WHATEVER Boko Haram is fighting for, the North as a region will continue to lose as a result of the violence. Already, businesses are relocating in huge numbers from the North to the South, and if the spate of violence is not stopped, then the Northern economy will collapse finally.
Today, most of the Southern states have been looking at ways towards bridging the food supply from the North, which has been affected by the violence. There are now agricultural programmes in place that will boost the food programme in this region.
Apart from the fact that more jobs will be created through this in the South, it will render Northern farmers insignificant.
If the Boko Haram leadership is not literate enough to know the direction it is leading the region, the Northern elite should be able to let the group see reason.
Traditional and religious leaders should reach out to the Boko Haram group members and tell them to stop this campaign of violence, since it will only lead to the destruction of the North.
If these people are after making the country ungovernable for Jonathan, the President will continue like this until it is 2015, and thereafter, leave office, but the effects of the violence will remain for a long time. It will take years to rebuild people’s trust, especially those who have relocated to the South. A word is enough for the wise.
Osaro Osagie,
Benin City, Edo State.
