Whenever insurgents act - killing innocent people or abducting teenage gals and slaughtering young vulnerable students, the response is always, are these people senseless? Not even religion supports killing of innocent souls!
Yes, insurgents are illiterates and common sense becomes less or perhaps no longer common in their thoughts.
Government is to be blamed for this situation we have found ourselves especially in the way it has managed the situation, when in the initial instance, efforts were projected at trading blames rather than finding a more pragmatic action.
Does poverty influence crises or crises influence poverty? No matter how you intend to answer the question, one fact remains that poverty and violence are correlated.
It is often argued that 7 out of 10 youths in Borno state are illiterates i.e 70 percent of youths in that area have no formal western education or Tsangaya Islamic education. Upon growing up, when these youths are expected to contribute to their society (even if it is just fending for themselves and family), they are yet to find their footings talk more of, do something meaningful to the society. Of course everybody's vision in Nigeria including the uneducated always remain, how to get away from abject poverty.
With persistent poverty and government the only solution to poverty, its ineffectiveness and lack of people oriented policies have made people particularly youths look for alternative means of livelihood. Then came, a bloody but rich alternative to poverty in Borno - Boko Haram. With a vast population of youth in Borno languishing in abject poverty and no hope for a better tomorrow, insurgency unarguably became the viable alternative and path to heroism, power and self-enrichment. But government kept branding them as used and dumped political thugs...huh, yes some of them were political thugs and, with similar violent attributes, it was easy to assimilate in this new found group.
Yes, insurgents are illiterates and common sense becomes less or perhaps no longer common in their thoughts.
Government is to be blamed for this situation we have found ourselves especially in the way it has managed the situation, when in the initial instance, efforts were projected at trading blames rather than finding a more pragmatic action.
Does poverty influence crises or crises influence poverty? No matter how you intend to answer the question, one fact remains that poverty and violence are correlated.
It is often argued that 7 out of 10 youths in Borno state are illiterates i.e 70 percent of youths in that area have no formal western education or Tsangaya Islamic education. Upon growing up, when these youths are expected to contribute to their society (even if it is just fending for themselves and family), they are yet to find their footings talk more of, do something meaningful to the society. Of course everybody's vision in Nigeria including the uneducated always remain, how to get away from abject poverty.
With persistent poverty and government the only solution to poverty, its ineffectiveness and lack of people oriented policies have made people particularly youths look for alternative means of livelihood. Then came, a bloody but rich alternative to poverty in Borno - Boko Haram. With a vast population of youth in Borno languishing in abject poverty and no hope for a better tomorrow, insurgency unarguably became the viable alternative and path to heroism, power and self-enrichment. But government kept branding them as used and dumped political thugs...huh, yes some of them were political thugs and, with similar violent attributes, it was easy to assimilate in this new found group.
Overtime, I do not need to begin to highlight the reoccurring cases of violence in that part of the country and Nigeria at large. Government has continued to use force to tackle insurgency with little or no result; they are growing and are gradually spreading to other parts of the country. However, the root of the matter lies with the vast illiterate youth population in the state and country. Such that, as you keep killing them, more of them are being recruited.
You don't solve a problem at its tail but where it begins from. A more pragmatic way is to win a perceived competition between the government and insurgents on who shall engage the youths first - for if they continue to remain idle, their loyalty goes to who comes first to rescue them out of poverty. Government has killed enough! or will they kill the entire Borno people if everybody there is labelled an insurgent? Something else has to be done - I therefore commend the decision of government to increase zonal allocation of funds for the North East, but it has never been the issue of allocation of funds but implementation of developmental programmes meant for the people. Once you engage these vulnerable youths to more honorable and productive ways, the possibility of resisting a bloody option becomes high.
If killing remains the only option, i fear we might be heading towards another civil war. Its high time we stop compromising issues of insecurity.
You don't solve a problem at its tail but where it begins from. A more pragmatic way is to win a perceived competition between the government and insurgents on who shall engage the youths first - for if they continue to remain idle, their loyalty goes to who comes first to rescue them out of poverty. Government has killed enough! or will they kill the entire Borno people if everybody there is labelled an insurgent? Something else has to be done - I therefore commend the decision of government to increase zonal allocation of funds for the North East, but it has never been the issue of allocation of funds but implementation of developmental programmes meant for the people. Once you engage these vulnerable youths to more honorable and productive ways, the possibility of resisting a bloody option becomes high.
If killing remains the only option, i fear we might be heading towards another civil war. Its high time we stop compromising issues of insecurity.
