- No. Surrendered Boko Haram cadres must face justice
The increasing surrender of Boko Haram/Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) fighters, with their families, signifies the 12-year Boko Haram insurrection may just be rolling to an end.
Yet, all that has elicited from Governor Babangana Umara Zulum of Borno State, the epicenter of the severe blood-letting, is bitter-sweet sentiments, drawing from the governor some perplexing quandary.
“We (in Borno State) are in a very difficult situation over the ongoing surrender by insurgents. We have to critically look between two extreme conditions and decide our future,” he declared at Gwoza and Bama, two local governments that have tasted the tragic thunder, of the free-killing Islamists. “We have to choose between an endless war or to cautiously accept the surrendered terrorists, which is really painful and difficult for anyone that has lost loved ones, difficult for all of us, and even for the military, whose colleagues have died, and for volunteers.”
“No one,” Prof. Zulum insisted, “would find it easy to accept killers of his or her parents, children and other loved ones.” True.
Which is why there should really be no quandary, as to the fate the surrendering fighters should face: justice. That is the only way to atone for their past crimes: against defenceless civilian victims; raped and captured women and children; and gallant officers and men of the Nigerian Armed Forces, that lost lives and limbs, in spirited defence of motherland.
Open, clear and transparent justice will also bring closure to the victims, heal the land of terrorist blights, teach the futility of dangerous Islamist radicalisation and nurture sustainable peace, in lieu of destructive war, that has laid the area prostrate for the past 12 years.
This much has been vouched by the Audu Ogbeh-chaired Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), which just forcefully argued the surrendered terrorists must face justice. Pooh-poohing any talk of amnesty for insurgents, ACF argued any talk of such would destroy the basis for trying other ethnic agitators nation-wide, for breaching the peace.
Still, after establishing that grand principle of justice — do the crime, do the time, to borrow that famous American quip — some wisdom.
No one can question Governor Zulum’s bona fides, on the destruction Boko Haram wrought in Borno. He has offered leadership far beyond the call of duty, throwing himself in harm’s way so many times, to show solidarity and empathy with his beleaguered people.
He has also encouraged and rewarded locals that have shown unusual courage in the face of the Boko Haram pestilence; and even called on the Federal Government to hire mercenaries to smoke out the insurgents and return peace to his state.
That is why his mid-way plea must not be completely discarded, for short-term cessation of hostilities; and long-term sustainable peace.
But let’s be clear again: there should be no talk of amnesty. Every surrendered insurrectionist must face justice. Still, the penalty regime must carefully differentiate between the mere foot soldiers (many of whom may have been suborned to the crime) and the grandmasters, who really are the evil brains behind the wanton terror.
Whatever is decided, it should be clear to the surrendered, and those thinking about surrendering, that they are better off, even while serving due punishment, than under the destructive Islamists in the bush.
Such tactics, if well done, would cripple Boko Haram commanders’ ability to recruit new cells. Drained of new brain-washed zombies, their ability for further mischief would be greatly curtailed.
Besides, it is getting clear that the bandits of North West and part of North Central may be no more than mutations, of fleeing Boko Haram commanders and fighters from the North East. So, the earlier Boko Haram is vanquished in the North East corridor, the nearer, it would appear, the end of the rampaging bandits too, sacking remote villages and seizing, for ransom, innocent school children and their teachers.
The Federal Government and the gallant armed forces deserve plaudits for this encouraging phase of the Boko Haram campaign. But it is imperative to seize the moment and move in for the kill. This isn’t the first lull, during which Boko Haram would reel and suffer reverses. But the military must make it their last; and rout Boko Haram, once and for all. This golden opportunity must not slip.
