Abstract:

Terrorism and insurgence of varying magnitude at the national and international levels have continued to threaten global peace and kept most governments and communities of the world on toes. 9/11 terrorist attack in USA stirred the whole world out of complacency and has put most nations on red alert while similar affronts to human peace and comfort continue to heighten as they last in other parts of the globe. For almost two decades, terrorism and insurgence have taken the nations of the world by storm. Currently, peace is eluding Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon, USA, Britain, France, Pakistan, South Korea, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Egypt, Libya, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Burundi, Madagascar, etc. as a result of similar violence. In search of global peace, the study adopted Boko Haram insurgence which has assumed both terrorist and insurgent character as a pilot and typical group of terrorism in the world. In Nigeria, Boko Haram, an insurgent group in North East of the country has inflicted serious carnage on the the Nigerian population and those of Niger, Chad and Cameroon and has almost grounded state governance in their bigotry to impose Islam as a state religion. If deliberate and concerted action is not taken to stem this ugly development, the population will be terribly decimated. Right or wrong, the insurgents are being driven by a motive and it is being philosophized that their violence against the state can only be contained through subjugation and offer of compassion, care and concern for the liberty of all. This idea is mainly founded on John Dewey's 1938 theory of experience which hinged on the twin concepts of continuity and interaction in learning. The study thus hypothesized that education through rehabilitation counseling of the fugitives of the Boko Haram insurgence and their reintegration into the society will significantly restore peace in the region. Using survey as a methodological design to sample opinion of the population of military and paramilitary, civil service, the private sector and civil society, a sample size of 400 subjects was drawn through multi-stage, stratified and purposive sampling techniques for the study. For instrumentation, a 30-item questionnaire of modified Likert scale tagged Rehabilitation Counseling of Boko Haram(RCBH) was constructed and administered on the subjects for data collection. The instrument was validated and had a reliability coefficient range of r= .87-.89. Adopting a t-test statistical analysis and one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) in testing the hypotheses generated, the results showed that rehabilitation counseling can significantly restore peace in the troubled area and also indicated significantly high probability ratios in inculcating respect for sanctity of life; in guiding the provision of alternative means of livelihood; and in helping in the reintegration of insurgents into the society. Since the world has become a hotbed of terrorism the results could be replicated to all parts of our world being troubled by such violence. The study thus recommended that fugitives of terrorism and insurgence should be counseled to attain self awareness and self understanding of the interrelatedness of man for social and economic existence in his immediate environment and the universe as a whole; be able to negotiate their goals, intervene in their lives and become integrated as full functioning members of their communities.

Keywords:

Rehabilitation counseling, insurgents, global peace.