The BBC recently reported that money is the main incentive
used to recruit for the Nigerian terrorist organization, Boko Haram. Insofar as
terrorist groups in Africa are concerned poverty is making the spoils of
terrorism palatable. When a downtrodden people cannot find legal and socially
acceptable means to make ends meet, they will resort to unacceptable ways. That's
what powerlessness and despair does.
If Africans had jobs and decent lives, organisations
like Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab in Somalia would not be a career choice for any
of them. If they had access to education and the economic ladder was extended to
every citizen — not just the privileged elite — we wouldn't have a terrorist cancer in our midst.
We can wage wars against
terrorists in Africa, but without economic justice, they'll always find
desperate young people to replace those we kill.
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