The United States' government has expressed its readiness to help train Nigeria's youth in addition to assisting it in its efforts to combat terrorism.
During the commencement ceremony of new military cadets into the Nigerian army at the military top institute at West Point, New York, today, President Barack Obama said, "not just will we help Nigeria in fighting Boko Haram but also, we will help in training its youth."
The latest situation follows reports of what led to the blossoming rise of Boko Haram in the northern parts of Nigeria. The youth in that region are renowned for being mostly illiterate and poor. Such misfortune makes them vulnerable to initiation and indoctrination into Boko Haram, a Muslim militant group, with its attempt at assuaging their thirst for a better life with instilling in them a desire to right the wrongs of the society and assurance of heavenly bliss if they die in their quest to do so.
The Nigerian government has consistently been advised to take this long-term but infinitely rewarding approach but so far, it has yet to be taken up by the federal government.
With United States'readiness to do so now, it appears the long-awaited solution has arrived. However, the United States' ability to do this is fraught with many challenges. The militant group's name literally means "Western education is a taboo." So, to now foist that same education on them is a tough task. Besides, the Islamic clerics who allegedly recruits soldiers for Boko Haram through their sermons at various mosques in the north are notorious for their unwillingness to co-operate with the West. And due to the overwhelming and invidious control which the Muslim clerics exercise over all spheres of life in the dominant Muslim north, the US's laudable mission in the area. Boko Haram operates in Nigeria's northern region.
The influence of the Muslim religious leaders cannot be under-estimated. Their objection led to the failure of West's ambition to eradicate polio in the world through their directive that all Muslims in the place should not take the oral polio vaccine Despite vigorous orientation effort by the West and its agencies, majority of the people heeded the imama and with that, the preventable disease which was already eradicated in all other nation of the world, persisted and gradually re-surfaced in hitherto, clean areas.
This marks yet another example of US's readiness to eradicate illiteracy in order to combat terrorism and so, banish instability in a region. The Obama administration did likewise in Afghanistan.
