As to why there is a surge in threat of terrorism and attack within the West African sub-region, ECOWAS Parliament’s Committee chair on Political Affairs, Peace, Security and Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe Jr. said it was a result of hunger and joblessness.
According to him, this has pushed the sub-region to its current state, especially when the young ones in the sub-region feel that they cannot afford food and they feel they need to do something that provides them food, “it’s wrong there is no justification for this.”
He said in an interview, “We need to create more jobs for our people; invest in the education sector.
“If you stay in a country and the citizens feel like it is they versus us, it gives room for curious and deviant behaviour.”
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Senator Snowe further advocated that the young people within the sub-region should be given a sense of national ownership so that they feel that they are part of those who own the country and their destiny.
“You do not go out there to create chaos as a young person, which would affect yourself. Again the global economy is challenged; people are broke you know prices everywhere is going up, I do not know about Nigeria but salaries for civil servants are not going up and pay role for business are not going up”.
Again, terrorism is linked to economics, and if people believe they cannot survive but the only way to survive is to cause havoc for them to live they have to do that which is wrong and we should face the reality.
His take on the ECOWAS Commission president’s report on tackling terrorism by raising a brigade, “Sometimes things are good for the ears but implementing is a problem. If you listen to the budget size in billions is not an easy thing, it’s good to do but it’s difficult now”.
And quickly posed a question, if ECOWAS had a task force would they have been able to go into Russia and prevent it from attacking Ukraine?
Again, if we had a task force how many people would be required to come to Nigeria, if there was a problem, to attack Boko Haram?
“We need to invest more in education and work on our poverty reduction strategy because when people’s pockets are empty and stomachs empty, they would revert to means that can put food on their table”.