S
ome keen watchers of the
Nigerian polity have described
the proposed bill seeking to
establish the National Agency
for Repentant Boko Haram members
as laughable. Some others simply
termed the draft of the law said to
have been presented on the floor of
the Senate as poisonous and obnox-
ious which may never see the light of
the day or scale through the hallowed
chamber. Even the sponsor, Sena-
tor Ibrahim Gaidam, the lawmaker
representing Yobe East Senatorial
District and former governor of Yobe
State has yet to persuade Nigerians
especially interest groups from the
north why he deemed it fit to float
a bill for an Act to set up a national
agency for de-radicalization, rehabil-
itation and reintegration of repentant
Boko Haram members.
The mounting opposition against
the bill even from his people is a clear
indication that it was dead on arrival.
Senator Ali Ndume, the Senator
representing Borno South Senatorial
District, the hotbed of insurgency
described the proposed draft law as
distasteful and insult on the thou-
sands of men, women and children
who have been at the receiving end of
the Boko Haram atrocities and now
rendered homeless. Youths from the
north under the umbrella of Arewa
Youths Consultative Forum have
gone a step further to register their
anger and disdain for the proposed
legislation. They called on the rele-
vant agencies to investigate Senator
Gaidam for allegedly compromising
his exalted office.
Former Senator, Shehu Sani from
Kaduna State has stoutly opposed
the bill, insisting that the situation
in the north east has properly been
addressed with the establishment of
the North East Development Com-
mission (NEDC). He sees no sense in
establishing another parallel agency
to deal with insurgency. Similarly, the
Senator representing Ondo Central
Senatorial District, Senator Ayo Ak-
inyelure also roundly condemned the
idea of setting up an agency for crim-
inals whose nationality is questiona-
ble. According to the lawmaker, there
is no justification for the bill because
the insurgents are not Nigerians.
Whatever may have compelled
Senator Ibrahim Gaidam to cham-
pion the cause for an agency to cater
for repentant Boko Haram members,
that move appears unpopular from
the reactions trailing the draft law.
We share the sentiments expressed
by citizens who have spoken against
the bill.
Senator Gaidam and his fellow
lawmakers should rather focus more
in the task of bringing succour to the
displaced and homeless who are still
finding it difficult to come to terms
with their near hopeless state than
waste energy seeking to make life
comfortable for a faceless and unre-
pentant gang of murderers.
The time is now for the security
agencies to do the needful move
quickly to disarm and deal with, once
and for all, these criminal elements
and their collaborators who day in
day out constitute a threat to peace
and survival of humanity.
