The dawn of transmuted politics in Nigeria has encouraged strange dimensions of conflict: violence and ethnic tension stage-managed by Boko Haram sect .Such threat touches big and small communities alike. Communities were divided along political and ideological lines, which gave rise to protracted and institutionalized waves of tribal and land clashes. There is no national policy on conflict resolution and peace building in Nigeria. Apart from the draft terrorism bill, is being postpone again and again; there are no existing functional frameworks for conflict management.
What exists is fragmented and uncoordinated policy statements embedded in various thematic policy issues outside Nigeria’s guiding constitution. It has become rather unfortunate for these hoodlums to use the platform as an instrument to harass, humiliate, demonize, defame, intimidate and repress law-abiding Nigerians. We caution that our politicians should emphasize electoral tolerance and leverage on issue-based leadership. The obvious lack of issue-based leadership among our politicians, especially those of the ruling party who are supposed to lay a good example, is a source of serious concern.
As family and friends of the two young men struggle to cope with their loss, we express our sorrow, shock and outrage that people continue to die from senseless acts of violence in our communities. Social cleavages ethnicity, voting behaviour and ethnic mobilization has been the root-cause. We are feeling the need to activate antidote against religious threats among Nigerians. It would make them feel safe to enjoy their autonomy, prosperity and wellbeing.
It disturbs the normalcy of human life in a mass scale. The quantification of Boko Harams terrorism is made by the amount of total losses during the event in terms of human lives, money and property and losses in nature and environment. The 1997 United Nations International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings (Terrorist Bombings Convention) is a multilateral treaty open to the ratification of all states designed to criminalize the unlawful and intentional use of explosives in public places with intention to kill, to injure, or to cause extensive destruction to compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing some act. It also seeks to promote police and judicial cooperation to prevent, investigate and punish those acts. Article 2.1 of this convention defines the offence of terrorist bombing as follows:
“Any person commits an offence within the meaning of this Convention if that person unlawfully and intentionally delivers, places, discharges or detonates an explosive or other lethal device in, into or against a place or public use, a State or government facility, a public transportation system or an infrastructure facility:
a) With the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury; or
b) With the intent to cause extensive destruction of such a place, facility or system, where such a destruction results in or is likely to result in major economic loss
The 1999 United Nations International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (Terrorist Financing Convention) is a multilateral treaty open to the ratification of all states designed to criminalize acts those who finance terrorist activities and to promote police and judicial cooperation to prevent, investigate and punish financing those acts.
“We haven’t completely figured out why some people are susceptible to that and some aren’t,” says a senior U.S. intelligence official. “There are people who argue it’s cultural or economic or political or psychological, but it depends.
Any individual who is concerned about the existence of mankind and society should be aware of the different types of insecurity affecting those in the entire region. Several researchers are finding out the ways to mitigate these damages in numerous ways using different techniques or skills. We understood that this government is considering this religious violence as one of the thrust area of research in another ten or twenty years of research plan. Several private organizations and NGOs are also involved in the mitigation of ethnic violence in Nigeria. However, the output is still little compared to the required amount of need for handling this global problem.
Public places should therefore be evaluated on their capacity to withstand spontaneous threats and attacks. As we have stated before, those who offer themselves for re-election ought to be evaluated against the record of what they have or have not achieved. Did they fulfill their promises? Did they offer quality service to all the people and not only those who voted for them into power? Were they available to listen to the concerns of the people? Were they selfless in responding to the needs of all, especially the poor? Again, as we have stated before, those who have not yet held office, those in the opposition, should be carefully evaluated in terms of their competence and their reputation for honesty and selfless dedication to the common good.
Nigerians everywhere are not swayed by personal profit but solely by the consideration of which of the conflicting issues is better for the nation. We have scrutinize the people who represent us and selected our candidate strictly according to the good we think they can do. Politicians here in Nigeria should allow the interest of the political parties to be kept subordinate to the public good. Politics is for the good of the people and the country, and not for a political survival of any individual or party. And if this spirit of the primacy of the common good were to animate all the parties, we would not witness these security lapses anchored on character assassination, mudslinging, slander, lies, calumny, manipulation and deceit which leave the public dismayed and disheartened.
