A British anthropologist and UN messenger of Peace, Jane Goodall in one of her famous quote said:

Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.

The quote perfectly connects with the methods the federal government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari has employed to handle the IPOB agitators in the South Eastern part of Nigeria. The government have only employed force instead of dialogue in its approach to the issue.

The government in its bid to use force against the agitators, must by all means prevent the 2009 error made in the case of Mallam Mohammed Yusuf, the alleged founder of the Boko-Haram sect.

Mohammed Yusuf was arrested on July 29, 2009 by officers of the Nigerian Army at his parent-in-law’s house. He was handed over to the Police and later died in their custody. From that day henceforth, the Boko-Haram sect that was initially a rag tag group of individuals in Borno, have become our worst nightmare and has upgraded to a top five terrorist group in the world.

They have killed more than three million Nigerians and displaced over five million. The crux of their exploit was the April 15, 2014 kidnap of 276 girls from Government Secondary School in Chibok Borno State.

As a result of the unpalatable experience Boko-Haram has brought to the country, it will be in the interest of peace and continuous existence of the country that the federal government in its bid to re-arrest Nnamdi Kanu avoid the Mohammed Yusuf error.

His Army of resilient supporters has grown in millions and his level of influence among his people has increased. Nigeria can’t afford to have another uprising from the Southeast. Let wisdom prevail.