Repentant Boko Haram Or Captured Boko Haram -By Abdulhameed Adamu Imam

Reports from some Quarters indicate that the Federal Government is planning to forgive the Boko Haram terrorists that have surrendered recently as a result of rain of fire expectorated on their Sambisa Forest hideouts by the Nigerian Airforce, using the newly purchased Tucano fighter jets. The government will also, after forgiving them, reintegrate them into their communities, the communities they had maimed, sacked, slaughtered and displaced.

In the first place, these marauders should not be treated as repentant Boko Haram but captured terrorists. Repentant man is the one who voluntarily surrendered because they’ve realized they were mistaken and regretted their mistakes. A repentant man is one who surrendered because they have regretted the pains they inflicted on the humanity. A repentant man is the one who surrendered because they have renounced the radical ideology they believe in, which drove them to commit the terror they have committed. Are they laying down their arms for any of these reasons?

These marauders are only turning themselves in because they have no choice, they are overpowered and raided in their terrorists enclaves. They are laying down their arms and turning themselves in because they are denied access to food and other necessary needs. If they had an upper hand over Nigerian Army, would they surrender? Imagine the number of our security men they would kill. Imagine the number of innocent civilian citizens that would be slaughtered in cold blood. They are characteristically indoctrinated terrorists that, whenever their terroristic tendencies are instigated by certain events in their communities, can take back their arms at any time, regroup and embarg upon their destruction business given the chance, and commit more terror than ever before.

Definitely, forgiving them and their reintegration into the society will spell doom for Nigeria. Does that mean all the atrocities they committed will go in vain? Does that mean there are no more consequences for crimes in Nigeria? There are people out there that stole ten thousand naira or less and are serving jail times in correctional centres and, in the other hand, we are here forgiving terrorists for slaughtering innocent civilian citizens and security men for more than a decade, what kind of justice is this one? Nigerian kind? Why do we believe more in forgiveness for crimes than Justice against them? And above all, how sure are we they won’t get back to the forest when they recover from their famished conditions?

How could you forgive the people that butchered millions of people, destroyed millions of property, sacked hundreds of human settlements and turned them to shambles, raped thousands of women, some of the women they raped were underage, while some were married women with their husbands forced to watch them being raped, turned millions of people to refugees and millions of children to orphans and pulled back Nigeria’s economy? How could Nigeria forgive the elements that had captured and declared, as their terrorist territory a number of Local governments with a landmass worth the country of Belgium? How could you forgive the terrorists that conscripted thousands of innocent underage children into their blood-sucking terror army, and forced thousands of women to marry them? Some of the Chibok school girls and many others are still missing as a result of Boko Haram terror activities and now the same terrorists are going home rewarded as repentant souls, to whom did they repent?

What Nigeria is going to tell the women and children whose husbands and fathers were eliminated from the Earth by Boko Haram? What the Federal Government is going to tell the women and children of our soldiers, police and other security agents that lost their lives on the battlefield fighting Boko Haram? Can you tell them that the killers of their husbands and fathers have been rewarded with forgiveness and reintegration and they are now living happily with their own families? If the war we are fighting against terrorism in Nigeria was truly genuine and not some form of political hypocrisy and deceits, we can not contemplate treating these marauders as repentant Boko Haram let alone forgiving them the heinous sins they committed against our country.

The essence of punishment for an offense is to serve as deterrent to potential offenders and if people are forgiven their crimes, especially war crimes and crimes against humanity, definitely crime will become the largest employment industry in Nigeria. Therefore, Nigeria must reconsider her position of forgiving and reintegrating them into the society to forestall the thinking that I can commit terror and later surrender and be rewarded with forgiveness and reintegration.

Besides, I can not see a man that killed my father, son, wife, husband or any other relatives and sacked my community walking on the streets as a free and forgiven man without making them pay for what they did. In which case, there will be a new phase of war between the living victims of Boko Haram terror and the forgiven and reintegrated terrorists and by extension, the little peace we are enjoying today will be jeopardized.

Federal Government must, as a matter of justice, treat and prosecute them as terrorists that were captured in battlefield fighting Nigeria and her citizens as no single Nigerian is in support of forgiving them let alone sending them back to the people they terrorized for more than a decade.

And if Nigeria insists on forgiving them as the best option, then it must prepare what to tell the living victims of Boko Haram terror. You must prepare what to tell our gallant soldiers who may feel demoralized to continue with the war by the compassion you choose to show to terrorists. Nigeria must prepare to handsomely compensate every Nigerian who lost one thing or the other to Boko Haram terrorists.

Nigeria must be ready to explain her intentions of forgiving the terrorists to the international communities who have been offering humanitarian services to the living victims of Boko Haram terror to relieve their sufferings in the affected states. And after sending them back to their communities, Nigeria must prepare to extend her compassion for terrorists by sending the same soldiers that suffered a lot fighting the now forgiven and reintegrated terrorists to protect them against vengeance from the community members who were once raided and killed by the forgiven terrorists. This is because, wherever people seek justice and fail to get it, they will surely resort to nothing but seeking vengeance