While the Nigerian government and army continue to mount ineffective offensives against Boko Haram, the latter carries on with its expansionist activities, seizing more and more towns in Nigeria, killing innocent civilians and aggrandising itself. The continual capacity of this terrorist outfit to wreak havoc in Nigeria and destabilise it has gone beyond alarming proportions and entered the realm of a quotidian curse. Add to this the fact that most of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram on April 14 this year from northeast Nigeria are still missing and Nigerian soldiers in combat with Boko Haram are fleeing the towns in the northeast to seek refuge in Cameroon, across the border, as was reported last week, and you get a picture of how daunting is the challenge facing President Goodluck Jonathan.
What he needs to expressly attend to is healing the long-festering sectarian sores that are responsible for Nigeria’s unrest. This would defeat organisations like Boko Haram whose power is plugged into the disenchantment of Nigeria’s many ethnic people who have long been discriminated against by the central government. Once this is done, Nigeria will have a shot at moving on.
