Befitting its status as a fast-growing oil exporter, for Nigeria this week was to be a coming out party of sorts, as it hosts the 24th World Economic Forum on Africa. More than a thousand academic, business, civil society and political leaders are supposed to gather in Abuja, Nigeria's capital city, beginning on Wednesday, to discuss "inclusive growth and job creation." Conflicting with this image of an emerging regional economic powerhouse, just two days before the start of the World Economic Forum meeting, Nigeria is in the international headlines for all the wrong reasons: Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, a militant Islamist organization, released a video on Monday claiming responsibility for kidnapping more than 270 schoolgirls in northern Nigeria last month.
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Boko Haram leader says it has kidnapped more than 200 girls in Nigeria
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Peter Bergen: Nigeria is just about to host a world economic conference
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He says the terror group's actions jeopardize Africa's largest economy
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Bergen: Boko Haram hasn't formalized ties to al Qaeda, but it could threaten Westerners
If Boko Haram's growing insurgency isn't halted in @placeholder, it threatens to jeopardize the  largest economy in Africa and the some $100 billion in oil revenue the country generates every year.