Description
Operation Safe Corridor (OPSC), Nigeria’s deradicalisation and reintegration programme for former Boko Haram combatants, is officially presented as a moral and patriotic duty aimed at promoting national peace and rehabilitation. Yet, the military and paramilitary personnel responsible for implementing the programme often experience a disconnection between their professional obligations and emotional commitment to its goals. Their continued participation is sustained primarily by discipline and loyalty to the state rather than by belief in the programme’s moral purpose or confidence in its long-term outcomes. This tension, conceptualised as the Noble Cause Paradox, captures the contradiction between a mission framed as morally righteous and the lived reality of those tasked with carrying it out.
Drawing on semi-structured interviews with eight security personnel and analysed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the study finds that motivation within OPSC is unstable and context dependent. Participants reported emotional exhaustion, burnout, loss of colleagues, and moral dissonance arising from the expectation to rehabilitate individuals they once viewed as adversaries. Perceived inequities further eroded morale, as soldiers contrasted their own sacrifices and inadequate welfare with the material support provided to ex-combatants. This sense of unfairness reflects an imbalance between effort and reward, consistent with Equity Theory. Consequently, while duty remains intact, emotional commitment is weakened, and engagement with the programme becomes procedural rather than purposeful.
The study contributes to scholarly debates on moral injury, emotional labour, and security sector involvement in Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) processes. It argues that DDR frameworks cannot depend solely on discipline or obligation but must cultivate environments where duty and belief coexist. Achieving this requires ethical clarity, institutional recognition of military sacrifice, and structured psychosocial support. Without aligning obligation with conviction, reintegration initiatives risk eroding legitimacy and deepening disillusionment among those charged with delivering peace.
