The problems of insecurity are not peculiar to Nigeria alone, as many nations of the world have at one point in their history dealt with the menace of insecurity. However, what has been most disturbing in the Nigerian situation is the alleged support and collusion by many folks in the host communities with bandits, kidnappers and terrorists, including the continued deterioration of the security situation over time.

While many factors are responsible for the nation’s current state of insecurity, most of the reasons have been well articulated. The Nigerian Army along with the Nigerian Police Force and other security agencies have done a Herculean job in trying to combat the menace of insecurity, though frequent cases of large-scale kidnappings and violence still exist in sections of the country.

It is now a well-established position among experts that traditional military organizations are not equipped to fight insurgencies because of operational challenges, constitutional rights constraints, and the guerrilla tactics employed by insurgents a fact that was borne out by the American military experiences during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

However, to effectively combat and defeat the Boko Haram insurgency, end kidnappings, neutralize the bandits and restore peace to Nigeria, we must rethink our strategies and draw some lessons learned from the current efforts. In developing the new winning strategy, we must be cognizant of the fact that any efforts at defeating these enemies within must be a bottom-up approach, meaning that it must win the hearts and minds of people in the affected communities and enlist their help in intelligence gathering to enable security services liquidate them. Furthermore, given technological advancements in information technology and surveillance, we must deploy drones and unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAV) to the theatre of conflict to better aid in monitoring and deploying surgical strikes by our security forces against enemy combatants.

Some advocate for the creation of state police as the only vehicle to seriously fight these crimes and insecurity at the state level. I do not share this school of thought. I do endorse localizing crime fighting by recruiting locals into a civilian army of informants, a fighting force that can also aid in the collection of actionable intelligence, including reforming the Nigerian Police Force and implementing community policing which is distinct from state police and far more effective in addressing the security challenges.

Also embedding agents and informants in all communities and making sure police officers are from and or live in the communities they serve. We need reservoirs of informants and agents deployed especially to the troubled regions who will collect information and data for processing by the national counterterrorism centre in collaboration with other security agencies.

The trajectory of the war to restore peace and security in Nigeria will be on the upswing if we reorient and re-purpose the national counterterrorism centre to prioritize human intelligence and recruit one million agents across the country, while prioritizing zones of insurgency; deploy drones and Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (UAV) for surveillance and precision strikes against enemy targets.

We need to setup and deploy a readily accessible national Biometric Database for crime-fighting. Recruits should serve in their communities to help gather actionable intelligence which is key to effective targeting and response by the security services.

We must end, with immediate effect, the unconditional forgiveness of terrorists and bandits as it promotes more criminality. Also, guarantee amnesty from prosecution only for all insurgents, terrorists and bandits who lay down their arms and provide intelligence that leads to possible arrests of criminals after passage of the proposed terrorism and miscellaneous crimes reforms legislation.

Pass legislation to create special courts for terrorism, kidnappings and banditry or use military tribunals and exclude privileges of appeal to the Supreme Court. Launch a public awareness campaign through the National Orientation Agency (NOA) as part of crime-fighting efforts soliciting help from the public.

Finally, create a special council with autonomy to prosecute these crimes.

Nigerians must as a matter of necessity get rid of the begging culture that has come to define us and insist on accountability so that those who violate our laws are prosecuted to the fullest extent permitted by our laws and not cuddled or offered forgiveness without atonement.