The new trend of Boko Haram attacks is a very bad omen; absolutely bad omen because Nigerians expected that with General Muhammadu Buhari in the saddle, the activities of the terrorist group would have reduced. But what we are witnessing now is very frightening.
In fact, Boko Haram is now extending its attacks beyond the confine of North-East and it is putting Nigeria at risk. So, it is not a cheering news; everybody must feel concern about it.
The Yoruba in particular are worried because it appears that the sect are coming southwards towards the River Niger. It is really difficult to say why Boko Haram attacks have increased.
But my view is that Boko Haram felt betrayed by Buhari and this is why they are increasing their attacks at the peak of the Ramadan fast, which is very discouraging. I think they are now challenging the temerity of President Buhari to have promised to silent them within three months of assumption of office. That is what they are doing.
They are trying to challenge him and their action is putting Nigeria at risk. Towards the end of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan administration, we were almost wiping out Boko Haram out of the country.
The military was doing so well but I think they (Boko Haram) felt betrayed; that is my reading of the situation. They felt betrayed and they want to flex their muscles to challenge the temerity of President Buhari to dare them, particularly when he said he was moving military headquarters to Maiduguri. The sect has gone beyond Maiduguri and now invading the North-Central.
So, Nigerians must be deeply worried and I am sure the President himself must be worried. I believe for us to solve the Boko Haram problems, we must employ the carrot and stick approach; military might cannot solve the problem.
If you think back in history, there is no war that was not ended on negotiation table. I think it is high time we approached Boko Haram to find out their grievances with the Nigerian State because I think there are internal collaborators with them.
They have collaborators; otherwise they won’t be operating the way they are doing. I think we must adopt the carrot and stick approach, not only military might. I believe the carrot and stick approach will work because honestly, Nigerian collaborators are part of the terrorists’ attacks.
So, let us find out what they want and lets see to what extent we can go. In fact, that is one of the resolutions we had at the 2014 National Conference, which was that we should have fairly autonomous states, so that any state that wants to practise Sharia can go ahead and do it without hindrance.
Unitary system cannot work in this country. At present, it is appears that the Nigerian security agencies are being overwhelmed now because we are contending with people fighting guerrilla welfare.
And like one of the top retired military officers, General Alani Akinrinade, said recently, ‘Nigeria military had never been trained in guerrilla warfare.’ So, the Boko Haram group are beating the military to it. How do you spread Nigerian military across Zaria, Kaduna and everywhere?
So, I think we must discuss. I believe having a round table discussion with the Boko Haram members will solve the insurgency problem.
My submission is that it appears there is no part of Nigeria that is happy with Nigeria as it is. We are having terrorism in the North; the Yoruba are not happy with what is going on now and the South-South and South-East also have their own grievances. I think we must revert to the constitutional provisions
No comments:
Post a Comment