Nigeria has perfected a dangerous ritual: a man can massacre villagers, ambush soldiers, bomb churches, kidnap schoolchildren, burn towns and all he needs to do is wake up one morning, say “I have repented,” and the government will roll out the red carpet.
In a country where jobless graduates roam the streets with empty CVs, where honest soldiers fight for peanuts and body bags, the Nigerian state somehow finds billions to “rehabilitate” terrorists. These same terrorists who once boasted about spilling the blood of Nigerians are suddenly rewarded with training, stipends, and most shockingly, recruitment into the very army they once fought against.
Imagine the absurdity: a soldier who has spent years risking his life is earning less than a Boko Haram commander who simply surrendered. A man who murdered troops yesterday could be posted to the same barracks tomorrow, wearing the same uniform as the men he once hunted. This isn’t reintegration, it is national insanity.
And people still ask why Nigerian soldiers are dying in large numbers?
How won’t they? How can morale survive in a military where loyalty is punished and terrorism is rewarded? How does a soldier remain focused knowing the man beside him might have beheaded his colleagues two years ago? A country that cannot distinguish between a criminal and a patriot has already declared war on itself.
The Nigerian government keeps pretending this policy is “deradicalization,” but the results say otherwise. Terror attacks have not stopped. Whole communities still live under siege. Farmers can’t enter their own farms. Highway kidnappings are now a billion-naira industry. So who exactly is being rehabilitated, the terrorists or the government’s image?
No nation on earth normalises terrorism the way Nigeria does. Instead of justice, they offer comfort. Instead of accountability, they offer employment. Instead of punishment, they offer salaries higher than what many police officers and civil servants earn.
Nigeria is not fighting terrorism; Nigeria is fertilizing it.
And until this disastrous reward system ends, until killers stop being pampered, until soldiers stop watching their enemies become colleagues, this country will keep burying its bravest while elevating its worst.
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