The Goose and the Gander

I received considerable feedback after my last article, “Deradicalization and Fantasy.” It is not unusual. It comes with the terrain. Standing something on its head is an idiomatic expression that connotes a dysfunction. Dysfunctions are uncharitable. They make things harder for everyone. This was the point I tried to highlight in the article. This article aims to draw the attention of relevant stakeholders to the gap in our deradicalisation strategy. I used the goose and the gander as metaphors to drive home my point because the goose and the gander are correlated, more like an action and its impact. And shouldn’t the gander enjoy what the goose enjoys?

Operation Safe Corridor

Prioritising perpetrators over victims comes with its attendant challenges. It might create a “victor and vanquished” scenario. Operation Safe Corridor might be toeing this path without realising it. The Boko Haram insurgency continues to devastate us with its attendant violence and inhumanity. The recovery process is supposed to be in progress, but its prosecution is also skewed. The Operation Safe Corridor programme is not defective. It is selective. It is a peace-building initiative designed to rehabilitate and reintegrate repentant Boko Haram members into society. Its strategic focus is on depleting the combat capacity of the Boko Haram group and also hindering their ability to recruit more fighters into their fold. This is the A-Z of Operation Safe Corridor. You can’t sustain peace-building efforts in isolation. Peace-building is like preparing a meal. It requires a mix of ingredients. “Deradicalizing” the perpetrators and victims is one of the ingredients needed in peace-building initiatives. I am not aware of any law that forbids addressing the traumas of victims, just as much as those of perpetrators, in a peace-building project. Deradicalisation is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It is more effective when tailored to achieve its objective in specific instances.

Boko Haram is everywhere

The Boko Haram insurgency disrupted and continues to impact our socioeconomic lives. Don’t say it happened only in the northeast; its impact has been felt across the country. The difference is the referent of the scourge in other parts of the country. Bandits and kidnappers draw their inspiration from their Boko Haram precursors. This position can be understood using the “Contagion Theory.” It highlights that “people tend to follow a major idea or opinion rather than making one of their own.” For example, the quantum of arms and ammunition that entered the country beginning from 2009, when the Boko Haram insurgents started a violent campaign against the state, is unprecedented in our annals. Not even fallouts from the Nigerian civil war or our involvement in subregional peacekeeping enabled such a free flow of weapons. There is perhaps no country in the world with the staggering quantum of armoury in the hands of non-state actors like ours that has enjoyed peace.

It would be unwise to assume these arms and ammunition are exclusively for use within the northeast region. That is wishful thinking. These arms and ammunition move around easily. There is a ready market in different parts of the country, and for different purposes. It is a booming enterprise. The last time I checked, arms and ammunition are not for display in homes and offices; they are deployed for positive or negative reasons. It knows no boundary, tribe, or religion. It ultimately creates anarchy, as we have all discovered.

The Goose and the Gander

In conflict situations, unarmed civilians bear the brunt. Women and children face extreme conditions. They are traumatised beyond imagination. Their threshold for reasonability is impaired as a result of their experiences. I advocate that the principle of fairness and equality should be applied to all individuals, regardless of their status or circumstances. Placing one above the other is disjointed. There is no record anywhere that a hierarchical setup, which places ex-combatants over victims and their families, has yielded any significant results in peace-building efforts. When you do the same thing over and over and expect a different result, it’s wishful thinking. This is our present situation. The goose and the gander are correlated. I have argued in several forums that victims of conflict are at the rung on the ladder in initiatives to address their plight. They are the gander contextually. It doesn’t seem that what is good for the gander applies in Operation Safe Corridor.

Victims database

Dr. Felicia Itodo, in her work, “Deradicalization or Disengagement? Rethinking Nigeria’s Counter-Insurgency Approach to Boko Haram,” notes that “a society that cannot name its victims cannot fully acknowledge its trauma.” This is instructive. There is no official or acknowledged detailed database of victims of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. The closest attempt to this is the “Nigeria Watch Database,” hosted by Nigeria Watch, a research project that monitors lethal violence, conflicts, and human security in Nigeria. It is a private sector initiative which began in 2006 and is supported by the French Institute for Research in Africa. Currently, it is supported by the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) and the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta.

The programme relies on “a thorough analysis of ten national daily newspapers, completed by reports from other organisations whenever they are available.” Boko Haram insurgency is a part of its focus area. Its scope is limited as a private entity. I do not subscribe to the idea that a private entity should spearhead this initiative. It is the responsibility of the government, at the federal, state and local levels.

I am aware of the Northeast Development Commission (NEDC). Its mandate is broad-based. It “receives and manages funds allocated by the Federal Government and International Donors for the reconstruction of the economy of the northeast region.” We need to be clear about this. It doesn’t touch on the critical issue of rehabilitating and reintegrating victims of the Boko Haram insurgency into society. It is an interventionist organisation that focuses on “reconstruction and development” of the northeast region. Its mandate does not include compiling a register of victims of the Boko Haram insurgency. This approach is macro. It is not micro-based. “Macro” looks at the forest, while “micro” looks at the trees in the forest.

I love the “what is good for the goose is good for the gander” idiomatic expression. It reminds us that some issues are better addressed holistically. In my view, Operation Safe Corridor is not sufficiently holistic, but it holds the potential to be. This can be achieved when there is a realisation that the perpetrators of conflict and the victims of conflict stand on par. We must also emphasise building social trust in our deradicalisation efforts, at the risk of achieving “resentful stability” – a condition where violence subsides temporarily but social trust collapses. Our policymakers might wish to look into these postulations. It should be a case of what is good for the goose should also be good for the gander.

Ocheja, PhD, is a military historian and alumnus of the Nigerian Defence Academy.

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