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The Most Famous

EXTREMISTS from Nigeria

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This page contains a list of the greatest Nigerian Extremists. The pantheon dataset contains 209 Extremists, 1 of which were born in Nigeria. This makes Nigeria the birth place of the 41st most number of Extremists behind Cuba and Bangladesh.

Top 1

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Nigerian Extremists of all time. This list of famous Nigerian Extremists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Abubakar Shekau

1. Abubakar Shekau (1974 - 2021)

With an HPI of 43.79, Abubakar Shekau is the most famous Nigerian Extremist.  His biography has been translated into 30 different languages on wikipedia.

Abu Mohammed Abubakar al-Sheikawi (also known by the alias Darul Akeem wa Zamunda Tawheed, or Darul Tawheed; "the abode of monotheism"; 1965 to 1975 – 19 May 2021) was a Kanuri terrorist who was the leader of Boko Haram, a Nigerian Islamist militant group from 2009 to 2021. He served as deputy leader to the group's founder, Mohammed Yusuf, until Yusuf's execution in 2009. Nigerian authorities believed that Shekau was killed in 2009 during clashes between security forces and Boko Haram until July 2010, when Shekau appeared in a video claiming leadership of the group. He had subsequently been regularly reported dead and was thought to use doubles. Shekau has been criticized by human rights advocates for terrorism, bombings, forced conversions and kidnapping. In March 2015 Shekau pledged allegiance to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. However, in 2016, ISIS Central tried to replace Shekau with Abu Musab al-Barnawi as leader of the group, causing a split. Shekau's loyalists were called Boko Haram and al-Barnawi's loyalists were known as Islamic State's West Africa Province. Shekau was a Salafi, until 2016, when he ended his relation to ISIL. Relations between Shekau and ISIS declined, and in 2021 ISIS launched a major operation against Shekau and his supporters. Shekau killed himself on 19 May 2021 by detonating a suicide vest during the battle of Sambisa Forest between Boko Haram and Islamic State's West Africa Province. His death was first reported by The Wall Street Journal and was confirmed by Nigerian officials, ISWAP, and his surviving loyalists.

Pantheon has 1 people classified as extremists born between 1974 and 1974. Of these 1, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased extremists include Abubakar Shekau.

Deceased Extremists

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