The Senate’s resolution to halt the rehabilitation of repentant terrorists was “unfortunate” and potentially counterproductive.
A security analyst and Associate Professor at the University of Namibia, Dr, Babayo Sule, who faulted the Senate’s resolution, said the programme was introduced only after successive military and security strategies failed to bring lasting peace to the country.
“The information or the news I’m just seeing on the resolution of the Senate that the federal government should stop the rehabilitation and deradicalisation policy against violent armed groups in Nigeria, including Boko Haram and bandits, is an unfortunate suggestion.
The Federal Government in 2016 began a programme for former Boko Haram combatants tagged Operation Safe Corridor (OSC), which processes defectors who voluntarily surrendered.
It was initially meant for the ravaged North-East region before it was extended to some North-Western states.
So far, Nigerian officials said Operation Safe Corridor has been instrumental in the fight against insurgency in the North-East.
Thousands of former insurgents who surrendered or defected were reportedly reintegrated into society.
The initiative was built on five pillars: disarmament, demobilisation, deradicalisation, rehabilitation, and reintegration.
Speaking further on the resolution, Sule said “to me it seems like there is no security expert in the Senate, or if there is, he might be overwhelmed.”
He said rehabilitation, reconciliation, disarmament and deradicalisation are recognised components of Nigeria’s counter-insurgency framework and cannot simply be discarded through a Senate resolution.
The lecturer said the Federal Government only adopted the programme after exhausting conventional military options.
According to him, “the Nigerian government will not have opted for the choice of deradicalisation except that Nigeria’s security architecture is overwhelmed by the multi-pronged and multidimensional challenges of insecurity across the country.”
He said before the establishment of Operation Safe Corridor in 2017, the government had relied on military offensives, the Joint Task Force, the Multinational Joint Task Force and support from the African Union, but “almost all the processes adopted by the government failed.”
Sule, however, said the programme had recorded shortcomings, adding that “our research, which lasted almost five years, showed that something is wrong and it is not heading toward the anticipated results.
“But that notwithstanding does not in any way mean that it should be abandoned or abolished. I think it is not a wise choice,” he said.
Rather than scrap the programme, Sule told the Senators to summon security chiefs to explain the country’s worsening security situation and identify operational challenges.
“Let the security chiefs narrate their dilemma, then let the Senate intervene and ensure that all the necessary logistics required are provided promptly.
“That may ameliorate the situation and, in the short run, lead to the restoration of peace and tranquillity across the country,” he said.
