Non-military approach against terrorism in Nigeria: deradicalization strategies and challenges in countering Boko Haram

For a successful counter-terrorism campaign, scholars and conflict practitioners emphasize a combination of military and non-military strategies. While a military strategy is useful to weaken the military capacity of terrorists, non-military strategies including negotiations, deradicalization, disarmament, rehabilitation, reintegration, and other soft measures are advanced to tackle the underlying problems fuelling terrorism to achieve a long-term peaceful outcome. Within the non-military approach, deradicalization program is very significant, especially in combating religion- or ideology-motivated terrorism, given that the strategy not only aims to deconstruct extremist ideologies but also facilitates the rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-combatants and victims of violent extremism. This study analyzes the deradicalization program of the Nigerian government towards countering Boko Haram. It is argued that the design and implementation of the program have structural weaknesses that may further contribute to the problem of violent extremism. Therefore, the paper recommends measures that can strengthen the deradicalization program for a successful counter-terrorism operation.