The Nation Newspaper

Category: Emeka Omeihe

Onitsha Main Market closure

It is getting clearer that the shut-down of Onitsha Main Market by Anambra State government did not offer the best option in addressing concerns on the market’s continued closure in compliance with the sit-at-home ritual on Mondays. Not with the spontaneity of protests and demonstrations the measure escalated last Tuesday. Not with the pro-Biafra sentiments and agitations it re-ignited for the release of jailed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

The social media was so awash with such sentiments that Anambra State Police Command in a statement expressed concerns about what it called the “pattern of individuals using social media platforms to incite violence, disrupt public peace as well as the sharing of unverified videos regarding the security situation in the area”.

Before then, the state government had amassed an armada of security agencies to ensure traders did not gain entry into the market with prospects for unpredictable outcomes. Good enough, the security agencies were able to manage the situation in the most professional and competent manner as there have been no reports of any fatality. Even then, the meeting summoned by the state government last Thursday during which they dialogued with the traders’ unions on issues relating to continued observance of the sit-at-home order long suspended by the IPOB signposts lack of adequate consultations before the market shutdown.

It is immaterial whether the meeting was summoned at the instance of the traders’ unions as the state government claimed. The very fact the government saw sufficient reasons to hold the meeting is suggestive of one or two things.

It goes with the unmistakable impression that Governor Chukwuma Soludo did not exhaust all avenues for the peaceful resolution of the matter before resorting to the one-week closure of the market. There is no evidence that he consulted with the traders’ unions widely before shutting down the market with an armada of security agencies.

Had there been such discussions, neither the traders’ unions nor the state government would be quick in seeking or acceding to last Thursdays’ meeting. Issues that arose at the meeting would have been factored into government’s decision to mitigate the ruffled atmosphere created by the closure. It is probable the state government underestimated the capacity of its action to escalate sentiments surrounding the sit-at-home order.

Video footages from the demonstrations showed the traders expressing solidarity with Kanu and calling for his release. The protest even entered the second day when some of the traders blocked the Niger Bridge linking Onitsha to Asaba, preventing entry and exit into the commercial city. It took the efforts of the security agencies to clear the obstacles and restore free movement on the bridge.

There is no doubt the market shutdown had the potentials of injecting complications into the fragile security situation of the state but for its mature handling by the security agencies.

Soludo may have justifiable reasons for seeking normalcy to return to the market. The state government estimates that a whooping N8 billion is lost each Monday the traders do not open the market.

That is a huge revenue loss. Ironically, the same state government has further increased that loss by the closure of the market for one week. It even threatened to shut it for a further one month if the traders refuse to open with a further threat to bulldoze and pull down the market.

A government that is genuinely concerned about the losses incurred every Monday and desirous of reversing the trend should not be seen issuing such drastic and counterproductive threats.

Soludo may have been led to these extreme threats by frustration. But he should not be seen through his actions to be exacerbating the same situation he seeks to remedy. Besides, it is improbable whether the use of force or high-handedness offers the best option in addressing the issues to the sit-at-home observance.

At the centre of it all is insecurity. Attempts in the past by some traders to resume activities on Mondays had attracted dire outcomes including loss of lives in the Onitsha axis. So, those who refuse to venture out on Mondays do so out of safety for their lives in the absence of adequate security protection from the law enforcement agencies.

One of the protesters in Onitsha captured this contradiction succinctly when he said in a trending video clip, if the security presence amassed to enforce the market closure could be deployed to safeguard traders, he will have no problem opening his shop. But that says only part of the story.

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That angle cannot diminish the groundswell of dissatisfaction in the zone with the judicial rather than political resolution of the Nnamdi Kanu matter. It is not for nothing that the closure immediately re-ignited sentiments for self-determination and the release of Nnamdi Kanu. So, it not just a matter of re-opening the market and doing away with sit-at-home. We may have to contend with the sentiments surrounding it for a long time to come. That is why political resolution as demanded severally by key leaders and socio-cultural organisations in the zone cannot be wished away.

