The Nigerian government has made it public that Boko Haram militants who had surrendered to military authorities would be rehabilitated before being reintegrated into the society. The government decision was announced by Mike Omeri of the National Orientation Agency in the nation’s capital Abuja. Mike Omeri added that the rehabilitation policy contained in the counter-terrorism document of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would be implemented in its entirety in handling the surrendered insurgents.
The Goodluck Jonathan administration maintains that those who surrendered would undergo a de-radicalisation and rehabilitation process and those who blatantly refuse would face justice. However, many particular those Cameroonian families who lost loved ones through Boko Haram violence think the Nigerian government is making a mockery of their respective families. Alimatou Asebe who spoke to Cameroon Concord from her battered home in Maroua in the Extreme Nord Region in Cameroon noted that Mike Omeri must have been misled into announcing what she said is the most weird thing ever to come from a fellow African personality. She added that if Nigeria does not have enough secured jails, President Goodluck should send the Boko Haram militants to Cameroon and they would face the consequences of their actions.
A senior Cameroon army officer after hearing about the Mike Omeri pronouncements was heard murmuring privately “de-radicalisation and rehabilitaion! Are these Nigerian government officials kidding me?” A Cameroonian opposition MP who chatted with Cameroon Concord at the time of writing this report did observe that “for a country that is yet to organise a state funeral for soldiers killed by the Boko Haram terrorists to start invoking the de-radicalisation and rehabilitation concepts is completely unacceptable”.
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