North’s unending battle with terror

Due to terror groups like Boko Haram’s ongoing onslaught in the North, stakeholders are looking for the reasons for their ambition to kill and kidnap people for ransom without end. Author UTHMAN ABUBAKAR
The level of insecurity has escalated to an alarming degree, despite indications from all levels of government that the problem of senseless killings and kidnappings for ransom was becoming insurmountable. Although terrorists have killed thousands of people in the North by taking over communities, security services seem to be considering ways to eradicate the threat that terrorists and bandits have brought to the region.
Three respected and informed northerners, who are aware of the security situation in the area, threw light on the problem that the people have been facing for a long time. They swooped and pecked with intriguing glee at what they saw to be the root causes of the instability that has devastated large swaths of the region over the past 14 years.
The main causes of insecurity in the region, according to Prof. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN and a former president of the UN General Assembly, are mutual mistrust among stakeholders, a rift between disgruntled communities and the government, massive corruption, ongoing poverty and unemployment, a lack of a professional civil service, a lack of a coordinating body between the government and its agencies, and a lack of media that comprehends northern aspirations and challenges in the context of Nigeria’s need for peace and development.