Sunday, April 03, 2016

Terror is capitalism

The BBC recently reported that money is the main incentive used to recruit for the Nigerian terrorist organization, Boko Haram. Insofar as terrorist groups in Africa are concerned poverty is making the spoils of terrorism palatable. When a downtrodden people cannot find legal and socially acceptable means to make ends meet, they will resort to unacceptable ways. That's what powerlessness and  despair does.


If Africans had jobs and decent lives, organisations like Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab in Somalia would not be a career choice for any of them. If they had access to education and the economic ladder was extended to every citizen — not just the privileged elite — we wouldn't have a terrorist  cancer in our midst. 

We can wage wars against terrorists in Africa, but without economic justice, they'll always find desperate young people to replace those we kill.

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