Due diligence

Editorial

The announcement that 602 members of the Boko Haram and Islamic State of West Africa insurgency groups have renounced their membership is both a relief and a cause for concern. The military announced that the fighters had been made to undergo deradicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration programme at the Malam Sidi Camp in Gombe State. It is a relief that the military has a scheme for the captured men and women, boys and girls, realising that quite a number of them were recruited against their will.

However, we are concerned about the quality of the deradicalisation scheme. If experience is anything to go by, Nigerian institutions are known to have failed the nation at the most critical time. Those put in charge might have been selected based on qualities other than competence and patriotism. It is a fact that even posting of military men in war times is sometimes influenced by primordial factors. During the Jonathan administration, the president once cried out that the government had been infiltrated by insurgents. In the North West where the battle against bandits has equally claimed many lives, governors have accused some traditional rulers of colluding with the murderers for pecuniary reasons.

In such contexts, it is difficult to believe that a unit of the military could be trusted with the task of accurately and properly profiling fighters and commanders of bombing men, sometimes sponsored by foreign enemies. It has been suggested that some of those similarly integrated into the society found their way back into the enemy camp, armed with useful intelligence on the Nigerian fighting force and formations.

So, we call on the Federal Government to take more interest in this programme, not leaving it to the armed forces alone. Ministry of External Affairs personnel, retired seasoned intelligence officers and academics should be drafted to assist in sifting the wheat from the chaff.

That the Boko Haram insurgency has lasted over a decade and remains potent enough to move in droves, attack military formations with precision, disrupt the convoys of governors and keeps regularly boasting about its power is enough worry. To make such a risky mistake of pardoning and integrating unrepentant terrorists at this point would be unpardonable. The wars in the North East, North West and North Central have cost the nation so much in terms of funds and men. Generals and men, fighter jets, tanks and ammunition have been lost to the wars that have bled the economy and continues to threaten the country’s territorial integrity.

We hope the military appreciates that not all the captured fighters qualify for such amnesty. When they were in battle, they cost so many lives, sentencing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to live in displaced persons’ camps. Many Nigerians have lost their sanity as a result of a war that saw many young ladies abducted from schools, never to return. Some families have been so devastated that only a member is left of a once thriving, happy home made up of husband, wife and children.

The assignment is so important that we should not hesitate to seek foreign assistance where necessary. It is not a matter of pride as the corporate existence of the country is at stake. We hope the government realises that the morale of military personnel who have lost siblings and friends, and are thus embittered by the fighters’ pardon could be affected unless there is a concurrent scheme to carry them along.

We have no objection to the deradicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration scheme, but where this is not well done, reintegration could endanger more lives and materials in the troubled region.