As we face these security challenges, we must express concern regarding the frequent instances of intolerance, intimidation, character assassination and lust for power. There is the need to use diplomacy to rally the Boko Haram perpetrators and isolate their threats, President Jonathan should marshall economic power to facilitate and compel cooperation, our armed forces deserve effective grooving, again, this government should implement civil defense and emergency preparedness measures (including anti-terrorism legislation),ensure the resilience and redundancy of critical infrastructure, use intelligence services to detect and defeat or avoid threats and espionage, protect classified information, use counterintelligence services or secret police to deter, detect, deny, delay, detain the Boko Haram threats, imminent target and trainers. Again, We call upon our politicians and their cadres to avoid distorted presentations of their opponents. Emergency numbers for the police, fire service, army, intelligent units and Rescue personnel should be made public. Responsible politics demands a fair assessment of one’s opponents.
Since Nigeria is working closely with international agencies to gather intelligence. We expect a focus on border security at ports of entry – including Nigeria’s land, sea and air borders, route security, specifically those leading from airports into the cities, will be a priority, police are to volatile cities into sections, with teams patrolling sections and focusing on forces headquarters, hotels, other accommodation establishments, the stadiums, fan parks, restaurants and tourist venues
In the present atmosphere of fierce competition and character assassination, there is need to consistently remind ourselves of the noble goals of political activity. Politics should aim at the promotion of the common good and the service of all the people. Ours is a nation where we may freely choose those who will represent us, where we may now review the performance of our present representatives, weigh them in the balance of truth, justice and unselfish service, and, if we fin
d them wanting, reject them and elect others in their place. This is our inalienable right. Our vote has helped eliminate the unworthy and improve the quality of the leadership of our country.
Freedom would become a reality in our country when the politicians take their responsibility seriously by addressing themselves to real issues, to their manifesto, so that Nigerians could judge what ideas their leaders had on problems that really matter: cost of living, unemployment, corruption, poor services in education, health, government offices and so on and so forth. They should respect truth.
It is always interesting and inspiring watching the leaders of the advanced democracies of the world handling challenges of such magnitude. Their goals are usually issue-centred. Government do take one another up on critical issues affecting the lives of their people, especially during presidential debates which we hardly hold here because the ruling party has consistently refused to take part in such debates. And theirs goes beyond ‘I will do this, I will do that’, ‘I will provide this, I will provide that’, which have become usual platitudes with our politicians here. They make it a matter of duty to truthfully explain how they intend solving identifiable problems in every facet of their lives and how to make life more liveable for their people. They hardly engage in name-calling, abuse, lies, slander, character assassination, malice and insults. This is the kind of approach one expects our politicians, especially those in the ruling party, to emulate. Only those candidates who have nothing to offer the electorate resort to lies, slander, character assassination, calumny and deceit during electioneering period.
Conflict management and peace building in Nigeria continues to face major challenges in the current national and regional environment. Instability in neighboring states has resulted in increased cross border conflicts, proliferation of small arms and humanitarian crisis resulting in the loss of life and property.
Institutional challenges such as the capacity of security forces and other government agencies to prevent, mitigate and manage conflict remain despite the growing recognition by the government of the need to proactively address conflict as a development issue in collaboration with other partners such as civil society, private sector and development partners.
There remain operational challenges manifested in the continuing need to improve effectiveness and impact of ongoing peace building programs particularly the traditional justice systems. The government needs to realign its priorities and resources to ensure that adequate resources are generated for conflict management and peace building. The structural problems that fuel conflicts must be addressed through the realignment of priorities that recognizes the importance of peace and security in national development.
Those who sponsor these killings are advised to investing in human development, not rather than arms proliferation. Again Government should engaging policy makers to address the emerging peace dividend, citizens must give this leadership a clear mandate to promote and sustain development; and a concept of development cooperation so that it includes all flows, not just subsidy. President Jonathan and the Law-makers should agree that 20 percent of national budgets and 20 percent of economic subsidy be used for human development. If security is well guaranteed expatriate teachers and lectures (mostly from Asian Tiger-Nations) will now be engaged in our schools and universities to enhance an Economic Security,
The Nigerian people are looking forward to leadership that will affect their lives and livelihood. They want to see a regime that will consolidate and strengthen our democracy beyond individualism, ethnicity and regionalism. But what they are seeing are security situation that totally lack traditional concept regarding how to solve the myriad of problems confronting the nation. And maybe due to lack of any clear-cut programs for the people, the only discernible message that they are selling is abuse. But abusive campaigns are not what the Nigerian people expect to form the focal point of this year’s security challenges. They expect to hear what plans are in the offing towards finding lasting solutions to the senseless loss of lives from the state (torture), different tribes (ethnic tension), men of the underworld (crime), facing the country from those aspiring to emerge as our leaders but not abuses. But each time it occurs here, there’s a feeling of hopelessness as we realize there are no easy answers for keeping our daily business rigid and our lives safe.
