Cyber-Wazi: Towards a Mobile Technology-Based Soft Measure Framework Aimed at Tackling Violent Ideologies

Abstract

The war on terror and its mitigating initiatives have taken several dimensions in the North-Eastern Nigeria. Efforts are usually directed towards countering insurgency and further mitigates the loss of lives and property that has become a common place in the region. The predominant measure taken so far by the Nigerian government has been the overstated potency of hard power (use of security forces), attempted dialogue with the terrorist and integration of deradicalized terrorist into the society, and currently the establishment of the north-eastern commission to create jobs and development in the region. These strategies though provided some semblance of sanity has not yielded expected outcomes which is to bring insurgency to a halt. This work attempts to initiate a research direction by initiating a mobile-technology-based soft measure that attempts to tackle the challenges of insurgency from a different perspective using what we now refer to as "cyber-wazi". We coined the word "Cyber-wazi" from as a combination of an English and Hausa word where the Hausa word "Wazi" means religious preaching. Attempts to re-orientate in time past through physical presence of mediators and preachers of peace have been met by resistance and violence; in some cases, resulting in death and destruction. We present a preliminary research agenda to address the identified problems.