A United Kingdom-based Nigerian terrorism and security expert, Mr Francis Okoemu, has expressed confidence in the ability of President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), to win the war against Boko Haram when he assumes office from next week Friday, May 29.

He was speaking while receiving the out-going President of Nigerian Students in United Kingdom, Mr. Moses Adoga, who led a delegation of the association to Manchester to pay a courtesy visit to Okoemu, who is the patron and a past president of the association.

Speaking on the Boko Haram insurgency, Mr Okoemu, who is executive director of Blackwell Security Services, said that “the war has been won with the victory of the Nigerian Civil War veteran, General Buhari.”

He told the students: “I don’t know if some of you, were born then, during the Maitatsine uprising in the ’80s, General Buhari not only successfully quelled, and defeat the sect, but completely wiped them off, from Nigerian soil.”

Mr Okoemu, assured Nigerian students in the UK that history will repeat itself when Buhari assumes office on May 29.

The terrorism, expert explained the four interrelated stages in the formulation of the extreme ideology of the sect such as Boko Haram, which he called the process of ideological development, He stated that the point of departure in the formulation of the extremist worldview, what he called “Context”, is when an individual or group identifies an undesirable condition, such as poverty, poor housing, or government oppression. Okoemu noted that the nature of this condition may vary, but those who experience it feel that “things are not as they should be” or “it’s not right.”

According to him, the second stage, “Comparison”, is when the individual or group frames the undesirable condition as “Injustice” and, seeing that it does not apply to everyone in the society, it’s not fair”.

He explained that the third, “Attributional” stage, occurs when the individual or group identifies the other group they perceive to be responsible for the undesirable condition, leading to dehumanisation/demonisation. “These final stages mean that violence may be justified if the perceived enemy is evil. This is particularly in relation to the insurgencies in the oil-producing region of Nigeria,” Okoemu said.

Continuing,he told his guests: “A combination of unemployment, poverty, corruption, and a failure to use rich resources for the benefit of all citizens are key to creating the religious crisis in the North of Nigeria.

“You will all agree with me that there are material deprivations that allowed Boko Haram to flourish; the group thrives in the northern part of Nigeria which has the highest rate of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment in the country. We cannot rule out inadequate security and the corruption of security officers and security failing. I assure you that the President-elect will lay this to rest and Nigeria will bounce back to claim her position as the giant of Africa.”

Mr Okoemu advised Nigeria’s National Intelligence Agency to improve on intelligence gathering across the borders.

He described General Buhari as the Winston Churchill of Great Britain, General Charles De Gaulle of France and General, Dwight Eisenhower of United States of America.

On corruption, the terrorism and security expert assured the students that Buhari will fight the epidemic with all the weapons in his armoury. Okoemu compared corruption in Nigeria to Ebola that must be stopped from spreading. “I was at the Chatham House London when the President-elect gave a powerful speech before the election. He assured us that there will be no confusion as to where he stands; that corruption will have no place in his administration. He said if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us. He has a proven record on that; he has done it before and will do it again,” Okoemu stated.