BOKO HARAM BECOMING NIGERIAN TALIBAN

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To appraise whether Boko Haram Terrorists can overrun the country like the Taliban were able to do in Afghanistan, we need to take a closer look at what drives and sustains Islamic extremists. In as much as the West, through their powerful media, depict the Taliban as a group of ogres who impose medieval punishment on the citizenry and deprive women of fundamental freedom and rights, the group has a level of support within the local Afghan population. This support enabled them to maintain a considerable level of resistance to the occupying American and allied forces in the country for 20 years, which led to the death of tens of thousands of Westerners and their Afghan collaborators. It also enabled them to overrun the country immediately after the Americans pulled out.
In the Nigerian context, the Boko Haram terrorists still draw some support from large swathes of the local population. These people give overt and covert support to the insurgents, which has enabled them to mount a sustained resistance to the Nigerian military.

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To address this problem, we must tackle the root causes of terrorism, including poor governance, corruption, poverty, dearth of economic opportunities and lack of social and basic amenities. The strategy of many terrorist groups in recruitment is always to target disgruntled people, people suffering from social and economic injustice, who feel left behind by the elite and the political class. It is instructive to note that the hotbeds of Islamic extremism and terrorism in Nigeria are in areas with the country’s most extraordinary incidents of perverse poverty and educational backwardness. These are areas where people lack basic amenities, areas with high unemployment rates and high illiteracy levels.
Therefore, good governance and its twin- development is a must to root out terror and to cut the supply lines of terrorists. Military might, in idealogical wars, no matter how powerful, would only lead to short term victories
The Nigerian military in 2016 launched Operation Safe Corridor, an initiative for the deradicalisation and rehabilitation of ex-Boko Haram members. The aim of the operation, the military said, was to reintegrate repentant Boko Haram members into society. Through this programme, the Nigerian authorities have recurrently pardoned and released Boko-Haram fighters under the guise of repentance, negotiation, surrender, rehabilitation and deradicalisation. More than 500 ex-Boko Haram members have already completed the programme. However, as can be gleaned from the events in Afghanistan, this measure can be counterproductive.
Professor Zulum, governor of Borno state, said some time ago that the deradicalisation of repentant Boko Haram members was not working. Zulum posits that the initiative needs to be reviewed because some ex-Boko Haram members only come to spy on communities and then return to join the group.