BOKO HARAM: BEFORE WE GET LOST IN THE EUPHORIA OF TERRORIST SURRENDER BY OLAIDE OMIDEYI

The recent mass defection and surrendering of former fighters to military personnel in the northeastern part of Nigeria are developments that seem to signal a positive shift in tide of the war in favour of government forces. While this might be seen as a sign of light at the end of the tunnel in the war against terrorists, we need to be careful lest it turns to ‘light at the end of the toilet’ for the country, according to Senator Ali Ndume.

The terrorists are surrendering in large numbers with lots of expectations that may not be fulfilled by the government or donor agencies, thereby creating the basis for a future of trouble as the conditions for their surrender are not clearly spelt out.

To be clear, their surrender is good for the morale of the troops and the nation but the idea of not paying for the atrocities they committed is against the principles of natural justice. It must not be allowed to happen.

Can it be this cheap? Can human life be this cheap in Nigeria that mass murderers will cowardly and shamelessly carry placards begging for forgiveness for their outrage against humanity and decency and expect it to happen just like that?

Can it be this simple? Can these animals in human skin just walk out of the bush with their families and return to a warm embrace and mass amnesia over their atrocities?

These mass murderers, arsonists and rapists that visited blood, tears and sorrow (copyright Fela Anikulapo Kuti) on hapless communities; capturing hundreds of young girls and derailing their lives through sexual slavery and violence, killing and maiming thousands, including children, and displacing millions in an orgy of violence spanning over a decade are returning from the bush including notorious commanders feared for their extreme wickedness and lack of empathy for humanity and we don’t seem to have a plan for dealing with them apart from ‘reintegrating’ them back into the society?

To put the scope of their atrocities in perspective, we need to look at the publicly available statistics of persons killed and displaced by these depraved individuals and decide if we should welcome them back with open arms, pat them on the back and tell them to go and sin no more or ensure that some of them answer for the over a decade suffering, human carnage, material losses and human right violations they visited on others to serve as a lesson and reference point for future generations.

According to the UNHCR, 2.7 million persons were displaced from their homes as at June 2021 as a result of Boko Haram attacks. Borno state as epicenter of the insurgency recorded 32,820 deaths from 2011 to date, while Adamawa had 4,009, Kaduna 3,804, Zamfara 3,705, Benue 3,075, Yobe 2929 and Plateau 2854 deaths (www.statista.com).

After committing mass murder, shall we simply accept their ‘apology’ as heartfelt and not use some of them as examples so that it does not look like we are encouraging impunity? Shall we allow them murder over fifty thousand innocent civilians and saunter back into our lives as if nothing happened? Shall we forget about justice for the dead and displaced for peace at any cost?

They behaved like they were invincible, strutting around like peacocks and filled with their misplaced sense of importance as God’s appointed moral guardians to ordinary people like us while their atrocities were watered down by ethnic apologists and those who harboured secret ambitions of a theocratic nation based on their warped interpretation of the holy books.

Their late unlamented and foul-mouthed leader bestrode the cyberspace like a colossus, ranting about heavenly guidance, duties to a malevolent deity and threatening hellfire fuelled by the worst form of brimstone on those he termed unbelievers from his deranged understanding of the tenets of his religion. He boasted about being ready to die while delivering on his heavenly mission but fortunately lost his life while embroiled in earthly leadership struggle with fellow terrorists.

Dying while delivering his promised death and destruction on ‘kaffirs’ would have made him a martyr and encouraged his followers to fight on until they achieve their utopian theocratic emirate but dying like an ordinary human being, committing an act forbidden by his religion opened the eyes of his erstwhile followers to the bundle of lies that he was.

Now that their chief collaborators are out of strategic control and they are facing withering fire from the armed forces, they have started surrendering in droves with expectations of being forgiven and their assault on our peace and sensibilities forgotten.

While it may not be ideal to prosecute and jail every terrorist, their commanders who bear the greatest responsibility for the atrocities must not and cannot be allowed to saunter freely out of Sambisa forest and return to the communities they once ravaged. We must not be deceived by the euphoria of their surrender to forget that their victims need justice to help them heal and achieve closure.

The kidnapped Chibok girls are returning with kids fathered by rapists who visited sexual violence on them for seven years, still traumatized by the experience of being forcefully married to a total stranger for seven years. Their dreams were killed, their lives derailed and precious periods of their adolescence wasted with terrorists. The kids they are returning with will serve as a reminder of those unhappy years in Sambisa forest and of their lost childhood and innocence. The kids will also be the leprous fingers that will attract attention and stigma to them from ignorant people. The girls are at a crossroad in their lives right now. What will they do with these unwanted reminders of their days as sex slaves?

The evil men at the top of the command hierarchy of Boko haram must be made to face justice to prevent future occurrence. We cannot allow their impunity to go unpunished if we don’t want another set of mad people declaring their own ‘Islamic republic’ in the future and going on another spree of killing people they term ‘unbelievers’ and other innocent persons to fulfil a useless cause and expect to be forgiven just like that. Once we set the precedence for mass murderers to casually walk out of hiding and ask for forgiveness, it will be hard to control what happens in the future as wannabe jihadists try their luck or misfortune on innocent civilians.

Reintegration of former terrorists, in itself, is not a bad idea but from experience, the culprits usually get the best of everything while the victims are allowed to go back and restart their lives with the barest minimum support, savings and decades of efforts wasted in a senseless war. All reintegration plans for former Boko haram terrorists must compulsorily include transitional justice to ensure victims and their families achieve closure.

Olaide Omideyi is a conflict management, post-conflict reintegration and economic development expert with over 20 years experience with international organisations including the United Nations. He writes from Abeokuta, Ogun state and can be reached on +2347032356295, omideyi3259@gmail