakar Shekau, was born in North Eastern Nigeria, a region with the lowest literacy rate in the country. Boko Haram loosely translates to “Western education is abomination”. Boko Haram founder, Mohammed Yussuf, used statements like “We believe it is a creation of God rather than an evaporation caused by the sun that condenses and becomes rain” to gain followers for the terrorist group. However, he was killed by Nigerian forces and soon replaced by Abubakar Shekau, who expanded the sect’s mission to include kidnapping and bombing villages in northern Nigeria. Shekau was placed on the United States terror hit list in 2014. However, that didn’t stop him from kidnapping over 200 school girls in April of 2014, seemingly to prove to the world that the sect would not be deterred by western “interference”. Presently Boko Haram has suffered numerous losses as a result of increased military cooperation between Nigeria and its neighbors, however Shekau’s message still resonates with the uneducated and unemployed youth of Borno, Yobe and Bauchi states.

Nnamdi Kanu

Nnamdi Kanu, the director of Radio Biafra and one of the leaders of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is from Abia State in south eastern Nigeria. Nnamdi Kanu has suggested that marginalized ethnic groups secede from the Federal Government of Nigeria and demand  a “Sovereign State of Biafra in a throw back to the civil war era of the late 1960s.  His inflammatory words on Radio Biafra led to his arrest by officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) in October 2015 at an airport in Lagos. Nnamdi Kanu seems to mix misinformation about the Federal Government’s intentions towards south eastern Nigeria with widespread frustration over years of deliberate marginalization of the South East by the Nigerian government. In a place where a lack of basic infrastructure meets a youth population with high unemployment, his cry for a separate republic that could provide better services and opportunity has gained many listeners.

Asari Dokubo

Asari Dokubo is the former head of the Ijaw youth council who later established the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, a militant group in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. He used the Ijaw Youth Council to preach non-violence in his efforts to demand for Niger Delta cleanup and and an end to the oil exploitation by foreign oil companies. However, he left the council and formed a militant group which he used to attack the oil pipelines of these companies, eventually leading to a clampdown by Nigerian authorities. The federal government granted amnesty to him, along with other militant factions (Tompolo and Ateke Tom) in the Niger Delta. It was reported that he received $9 million a year from the amnesty program. The Niger Delta has still not been cleaned up and militant attacks still occur in the region today but Asari Dokubo still commands a strong following that could present problems for President Buhari if the Niger Detla region feels further marginalized.

Ibrahim Zakzaky

Muslim Cleric Ibrahim Zakzaky was born in Zaria, Kaduna and attended the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He founded the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) in the 1980’s with the help of Iran. He is also the de facto leader of the Shiite sect of Nigeria. He gained most of his followership during the 90’s military era, when he was jailed many times for his outspokenness against the dictatorship. Northern Muslims flocked to him, believing they had found someone who could be the voice of the masses. Recent violence between Nigerian Shiites and the Nigerian army shows just how big and potentially powerful his group has grown since its inception.