Ikedife: Many areas are now in danger

The way Boko Haram terrorists are carrying out their attacks in different parts of the country is frightening. The situation should be the concern of everybody in the country. It appears that the aim of the sect is to overrun the entire country.

Towards the end of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, the activities of Boko Haram were being checkmated. But the sect has increased its attacks may be because Boko Haram members have been smoked out of the areas they were controlling before; they are now operating in a wider area. It means more and more areas of Nigeria are in danger now. That is my impression of it. I will advise the government to beef up the security and encourage more people to give information.

There is the need to create an information centre to receive information and use them. Talking about the performances of the security agencies, I won’t like to say whether they are doing well or not because I don’t know how much effort that is being put; how much investment that is being made; how much reinforcement and encouragement that they are receiving.

When I am not in possession of such fact, it would be unfair for me to say they are doing enough or they are not doing enough. To the ordinary man on the street, they are waiting to hear less and less about where they are bombing, burning and who they are killing and less of the Boko Haram activities. That is what I am sure an ordinary person on the street is hoping to experience.

Basically, there is a common sense that anything that you try and it didn’t work, you might as well try and try again. But if you see that the method you are using is not working, you have to change tactics. It is common sense.

So, when the operational method of Boko Haram is changing, it would be too bad for the government to maintain old method of countering the sect.

There is proverb in Igbo, which says: Since the hunter has learnt to shoot without missing; the bird has learnt to fly without perching. So, if you want to overtake the sect, you must change tactics if the method you are using is not yielding the result you expect. It is common sense to do that.