Terrorist/Bandit Reintegration Is a Ruse-Nigerians Demand Instant Justice

Terrorist/Bandit Reintegration Is a Ruse-Nigerians Demand Instant Justice

We Did Not Bury Our Dead to Clap for Their Killers

Not quite a week ago, the Nigerian government reintegrated 700 so-called “repentant” terrorists and bandits into society with fanfare. Photos, handshakes, and speeches. Meanwhile, the graves of their victims are still fresh.

Nigerians, in our entirety, reject this sham

You cannot ask a nation to forgive what it has not been allowed to grieve. You cannot preach “reintegration” to widows, orphans, and displaced farmers while the blood on the ground has not dried. The same villages these men burned are still without schools, without clinics, without security. Yet the killers get stipends, skills training, and state protection.

This is not peace. This is provocation.

The Billion-Naira Question: Where Is the Money Going?

The Federal Government voted ₦1.4 billion in 2026 for “Boko Haram terrorists’ trial.” Last year, 2025, it was ₦530 million. This money was meant for prosecution of terrorism-related matters.  

Yet as insecurity continues to threaten our unity, as Nigerians cry for food and hospitals rot, the government still finds billions to “try” terrorists who are later released with fanfare. What trials? Where are the convictions? Where are the executions?  

If ₦530 million in 2025 did not produce justice, ₦1.4 billion in 2026 will not either. This is not a justice budget. It is a conduit pipe to steal, disguised as due process. A nation that cannot feed its children should not fund endless trials for mass murderers.

We ask the Federal Government:

1. Where is the justice?Which court tried them? Which families consented to forgive? Reintegration without prosecution is amnesty for atrocity. After ₦530m and now ₦1.4bn, how many terrorists have been convicted?  

2. Where is the restitution? Who rebuilds the homes they burnt? Who pays for the lives they cut short? The victims get silence. The perpetrators get rehabilitation and legal budgets.  

3. Where is the sense? You disarm law-abiding citizens but re-arm repentant killers with government goodwill. You jail petty thieves for years but pardon mass murderers in months after wasting billions to “try” them.  

Our position is clear:

- No reintegration without justice first: Try them. Sentence them. Let the law speak before you speak of mercy.  

- No rehabilitation before restitution: Rebuild Chibok, rebuild Zamfara, resettle IDPs, compensate families then talk about second chances.  

- No fanfare for murderers: The optics of celebrating “ex-terrorists” while soldiers and civilians still die in the field is an insult to national memory. What is the fate of Brigadier Braima, the colonel, the major, and other officers attacked and killed last week?  

- No budget for endless terrorist prosecution: ₦1.4 billion for trials with no results is a waste. Let there be no budget for terrorist prosecution but instant judgments. Justice delayed by budget lines is justice denied.  

We are not a people without compassion. But compassion without justice is complicity. Nigerians have buried too many children to now stand and applaud their killers because a foreign NGO called it “deradicalization.”

Security is not a PR program. Peace is not a photo-op.  

If the government insists these 700 are “repentant,” let them first face the communities they destroyed without guns, without soldiers, without stipends. Let the mothers of Leah Sharibu look them in the eye. Let the farmers of Benue decide if they deserve to live next door. Take them to the Plateau woman who buried her son two weeks ago and ask her for forgiveness.

Until then, this reintegration is a ruse.  

Nigerians demand instant justice, not instant amnesty. Not billion-naira trials.

The government works for us. Not for them.  

Let instant justice prevail, not reintegration. Not budget theft.

Mike Olatunji

🇳🇬writes from Lagos