Bulama Bukarti is a prominent Nigerian lawyer, public intellectual and reform advocate focusing on security, governance, and justice in Africa . He currently serves as the Vice President of Programs and Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration (DDR) & Deradicalization at the Bridgeway Foundation.

Early life and education

Bulama was born in Bukarti town of

Yobe State Yobe is a States of Nigeria, state located in northeastern Nigeria. A mainly agricultural state, it was created on 27 August 1991. Yobe State was carved out of Borno State. The capital of Yobe State is Damaturu, and its largest city by populati ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

, he started his education in Bukarti Primary School, Yobe, he obtained his Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) in 2005, from College of Education Gashua, Nigeria. he attended

Bayero University, Kano The Bayero University Kano (BUK) is a university situated in Kano, Kano State, Nigeria. It was founded in 1975, when it was renamed from Bayero University College and upgraded from university college to university. It is the first university i ...

between 2006 and 2011 where he obtained

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

(Common & Islamic Law); at Second Class Upper grade he went to

Nigerian Law School The Nigerian Law School is an educational institution set up to provide professional certification to graduates of law. The school was established in Lagos under the Legal Education Act 1962, now Legal Education (Consolidation Etc) Act Cap. L1 ...

where he was trained as Legal Practitioner and he was called to bar in 2012. In 2016 Bukarti obtained his

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is a postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in another subject. In many jurisdi ...

from Bayero University, Kano and He completed his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in Law at the at

SOAS University of London The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

with a focus on Boko Haram, laws of war and humanitarian law.

Career

Bulama started his career as Assistant Senior Accounts Officer II at Karasuwa Local Government of Yobe State where he worked for ten years that is from 2003 to 2013. From 2014 to 2018, Bukarti taught law at Bayero University, Kano, where he lectured on various subjects, supervised undergraduate research projects, and practised as a legal practitioner with a focus on human rights, employment law, and medical negligence cases. in 2017 Bulama joined Tony Blair Institute for Global Change as Sub-Saharan Africa Analyst. He is a regular guest on Hausa- and English-language channels, including

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Aljazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which provi ...

and

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

; he has spoken at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and

Chatham House The Royal Institute of International Affairs, also known as Chatham House, is a British think tank based in London, England. Its stated mission is "to help governments and societies build a sustainably secure, prosperous, and just world". It ...

;

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

and many more.

Research and Advocacy on Boko Haram

Bulama was a Senior Analyst in the Extremism Policy Unit of the

Tony Blair Institute for Global Change The Tony Blair Institute (TBI), commonly known by its trade name the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, is a non-profit organisation set up by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Agenda The organisation is not a political party, but it ...

, senior non-resident at the Africa Program of the

Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. From its founding in 1962 until 1987, it was an affiliate of Georgetown University, initially named the Center for Strategic and Inte ...

Bulama's research focuses on violent extremist groups in

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

. He has studied extremist groups in Africa for over a decade and has written many papers, commentaries, and op-eds on extremist groups’ history, ideology, and strategy; deradicalization and reintegration of former fighters; and response to COVID-19, including for Foreign Policy, the Independent, the Telegraph, CNN, the Council on Foreign Relations, Hudson Institute, the National, and War on the Rocks. He has been cited several times each in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and Reuters, among others. He has granted interviews various outlets of BBC World Service, Sky News, France 24, Voice of America, Al Jazeera TRT World and a host of others. Bulama is an opinion columnist at

Daily Trust Media Trust is a privately held Nigerian newspaper publishing company based in Abuja that publishes the English-language ''Daily Trust'', ''Weekly Trust'', ''Sunday Trust'' and the Hausa-language ''Aminiya'' newspapers, as well as a new pan-Afric ...

northern Nigeria's largest newspaper where he writes every Wednesday. Bukarti is recognized as a leading expert on critically analyzing the group's strategies and the Nigerian government’s approach to counterinsurgency. He advocates for comprehensive strategies incorporating deradicalization and community rebuilding. Due to his outspoken criticism, Bukarti has been targeted with death threats from Boko Haram's leadership, including a public video threat from a Boko Haram member, and threats from the bandit kingpin Bello Turji.

Publications

#The most worrying aspect of the Kankara kidnapping, African Arguments, (February 2021) #The West in African Violent Extremists’ Discourse,

Hudson Institute Hudson Institute is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1961 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation. Kahn ...

(October 2020) #The Mozambique Conflict and Deteriorating Security Situation,

(June 2020) #A deadly alliance: coronavirus makes Boko Haram more dangerous than ever

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

(June 2020) #Thanks to coronavirus, Boko Haram is making a comeback,

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

(April 2020) #How Jihadi Groups in Africa Will Exploit COVID-19,

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

(April 2020) #The Challenge of Boko Haram Defectors in Chad, War on the Rocks (March 2020) #The Origins of Boko Haram—And Why It Matters, Hudson Institute (January 2020)

Personal life

Bukarti resides in London, United Kingdom. He is married with children and is currently writing a memoir titled ''Into the Well''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulama Bukharti, Audu 1984 births Living people Bayero University Kano alumni People from Yobe State Nigerian Muslims