Just last week, reports had it that Yoruba self-determination leader, Sunday Adeyemo (Sunday Igboho)’s name was taken off the wanted list. In fact, he returned to Ibadan triumphantly to a rousing reception. There are parallels between what he stood for and the campaigns mounted by Kanu.

No less a group than, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) latched on to such parallels to pick holes with what they described as presidential pardon given to Sunday Igboho. They listed the harm to lives and property which the activities of the Yoruba self-determination leader allegedly wrought on the Fulani living in Oyo State.

The point MACBAN seemed to have elevated to the fore by such comparison is that political solution can also be found for the Kanu case. That may offer a better prospect for the full resolution of all issues to the sit-at-home observance and eventual return of peace and tranquillity in the zone.

Even then, force in getting the traders re-open their shops is of questionable value. The relative return of normal activities in some state capitals was neither procured by force, intimidation or blackmail. It stemmed from enhanced confidence in law and order and feeling of safety from harms’ way by residents. The situation is remarkably different in the hinterlands because of the absence of these conditions.

Former Anambra State Police commissioner, Aderemi Adeoye, captured this dialectic on one occasion with Soludo standing, when he said “it is not the duty of the police to drag people out of their homes as it will infringe on their fundamental human rights. Our duty is to make the environment conducive for those who want to come out. We have a duty to protect them”.

Soludo should show evidence that he has caged those Christians whom he said were killing Christians in Anambra State for the traders to be sure of their safety on Mondays.

February 2, 2026
Katsina’s peculiar banditry

Katsina State has been in the news, albeit for unsavoury reasons. Still grappling with the backlash of its decision to free 70 bandits facing trials in various courts, the state government scored another low with reports that one of its local governments has set aside N300 million in the 2026 budget for the payment of ransom to bandits.

Former Secretary to the State Government, Mustapha Inuwa who stated this also disclosed that several councils grappling with insecurity usually make monthly payments running into millions of naira to bandits operating in their areas. He fears the community-initiated peace with bandits in 18 local government areas of the state will retard overall development and progress.

Under the deal, hundreds of villagers abducted by the rampaging bandits were said to have been freed. The proposed freeing of the 70 bandits facing trials is the second arm of the deal. So, it would seem a fait accompli.

Inuwa’s disclosure on the budget for bandits has upped the ante in the controversy that recently rocked Katsina State due to its decision to free 70 bandits facing trials in the courts. Sequel to mounting criticisms over the controversial decision, the state government had sought to rationalise its decision to free the bandits on the grounds of consolidating a peace deal entered into between communities affected by insecurity and repentant bandits.

Hear the state Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Nasir Muazu, “World over, everyone knows that after a war is fought, there are usually prisoner exchanges. If you take Nigeria for example, during the civil war, many prisoners were set free and exchanged between the Nigerian side and the Biafran side”.

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He also drew parallels with the release of Boko Haram prisoners after an agreement was reached even as he linked the freedom of Chibok school girls to the release of some Boko Haram prisoners. “So, it is not an issue of whether an offence has been committed or not, so long as there is peace. The issue is that prisoner exchange is not a new thing in the history of war and peace”, the commissioner asserted.

The two incidents stand out the Katsina State government very distinctly in the curious manner it responds to the challenges of banditry. But they also signpost the reasons banditry seems to be taking a very dangerous dimension in that state. This is not the first time that state government is treading this dangerous path.

During the previous regime of Aminu Masari, the government had entered into controversial peace pacts with the bandits for the cessation of attacks on rural communities. Various incentives were offered them including money for peace to reign. In one instance, the governor posed in a photograph with bandits’ leaders clutching sophisticated weapons as a sign of a purported peace accord and eventual reining in of the marauders.

