#BringBackOurGirls as a Milestone
One poignant milestone in our history was that fateful Monday of April 14th 2014 when Nigerians woke up to the news of yet another heart-rending carnage at Nyanya Motor Park after the detonation of a bomb leading to the death of over 70 people and over 100 people injured. That same night, nearly 300 schoolgirls were abducted in Chibok, Borno State. They were in their secondary school preparing for their WAEC examinations. This act was to traumatise not just Nigerians but the whole world. Why would anybody abduct innocent teenagers preparing for their exams and keep them in bondage for so long? That event led to the emergence of our movement and our continuous campaign for 135 days has played no small part in drawing attention to the capability challenges facing our state and its armed forces. Our point is not to say that we were right, but that we have a collective interest in addressing our challenges.
Citizens’ Approach as the Way Forward
Nigeria is confronting asymmetrical warfare, which requires a more concerted and comprehensive approach to defeat terrorism. The State and its security agencies must cultivate the civilian population to become allies in the struggle. Intelligence is a key factor in ensuring success and sourcing timely intelligence requires close collaboration with communities. It is clear to all that the Nigerian security apparatus is at its weakest strength and capability at this historical point when we need them most. Rebuilding the strength and capability of our security agencies is a national commitment that government and citizens must support. Nonetheless, the Nigerian public is concerned that the resources allocated to our security apparatus (N922 billion in 2012, N1 trillion in 2013 & N845 billion in 2014) do not seem to correspond with the results delivered by those at the frontline that are prosecuting the war against terror. While it is understandable that security operations are mostly classified, citizens believe that some degree of transparency, accountability and disclosure is essential to gaining public confidence and achieving optimal results. Even more important, if there is a generalised system of corruption and leakages in administering security budgets, just throwing money at the problem will not produce the desired results.[eap_ad_2]
New Approach to Security Governance
Nigeria needs to develop a new approach to security governance. Developing local agency in security provisioning must be central to this new approach. One element of the new approach is getting security agencies to collaborate closely with local communities. We need to significantly expand and institutionalise community policing in the country. A pact, a bond must be developed between security agencies and the people in executing the war against terror. The second element is that communities should be encouraged to set up Community Safety Groups / Neighbourhood Watch Groups to help promote the fight on terror. Community members know their communities better than the security agencies. They need to take an interest and connect with security organisations. There needs to be support and protection for the communities that are supporting the security agencies. Most importantly, the source of information emanating from communities must be protected to ensure that there are no reprisal attacks against such communities.
The insurgency that is challenging our society today has arisen because we as a society have allowed extremist ideas to develop, grow and fester. All of us; governments, religious institutions, the private sector, communities and families as well as civil society groups have a collective responsibility to ensure that extremist ideas are contested and delegitimized. Our religious leaders in particular have the onerous responsibility of ensuring that radical interpretations are countered. We must all invest more resources – theological, ideological, philosophical, communications, financial and institutional in promoting peace education. Peace education will help to redress the culture of violence and aggression that has developed in our society. We need to continuously inculcate the value of peaceful coexistence and non-violent orientation on every Nigerian citizen.
Finally, the very important sub regional dimension of our insurgency crisis has thrown up some curious developments for us as citizens. What exactly are the Governments of Chad and Cameroun doing right, that produce their widely reported successful strikes against the terrorists that we read ever so often? This surely calls for deep reflection
