By Chuba Keshi
MON, MARCH 6 2017-There is a “mystery” of life that is instructive. The mango tree is a very large tree that spreads its branches and leaves in a dominating and indeed intimidating manner over the lilies and other “lesser” flora under its massive entity. In due season the mango tree sheds its pollen grains on all these “lesser” entities and even beyond, sometimes completely covering them. But in the season these plants dominated by the mango’s pollen do not get pollinated by the intruder. They do not bear mango fruits neither do they bear any hybrids with traces of the mango gene. They maintain their very own. They only bear their kind.
This short narrative is a fact of life. It is an axiom that shows that no terror can defeat the mettlesome spirit of a nation. All over the world the answer to terror has been terror. This is why some say that civilized nations of which Nigeria is one, do not negotiate with terrorists. Ask the Americans. Ask the Isrealis. Ask the British. The argument is that a man who negotiates with terror is like one who goes to the market with hot-cake merchandise at a rock-bottom price. A patron will buy, buy and buy again because it is profitable. In like manner when a terrorist is shown that there is some profit in terror he or she will continue to blackmail the victim without end. That is the argument of the “deterrent” school.
But then the lesson of history has shown that the hard line has not deterred terrorism. On the contrary it has perhaps heightened the stakes for terrorists and has made them even more sophisticated. It is in this light that we must also learn from another lesson of history. And this is that some concession that is highly informed by reason goes to assuage the anger of the deprived of which the terrorist is one, real or imagined. Making concessions as a way of getting the cooperation of the deprived has been demonstrated with slavery and the enslaved, colonialism and the colonized and even today, neo-colonialism and receiving nations. The latter explains international aid and the likes of all kinds of debt concessions.
That said, the approach to solving terror must be holistic. First, even the concessions referred to here, must not be in the manner of the much sung “amnesty”, as the latter has come in the form and character of an only solution. This puts the government and the people of Nigeria at the mercy of terrorists who now even have the liberty to ignore calls for a negotiating table.
To deal with terror, there must be first and foremost vigilance. Resolute vigilance. We have had in the recent past, astronomically incremental security budgets without a commensurate salutary impact on vigilance. For instance, it seems to me that the recent and most devastating incident of terror in Nigeria namely the motor park massacre could have had the criminals deterred if they knew there were things like surveillance cameras at the park. This is to say squarely that all public places should be implanted with modern surveillance equipment.
Closely related to this is the fact that Nigerians must be encouraged to be their brothers’ keepers. That is, while everyone is encouraged to blow the whistle in the event of any suspicious circumstance, the age-long practice of harassing informants by security agents must be dismantled. This unfortunate habit associated with security agents particularly the Police Force is arguably one of the most reasons most crimes are not detected at the plotting stage, or those not solved are not solved.
Then as a matter of urgency and a more permanent measure, the lure of power that is concentrated at the centre must be dismantled. This is because corporate terror as we see it today in Nigeria is motivated by the quest for power at the centre. Nigeria must return to true federalism as we had in the first republic. This way the centre becomes unattractive which in turn makes power-motivated terror unprofitable.
Further, the idea of quickly ascribing any incident of terror to any particular group even before any entity claims responsibility must be discontinued as it indeed is tantamount to glorifying terror. The undue media hype that is given to any terror incident must also be understood as an inadvertent tacit support for this evil. It is in this light that we must commend families of victims of kidnap who always say their loved ones have been “rescued” and mostly never divulging that any ransom was paid.
Finally, and the last of all measures is the issue of incentives. Studies have shown, and as mentioned earlier, that perceived deprivation is the root cause of terror. The political will to solve terror must be demonstrated by an adequate social security programme that must cut across all geographic and social divides in the country. This must be followed by an equally visible measure taken by the leadership to dilute the present very high perquisites of power. The present scheme of things where persons in power dominate everything from state treasury to who gets what contract; from who gets even the least of public offices, to who sits in the front rows in places of worship, must be dismantled.
It is the social behavior and attitudes plus the manner and pattern of allocation of resources that make some people think they own the country and also, at the same time, make others believe they have been sidelined. This why it appears that sometimes, the act of terror might just be that of a goat that has been pushed to the wall.
Dr. Chuba Keshi is journalist and CEO at Core Business Consulting Associates Ltd.