It did not take long before the bandits went back to their former criminal ways rendering the purported peace accord a nullity. The situation has even got worse with Masari’s exit from power. The complications posed by that noxious policy must have led the current state governor to the plan to free 70 bandits standing trials under a dubious peace accord they entered into with the communities. But the disconcerting thing here is the inability of the present regime to learn from the mistakes of previous endeavours. Even then, the propositions, as well as the arguments canvassed by the state government as justification, are largely flawed.

There is the challenge of the propriety in discontinuing the court trials for offences the bandits allegedly committed. What of accountability for the crimes they were alleged to have committed? And is Katsina State government not indirectly rewarding criminality given the tendency of such reprieve emboldening criminals to hold the state to ransom as the current situation suggests?

Even then, the comparisons of prisoner exchange which Muazu cited are largely flawed. It gives the miserable impression that Katsina State is a sovereign state within the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Or are we contending with the verity of a bandits’ republic which this column has in many articles severally simulated?

The argument that many villagers abducted by the bandits across 18 local government areas have already been freed under the agreement makes the matter more frightening. The war against banditry is largely a federal endeavour even as the support of other levels of government cannot be discountenanced.

It is inherently wrong for the Katsina State government to seek parallels between the prisoner exchange of the Nigerian civil war and the criminality of the bandits standing trials at the courts.

Yes, there may have been prisoner exchange before the Chibok girls were released. But the fact is that such gestures never went down well with the public. Neither have they been able to stem the tide of Boko Haram insurgency till date. The uncanny irony is that some of those released under such deals were known to have gone back to their former evil ways with greater vengeance and lethality. The same fears are being evoked by the proposed freeing of 70 bandits on the guise of seeking elusive peace.

It will not only compromise security but result in counterproductive outcomes. That such deals do not lead to fruitful outcomes except regularly oiling the purses of the bandits is evidenced by the setting aside a whooping N300 million by a local government to settle bandits. It has become a recurrent expenditure with no benefit to the common people of the state.

But the step taken by that local government should not come as a surprise. Not with the recent advocacy by fiery Islamic scholar, Sheik Ahmad Gumi. He had at the peak of the US threats to attack Nigeria warned against such attacks with a call on governments to include the bandits in the budget. So, the said local government may just be hearkening to Gumi’s call especially in the absence of official condemnation of that dangerous proposition.

That is perhaps, all that is needed to grow banditry as an industry. It is a vicious cycle that will not only swell the industry in Katsina and beyond but also stall all efforts to convey public goods and services to the traumatised rural communities. Things cannot continue this way without serious repercussions to law and order; the authority and sovereignty of the Nigerian state.

Duplicity in responses of various levels of government and their agencies to banditry, kidnapping and associated criminalities accounts for why mass abductions are getting out control. That was the troubling scenario in penultimate Sunday’s initial denial by the police and the state government of the serial kidnap of 177 worshippers from three churches in Kurmin Wali, Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The indecent haste of the denial threw complications into the incident, stalled quick response and rescue and allowed the bandits to ferry the captives to hidden dungeons.

Neither the purported remoteness of the area nor the imperative for caution should stand as excuse for that embarrassing bungle. It really spoke volumes on the nation’s responses to metastasizing security infractions.

January 26, 2026
Arrest of Ekpoma students

Powers of Nigerian Police to arrest and bring to book individuals or groups found to have run against the laws of the country are not in any doubt. Society would have been a jungle characterised by the atavism of the state of nature in the absence of modern institutions to regulate conduct and ensure compliance with law and order.

But the discharge of these duties should not be done in a manner that negates the very objectives these institutions exist to serve. That seems the dilemma brought to the fore by the police handling of last week’s protest against escalating insecurity allegedly by students of Ambrose Ali University (AAU), Ekpoma Edo State.

The students had reportedly embarked on the protest against rising insecurity and inexplicable killings in the area. In the course of their outing, the protest turned violent leading to the pulling down of some billboards mounted by politicians for the 2027 elections.

Some shops were also reported to have been looted by the protesters who were apparently joined by hoodlums. The palace of the Onojie of Ekpoma was not left out as it had its own dose of vandalization.

