Please accept my humble sympathies fellow Nigerians and possibly Africans if you have been so
unlucky to be at the receiving end of a demonic onslaught against
innocent and defenseless citizens by a devilish Radical Islamist Sects and terrorists
whose only mission seems to destroy the peace and
harmony of the Nigerian state and Africa. I am not a security expert, but I’m
sensible enough to read the hand writing on the wall and analyze a
critical situation that must not be left unchecked. Just in case the
federal government and other security agencies are looking for ideas on
how to tackle the menace of terrorism, I’m freely offering advice here
and hope it will be listened to or some of the ideas found useful. Even
so this is my little contribution to national security so feel free to
join in this discussion. Let us brainstorm and find ways to make Africa safe and Nigeria
safer or where that is not possible for us Nigerians to divide and go our
separate ways in the most peaceful and progressive way possible although
the true motive of Terrorists is Politically motivated or revenge and I will explain this
later under how to tackle terrorism.
What do these terrorists want?Boko Haram as a case studyFrom the way they
operate it is quite clear they are ought to undermine the government of
Nigeria by accomplishing the following;
1. Spread fear across the
length and Breadth of Northern Nigeria especially among the political
elite and gain relevance in the process. This is seen by the fact that
they will assassinate anyone who publicly criticizes or offends them e.g
foiled assassination attempt on Hafiz Ringim and assassination of ANPP
governorship candidate in Borno State.
2. Turn the people against
the Federal Government by undermining the efficiency of security
agencies. They always brag about being able to strike whenever and
wherever they want and claiming that they are stronger than our security
agencies.
3. Trivialize national issues into religious crisis.
Claiming that attacks against Christians are reprisals for killings and
cannibalism against Muslims in Northern Nigeria. Yet they also killed a
lot of Muslims in Kano recently and telling all Muslims living in the
South to relocate to the North and Vice Versa or face death.
4.
Promote anarchy by causing confusion and widespread panic. They have no
clearly defined targets anywhere there is a public gathering is a
potential target. Churches, relaxation spots, government offices, INEC
and other government parastatals, Security agencies such as police,
army, immigration and their base stations, Mammy Markets and sometimes
attacking people by the roadside.
5. Gaining political leverage for their cause. Claiming that more deaths
and carnage will be inflicted on Nigeria firstly implies that there
will be potential breakdown of law and order leading to declaration of
state of emergency and curfews which weakens the state governments
further and drives more attention to their demands. This makes them seem
more powerful than they really are.
How to deal with terrorists
1. Breakdown their chain of commandAfter 9/11, America
declared war on terrorism and set in place legislation and policies to
curb them. One of such policies was to round up members of terrorist
groups and interrogate them to obtain information about their
operations. This information in turn was used in gaining insights into
the leadership structure of al-qaeda. Terrorist groups usually suffer
when their leaders are killed and Israel has demonstrated this against
Hamas so the natural cause was find their leaders and sponsors, then
kill them. Osama Bin laden was the financier and leader of al-qaeda
using his personal resources to fund their operations his death would
naturally make life difficult for the group that was why US special
forces preferred to kill him rather than arrest him. 21 other al-qaeda
leaders have been killed by US drones or American Marines in
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
With the Taliban it is a totally
different approach. They are more of a militant group fighting for
political survival and hence are not necessarily out to hurt US
interests but they might consider doing so when they are more powerful.
2. Stop their financingFor the Taliban, the opium trade
was a major source of financing before they captured power and now that
they are out, seems to be their best option since Osama their former
ally is gone and his financing had also stopped coming freely. With poor
financing they would be low on supplies and wouldn’t be able to pay the
family of suicide bombers hence massive reduction in suicide bombing –
almost always the suicide bombers are from poor families and the
promises made to them are very attractive e.g secure future for the
loved ones they will leave behind plus the promise of heavenly bliss.
3. Ideological and Psychological WarfarePeople
should realize that terrorism is actually a psychological weapon that
hides behind an ideological objective as its aim and these objective(s)
usually come as political and economic demands. For instance Boko Haram
claims it wants to practice the purest form of Islam in Northern
Nigeria, who do you think they would want to effect such a change? They
of course, so indirectly they are making a demand for political control
of Northern Nigeria just like Al-shabbab did in Somalia and the Taliban
in Afghanistan except that their Ideological objective which cannot be
achieved by dialogue or diplomacy must be achieved by using fear tactics
(the psychological weapon) e.g suicide bombing, random killings against
defenseless citizens, armed insurgency and so on.
Since terrorism
involves using instruments of fear such as death and death threats to
frighten the general population and turn it against government so that
government can then give in to the terrorists then the right way to deal
with them is to make their efforts fruitless by not giving into their
demands.No sane person yields to
terrorists that is why most western governments don’t negotiate with
them even in hostage situations and hi-jacking which were popular in the
60’s to 80’s. These tactics have failed them overtime and so the more
fashionable thing to do these days is suicide bombing, armed insurgency
and militancy all of which can be tackled effectively.
So to
tackle Boko Haram do the exact opposite of what they really want you to
do. Once you identify the real motive behind a terrorist act, do the
exact opposite of what that act was supposed to achieve.
Written by Bee
