I was reading a news report on the Punch Newspaper where a soldier’s widow was raising an objection to the Federal Government’s decision to release over 600 repentant Boko haram members who are said to have undergone a de-radicalization and rehabilitation process.
If I were a soldier who lost my life trying to fight terrorists, it will be the biggest insult on the sacrifice I made and on the emotions of the loved ones I left behind for the government who sent me to die in the first place to turn around and pamper my killers.
I have seen a lot of anachronistic policies introduced in Nigeria, but none of them comes close to this. You cannot win a war by being unjust to the people on your side. You cannot win a war by being unjust to your people who have been the victims of your enemy. Never!
How do you explain this to a soldier’s widow? Or the mother of a fallen soldier? How do you tell the children that the soldier left behind that the people who their daddy died fighting against are being housed up and pampered in some expensive program and treated like kings? How do you explain this to people who have lost one or more of their loved ones to the many bomb blasts and nefarious raids and attacks executed by members of this sect since 2009? How do you even explain this to the soldier out there in the fields fighting? How do you tell him that though he may die, the people giving him sleepless nights will one day be released? How do you think you can stop a wrong by being unjust to the right?
The federal government of Nigeria is knowingly or unknowingly rewarding terrorism. How do you even de-radicalize a terrorist in such a short time? Is that not magic? And then you commit a bombshell blunder of reintegrating them into your national army. I mean terrorists wearing the Nigerian badge. This is pathetic.
Do you think there will not be moles? Imagine the US government reintegrating Al-Qaeda fighters into the US army, is that not self- destruction?
As much as one will strive not to believe in a grand conspiracy, it is hard to resist the temptation.
How do you explain to young Nigerians who have tried to join the army with no success that some terrorists repented and have automatically been recruited into the same army that they are been trying to join?
Terrorists are very toxic and dangerous people that can hardly ever change. Talk about de- radicalization, 10 years is not even enough. There is a reason why the United States does not negotiate with terrorists. It will only take time, we will have a distorted army, a grounded arm of the enemy within and an unwinnable war.
The labors of heroes who died are left to be in vain. We shouldn’t keep quiet. There should be national outrage over such a policy. You have to hit these terrorists with fire. If your fire isn’t working, go back to the board and find out why, fix your lapses and return to hit these guys with more fire. Studies on the nature of terrorists have shown that they don’t understand anything else.
I don’t want to say there is no hope for this country. It is just that I can’t see any. You can never solve a wrong by being unjust to the right and the innocent. The Federal Government is just making Nigeria look stupid
Caleb the Political Animal writes from Enugu. Follow him on Twitter through this link twitter.com/caleb_onyeabor