Dr Olufunmilayo Ogunsanya, a Nigerian medical doctor based in the United Kingdom, popularly known as OurFavOnlineDoc, has warned that the Nigerian government’s proposed amnesty program for Islamist terrorists in the North is unlikely to succeed.
He made the comments via X.
In his statement, Dr Ogunsanya criticized the initiative as “a terribly unintelligent argument” that mistakenly compares fundamentally different conflicts.
He argued that past approaches, including ransom payments, rehabilitation programs, and a compromised military response, have already failed to curb violent extremism. Yet, the government is presenting amnesty as a solution.
“Amnesty is essentially a fancy word for paying terrorists money while pretending they are brand new creatures,” he said. “It is naive to assume that what worked for the Niger Delta militants will work for northern Islamist terrorists.”
Dr Ogunsanya highlighted critical differences between the two groups. Unlike Niger Delta militants, who primarily sought compensation for environmental damage caused by oil production, northern terrorists are driven by extremist religious ideologies and ambitions to impose a theocratic state.
They target specific groups based on religion and ethnicity and aim to establish a medieval, archaic caliphate where Western education is condemned.
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“To deliberately equate Niger Delta militants with northern Islamist terrorists, and to assume that amnesty or further payments will end the terrorism, is to be very daft and unserious,” he added.
“It will become another money-gulping project enriching politicians, embolden terrorists who will never stop their atrocities, and prolong the path of destruction and disgrace that our country is already on.”
He concluded emphatically: “Feel free to write this down. I will be here to remind everyone.”
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