Nigeria’s security forces have arrested scores of members of an Islamic sect loosely modelled on Afghanistan’s Taliban movement, freeing women and children after violent clashes which have killed more than 150 people.

Members of the group — known as Boko Haram — have attacked police stations and government buildings as well as rampaging through residential areas armed with home-made guns, petrol bombs, machetes and knives in four states in northern Nigeria.

The latest arrests don’t change the fact that Nigeria is a nation on the brink of political turmoil. This latest turn of events serves as yet another precedent of a government losing its footing to violent uprisings, be it for control of oil or indeed for religious or ethnic purposes.

When current Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua finally succeeds power, most likely due to health concerns his cabinet has adamantly tried to hide from the media, from the citizenry, the power struggle that will follow will further degrade civility in the nation, prompt further disobedience and unfortunately, this situation is all but inevitable.  

President Yar’Adua has said the security agencies had been tracking the sect for several years, describing them as a “potentially dangerous group” who have been gathering weapons and intelligence to try to force their views on Nigerians.

Salafist insurgents from Algeria, Tablighi clerics from Pakistan and Wahabist missionaries from Saudi Arabia — all seen as potential threats by Western intelligence services — have tried to gain a foothold in the region in recent years.

By and large they have failed. The question is - can a soon to be politically tumultuous Nigeria continue to withstand radical Islam?