A call has been made to the Nigerian Government to re-orientate the Nigerian population in areas previously occupied by the Boko Haram sect to check the resurgence of Boko Haram attacks in the country.
The call was made by Professor Adeolu Akande during a nationwide network programme monitored in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Akande, who is a visiting professor of Political Science at the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, blamed the resurgence of Boko Haram attacks on the successful inculcation of local population of the Boko Haram ideology by the embattled sect.
He explained that while the Nigerian military had successfully dislodged Boko Haram insurgents from the communities they previously held captive, the Nigerian government has not successfully dislodged the ideology of Boko Haram from the minds of many residents of those areas which had been successfully brainwashed by the fleeing Boko Haram insurgents.
“The military has won the physical combat but we have to win the war of the mind for sustainable peace in the reclaimed communities,” Akande said.
Akande explained that the nine years or so of insurgency and occupation of local commumities have given the Boko Haram sect ample ppurtunity to inculcate the sect’s ideology in members of captured communities and others who interact with the sect.
“It is therefore not enough to dislodge them physically from those committees. We have to dislodge their ideology from the minds of those who have been brainwashed by them over the years”, he said.
Akande said the recent claim by military authorities that some parents were giving out their children to the Boko Haram sect for the purpose of being used as human vehicles for bombing activities confirm that some local people have subscribed to the ideology of the sect.
“We need to deal with the generations of Nigerians who have interfaced with the sect to reclaim the pool of Nigerians who may provide ready supply of personnel to the Boko Haram sect.”, he said.
Akande explained that unless we do this,those Nigerians who have imbibed the Boko Haram ideology will keep the operations of the sect alive and what we call a resurgence of Boko Haram attacks will become a permanent feature of our life.
“We must ensure that as the military dislodge the insurgents,other relevant agencies of government like the National Orientation Agency,the civil defence corps and adult educators and councellors move into emancipated communities to rid the minds of the local population of the Boko Haram ideology.