The protesters accused politicians of prioritising campaigns over the safety and welfare of the people of the state even when the lid on political campaigns was yet to be lifted.

Curiously, as the protest was on, there was no evidence of police presence either to guide the students or prevent it from sliding into lawlessness. So, the protest ran its full course and fizzled out even as some shop owners suffered losses.

About a day after the incident, the police in Ekpoma embarked on a midnight raid, arresting students from various hostels across the university town for allegedly participating in the protest. The action caused serious panic among students and residents, many of them having nothing to do with the protest. When the raids were over, about 52 students were taken into police custody.

Several students lamented that police operatives stormed their rooms in commando style as they were asleep and indiscriminately arrested those they found inside.

The absurd manner of police action was captured succinctly by one of the students: “they came to the hostel at midnight and started arresting students. Many of those arrested were sleeping in their rooms and were not even on the streets when the protest took place”. That captures the contradiction in the manner the police in Ekpoma went about arresting those suspected of involvement in the protest.

Those arrested were bundled into waiting vehicles only to be arraigned at an Edo High Court on sundry charges. The presiding judge, Justice William Aziegbemi said he lacked jurisdiction on the matter. He ordered the suspects to be remanded at the Ubiaja Correctional Centre and adjourned the case to February 26.

Events leading to the protest, the arrest and detention of the students have not gone down well with the public. And the reasons are not hard to locate given that the protest was primarily activated by escalating cases of kidnapping and bizarre killings within the area.

It should be seen for what it is – a spontaneous response to the breakdown of law and order, threat to human life in the area. Those protesting must have been so frustrated by the rising incidence of kidnapping and killings in the face of the inability of the security agencies to live up to their statutory duties. The resort to self-help should sufficiently challenge the authorities to the danger in allowing the degenerate security situation to fester.

Being a spontaneous and desperate response from people within the area, it was little surprising that the police had no inkling of it. Apparently frustrated by its inability to control the protest while in full swing, the police opted to storm the hostels of the students at midnight, arresting those they found there for allegedly being part of the protesting mob. There is everything wrong with this manner of indiscriminate arrests.

Even if the assumption was that AAU students masterminded the protests, what was the justification in storming hostels around the university town, arresting students found sleeping in their rooms for an alleged offence they may know nothing about? What evidence have the police to charge those arrested except that they are students of the university?

It is not only a faulty strategy but guilty of hasty generalisation by assuming that any and every student of AAU was involved in the demonstrations. How the police intend to prove a case of complicity on the part of those arrested remains foggy. But, it is a complete failure of intelligence that the protest ran its full course without the knowledge of the security agencies.

Even then, the statement by the Edo State government that the protest was not carried out by the students but stranger elements has injected complications into the police action. The president of the AAU students’ union equally corroborated this position when he said neither the union nor its national body was involved in the protest. That reinforces the narrative of spontaneity of the action.

How the Ekpoma police arrived at the initial assumption that the protest was the handiwork of the students remains curious. It is speculative and capable of inflicting grave injustice on the innocent ones. They may have been deceived by the preponderance of the students’ population in that university town. This is by no means to suggest that some students may not have been involved in the protest. That possibility cannot be ruled out.

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What has not gone down well with the public is the assumption that every student of the university took part in the protest – an assumption that led to the midnight hostel raids. Such a mind-set is loaded with the frightening prospects of muzzling students’ activism.

Nigerians students have before now played active roles in reshaping unpopular government policies. The cases of the Nigerian-Anglo Defence Pact of 1960 and the 1978 school fees increase tagged, “Ali Must Go” stand out distinctly in this regard. Things seem to have gone awry in this country with the docility of Nigerian students in the face of bad and unpopular government policies.

It is good a thing Edo State government said it has started releasing the remanded students with a promise to release the remaining ones. That process should be carried out expeditiously.

