From [url]greenlight.com.ng[/url]

By Ayodeji Olaleye

One of the reasons why civil justice exists is to bring aggrieved parties to a restful closure.

Amnesty for Boko Haram will not be complete without due compensation for the hundreds, thousands of lives killed or maimed by their evil actions. Too many people have lost breadwinners, loved ones, and had their hopes and dreams destroyed, some will remain maimed for life. How does Nigeria intend to pacify them? By not only granting their tormentors amnesty but rewarding them financially as well? Which is rather surprising that a few Nigerians, including some prominent ones are requesting amnesty for the Northern insurgent group, Boko Haram.

They have idly continued to see it as a North-South thing, going as far as comparing it to the Niger Delta militant crisis, and daring to suggest that since Northerners as well have been killed, Southerners are not the prime target(s) of Boko Haram’s terror attacks. What makes it the more surprising is that those calling for amnesty have never been heard to call for the recompense of the victims.

Need they be reminded that the Niger Delta militants did not attack defenceless citizens, they didn’t burn schools, churches, shrines or mosques for that matter. They refused to see the enemy as a tribe or a religion as some leaders would have us believe. Despite being a ramshackle militia, they allowed themselves to be guided by the nobility of their cause, that is, better living conditions for the Delta people.

As for Boko Haram, perhaps they do not even have a cause. They show no mercy. All cries or pleas are drowned in explosions. Victims do not have opportunity to negotiate for peace. There are no warnings, no conditions for surrender, no time to consider even a change of faith. That is why amnesty for them probably amounts to grave injustice and felonious malfeasance.

However, if the government finds itself so pressured that it foresees no way out of this crisis other than granting amnesty to the insurgents, then such a programme must incorporate into its objectives, and indeed make priority the full compensation of all those who have been directly or indirectly affected by their actions. This is to include the compensation for the families of those who lost their lives.

In deed, this ought to be the case, whether the amnesty programme comes to light or not. This would ease and sufferings of their victims, and it is the very least we should be able to offer them in absence of full justice.

http://greenlight.com.ng/2013/04/08/amnesty-for-boko-haram-but-what-about-justice-for-the-victims/

Sometimes, Nigeria makes me feel so sad.

How can we allow the government to just write off the lives of the thousands of people who have been killed by these criminals. Are we now going to be using our public money to settle bombers and killers of women and children? And what's to stop them from continuing to kill seeing as our useless government doesn't even know who they are, where they're based and who is sponsoring them?

In sane countries, the mob would hang any leader that even suggests rewarding such cold blooded killers. Where is our sense of outrage?

They should check the public water supply in Abuja. Somebody must be pumping some serious hard drugs into it or something. That's the only way I can explain the type of insane behaviour our politicians keep displaying.

Some people went around planting bombs. They blew up churches. They blew up the UN building. They deliberately targeted and killed innocent who were just minding their own business. And your response is to start giving them money?

After this, I don't think there's anything Jonathan can do that can surprise me. Even if he pulls down his trousers and defecates in front of the camera during his next speech, it still wouldn't be half as crazy as giving amnesty to Boko Haram.