A former presidential candidate of Alliance for Democracy, Olu Falae, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to use maximum force to deal with Boko Haram.
A chieftain of the Social Democratic Party, Falae said he was distressed that after more than 100 days in captivity, the Federal Government had not been able to rescue the more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls held hostage since April 14 by the Boko Haram insurgents.
“I am very saddened and distressed that there is insurgency in Nigeria. I never thought it could come to this. If you look around the world, it is the same problem — you can see what is going on in Iraq and Syria; there is a group called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria that wants to take a part of Iraq and a part of Syria. It is totally unheard of.
“In Afghanistan, Yemen, and other places, you see wars going on. Terrorism has become a worldwide phenomenon. It is unfortunate that the Boko Haram insurgency is a different kind of war; the traditional war is a war against territory but this terrorist group kills people indiscriminately, unprovoked. They commit mindless violence,” he said.
Falae noted that the Nigerian troops should have gone after the Islamist militants with full force in the early period of the insurgency.
“From the beginning of this insurgency, we should have gone after them with full force to stamp out insurgency. At the beginning, it was a local matter in the North-East being used by some politicians to achieve their own ends. But Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab have been given an opportunity to infiltrate Boko Haram; they’ve taken over, equipping them and financing them. What we have now is no longer a local issue. It is international in scope.”
Although, he argued that terrorism was a global plague, he admitted that President Jonathan should have dealt decisively, by using maximum force, with the group.
“Our government should do whatever it can to combine forces with diplomacy. But emphasis should be on force because if the government doesn’t deal with the insurgency now, it will rear its head tomorrow. Therefore, the time to have acted was yesterday, not today.
“But now that we’re here today, we should do whatever we can — we should use maximum force to stamp out this evil. It is evil; kidnapping innocent children, killing women and children for no reason. The government should do all it can to fully equip the soldiers, boost their morale and ensure their welfare is well taken care of,” the SDP chieftain argued.
Similarly, a human rights activist and the Chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Debo Adeniran, called on the Federal Government to facilitate the immediate rescue of the schoolgirls.
At a press briefing held on Friday to inaugurate a new initiative entitled ‘Action Team Against Conscription and Kidnap,’ Adeniran said the level of insecurity in the country was disheartening and called on the public to sustain the agitation for the search and rescue of the abducted pupils.
He said, “It is with immeasurable concern and responsibility that we hereby address you on the state of insecurity in our country, the launching of ATACK, and as well the public declaration of our mission to sustain agitation on the search and rescue of the abducted children in Chibok, and other places.”
President Jonathan, he stated, had the responsibility to ensure the safety, welfare and security of Nigerians, stressing that the nation had barely had some respite from the Niger Delta militants when the Boko Haram insurgency started.
“The responsibility of any good government is to guarantee the safety, welfare and security of the people. The present level of insecurity in Nigeria is the greatest challenge to the continuous existence and growth of our nation.