Repentant terrorists and the arising dilemma

By Eddy Odivwri

It is no longer news that many of the Boko Haram insurgents are repenting and quitting terrorism. It would not be the first time that these troublers of Nigeria are claiming to have repented. Few years ago, the Kuje prisons, in Abuja was full of such persons. Federal Government was spending huge money on “consultants” who said they are experts in de-radicalisation of persons with criminal tendencies.

But we know that months after such “de-radicalised” persons were released and let into the society, they returned to their old ways and became a pain to their various communities. While a few truly turned a new leaf and started engaging in legitimate means of livelihood, some others sharpened their criminal skills by becoming informants to those yet in the criminal trenches.

This explains why Senator Ali Ndume has been shouting himself hoarse about not believing wholesale, the claim of repentance of the Boko Haram insurgents.

Those who believe that there is a new dawn among the terrorist group, must have been jolted when early this week, the so-called “unknown gunmen” struck at the almighty Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna; killing two officers and kidnapping another. The attack on NDA had jolted the security architecture in Nigeria, as it portrays the impression that indeed, no where is safe in Nigeria.

So, here are the two scenarios:

Dilemma one is that for twelve years, the Boko Haram “war” has been raging in northern Nigeria. First, it had begun in Maiduguri, spread to Bauchi, then Adamawa, Yobe and other parts of the North east. For the same period, Nigeria had recorded huge losses in human and material sense.

Gov Babagana Zulum of Borno State, on Tuesday stated that Borno State alone had lost over 100, 000 persons to the ire and fire of Boko Haram attacks, just as many have been dislocated from their homes. This is not to count the number of soldiers, policemen and civilian JTF members who have been killed by Boko Haram terrorists. To their (dis)credit, several schools have been attacked, with some children killed and many others abducted. The infamous Chibok Girls abduction took place seven years ago. There have been many others since then, all carried out by the Boko Haram terror gang. Many of the Chibok girls are yet to return. A few returned recently (with their ‘husbands’), each of them with two children. The story is long, sad and heavy.

There has been no respite in the war. It has spread far beyond the north east to almost every part of the country, with the intensity essentially still in the northern part of the country. Boko Haram had regenerated and produced satanic off springs like Banditry and kidnappings, plus cattle rustling. None of which is a lesser evil.

The federal government, on its part, had spent huge sums of money every year in fighting the Boko Haram menace.

Not much of a victory can be claimed in the true sense of it, not minding the claim of having “technically defeated” Boko Haram.

What is worse, it had further metarmorphosed to different factions like ISWAP et al.

So, after a serious and sustained 12-year fight, the Boko Haram insurgents, perhaps wearied or perhaps yielding to the preachments for peace, have now embarked on a wholesome surrender.

As at last Wednesday, a total of 2,600 insurgents from the Boko Haram camp had surrendered. More are prepared to surrender, but yet watching the reactions of the rest of society. So, the debate has been running on what to do with those who have surrendered. Should they really be pardoned and re-integrated into the society, just like that? What about the crimes they committed? What about the people they killed? What about the crimes of kidnap and forceful abductions, robbery and the like? Should their many sins be simply blotted out and admitted into the society as if nothing ever happened? How will those children who have been made orphans by Boko Haram, or women made widows react to re-absorbing those who killed their fathers and husbands in the same communities? Would the swift and sweeping pardon not sell the impression that crime pays and those who commit the most heinous crimes sooner or later get pampered by government?

What about the issue of stigmatization? Would the Boko Haram returnees be wholly accepted as normal members of the society? Would a responsible family, for instance, marry out their daughter to a repentant Boko Haram member?

Should they be accepted just like that? Not many think that even the Pope will not grumble.

But what is the option? Put them through full scale trial? That leads to the second option.

Dilemma Two: the other option is to re-arrest all those who are surrendering, willfully or not willfully. Get them quarantined and prepared to be arraigned before the laws of the land. They get prosecuted for all the crimes they committed, convicted and then get jailed. At that, prospective repentant terrorists zip the thought and continue the fight, killing and maiming more innocent people. And the fire of insecurity rages on and on, with all the attendant tension and feelings of unrest.

Should the government pardon the returnee terrorists and encourage the remnants to come forth and surrender, regardless of the huge irrecoverable harm and damage they had done to various families and the nation in general, so the nation will ultimately return to the path of peace and quiet?

Or should the government insist on dealing decisively with those who repented and returned, according to the laws of the land and thus scare those who may yet be thinking of denouncing terrorism, and thus inadvertently stoke on the fire of the offensives?

Many Nigerians, including this writer believe the first option is better in pursuing the agenda of peace and healing

The other concern for many Nigerians however, is that those so pardoned must remain under intense surveillance from the security agencies as well as the community leaders for a long time, to ensure that they have been completely “de-radicalised” and have broken all ties with the terror group.

It is only when that happens will it be that the pardon is neither foolish nor an act of arming one’s known enemy.

