By Elizabeth Uwandu

A presidential aspirant on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Kabiru Turaki, SAN, said yesterday, that the war against terror in the country had remained intractable because the present administration failed to embrace global best practices of carrot and stick.

Kabiru Tanimu Turaki

Speaking at a news conference in Minna, Niger State, Turaki, who was chairman, Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North-East during the Jonathan administration, explained that they were able to push Boko Haram insurgents to the fringes of the country and also conducted the 2015 elections in the frontline states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states by adopting the time-tested practices.

He said: “Unfortunately, the APC-led government failed to continue the battle from where the PDP left off, and worse still, the government abandoned the all-inclusive recommendations left behind for it. Hence, the reversal in fortunes in spite of the claim to have ‘technically’ degraded the Boko Haram.”

According to him, there is nowhere in the history of nations that fought terror where terrorism was fought decisively and squarely based on open and direct or indirect confrontation between insurgents and the military.

He noted that when terrorism is based on on a dogma as in the case of Boko Haram, whether misguided or not, there was need to take the dogma out of the minds of insurgents who have surrendered because when you win the battle, you have to win the war.

He said: “You need to engage such insurgents in a serious re-orientation. You need also to ensure that they learn skills to become productive members of the society, in addition to making conscious efforts to re-integrate them into the society.

‘’Unfortunately, these are not options which this government is pursuing and that is why they are failing.”