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By   Simon Abah   Many military strategists x-ray strategies to tackle the scourge of terror which has damaged the image of Nigeria globally. It is highly commendable that President Muhammadu Buhari as stated in the past, “has absolute confidence in the ability of the Nigerian military to bring to an end the insurgency spearheaded by members of the Boko Haram sect.” But I have always believed that the military alone cannot end the war on insurgency without the support of the political benefactors of terror in the first place. In 2013, I asked a young army officer (now late) if the military can stamp out Boko Haram, he shook his head, “not with this commander-in-chief of the armed forces,” he said. Whatever that meant I didn’t bother to ask. But I know that fighting troops must respect their C-IN-C and must have the backing of same to succeed in wars prosecuted. Again, I know that a nation’s armed forces are as strong-willed as the commander-in-chief and, the mil...

By Jerome-Mario Utomi When Niccolo Machiavelli first came up with the idea that cruelty could be rightly or wrongly employed in governing a country, he may have had Nigeria in mind. According to him, ‘cruelty is used well ‘(if it is permissible to talk in this way of what is evil) when it is employed once for all, and one’s safety depends on it, and then it is not persisted in but as far as possible turned to the good of one’s subjects. *Buhari  Again, cruelty badly used is that which, although infrequent to start with, as time goes, rather than disappearing, grows in intensity’’. Unfortunately, this is where we are today. Going by the records, Nigerians in cases after case after case witnessed situations where politicians/leaders come up with policies aimed at starving hapless civil servants/pensioners to their early graves. And security agents take laws into their hands without thinking of the long and short-term damage their act of impunity has on Nigerians and the watching wor...