The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, on Sunday said he is in support of the federal government’s plan to grant amnesty to repentant Boko Haram members.
He opined that such a move showed the government’s readiness to prosecute the war against terrorism by means other than military ones.
Speaking on “Hard Copy”, a programme on Channels Television, the cleric said he mad made such a suggestion five years ago but got a lot of stick for it.
He pointed out that the terrorist group is still functioning after years of fighting and claims that they are being decimated.
According to him, the recent abduction and return of the Dapchi schoolgirls show the group has not being annihilated or significantly diminished.
He said, “Why do we assume that security is just about guns and bullets? When Boko Haram started, I published an article titled ‘Breath not Bullets.’ I made a point that we would probably spill into a time when we would not be able to contain ourselves when those conflicts become a military operation.
“The first problem is that it is becoming capital intensive. The second problem is the human angle to the conflict. What is it that has made a decent human being to take up arm against his country?
“The problem we have is that the government has turned the Boko Haram war into military operations and turning the concept of security into guns and bullets. The question is that what is it that has been producing this discontentment? Why has the northern Nigerian become the centre of fire? We have failed to ask the right questions
“I have said it several times, we could close the window on Boko Haram today, but what is going to happen next we don’t know. The point I am making is that a country has to have high quality of listening devices about the voices of the weakest; about how people are hurt and what people are interested in.”
Speaking on the Dapchi saga, Kukah said: “Those with superior information and superior knowledge, which is what the government is all about, know something that the rest of those don’t. There is no war that has ended whereby everybody is declaring victory and going home. It has never happened; everybody has ended up around the table.
“When it comes to closing a conversation of that nature, you have to have a screening system. There are people who will tell you people found themselves in Boko Haram by all kinds of means; some voluntarily went there while some were compelled to go there. There are criminals who got into the game and there are some of them who have done terrible and horrible things. Their numbers, leaders and so on, have to be taken together.
“There is no way we can end the conflict without carrot; it is not possible.
“We say they are no longer holding our territory, but if they can come and take away this number of children, now the Boko Haram is richer than it was. Who knows what they are going to do with the money they have collected.”
