Mojokwu
(1978), argued that these acts of terrorism and violence, and political crimes
that produce psychic fear should be looked upon as the normal behaviour
expected of a desperate people in our human society.
According to him, these atrocities, although highly
reprehensible, could be acts of protest which our technological and modern
society has neglected to look into at the initial stage.
Terrorism as a form of violence for political ends is
as old as history. It is said to have
acquires its modern name from the French
Reign of terror of the mid-1970s. The first use of the expression international
terrorism is hard to point out.
However historians will recall the Moroccan
rebel Raisulis kidnapping of an American and an Englishman in 1904 in a
successful attempt to force the United States and the British governments to
pressure France into compelling the sultan of Morocco to comply with Raisuli ransom,
prisoner released and other demands. Therefore, throughout history, terror has
been used to intimidate and control. In recent times, starting with watershed
Black September attack in 1972 on the Israeli Olympic team in Munich,
politically motivated terrorism has become a cost-effective means of coercion.
As Reels (1987) observed, terrorism is a “warfare on the cheap” that enables
small and large countries, political groups and lunatics to attempt to achieve
by coercion, what they are unlikely to achieve by political means, diplomacy or
conventional warfare.
For political scientists view point, terrorism is seen
as a political strategy designed by the weak to confront the strong. It is a
form of political participation and expression, with the aim of attracting
attention and public concern to the deprived. Terrorism from this perspective,
becomes and adaptive strategy designed by the under dogs to drum their demands
home. It is often a strategy for increasing the access of its perpetrators to
scarce, but desirable resources, which may include self-rule, political power
and personal freedom. More so, the Black’s law Dictionary defines terrorism as
“the use of threat of violence to intimidate or cause panic, especially as a
means of affecting political conduct”.