If you do not know where you are going, you will follow any \u2018friend\u2019 you meet at the Bus Stop to anywhere s\/he is going. The spirit of indecision is the worst terminal disease a leader can suffer. One of its consequences is that in times of taking critical decisions, it leads to ugly compromise, setbacks and hindrances that are capable of nailing the coffin of society where such leadership finds habitation.<\/p>\n
Knocking on the back door is characteristically the fate of those taken hostage in their own cubicle. They ab\u2019initio had key without clue of what key is all about. They did not attach value to the key they had. Now the key has found its way to the hands of others facing the front door; shutting the door against indolent owners without a way out for him\/her. August 26, 2011 was the\u00a0 day the dynamic of our insecurity and intrusion of Terror into our land changed and became full blown. The death\u00a0 and the wounds of scores of peers, brothers and sisters in the United Nations House in Nigeria was the confirmatory evidence of the infamy and the globalization of Nigeria\u2019s strand of terrorism. Two\u00a0 weeks before the holocaust I disseminated and shared my thoughts in a Letter to Nigerian Leaders on WHY TERROR AND GRIEF GROW with copies dispatched to the President and Members of the National Assembly among others.<\/p>\n
I was and\u00a0 am still piqued by indecision of government in addressing the ever expanding and un abating insecurity in our land, especially the BOKO HARAM SYNDROME. Vituperations\u00a0 from our government have been \u2018WE WILL APPLY STICK AND CARROT\u2019, \u2018WE WILL FISH OUT\u00a0 THE PERPETRAITORS AND THEIR SPONSORS\u2019, \u2018IT IS A PASSING PHASE\u2019, \u2018IT WILL\u00a0 SOON FIZZLE OUT\u2019; \u2018 IT IS NOT PECULIAR WITH NIGERIA\u2019;\u2018THEY ARE FACELESS GROUP\u2019, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH; THEY ARE GHOST and lots more as if the duty of government is no longer to unriddle crime and apply law that can assure Nigerians of their safety. The price of indecision can be fatal. We are paying for it today with blood and tears! TERRORISM is a SLOW-ONSET criminality driven by passion, ideology, disenchantments or belief that Terrorists hold strongly. At the onset of its dangerous\u00a0 manifestation, I thought that the government will be decisive enough to characterize BOKO HARAM and develop comprehensive strategy on\u00a0 how to engage the sect. If I were to be the President, with the complex crises in Nigeria, I would have developed a strategy that cluster the entire country into crises clusters without isolating the BOKO HARAM challenge but responsibly and urgently focusing on the severest, which today is the book haram issue.<\/p>\n
Amnesty is not a strategy. No two conflict conditions are the same. What worked in one may fail in other. Amnesty, though retains logic in peace building is a poor formula for conflict transformation. Unlike quadratic formulae in mathematics tha often results to optional end, it\u2019s a tiny package that can be\u00a0 un-offensively used in peace building to accommodate re- integration of \u2018offending force\u2019, usually non-state actors into society after prolonged insurrection against the state. Amnesty was rightly declared by the Yar\u2019adua\u2019 administration at the height of the Niger Delta crisis but wrongly implemented by subsequent administration of Jonathan. For instance, one of what the amnesty envisaged was de \u2013mobilization and dis-armament.<\/p>\n
Illogically, the Amnesty office of the current administration reinforced\u00a0 both the command structure of the hitherto militants by retaining the same obnoxious structure in implementing its Amnesty programme through the same structure. For example, entitlements of the ex-militants among others are being rooted to them through their ex-leaders. How then can this achieve the objective of de- mobilization. This practice alone is a land mine to peace in the Niger Delta. By officially sustaining the command structure under any guise, the administration of amnesty hold a lot in reservation for resurrection of conflict.<\/p>\n
Amnesty for Boko Haram? You do not move from crisis to amnesty. You can only move from crises to dialogue. Again the dialogue must be comprehensive enough to accommodate all interests and parties\u00a0 in the conflict. Amnesty before dialogue can never answer the questions of; What happens to the victims of Boko Haram\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0 action, those affected, sensibilities of other Nigerians, foreigners who have been affected, the security operatives who have suffered varying degrees of abuse, loss of lives and limbs ? All these must be carried along and reparations paid where necessary.<\/p>\n
The government that is expected to protect lives and property can not morally forgive those who destroy same under their watch without due consultations with the affected population.\u00a0 Beside, BOKO HARAM itself has outgrown the toga of Local Terrorist Sect with alliance with Al shabab and Al Quaeda among others. There is need to understand the Network and put strategy in place for its engagement. Operational Strategy? We can use the 3-Mode Model of\u00a0\u00a0 Denunciation, Persuasion and\u00a0 Substitution. This includes Identifying and denouncing failure of Protection and highlighting the proper responsibilities of the state. Now that\u00a0 the crisis is very complex, we can use ADVERSARIAL REFLEXIVE INTEGRATIVE method\u00a0 within the context of National Security Governance, accommodating dialogue with all actors, passive or active, including Boko Haram and others in\u00a0 delineated crises clusters across the country. focusing on; Positions of actors, needs\u00a0 and Interests of all sides.<\/p>\n
Our target should be to arrive at shared realistic vision, prejudice reduction and nation building. Government must appreciate the fact that we have nation-threatening problems that can no longer wait till tomorrow. Our problems have disguised in forms that invoke temptation of accepting their irredeemability. They are nothing but simple leadership problems worsened by corruption, altitude and thoughtlessness that continue to promote structural and institutional dysfunctions that generate injustice, poverty, inequity and insecurity.<\/p>\n
This expensive gamble, if unchecked, will continue to draw our crises map. Amnesty that is not within a thought\u00a0 – through strategy will in the end destroy the fabric of law and order, pollute the fountain of justice and return society to state of anomie, where might is right!<\/p>\n
Written By:\u00a0 Gbenro Olajuyigbe`<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you do not know where you are going, you will follow any \u2018friend\u2019 you meet at the Bus Stop to anywhere s\/he is going. The spirit of indecision is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n