Terrorism: Beyond Dialogue and Understanding
By Elempe Dele
The major social issue that plagued the 19th century was race. History recalls it clearly. In the 21st century, we are confronted by terrorism.
My immediate constituency, Nigeria, like other states in the Sahel , Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan — is plagued by immeasurable acts of terrorism and violent crimes such as kidnapping. The architects of these crimes are beyond dialogue. Yet the global concern from the West does not match the scale of the carnage.
I wrote earlier about the propaganda that drove French forces out of Mali, where they were fighting Al-Qaeda affiliates under Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). Four years after France left, Tuareg terrorists and separatists nearly overran the government, killed the defense minister, and Russian mercenaries failed to hold the line.Today, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger account for over 40% of global terrorism deaths.
This campaign of death began in Nigeria’s North-East in 2009 and has since spread to regions once known for peace. Their manifesto, written in blood, is simple: spread their crusade to every village.
I recently heard a Nigerian presidential candidate say that if elected, he would go and speak with “Shehu” in the North-East. The idea that these terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers can be dissuaded from their homicidal resolve is laughable.
In my estimation, these people are beyond dialogue. Their actions defy understanding. They exhibit acute irredentism. They have abandoned any possibility of dialogue for the dead-end monologue of death. I believe this deduction is sound.
Nigeria is now trapped in the killing domain of terrorists who are everywhere. Kidnapping, abduction, and terrorism have shifted from exception to norm. The terrorists no longer hide. They collect their own “taxes”, run Sharia courts, ban schools, mine gold, and mount roadblocks. Farmers adapt by working at night to avoid raids. Government officials move only with heavy security. Poor travelers are left to prayers. Fear now dictates our lives.
The record of these atrocities is terrifying. Since 2013, the chronicle of mass school abductions chills the blood: the Mamudo School massacre in Yobe, where about 42 students were killed; the College of Agriculture massacre in Buni Yadi, where 44 students were killed; the Chibok schoolgirls abduction, where 276 girls were taken; and the Yawuri/Oriire raids, where 39 pupils and teachers remain in captivity. These primordial crimes defy rational understanding.
On a personal level, I find myself accepting that we may have to live with this madness for the time being just as we have lived with pandemics. Almost every village has been drawn into the crime, with local accomplices. Only a few spaces are exempt from this modern depredation that violates the dignity of our people. They rape victims, take others as wives, or sell them into slavery across the Sahel, never to be seen again.
Yes, security agents are doing their best within their authority to confront this lethal assault. We would be doomed to despair if we did not recognize their sacrifice. Yet the spread of these crimes, pushing almost to the Atlantic from the North-East, keeps me screaming for a global response to this menace.
We live with this horror because we cannot agree on its material drivers. Only when we identify the causes can we negotiate with this monstrosity. People fight over land, oil, and water , known triggers for conflict. But what drives this modern madness? Is it the lust for power, survival, theocratic ideology, dogmatic indoctrination, the will to dominate, or some innate thrill that comes with killing? What has given rise to quasi-states with no fixed geographical boundary?
We must confront this madness as our heightened reality. With guns readily available across the Sahel, nondescript individuals now wield the power to dominate and kill at will in the name of causes that cannot be rationalized. That is the problem we face today.
