North East rehabilitation plan

AS the deadline for the ongoing military operations to
clear the North East of the menace of Boko Haram
Islamist terrorists draws nearer, the Federal Government
is set to empanel a national conference to generate ideas,
strategies and momentum for the reconstruction and
rehabilitation of the nation’s embattled frontier.
The conference, tentatively set for December 7, 2015,
according to the Presidency, will involve stakeholders
from the government, private sector and international
partners.
It is expected that the North East Marshall Plan (NEMAP),
which will be designed to tackle the immediate and long
term strategies for the restoration of the broken human
and infrastructure of the North East, will gulp over N200
billion.
It is noteworthy that the nation is preparing, well ahead of
time, to help its embattled citizens wracked by violent
insurgency which has claimed nearly 20,000 lives and
displaced over two million people, to their feet as quickly
as possible, rather than leaving them to their own devices
when, hopefully, the enemy is defeated.
We, however, hope that a thorough job is done in ending
the insurgency first before rushing to award contracts. The
insurgents must be decisively flushed out and prevented
from infiltrating the law abiding populace or else the
returning internally displaced persons will not have the
protection they need to settle down and rebuild their
lives.
It does not make sense for people to go back to their
communities only to live in fear of suicide bombings and
hit-and-run attacks.
To keep the insurgents at bay, an effective strategy for
maintaining vigilance and communal partnership with the
security agencies must be put in place. We must banish
the notion that only the law enforcement agencies can
protect us from insurgents. Everybody has a role to play.
Perhaps, it is time to give the much talked about idea of
community policing a chance. No one can police a
community more than members of that community.
While we wait for the laws to be amended to
accommodate community policing, we suggest that the
existing “Civilian JTF” networks, which have usefully
partnered with the troops in the North East campaigns,
should be strengthened.
The reconstruction efforts should focus mainly on
restoring broken socio-economic amenities such as
schools, healthcare facilities, markets, motor parks and
road networks. Particular attention should be given to
farmers and small-scale businesses to rejuvenate
economic activities.
The people must be kept gainfully employed to avoid an
upsurge of violent crimes which usually come at the end
of most wars and conflicts.
The conference to rebuild the North East should be a
comprehensive package to ensure that insurgency never
comes back, while the people victimised by the conflict
are fully reactivated.