Nigerian security analyst Denis Amachree has urged the federal government to look beyond foreign military interventions in the fight against terrorism and address the deep-rooted social and economic challenges fuelling extremism.
Speaking on The Pulse on JoyNews, Mr Amachree said youth unemployment, poverty, political instability and corruption remain key drivers of terrorist recruitment in Nigeria.
He cautioned that military strikes, though important, cannot deliver lasting peace if the underlying causes of radicalisation are ignored.
“Well, I think that the Nigerian government have to look beyond these strikes because when you come to think about it, Nigeria has a lot of problems, and what are the root causes of these threats? That is what we should look at. Those root causes are poverty, unemployment, corruption, political instability,” he said.
Mr Amachree warned that failure to address these issues would allow extremist groups to regroup and continue exploiting vulnerable young people.
“Nigerian leaders have to address these so that after the strikes, it is not that we just go back to what we were doing before, because if you don’t provide employment, they will gather again and the terrorists will recruit them once again,” he added.
He stressed that a sustainable counter-terrorism strategy must combine security operations with strong social and economic reforms to cut off the supply of recruits to extremist groups.
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