Nigeria: Fighting Back

opinion

"See something? Say something!" That is the refrain regularly belted out from the public address system in all US airports. We have our local variant of the same admonition here. But not too many people have heeded the call. Too often, people have been held down by fear. Boko Haram specialises in domination by intimidation: obey us or die! That was yesterday. Today is a new dawn. Thanks to the Nigerian armed forces and other security agencies, men have rediscovered their manhood and the victims of Boko Haram terrorism are beginning to reclaim their territory and find their voice in open defiance of the erstwhile bestial lord of the manor.

I call it the Azare template. Azare is that town in Bauchi State where the people decided not to allow terror change their way of life. They confronted it headlong. But before the people decided to take their destiny in their own hands, they had been at the receiving end of sundry attacks from agents of terror, including armed robbers camouflaging as Boko Haram. Last year, two banks and a police station were attacked by bandits. However, after visiting the scene and taking away the computers of the banks for forensic investigation the Police proved that the managers of the two banks were the masterminds; the bank officials had ferried out the N27million in the morning and just used the attack as smokescreen. The people had had enough. They were not interested in discriminating between Boko Haram and other criminals. Zero tolerance for all criminals was the battle cry. Azare youths followed the age long admonition that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. They combed the nooks and crannies of their town and surrounding villages and rid their environment of crime. It was the most reassuring proof yet that terror cannot germinate in the soil of patriotic vigilance.

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