By Sani
Tukur/Premium Times
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Nuhu Ribadu
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The
best strategy to contain the Boko Haram insurgency is a healthy blend of
dialogue combined with the use of force, says Nuhu Ribadu, the Presidential Candidate
of the Action Congress of Nigeria, in the last election.
Mr.
Ribadu, one of the leaders in the All Progressives Congress, APC, said since
the government has many of the Boko Haram insurgents in custody all over the
country, and since the group is "continuously setting off bombs and
carrying out attacks," it is unhelpful, from a security perspective, to
characterize them as ghosts.
The
former anti-corruption czar, speaking to PREMIUM TIMES on phone, Monday, is
also taking a sensitive review on whether insurgents of the Boko Haram sect
deserve amnesty as many in the northern states of the country are currently
canvassing.
Ribadu
said: "The President should not completely foreclose the possibility of
dialogue with the sect, claiming they are ghosts" arguing that the sect
members can't be ghosts because they have in the past offered to dialogue with
the administration.
Dialogue,
Ribadu argued, offers an atmosphere beyond technical definition of amnesty
because, he said, "it will equally ensure justice to all concerned,
especially the victims of the insurgency."
He
also said things had "gone so bad in the country at the moment and if the
president does not act right, the country may be plunged into another civil
war, out of the general decay in the land and not even on account of the Boko
Haram insurgency" that, he admitted, is now ravaging most of the north
eastern states of the country, and a few of the north western states,
particularly Kano.
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