“Government is not a trade which any man or body of men have right to set up and exercise for his own emolument, but is altogether a trust, in the right of those by whom that trust is delegated and by it is always resumable. It has of itself no rights; they are altogether duties.” -Thomas Paine.
The decision by the current central g overnment to keep releasing hundreds of Boko Haram terrorists arrested and detained by the military in the ten year-old counter terror war is such that lacks rationality, sound reasoning and is in no way pragmatic and remains existentially unhelpful to the aims and objectives of running a constitutional democracy in which the people of Nigeria are the owners of the sovereignty.
The policy turns logic on its head and has set tongues wagging on the commitments of the current administration to defeat these armed Islamists who as I write are said to still control some territories in the North Eastern part of Nigeria.
The people and their general wellbeing should have dictated to the politicians who exercise democratic authority derived from the legitimacy donated by the people that it is futile and evil to focus government’s counter terror war around the meaningless idea of servicing the interests of the terrorists who have for ten years taken up arms to wage war against the state and the people of Nigeria. These atrocious acts of terrorism have made Nigeria to become the third most dangerous place on the globe at the moment going by the statistical computation done by a conflicts observatory platform.
Reading through the whole gamut of the policies captured in section 14 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is all about promoting the security and welfare of the citizens of Nigeria. Without security and welfare of the greatest number of Nigerians, then the central place of government is lost in transit, so to say. Thomas Paine made this point clear in the beginning quotation I included in this piece.
The idea of investing substantially in the meaningless project of the so-called rehabilitation and reintegration of terrorists into the society even when millions of the civilian victims of terrorism are languishing in unwarranted existential pains and in very intolerable excruciating conditions is a total negation of the provisions enshrined in section 14 of the 1999 constitution.
The idea of investing substantially in the meaningless project of the so-called rehabilitation and reintegration of terrorists into the society even when millions of the civilian victims of terrorism are languishing in unwarranted existential pains and in very intolerable excruciating conditions is a total negation of the provisions enshrined in section 14 of the 1999 constitution.
To therefore continue to witness the bad policy of neglecting victims of terrorism whilst investing in the resettlement of terrorists is nothing more than a constitutional aberration which seems to have drawn the motivation from the absolutely unlawful and totally weird way of viewing or explaining the exercise of sovereign power as promoted by the philosopher Jean Bodin (1529-1596).
“In his treatise Six Books of Republic, Bodin argued that sovereignty had to be absolute and perpetual to be effective. Absolute sovereignty would create a stronger central authority over its territory. To avoid conflict, the sovereign should not be bound by laws, obligations, or conditions, either from outside factions or from his own subjects.”
The insistence of President Muhammadu Buhari to go on releasing the known terrorists at a time of dangerous resurgence of terrorism and attacks by terrorists including public executions of dozens of Christian hostages by these deadly gangs goes to demonstrate the insensitivity and irresponsibility of those clothed with the executive power to govern the country.
Since the last five years, there have been spikes in the number of violent attacks in the North East even as this period has witnessed the unprecedented releases back unto the public of those who had waged war against the nation and the citizens of Nigeria. How does government expect mass murderers to co-habit with their victims of terrorism? This is incredible.
How the central government carries on with this primitive and wicked policy of releasing terrorists in the guise of deradicalization whereas the country stands to gain nothing from this unconstitutional practice has remained one of the wonders of the earth and indeed is a signal that Nigeria is a failing state.
Indeed, it is only in a banana republic that those who were sworn in with the solemn pledge to comply with the constitution now go on violating all the relevant criminal laws that demand that those who carry out mass killings must face the full weight of the law because Nigeria should be a nation governed by law.
This is why the Catholic bishop of Sokoto diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah rightly stated that Nigeria is the only country in the world whereby the greatest numbers of killers move freely in the society without being made to face the wrath of the law.
This expanding frontier of impunity and reckless lawlessness by the federal government is an absolute negation of the role of government as propounded by fathers of politics and philosophy of law. From the media we can find dozens of report that hundreds of terrorists are being freed back into the society even when violent attacks targeting basically christians are on the increase.
