Still on Soft Approach to Countering Terrorism
By Yunus Abdulsalam

The menace of terrorism and insecurity pervading the polity with its attendant negative effects on our national lives and corporate existence has continued to cause goose pimples in the minds of many patriotic Nigerians. It is mind-boggling nowadays, seeing the headlines of national dailies being dominated by news of terrorism with some fringe elements threatening to hijack the monopoly of violence from the hand of the state. This is a sorry development that calls for concerted efforts towards bringing peace and normalcy back to the driving seat.

It is therefore a worthy development the recent unveiling of a strategy document titled as “Soft Approach to Countering Terrorism” by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd), on the 18th March 2014. It is surely a complementary framework to the ongoing military offensive against terrorists. On the point of law, the recent action of the NSA conforms to the provision of section 1 (A) of the Terrorism Prevention Act 2011 – which saddled the NSA with the co-ordinating responsibility on matters relating to terrorism. The section enshrined thus: “ensure the formulation and implementation of a comprehensive counter terrorism strategy, build capacity for the effective discharge of the functions of relevant security, intelligence, law enforcement and military services under the acts”.

However, while the soft approach to countering terrorism is a laudable project theoretically, it is a different ball game altogether when one ruminates over the efficient implementation of the project and the need to put in place the requisite infrastructures for the implementation to thrive. These are critical issues which forms the crux of this piece.

Firstly, there is the need for the office of the NSA to be seriously committed towards the full implantation of this project. Otherwise this laudable project will become the proverbial five fingers of a leper. Instances are abound, where the Federal Government has been accused of non-implementation of various recommendations by different committees (commissioned by the same Federal Government) on how to adequately stem the tide of terrorism and insecurity. Lets recall, professor Nuhu Alkali, a dialogue committee member, at one time aired his dissatisfaction over Federal Government’s failure to implement his committee’s recommendation as he believed that its implementation would have averted several attacks that claimed many precious lives.

Of course, the Federal Government has been working assiduously and making tremendous efforts in curbing this nauseating scourge as there are plethora of instances of disruption of terrorist cells which led to prevention of attacks across the country. But if the truth must be told, the Federal Government needs to heighten the level of implementations to the barrage of well meaning recommendations at its disposal.

Secondly, the details of the exercise of the de-radicalization of the convicted terrorists and suspects awaiting trial are thoughtful and well founded. It aims at exterminating the root of the extremism instincts in the minds of this class of people. The program is prison based as the Ministry of interior and prison service is expected to be the co-drivers of the program.

However, when one peep at the distasteful condition of the prison inmates in Nigeria, it surely becomes a conundrum on how the insightful program will thrive.

The deplorable condition of Nigeria prison is, as succinctly put by Suleiman Shuaibu, President of African Youths for Conflict Resolution, “Every where in Nigerian, inmates are suffering too much of population – the prison yard is congested. The nature of where they sleep, the atmosphere is not conducive”. Looking at this gory picture as depicted, one will be constrained to submit that this altruistic prison based program is akin to an attempt to erect a dam in a vast arid desert.

Is the Government desirous of ameliorating this situation? Irked, by the sad development, the Nigerian Prison Services was renamed Nigeria Prison and Correctional Service sequel to the Senate passage of a bill for an Act to repeal the Prisons Act CAP P29 Law of the federation of Nigeria 2004. Infact, according to the Bill the name change is to “underscore the humane aspect of the reform focus of the prison administration and to conform to the provisions in the international instrument”.

But the above appears to be a cosmetic reform approach while the nitty-gritty of areas of the reform is seemingly neglected. This is typified by the hard fact that still stare back at us: the repulsive condition of the prison and inmates persists as many people, according to Amnesty International, suffers from neglect and mistreatment in Nigerian Prisons in 2013. More worrying, is that less than 5 percent of budgetary allocation (of 2014 proposed budget) is made for new programmes and improvements out of the nearly 290 million dollars allocated to Nigerian Prison.

On the whole, the Government must show higher political will towards the implementation of several recommendations on how to tackle the security challenges as well as putting requisite arrangements in place that will enhance the efficiency of the implementation. In the same vein, there is need for all Nigerians to support the Government in the collective bid to scratch off the shackles of terrorism so that Nigeria can join other nations that are busy rebuilding their economies, revitalizing their physical infrastructures and human capital with the aid of leap-frogging technology.

Yunus Abdulsalam
A legal practitioner
Garki II Abuja
[email protected]