AS Nigerians are told that the war against terrorists is nearly over, we want to add that the public takes seriously the advice to be alert.
The law enforcement agents tell us to take note of suspicious elements in our midst and report them to the right authorities as they say that insurgents are escaping to other parts of the country.
We, therefore, think that it is serious security issue that some have been arrested in the South. A comprehensive report of the ordeal of displaced persons in a camp at Maiduguri still brings pain to the heart as also the killing of people in a displaced persons camp at Yola at time we think that the war may be over.
It should not be a surprise that terrorists have been seen in the South either, but we should want to know that the nation is prepared after the war has been won because we do not want to go through the Boko Haram experience again. A mop up operation should ensure this, a programme which may include teaching survivors the value of human life; survivors may include the actual victims who are bombed, maimed, killed and burnt out of their homes.
Survivors may be youths who partook of the gruesome activities and enjoyed the power of killing other people for as long as it lasted but are lucky to escape the military action. If they are repentant, their fate is left with the government to decide but anybody who took part willingly or otherwise in the in the war of terror should be taught tolerance, living within the law of the land and the ability to resolve conflicts without shedding blood
The Case
This September, I got to Lekki Phase1 gate around 9 30 PM. There were not many vehicles on the road but many motor cycles were packed to one side. One man held on to one in an obvious disagreement. As the seconds passed, more of them came and the last group came bearing sticks, stones. But the man stood his ground but as they surrounded him, he tried to run but they pursued him throwing heavy stones at him. There was no help, motorists only tried to avoid knocking him down as he ran blindly in the middle of the road with some of his attackers still in pursuit.
I did not hear what the argument was about and I did not bother to go near them because only the previous week, there was a similar occurrence. On a pavement, I had seen a young coldly pummeling the face of a rider. He never showed that he heard me because to my question he bent lower to have a better view of the spot he hit mercilessly.
Out of conscience or curiosity as to what happened to the man, I went back, but saw them riding triumphantly into the estate four to one Okada. What happened to the man? I asked some people; “He ran outside”, they said.
Did they beat him? They did, he said and for explanation said that they begged the man but he refused so they invited people from the sites; meaning that the group who resolved the debacle came from construction sites.
To end terror, we think that we should adopt the same approach to the control of childhood diseases like polio which has just been seen the last of. Like immunization campaigns, we should go from one construction site to the other-one uncompleted building to another-house to house using people who can communicate with them effectively.
