27th December, 2015
A retired Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Alhaji Bashir Albasu, has called on the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari to address growing level of injustice, ignorance, poverty and corruption at the grassroots.
Albasu made the appeal an interview with NAN on the sideline of 2nd Edition of the 2015 Nigeria Security Exhibition and Conference (NISEC) in Abuja on Sunday.
According to him, terrorism is fuel by poverty, ignorance, poverty, corruption and injustice in the country, hence the need for the government to address the situation to restore peace in the country.
Albasu said that in addition to what the federal government was doing to fight insurgency, government should go to the grassroots to make sure that it prevent injustice and other factors that fuel terrorism.
“These are what fuel terrorism, going to Sambisa Forest to completely wipe out the terrorists is a very good and excellent effort.
“But what do you do with what breed terrorism because if you wipe out the Boko Haram terrorists today without addressing the root causes of it the situation might resurface.
“I remember 30 years ago, when President Shehu Shagari was in power, we had Maitatsine uprising in Kano which led to the death of over 10,000 innocent citizens.
“The military was used to subdue the Maitatsine uprising and peace was restored in Kano.
“Similarly, in Maiduguri before the present security challenge there was another one but I have forgotten the name they were calling themselves, it was also knocked down by the military.
“And now we are fighting the Boko Haram. This shows that what we are doing is to allow the tree to grow and then cut the top of the tree and the branches.
“That means the root is still intact in the ground and the tree will still grow again,” Albasu said.
The retired AIG, who is also the District Head of Albasu in Kano state, stressed the need for government to be proactive in tackling poverty and social injustice at the grassroots as a panacea to insecurity.
“If we can be able to address these problems from the grassroots then we don’t have any business with terrorism because it will not grow,” he said.
He also advised government to provide basic social amenities to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to prevent them from becoming ready made reservoir for recruitment into terrorism.
“I was listening to the BBC Hausa service few days ago and some IDPs were interviewed in which they complained that there is no enough food for them to eat,
“They also complained about lack of hygienic condition in the camp and that there is no enough shelter for them to sleep.
“If we allow this situation to continue some IDPs will be sneaking in and out of the camp, and if they have no jobs to do, no places to go, they might join terrorism,” said the traditional ruler.
Albasu, therefore, advised the government to make sure that enough was being done to make the IDPs comfortable and as soon as possible rehabilitate their towns and take them back.
“This will make them useful and productive to their communities. But allowing them in camps and not providing what they need, we are also breeding another set of terrorists,” he said.