The Untreated National Sore Called Boko Haram: The Way Out and Forward
Adebowale Bandele Emanemua
Abstract
Security threats such as militancy, armed robbery, vandalisation of government properties, kidnapping, and
suicide bombing from terrorist groups are not uncommon phenomena in Nigeria since the return of democracy in
1999. But significant among them is the worrisome issue of the Boko Haram sect which has lead to loss of lives,
properties and displacement of several innocent citizens in the country. Hence, this paper x-rays some of the
murderous atrocities of the extremist Islamic sect from 2009 till date, and implication of their growing national
menace on a democratic state like Nigeria. The study concludes that the Boko Haram insurgence is an untreated
national injury that was sustained by the government and now grown into a national sore. The failure of the past
government to treat this ‘national sore’ is still evident in the defective institutional mechanism adopted in
managing the crisis today. Consequently, this paper prescribed the ‘drug of choice’ to cure the sore in other to
prevent further crises in future from miscreant groups.
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