The Fall of Boko Haram & The Demand of Justice By Saheed Olayinka Shittu

“Humility is a virtue of the heavenly, not arrogance. Are we the most superior beast on earth? No, not in strength and not in intelligence. It is very arrogant to assume that we are the most intelligent species when we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Both rats and monkeys have been shown to learn from error, yet we have not. More people have died in the name of religion than any other cause on earth. Is massacring God’s creations really serving God – or the devil? And what father would want to see his children constantly divided and fighting? What God would allow a single human life to be sacrificed for monetary gain? Again, the Creator or the devil?”

-Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem.

On Friday 26th of August 2011 at around 11:00 West African time in the Nigerian capital Abuja, a car broke through two security barriers at a building housing United Nations workers, hit the building and detonated a bomb that killed at least 21 people and injured 73 others. The event was of greater consequence than any Nigerian could have imagined at that time, it announced the launch of full blown terrorism in Nigeria and heralded many more horrible attacks that will happen across the country without discrimination but with high concentration in the Northeast. Nigerians, known for loving life never believed one of them could lay their lives down for any reason, well, turns out they could for their most obsessive passion, religion. They could be convinced to die for God or for faith, a sect have arisen that will give anything to establish their own faith styled nation or be fooled to do so. Boko Haram will dominate our national security landscape and discussions for what will become ten years in a fortnight. We were about to witness a long drawn battle between the Nigerian state, along with neighbouring countries and those wanting to establish a caliphate around the Lake Chad Basin area.

In the past week Nigerians and the world have witnessed unprecedented surrender of terrorists in the country’s Northeast, members of the Jam??at Ahl al-Sunnah li-l-Da?awah wa al-Jih?d (Arabic: “People Committed to the Prophet’s Teachings for Propagation and Jihad”) that later partly metamorphosed to Islamic State in the West African Province (ISWAP) have been turning up at Military installations to surrender and escape the storm of fire the military operation Hadin Kai (OHK) has been raining upon their positions.

Certain factors are definitely ahead leading to this new development, hunger, diseases, isolation, cut in supplies and so on, in spite of all the hype of the coming of ISIS and the death of Boko Haram long time absolute dictator Abubakar Shekau it appears the terrorists only got poorer, not able to maintain their army, not to even feed them the drugs that keep them going, reality finally dawned on them that their game is up, their sustenance have dried up also on the back of the arrest of a number of their financiers home and abroad some months back.

We hope the armed forces and their allies sustain these chain of victories and quickly bring the war to an end.

The wounds of the passing terror era will leave deep ugly scars not just on people but on communities, it has not only broken families and separated loved ones but have done same to our societies. We have seen the rise of people who have clearly lost all characteristics of humanity and have exhibited behaviours no animal would have contemplated aided and cheered on by rationalizing, sentimental minds who seem to have lost all sense of conscience, justice, empathy and civility. How these latter category find excuses for the unthinkable crimes of the terrorists against their compatriots is beyond the ordinary, no excuse is valid for the evil these people perpetrated, most often against their own neighbours and relatives. The principal objective of a terrorist is to strike the most extreme horror they can imagine into the mind of their victims and the observer, their acts are conscious and deliberate, it has to be extreme, something not before conceived about, hell.

Immediately the table turns, the cowards that these kinds of people usually turn out to be, are quick to seek soft landing, unable to bear the minutest part of what they subject others to, they run to safety, beg for mercy, seek forgiveness and, in the hopeless cases, attempt suicide all to escape what they subject others to.

The day of reckoning has come for them now and we will watch with disgust as some people will join in seeking forgiveness, a word hitherto totally not in their own dictionary, for the terrorists, in our weird society we have people even bold enough and proud to offer these people rehabilitation, not mental or social which they clearly lack, but communal and residential, where? They are also to be reintegrated into the same societies they repeatedly destroyed among people who have been unable to stop having nightmares of the activities of these same terrorists. If the terrorists are no longer worthy of rehabilitation in correctional facilities across the country, maximum security prisons, because they are the most dangerous of the society, they should be rehabilitated in government residential areas, where our politicians can continue the job of reorientation for them.

They deserve no pampering, truly, it is much better to avoid an eye for an eye by the victims but no terrorist should escape judicial prosection, a standard example must be set for the future, a clear message should be sent across of a strong nation that is intolerant to extremism and totally averse to acts of terror, public sympathy to acts and actors of terror should also be prohibited otherwise the seeds of terror will easily germinate again.

We have reached a stage where no sensible individual should find excuses for the Northeastern terrorists or their Northwestern cousins in banditry and kidnapping business.

The general public will look forward to the return of captives of these terror groups including celebrated hostages like Leah Sharibu and the rest of the Chibok girls and prompt prosecution of all partakers in the horrors we have witnessed in the past decade.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Saheed Olayinka Shittu is the CEO of Majestic Edifice Architects and a public affairs commentator. He can be reached on 08066450045, and/or saheedolayinkas@gmail.com.