Thread by @Hejeoma

1. Killings have been going on all over Nigeria for a while. Killings in some parts of of the South East got so bad that mischievous folks on social media started blaming 'herdsmen'. A guy did a post about how he was traveling on our highways somewhere in the east when masked

2 'herdsmen' opened fire at him & he was able to drive away from the scene unharmed except for bullet marks on the car. It was until I started asking him some questions like, how did you know they were herdsmen since your tweet admitted they were masked? If you claim to have

3. heard them speak, were your glasses wound down or up? Ak47s with high decibels firing at a car moving at over 80km/hr with gushing air will make it difficult even for a linguist to pick a language spoken by the shooter(s). I noticed the fellow ignored my questions &

4. interacted only with those who said PMB sent his Fulani brothers to come wipe them out. Then a catholic priest was killed in Enugu, social & print media got so toxic that catholic priests in Enugu went as far as a demonstration seeking the 'deportation' of the entire Fulani

5. community in Enugu. Few days later, the killers of the catholic priest were arrested. How did the police do it? The killers were dumb enough to withdraw/transfer funds from the priests account after they had gotten his cards & banking details before killing him. That was all

6. the police needed, they followed the money trail & the entire robbery gang were arrested. The weird thing is, not a single Adamu or Musa made it as member of the gang! Did any of the papers do a retraction or did the priests apologize to the Fulani community for falsely

7. accusing them? No! We moved on to the next BREAKING FALSE NEWS. Our media hasn't made it any easy with their click-baits.

8. Yesterday @HQNigerianArmy held a seminar at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre themed, 'Countering insurgency & violent extremism in Nigeria through spiritual warfare.' The aim of the seminar was for government to also employ alternative approaches, such as using religion and

9. culture, to confront violent extremism. The fact remains that religion is being used by these terrorists to recruit fighters & also as a just cause for their war. This seminar was done with the idea that religion & culture could also be used as tools to resist terrorism.

10. Governments generally use a military approach in tackling terrorism but in reality, this is not enough as you can't shoot/bomb people out of their beliefs. @MobilePunch as usual, took a seminar that was hosted to not only tackle religious leaders spreading extremism but also

11. find ways to use religion/culture to curb extremism and turned it into the army wanting to us prayers to fight terrorism. I will mention 2 countries who their governments/military have applied the same methods as discussed yesterday (Using alternative approaches including

12. religion & culture to combat terrorism) at the seminar. A. Indonesia: The Indonesian military has been implementing de-radicalization programs to tame terrorists. This method involves the communities & families of former terrorist convicts who have been reformed. Indonesian

13. government has also recruited young internet users with huge social media followings to spread the message of peace.
B. Philippines: the Philippines armed forces formed a special Muslim unit within the military to be deployed to Muslim majority areas. Since 2017, the

14. Philippine military has adopted a maximum 5% quota for Muslim recruits. The military recruitment system is open to all citizens. However, Muslims have been less interested in joining the military, thinking that they have less chance to enter the force. By setting a quota,

15. the Philippines military hopes to ensure more Muslims are recruited. The military also set a 10% quota for female soldiers, & another 5% for indigenous people. This has had two positive impacts: 1st, it has created more room for dialogue when compared with conventional

16. military maneuvers. With Muslim members, this special unit can be more sensitive to religious and cultural needs. 2nd, it garners support from local communities. Having a Muslim unit operate in a Muslim majority area reduces suspicion in local communities towards the

17. Philippines’ military deployments as they no longer see such deployments as 'invasions'. Now we are trying to apply some of these methods to curb this menace that has led to loss of lives and properties but as usual our people and media have taken it, turned it upside down

18. while making a mockery of the military's efforts. People who have never held a gun in their lives have become experts in counter-insurgency. People who the only gun they know is the one being carried by their mopol escorts or the ones they watch on TV are now saying the army

19. wants to ditch guns and fight terrorists with Bibles and Koran. Nigeria a country of people who only complain and apportion blames.