Bill for Rehabilitation of Ex-Boko Haram Fighters Won't Capture Those Facing Trial, Says Sponsor

The sponsor of the bill for the establishment of an agency to reintegrate repentant insurgents, Senator Ibrahim Gaidam, has shed more light on the controversial bill, saying the beneficiaries of the programme would not include insurgents facing government trial.

Gaidam, who is the immediate-past governor of Yobe State and Senator representing Yobe East, also stressed that the agency would  cater for only willing former terrorists who might have voluntarily laid down their arms.

The senator, while shedding more light on the bill on Monday evening, emphasised that the Boko Haram terrorists "captured active in the battlefields will be required to, in addition to the psychological therapy, participate in the criminal justice process."

According  to him, the deradicalisation and rehabilitation process for former members of Boko Haram will vary on a case-to-case basis, adding that "those who have become weary of the violence and have voluntarily laid down their arms and defected from the group will be accepted and rehabilitated using various tools of deradicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration."

He said: "There is the need for a more strategic and comprehensive approach to entice those members of the group, who after realising the futility of the course they are pursuing, have eventually decided to voluntarily lay down their arms and choose the path of peace, hence, the need for the establishment of the National Agency for the Rehabilitation, Deradicalisation and Reintegration of Repentant Insurgents to accommodate the defectors.

The agency, when established, shall be charged with the responsibility of planning, designing and organising specialised programmes aimed at deradicalising, rehabilitating and reintegrating defectors and repentant insurgents. These specialised programmes, which will serve as mechanisms for the disengagement from terrorist’s ideology and invalidate the recourse to violence, will focus on ideological, religious, educational, vocational, social, creative arts therapy, sports and recreation as well as psychological issues that cause violent extremism."

The senator further stressed that in dealing with insurgency, the federal government needs to introduce both preventive and corrective measures in addressing violent extremism "as the challenge today is to ensure repentant terrorists are rehabilitated in the best possible way so that they become useful members of the society."

The lawmaker, whose bill passed through the first reading last week, explained that the concept of deradicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration of terrorists are standard global practice, and named countries like Britain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Somalia, Pakistan, Syria, and Iraq as having formulated various models of deradicalisation and rehabilitation programmes to combat the menace of radicalisation with significant measure of success.

The main aim of the bill for an Act for the establishment of the national agency for the education, rehabilitation, de-radicalisation and integration of repentant insurgents in Nigeria is to provide avenue for rehabilitating, de-radicalising, educating and reintegrating the defectors, repentant and detained members of the insurgent group to make them useful members of the society.

Other objectives of the bill include that the agency will provide avenue for reconciliation and promotion of national security and encouragement for other members of the group who are still engaged in the insurgency to abandon the group especially in the face of the military pressure.

Other objectives of the bill are to "give the government an opportunity to derive insider information about the insurgent group for greater understanding of the group and its inner workings

"Gaining greater understanding of the insurgents will enable the government to address the immediate concerns of violence and study the needs of de-radicalisation effort to improve the process of de-radicalisation.

"They would help disintegrate the violent and poisonous ideology that the group spreads as the programme will also enable some convicted or suspected terrorists to express remorse over their actions, repent and recant their violent ideology and re-enter mainstream politics, religion and society."