It is quite discouraging to see how the Nigerian government is moving at a snail's pace in its search for the 270 girls abducted by Boko Haram. There is a question about the seriousness of the government in its fight against the terrorists. Just this week, Nigeria asked the UN Security Council's Al-Qaeda sanctions committee to blacklist Boko Haram. But this terrorist organization should have been banned and dismantled long ago. Now is the time for action, not merely for talks and discussions. Nigeria was able to win support from its neighbors and the West in a summit meeting in Paris, but the onus remains on Nigeria to take the lead in the fight against Boko Haram. President Goodluck Jonathan has so far frustrated everyone by not even visiting the northeast of the country where hundreds of distressed families have been waiting for the return of their loved ones for more than a month. Nigeria needs to wake up and find a way to dismantle the bloodthirsty Boko Haram whose terrorists are waging a campaign of indiscriminate killing, kidnapping and the destruction of property. Such attacks have already claimed 12,000 lives while countless numbers of people have been injured and maimed. The attack on Jos on Tuesday, which killed more than 100 people, shows that danger is not limited to the northeast of the country and that it is moving to other major cities. The Jos attack followed the same pattern as the Taliban use in Pakistan; the second blast came 30 minutes after the first, mainly targeting rescue workers and ordinary citizens helping the injured. In my opinion, Nigeria is playing with fire by not making a concerted effort to eliminate Boko Haram. We are all aware of the simmering religious conflicts in Africa's most populous country. Inaction on the part of the government will force other communities to face Boko Haram by themselves, and that will be a recipe for civil war. Let's hope better sense prevails and that the Nigerian government will put aside its reservations and take on the terrorists once and for all. Otherwise, there is a fear that the bloodletting in Nigeria will be worse than what is going on in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia.
