Dr. Sidi Ali Mohammed, a member of the Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative (PCNI), has disclosed Boko Haram fighters receive daily payments of $3,000 daily for their efforts in elongating the insurgency that has been raging in the North-East since 2014.
He made this disclosure at the Presentation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Sub-Sahara Africa’s Economic Outlook Report, in Abuja on Monday.
According to Mohammed, the payment makes the N1,000 daily allowance paid to Nigerian troops at the war front ridiculous.
Mohammed, who is the Head of the Humanitarian Assistance and Rehabilitation arm of the PCNI, lamented that Boko Haram has been hijacked and operates like a cartel.
“I will give you an example. The Nigerian military for example, gets N1, 000 per day for being in the North East, at the war front, as an allowance," he said.
The same North-East, where if you are a member of Boko Haram you get $3,000 per day as allowance. So it is lucrative. Sometimes, they even give you money upfront. So we must do something about the youth from where they are recruiting.”
On how to curb the menace of insurgency spreading across the country, particularly in the North-East, Mohammed said amnesty shouldn't be ruled out if it would guarantee the desired peace.
“If it is amnesty that will guarantee that peace, then we have to think of it," he said.
Most importantly, we need to deplete the army of youth on the streets and take them away from the streets so that Boko Haram does not recruit them. Don’t forget, they [Boko Haram members] are being killed on daily basis but they are also recruiting on daily basis. They are getting people to recruit because it is lucrative.
"Part of the reason why this problem has refused to go away is the abundant natural resources in the Lake Chad Region. We need to think outside the box. It is now more like a cartel. When you see the type of weapons they use, it is more sophisticated than the type of weapons that our military are using.”
He further stated that the Boko Haram menace is "like a guerilla warfare".
"As we are here discussing, if somebody here is a member of Boko Haram, he will not say anything," he said. “He goes out there to strategise and comes back. It, therefore, means the conventional ways of fighting warfare cannot work here. It, therefore, calls for thinking outside of the box.”
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