Radda wants bandits to drop weapons and come back home

Katsina Governor Dikko Radda is at it again, saying bandits in the North-west forests should lay down their arms and come back to their communities. He spoke on Thursday while commissioning 152 housing units for IDPs in Jibia LGA, and he even addressed them directly: "To our brothers and sisters in the bush and forests... there is a better way." The man is offering dialogue, repentance, and reintegration, plus each displaced family gets N200,000 cash grant, a house, and some household items.

I get what he is trying to do, but when has dialogue ever worked with these people? They have killed, kidnapped, and destroyed lives for years. Now you want to give them a second chance while victims are still struggling? UNDP and German government are backing this project, but I wonder if the locals in Batsari and Jibia are happy about this open-door policy for criminals. Hope is rising, he says, but whose hope exactly?