PDP: A Kingdom Divided Against Itself

Did you hear the latest development in the opposition party in Nigeria?

What development again? Have they said they won’t contest the 2023 presidential election?

How can they say so? Don’t you know it is one of the most viable alternative political platforms in Nigeria?

So what is happening within the Umbrella party? This is rainy season!

The Political party is trying to restructure, so it can weather the pending storm of 2023.

(Mimicking) Viable political platform my foot! Is that how to be a viable political party? Can’t you see that the so-called viable opposition political party is wearing itself thin with needless troubles and crises?

Don’t worry, it is the way of political parties. It will soon rejig itself and get re-kitted for the battle ahead. The elders of the party are in the Board of Trustees. They will soon intervene and flog everybody into line,

You don’t seem to understand that this crisis is being brewed from the same homestead. It is easier managed when it is existing between two far-flung allies, not people of the same kindred spirit. Or did you not hear that the Court injunction stopping the former National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, from parading himself as one, was granted by a court in his own Rivers State?

Trust me, when I say the BoT will intervene and restore order very very soon. It is a family affair. The PDP is one big indivisible family.

Sir, you are not only deluding yourself, you are deceiving yourself, if you still think the PDP is indivisible. This is a political party that has lost two major governors—one in the South (Cross River) and another in the north (Zamfara) in less than two months. The Ebonyi governor, Dave Umahi had earlier dumped the party. And you say it is one indivisible political family. Sir, this your PDP family is not better than the Cain-and-Abel family.

Don’t be naïve. Don’t you know that the APC is fueling the crisis so it will have a smooth sail into 2023? But I tell you that Nigerians and indeed the PDP is wiser. We have seen through the gimmick of the APC and all efforts are being put in place to foil the plan of our enemies. We shall emerge stronger, bigger and better from this little shake up.

You call this a “little shake-up”? Secondus has been stopped. Two Deputy National Chairmen of the party are already feuding between themselves on how to take-over the party and whatever that is left of it. Sir can’t you see that the PDP is like a Kingdom fighting against itself? Did the Holy Book not say, a Kingdom divided against itself cannot stand?

(cuts in)… Don’t quote unrelated scriptures here. The PDP Kingdom is not divided against itself. It is a minor squabble, which is not unexpected in the quest for power matrix. Look, I advise you not to be hasty in judging the PDP. It will bounce back to rescue Nigeria and Nigerians from the maladministration we are experiencing now in this country. The APC knows this, that is why it is not comfortable having a peaceful and cohesive PDP. We know these silly gimmicks!

I will remind you that the politicians in Rivers are highly adept in the use of the courts to fight their cause. Or did you forget that these same persons behind the court order against Secondus are the same persons who funded and influenced the court injunctions that barred the APC from participating in the 2019 contest in Rivers State? Have you forgotten? Can’t you see they are experienced political litigants? So, do not think that Secondus will soon be out of the woods he has been thrown into, not even if he suddenly becomes Firstus.

The BoT will not spare anybody trying to sabotage the reconciliatory efforts of the party, no matter how highly placed. The party’s disciplinary measures will be fully and unsparingly applied, no matter whose Ox is gored.

Sir, it is either you don’t know what you are saying or you do not mean what you are saying. Are you implying that you need any investigation to know that it is the River State governor, Nyesom Wike that is behind the travails of Secondus? When the BoT forced Secondus to survive the onslaught against him recently against the wish and moves of Wike, did you people think that the Ikwerre politician will go home sulking and confounded?

Wike and co wanted their kinsman removed. You Hausa people wanted him retained. Now the rug has been summarily pulled off his feet, right from home. So tell me how you strangers will come and fix the crack in the domestic hearth.

And I dare you tell me who will sanction Wike in the PDP structure. Who will discipline him, Is it BoT or ToB?

You see why the PDP has ego problem? There are too many Big men with Bigger ego in the PDP. Everybody talks like he or she is a political Deus Ex Machina. And unless the party is weaned of this malaise, it will cost the PDP the presidency again in 2023.

I take exception to false prophecy. There is nothing like that. Nigerians are tired of the antics and strategies of poverty and suffering unleashed on them by the APC-led government. They are waiting for the PDP to redeem Nigeria and wrest it from the grip of hardship and stress. So don’t you speak of what you do not know here in the name of political prophecy.

I am not a political prophet. But I can tell you that from what is on the horizon, the PDP Is in for a long drive in the dark. A kingdom not governed by law and discipline can never make sustained progress. The political demagogues in the party are too many. If they are not careful, they will soon feud till they will cancel themselves out and the field will be open for the APC all over again.

God forbid! But truth be told: Secondus also caused some of these uprisings. He suddenly and unilaterally shifted the early convention agreed to by the BoT to late November, instead of September that was agreed to, all so he can remain longer in power.

Well, I agree that everybody must be reined in if the party will survive.