By Samuel Oyejola
The former Director General of the Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies Kuru, Prof. Ahmed Danfulani has said that failure of governance and corruption at the corridor of power are the causes of Boko Haram in the country.
He said the poor and the less privileged youths in the country are not comfortable with the extravagant spending of the politicians. He said this at the International Seminar on Human Rights and Terrorism held in Abuja recently.
The Professor accused politicians and public office holders in the country especially in the north of spending money meant for the development of the country on luxury cars and other unnecessary things.
He warned the government that insurgency would be a reoccurring development in Nigeria until the government learns to manage ethnicity and religion among Nigerians.
“Ethnicity and Religion are the causes of insurgency if they are not managed well it would spark unrest and terrorism,” he said.
The former NIPSS DG said the government must be sensitive to the issues of ethnicity and religion diversity in Nigeria while encouraging Nigerians to tolerate the religion of others.
Also speaking at the seminar, an Assistant Professor from the George Mason University, United States of America, Dr. Daniel Egbiboa lamented that despite the work of the Nigerian security agencies in tackling the Boko Haram insurgency, international agencies allege human rights abuses on the security agencies.
He advised the Amnesty International and other human rights organizations to engage the Nigeria Army when gathering their reports.
Egbiboa was worried that international organisations like the Amnesty International in their reports focuses on the negative potentials of the people while they forgetting about those who are working hard to stop the insurgency.
While commending the military authority for the language requirement for military personnel in the country, he said the move would go a long way to facilitate trust between the locals and the military.
The associate professor said that while the government is working hard to win the war on insurgency and terrorism, he charged them to work towards winning the peace.
“The state and the non-state actors in the fight against terrorism must work together. There must be hybrid security governance,” he said.
“The government should also look at the future of the civilian–JTF. They must work on the psychological trauma of the locals. It is important to start the process of winning the peace as early as possible, he warned.”