As the country Nigeria cascades further down the lane of terrorist
perplexity and organised chaos, not a few have expressed the hope that perhaps,
the pathway to durable peace and security interconnects with the route to
active and responsive citizenship. Along this line, the notion is held that
citizens must not only complement the efforts of government but must also go
beyond the rudimentary and provide useful, intelligent and accurate information
required to halt terrorism. This view runs on the heels of the fact that
terrorists are human beings who live in the society with neighbours, family and
friends hence their ghostly garb must be unveiled by a responsive and
responsible citizenry. Any default from the above is considered as lethargical
and irresponsive.
Trite
as the above may appear, the proponents of this view appear to gloss over the
Hobbesian wavelength of reasoning that it is for the avoidance of a state of
nature where human life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and
short" that the idea of statehood was built. It is believed that the
absence of political order and law leads to unlimited natural freedoms, which
include the "right to all things" and thus the freedom to plunder,
rape, and murder as terrorists are wont to do.
