Nigeria's Battle against Boko Haram
Nigeria is one of the countries that have faced terror attacks over a long period. Almost all the attacks that Nigeria encounters originate from a terror group known as Boko Haram. Boko Haram was just a quiet religious group which offered religious studies to its members in the 2000s. However, by 2015, the group had grown to a very deadly and dangerous terrorist group (Aghedo, 2012 p. 855). In response, the government of Nigeria has been using its military forces to counter Boko Haram attacks. This strategy seems to be ineffective because, despite the military activities and efforts towards countering the attacks, Boko Haram has continued to launch more attacks in Nigeria leaving many people dead. There are more threats from Boko Haram due to the military attempts to destroy Boko Haram (Blanchard, 2014 p. 143). Therefore, the government must find alternative strategies of countering Boko Haram and, protecting its citizens from the attacks. The citizens have the right to be protected by the government against such attacks. This paper will, therefore, discuss some of alternative measures and strategies that could be used by the government of Nigeria to counter Boko Haram attacks.
Identifying the Political Nature of the Battle
The government should understand that the battle is more political than just a military one (Campbell, 2014 p. 112). The best way to counter Boko Haram would be cutting its roots. In other words, the government should identify factors that lead make Boko Haram's activities to be successful and then work towards suppressing those factors such that Boko Haram would find it difficult to launch more attacks. For the group to survive it needs more recruits into the group, the new members need to be trained, and also they need hiding places before launching an attack (Okoro, 2014 p.120). Therefore, the government should find out who help the group to accomplish all those requirements and stop them. The best strategy to put down Boko Haram would be draining off its support.
Disrupting Boko Haram's Financing
For example, to recruit new members and train them to become part of the terrorists, Boko Haram needs some financing. The government should identify the bodies or group that finances Boko Haram in its activities. The government should also investigate the reason why the sponsor of the group funds the activities of such a terrorist group. This would be beneficial information to the government when coming up with elimination methods. Once the sponsor is dealt with, the group will no longer have enough finances to carry on with its activities.
Collaborating with the Local Society
The government should work closely with the local society because they must have useful information about the hiding places for Boko Haram members (Okoli, 2014 p.46). The people on the ground have more information that could help the government realize what Boko Haram is doing, why they attack the people and where they get support. The o carry out the government should encourage people to let out any information they have and offer them better deals than what they get from the terrorists to join the group, or help them to carry out the attacks. This strategy would be very useful because it involves dealing with the matter from the roots. Once the roots are cut, it means that it will be almost impossible for the terrorists to launch more attacks.
The Importance of Proper Military Operations
Another effective strategy would know what not to do. The military forces in Nigeria have failed to counter Boko Haram because their operations are not right. In fact, the military is making the situation worse. Using human rights violations and heavy-handed methods make the situation worse because the military increases sympathy for the attackers (Sampson, 2016 p.130). When police use fighting measures that harm the innocent people as well reduces the trust that people should have for the military forces because instead of providing surety, they are part of human rights violators. In such a situation, civilians might act against the military in favor of the enemy. Therefore, if the military has to be involved, the government should ensure that they are trained to fight using methods that do not accidentally kill citizens.
Addressing Economic Development
Another vital factor to consider is economic development. Poverty is one of the most factors that attract increased numbers of terrorists. Lack of opportunities and poverty opens up a gap that Boko Haram can fill through recruiting more people to the group (Serrano and Pieri, 2014 p.192). When people do not have anything productive in their lives, they quickly fall into the traps of Boko Haram because they are offered a reward in return. Therefore, the government should step in and become service providers for the society and fill in the gap that Boko Haram uses as an opportunity to recruit more members (Zenn and Pearson, 2014 p.37). The government should provide the people with what they desperately get from Boko Haram so that they may not tolerate them anymore. For example, many youths get recruited to terrorist groups because of unemployment. The government should create jobs for the teenagers to keep them busy doing something useful rather than being idle and desperately thinking about how else they could make a living.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Nigeria can win this war against Boko Haram. This will, however, be a reality if they change their fighting strategies and adopt more effective ones. There is a dire need for economic development in the northern region; military troops need to be well trained on how to provide security to the civilians while fighting the enemy and the government needs to play its part by bringing all enemy sympathizers to records. This will work magic and Nigeria will be free from terror attacks.
References
Aghedo, I. and Osumah, O., 2012. The Boko Haram Uprising: How Should Nigeria Respond?. Third World Quarterly, 33(5), pp.853-869.
Blanchard, L.P., 2014. Nigeria's Boko Haram: Frequently Asked Questions. Current Politics and Economics of Africa,7(2), p.143.
Campbell, J., 2014. US policy to counter Nigeria's Boko Haram(No. 70). Council on Foreign Relations.
Okoro, E.R., 2014. Terrorism and governance crisis: The Boko Haram experience in Nigeria. African Journal on Conflict Resolution, 14(2), pp.103-127.
Okoli, A.C., and Iortyer, P., 2014. Terrorism and humanitarian crisis in Nigeria: Insights from Boko Haram insurgency. Global Journal of Human-Social Science Research.
Sampson, I.T., 2016. The dilemmas of counter-bokoharamism: Debating state responses to Boko Haram terrorism in northern Nigeria. Security Journal, 29(2), pp.122-146.
Serrano, R. and Pieri, Z., 2014. By the numbers: The Nigerian State’s efforts to counter Boko Haram. Islamism, politics, security and the state in Nigeria, p.192.
Zenn, J. and Pearson, E., 2014. Women, Gender and the evolving tactics of Boko Haram. Journal of terrorism research, 5(1).
