How To Combat Terrorism, By Experts

THE venue for the symposium on ‘Combating Terrorism in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects’, organized by a Lagos-based political analyst, Chief Tunde Temionu was filled to the brim with dignitaries from across the country. 

    The participants as well as the speakers spoke with passion and wished that they had the power to put their words into action. Almost everybody stayed throughout the symposium during which how to combat the menace of Boko Haram was again brought to the fore by experts mostly in the academia. 

   Temionu, in his paper, said that studies have shown that terrorism is a crude political weapon. “To corroborate this fact, the English dictionary describes terrorism as: ‘Political violence: violence or the threat of violence, especially bombing, kidnapping and assassination carried out for political purposes.’” 

   So, the symbiotic relationship between politics and terrorism, he said, started a long time ago. “Hence it becomes the norm for desperate politicians to hire, retain and use thugs in their struggle for absolute political power at all costs.”

    Temionu said violence of any kind is an act of terrorizing or subjecting innocent and law abiding citizens to trepidation and dehumanization. He disclosed that Nigeria has experienced acts of terrorism ranging from ethnic, religious to political terrorism. 

   “We cannot easily forget the fact that the traumatic consequences of ethnic terrorism led us to the 1966 civil war in this country. Unlike in the early stages of terrorism, when politicians used terrorists as thugs and dumped them, these days, political parties have created wings for thuggery under refined names. So, terrorism is formally recognized in style.”

  Temionu added that the application of modern technology and the sophistication of social media have exposed and influenced political terrorists in Nigeria to become more knowledgeable in making and using dangerous weapons than before.

    “They are also well connected to the world of terrorism. So, today, terrorism has become vicious problem in Nigeria. And it thrives because it is financed by those who have access to public funds. And it also gets foreign support sometimes in the name of oil, religion or ethnicity.” 

  At present, he said, Nigeria is facing the devastating experience of the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, mostly in the North-eastern part of the country.

 “When Boko Haram was operating at the local level, it was a well known fact that a host of northern politicians used its members as thugs to win elections,” he averred.

  Temionu recalled that terrorists leadership afterwards saw that the gains of the synergy, in both wealth and influence, were controlled by the politicians alone.

 “Consequently, the Boko Haram leadership strategized. Their leaders embarked on Islamic workshops, seminars and discourse to mobilize people. From a reliable source, Boko Haram already had militant structures in about 16 states of the North. In addition, they had established with terrorist groups in Somalia, South Sudan, Egypt, and with Al Qaeda, ISIS and Al-Shabaab before they struck in Abuja in October 2010.”

    He disclosed that their former local sponsors in the North had no option than to retain silent partners. And some of them, he said, paid dearly for dissociating themselves from Boko Haram.

   He said the United States, Britain and France attempted to help secure the release of the kidnapped Chibok school girls but when they studied the situation on the ground, they changed their minds.        “For similar reasons, an Australian international negotiator, Dr Stephen Davis, who was hired by the Federal Government to negotiate the release of the Chibok girls, and other conditions for the suspension of insurgency by the Boko Haram, withdrew his services, and made his revelations known to the world.

 “In his revelations, he mentioned the names of some Nigerians and accused some senior staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of releasing money to the insurgents through the apex bank. 

    “To end the Boko Haram insurgency, we must look at the negotiation antecedents of Dr Davis in Nigeria. He has consulted for Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. Therefore his papers on Boko Haram are not supposed to be materials for the trash can,” Temionu said.

  The Dean Faculty of Art, University of Lagos, Professor Olajompo Akinyeye who was the guest speaker, said 

the term terrorism has no universally-acceptable definition. However, the definition by the United States (US) State Department of terrorism is usually taken to be a working definition. 

   According to him, terrorism is an act of violence which is directed at the civilian population with a view to convincing them about the cause, the value, the interest the terrorists are trying to kick against. 

   “Terrorism does not stand on his own. It is an instrument in the hands of people, in the hands of insurgents. Academically, we define insurgency as the use of violence on a non-willing group to compel the legitimacy of a government.”

  Akinyeye disclosed that Nigeria has been the theatre of terrorism for a very long time.  He added that in recent times, the acts of terrorism that had given Nigeria the toughest time are those that engulfed the Niger Delta and the contemporary Boko Haram saga that the country is facing.

  He said that the first step towards of fighting terrorism effectively is understanding the type of terrorism the government is fighting. 

  “This the Nigerian government has not done. The result is that they are attempting to use the same technique which they used to fight the terrorism in the Niger Delta for the Boko Haram.”

    He regretted that Boko Haram leaders have been saying different things at different times.  “At one time, they say Western education should be abolished, at another time, they say society should be organized on the basis of Islamic law. So you don’t really know what they want. Using the technique of fighting militancy in the Niger Delta to fight Boko Haram will therefore not be productive.”

  He said that a vital way of fighting  terrorism is to go into partnership with the local people in the area where they operate.

 “Another major way of combating terrorism is to see that security is enhanced at our borders and security posts. The major way of dismantling terrorism is to see how we can make them not to have a stable base wherever they are operating. And also to discourage neigbouring states from providing them safe havens.” 

   On his part, Alhaji Liman Galtima, a political analyst linked the problem of terrorism to the Bakassi ruling by the International Court of Justice at the Hague.   Galtima said terrorists are now operating in a particular axis that is extremely resource rich. 

“From Lake Chad axis to Borno, Yobe, Adamawa. They sit on top of vast oil and gas reserves. Why is it being hijacked by private investors, champions of anarchy? 

   “Who are the people behind them? That is the question that the government should find an answer to. The countries that had moved forward like Britain and US have intelligence network that can enable them to see and identify the hands of Jacob and the voice of Esau.”

   Galtima wondered why the military has not been able to use drones to pick up Boko Haram leader, Shekau. He said that the terrorists are saying that they are implementing Islamic law while they are killing hundreds of Muslims. 

   “A 13-year-old girl on a suicide mission who was apprehended in Kano did not even know the implication of what she was doing.”

  He said that the fact that Nigeria has remained as an indivisible nation, post national conference, shows that a lot of underground work has been done by patriotic Nigerians.

   “Initially, the impression was that the Christians were the bad guys or the Muslims were the bad guys. Later on they found out that some of the people committing atrocities are using Islam as a camouflage. I think about two years ago, Muslims were asked to protect churches on Sundays so that Christians can worship and vice-versa”. 

  Project Director of Cassava Adding Value for Africa Phase II, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Prof Kolawole Adebayo said Nigerians should be conscious of their environment.

“The United Kingdom in landmass is just about one third of Nigeria, yet the National police in the UK uses its helicopters to survey the entire country. A country like Nigeria should have a police force with helicopter to survey the land.” 

 He added that the whole of Lagos does not need more than one police helicopter.  “Until we are ready and willing to address this, the issue of terrorism will continue to abide with us,” Adebayo said.