This expanding frontier of impunity and reckless lawlessness by the federal government is an absolute negation of the role of government as propounded by fathers of politics and philosophy of law. From the media we can find dozens of report that hundreds of terrorists are being freed back into the society even when violent attacks targeting basically christians are on the increase.
Around January 18th 2020, The Guardian reports that the military authority says no fewer than 608 repentant Boko Haram terrorists are currently undergoing De-radicalisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DRR) programme by Operation Safe Corridor (OSC) at Malam-Sidi, Gombe state.
Brig Gen Musa Ibrahim, Commandant DRR Camp OSC made this known when the Managing Director, North East Development Commission (NEDC), Mr. Mohammed Alkali visited the camp.
He said 14 of the repentant insurgents were foreigners from Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republic.
Ibrahim said: “From inception, we received 893 out of which 286 graduated and were returned to their respective states and countries for reintegration’’.
He said the personnel in the camp were working diligently with the mandate of OSC in conformity with international best practices.
According to him, the success of the programme will go a long way in restoring peace and security to the North East in particular and the country as a whole.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Alkali also interacted with the repentant insurgents and inspected the camp facilities.
NAN reports that a cross-section of the clients expressed delight in the federal government intervention to rehabilitate them even after collateral damages they had caused the country.
The Nigerian Army the following Monday released over 150 “repentant” Boko Haram members to the Borno State government. The exercise was part of the ‘Operation Safe Corridor’ in the North-East.
The former militants were released to reunite with society after they had undergone rehabilitation in Gombe State at a centre established for the purpose. The deradicalised and repentant terrorists were released to the Borno State deputy governor, Usman Kahdafur, in Maiduguri.
Also, Punch of July 3, 2019 reports that the Nigerian Army handed over 151 repentant Boko Haram insurgents to Borno Government for rehabilitation and reintegration into the society.
Now, compare the reckless releases of terrorists by the federal government and the lackluster display of executive rascality of going to the media with the military strategies against armed hoodlums and bandits who have killed thousands of Nigerians and destroyed many communities, the thinking would be that this government lacks tact and is largely garrulous.
How can the commander in chief go to the media to announce a yet to be carried out bombing campaigns against bandits and you think the bandits will then relax and wait to die rather than run away? What are the policy guidelines of this government in both the counter terror war and the protection of national security and maintaining the sanctity of Nigeria’s territorial integrity? For the benefit of those who are not aware, I will proceed to reproduce the public announcer telling the world that the military has been ordered to bomb armed bandits in Niger state.
In the release, President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly ordered air strikes against bandits, kidnappers and cattle rustlers that have been attacking remote communities around Dogon Gona forest in Niger State.
This policy of informing terrorists and bandits of the yet to be carried out military campaigns reminds me of what a scholar wrote about how most government officials have turned governance into something primitive, sinister and wicked.
The scholar said that most people accept the institution of government because it has always been there; they have always assumed it was essential. People do not question its existence, much less its right to exist.
Government, the author says sponsors untold waste, criminality and inequality in every sphere of life it touches, giving little or nothing in return.
“Its contributions to the commonwealth are wars, pogroms, confiscations, persecutions, taxation, regulation and inflation. And it’s not just some governments of which that’s true, although some are clearly much worse than others. It’s an inherent characteristic of all government”.
The essence of something the author says is what makes the thing what it is. But surprisingly little study of government has been done by ontologists (who study the first principles of things) or epistemologists (who study the nature of human knowledge). The study of government almost never concerns itself with whether government should be, but only with how and what it should be. The existence of government is accepted without question.
*Emmanuel Onwubiko is the Head of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA
- November 1, the Gathering Drum —A tide of quiet preparations - November 1, 2025
- Late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah: The Agony of a Legacy in Crisis - October 31, 2025
- Holding Power to the Fire: Journalism Lessons from Rufai Oseni’s Confrontation - October 23, 2025