th April Bomb blast at the Nyanya Bus station in Nigeria which led to the death of 75 innocent persons has been arrested in Sudan and handed over to the Nigerian authorities confirms that the Nigerian state is not faced with an organised movement with command and control structures occupying a particular liberated zone from which it launches military operations where ever it wants and whenever it wants. It is claimed that the suspect is the son of a retired colonel who also served as an intelligent officer in the Nigerian Army and was at the time of his arrest a student of the Arabic language at the International University of Africa in Sudan. The fact that the suspect left the country instead of joining a Guerrilla force in some remote part of Nigeria near Cameroon tend to give the impression that the Nigerian state is dealing with Sabbatical plain clothes dissidents who identify their targets and are hosted in the areas targeted to hit and then run away from the area. It appears that the state has been giving them clout by wiping out the hosts with military vengeance and thus gives the perpetrators more allies to carry on. The Nigerian state must go back to the drawing board. The Inter-faith groups should be congratulated for defeating the agenda to split Nigeria into states based on religious beliefs and abandon its neural secular tradition which respect the right to belong to and practice any religion. The state should encourage communities to come together and build more solidarity so that no one could hide in a community and perpetrate atrocities against the common people without being discovered. The security apparatus should be restrained so that no one is killed or maimed with impunity and that all are brought to justice. Civic education and education for citizenship should be conducted in schools, the media and other avenues to ensure that Republican and democratic values are embraced by all. Debates should begin on how to have a society which all could claim to be their own and avoid the Boka Haram phenomenon which is a by-product of sectarian tendencies and social exclusion. In short, no genuine Nigerian Nationalist would turn his or her weapon against his or her own compatriot. Efforts must be made to promote love of country and people to prevent senseless killing. Political parties should begin to promote social justice and integrity and honesty in running political office in order to reduce the alienation of the young with visions. ]]>
