Nigeria, July 12 -- Scorned and underrated, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Jama'atu Ahlul Sunnah Lidda'awatu Wal-Jihad (JAS), otherwise known as Boko Haram, is currently pulling a massive stealth strategy of organisational makeover destined to connect the north-east, the north-west and the north-central in a bewildering expansionist agenda.

Defined by welcoming former apostates; engaging in factional reconciliations; admitting of modest ideological shifts, and proposing a balanced role for clerics and combatants in his group, Shekau is on the move to consolidate his ranks and establish himself as the 'African Jihadi Caliph' after his 2012-13 falling out with Al Qaeda, the embattled Islamic State in Iraq and the Levent.

Often portrayed a...