On behalf of Magama Youth Progressive Forum (MAYPROF), we want to seize this opportunity to call on the government at all levels to wage an all out war against terrorism in Nigeria as the mayhem is getting worse each passing day.
This call has become necessary given the 10-paragraph letter written by notorious bandit Bello Turji to the federal government seeking to ceasefire through a conditional negotiation.
Reading Turji’s letter on the national dailies stunned MAYPROF and raised the apprehension on the Nigeria’s fate in the future; the provocative demanded by the bandit kingpin reminds us of some similar events in 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Initially, in 2014, the so called jihadists group of Boko Haram summoned the government seeking a ceasefire negotiation over its wanton killing of the innocent Nigerians in the North-east region of the nation.
Similarly, MASOB and IPOB proposed a ceasefire deal to the Nigerian government on several occasions right from 2015 to date conditionally. On the same note, Niger Delta Avengers did same to government and threatened to destroy the Federal Capital Territory if government failed to fulfill its demand and now, bandits are seeking a ceasefire negotiation.
To our surprise, all the aforementioned events happened under a democratic state whose soldiers and other security agencies rank the best in Africa and fourth globally. With these conditions, we wonder how the nation’s integrity and sovereignty can be protected.
Yearly, humongous funds are allocated to security yet there is no solution in sight, instead, the situation is getting worse.
Therefore, based on the MAYPROF’S observation, we have come to realise that negotiating with terrorists brings the nation to its knees, myriads of problems would be escalating and persisting.
So, the seemingly intractable insecurity is as a consequence of negotiation with terrorists; the more government negotiates with terrorists, the more new gangs of criminals will emerge. Therefore, the language in which these inhuman minds understand is fire for fire.
Moreover, the issue of forgiving terrorists or anybody found wanting generates crime of various types. Recently, government came up with the system of forgiving repented criminals which is very wrong as doing so, paves the way for more heinous acts in our community because they have the belief that they would be forgiven when caught eventually.
On this note, MAYPROF is hereby calling the attention of government at all levels to stop this unwelcome habit of negotiation and forgiving of criminals and terrorists otherwise we would have a long way to go in securing Nigeria.
However, our patriotic citizens should work hand in hand with the security agencies to fish out perpetrators of the heinous acts to face the wrath of law.
Finally, we commend the effort of the nation’s gallant soldiers working under the sun and in the rain to protect the innocent people. May Allah bless them all as they keep doing their best.
Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf, President of MAYPROF,Toro, Bauchi state.
