The cleric said the government has superior knowledge and information about Boko Haram that the generality of the people and was therefore in the best position to know how to tackle the insurgency
Mathew Kukah, the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto has defended Federal Government’s offer of amnesty to members of Boko Haram terrorist group.
The cleric said the government has superior knowledge and information about Boko Haram that the generality of the people and was therefore in the best position to know how to tackle the insurgency.
Kukah, who spoke on Channels TV interview programme on Sunday also rebuked the government for its failure in getting to the root of the Boko Haram menace.
Kukah 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?
He added that government needs to develop a ‘listening ear’ in order to understand the cause of Boko Haram insurgency.
The Bishop said, “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 a high quality of listening devices about the voices of the weakest; about how people are hurt and what people are interested in.”
“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.
The cleric added that the recent release of the Dapchi girls has made the terrorist richer and he fears what the terrorist would do with the money given to them by the federal government.
“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,” he said.
