Peace Shall Reign Again in Nigeria
“At the end of every war, there is reconciliation. Every single war is not ended by the power of the bullet and bomb…” Baba kura Abba Jato, Commissioner for Information, Culture and Home Affairs, Borno State.
Where there is war, there is no peace. So also where is peace, there is no war. And peace is the driven force of development.
As the prominent terrorist group known as Boko Haram, which refers itself as Jama’atu Ahl As-Sunnah Lil-Da’awati Wa Al-Jihad which means (Group of Sunnah People for Preaching and Jahad).
In addition, the name Boko Haram which means (Western Education is Forbidden) whereby they seeks to overthrown the constitution of Nigeria and replace it with Islamic Law, in 2002.
The group gets widespread in July, 2009. That was the time when the Nigerian Police Forces could not bring the situation under control, then the Nigerian Government brought Army in and assassinated hundreds of them, together with the group commander Muhammad Yusuf.
Two years after that, in 2011 to 2014 the terrorist group carried out high profile in abducting, massacring, and bombing against polices forces, government servants, places of warship, schools, markets politicians, and anyone who is not with them in the Northeast of Nigeria especially Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe States.
Moreover, an estimate by International Crisis Group, that Boko Haram has killed over 70,000 people and displaced about 2.5 millions people within the period of the crisis that have existed for more than a decade.
Today, the terrible situation of the Northerners of Nigeria found themselves in for more than a decade has came to the thing of past. As the prominent terrorizing group known as Boko Haram, have now realized their mistakes and laid down their arms and surrendered themselves over to the Nigerian troops and radicalized as well.
So far, a statistical study have revealed that from 2019 to 2022 over 90 percent of Boko Haram terrorists have genuinely repented.
However, the repentant Boko Haram are all ready to give their maximum necessary support to the Government especially in calling the attention of their colleagues and any other terrorists group out there in the bush, to surrender and join the process of making peace to rain again in the Nation.
Nigerian newspaper called Premium Time, conducted an online survey statistical analysis whereby it arrives at, over 14,076 on Facebook and 5,481 respondents voted against the programme of forgiveness for repentant Boko Haram respectively.
Furthermore, the repentant Boko Haram were now exposed to different skill acquisitions such as tailoring, shoemaking, cap making, laundry, carpentry, building, barbing, and some of them are recruited into the social workers, for them to be self-reliance with their families as they are back into their various communities.
Although, the victims of the Boko Haram insurgency are still suffering from the scar of the war especially loss of their beloved ones and livelihoods. Even though, the Government and other organizations Such as NGOs, UNICEF, Red Cross, among others had catered for some, but still they became refugees and migrated to the neighbouring countries particularly Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.
As a result of surrendering and radicalizing of those Boko Haram insurgent, we are now witnessing the respiration of peace drastically after a long time, and that might be the end of insurgency in Nigeria.
I, Therefore, call on the Government to influence the mind of the victims to ensure that the repentant Boko Haram are fully accepted into the societies and continue in educating the public on the important of peace building.
Similarly, all traditional leaders, security personnel, relatives, or anyone close to the repentant should continue to emphasize the process of peacemaking.
Usman Bukar, Department of Mass Communication Borno State University.