Beyond the arrests, the spontaneous protest in Ekpoma highlights the increasing frustrations by the public with the unabating insecurity. Citizens are increasingly getting impatient with the reign of terror by criminals masquerading under various guises in the face of the inability of the government to tame the monster.

The Edo State government and security agencies should address the dire security concerns that precipitated the protest. They should investigate further, the pattern of vandalization that occurred during the protest rather than exploit the vulnerability of the students as the line of least resistance.

January 19, 2026
Wike/Basiru clash

“From my records, he isn’t a member of the APC. I don’t see which authority or temerity he has to be dabbling into APC affairs. I am the head of the national secretariat of the APC. So, he has no locus whatsoever to engage me in any official activity that concerns the APC, until he joins the party”.

These were the exact words with which the national secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ajibola Basiru reacted to scathing remarks against him by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FTC), Nyesom Wike. He had also asked Wike to resign from his ministerial position and face what he called, his obsession with Rivers politics.

The altercation arose after Basiru led the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC to Port Harcourt, Rivers State during which they interfaced with Governor Siminalayi Fubara. In the course of that visit, the NWC members had reportedly endorsed Fubara for a second term.

Basiru equally cautioned the national vice chairman of the APC South-south, Victor Giadom for making derogatory remarks against the governor. Giadom had reportedly said at a political function that “Gokana is a no-go-area for anybody, be it the so-called governor”.

Basiru contended that it was wrong for anybody to hide under personal loyalty or political allegiance to denigrate a governor elected by the people. Giadom is said to be an ally of Wike.

Wike in reaction to the NWC visit to Rivers State warned Basiru to steer clear of Rivers politics. He alluded to those who go to Rivers State because they heard the state has N600bn allocation and accused them of going to the state to collect money only to open their mouths to talk anyhow.

“I say it here; take this message to your national secretary. Leave Rivers State alone. Go and ask those who have done it before. Please, don’t take our support for Mr. President for granted. You have to be careful with the statements you make”, Wike warned.

In the statement which Basiru personally signed (from which the introductory quote was lifted), the APC national scribe took strong exceptions to Wike’s allusion that he is interested in the N600bn allocation to Rivers State even as he queried his competence to dabble into the affairs of the APC.

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The issues raised by the APC national secretary on Wike’s current political leaning, highlights all that is wrong with the brand of politics played in this country. And in it can be located why it has been pretty difficult for significant progress to be recorded in deepening the democratic culture on these shores.

Wike has been a key member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) until the last controversial national convention of the party held in Oyo State when he was expelled. Even then, the group he leads has formed a parallel faction. They floated a factional national caretaker committee of the party which went to court to challenge the Oyo State convention. Until the issues in their litigations are resolved, he still remains a member of the PDP.

Since after his support for President Tinubu in the last presidential election, Wike had been embroiled in a running battle with some key leaders of the party for the soul of the PDP. He owes his current ministerial position to that support.

But the way he carried on with his group of four other former PDP governors (before Makinde pulled out) has not gone down well with others who feel his agenda is to decapitate the leading opposition party. As things stand, the PDP is a ghost of its former self as most of its governors have defected to the ruling party. The Osun State governor has pitched his tent in another party for fear of disqualification in the face of the series litigations by opposing factions with Wike at the centre of it all.

So, he remains a PDP member until the issues in court are resolved. As the crisis in the PDP raged on, some of its state assembly members in Rivers State defected to the ruling party. They were followed quickly by Fubara.

It was sequel to these defections that Basiru led the APC NWC to Rivers State. The altercation between Wike and Basiru is a fallout of events of that visit.

When Basiru said Wike is not a member of the APC and has no locus to engage him in the running of the party affairs, he was just highlighting the obvious contradictions in the current political posturing of the FCT minister. That role had before now given vent to allegations that the federal government has a hand in the crisis rocking the opposition parties and the slide to one-party system.

That is not all. By asking Wike to resign from his ministerial position and face his obsession with Rivers politics, the APC appears to be coming to terms with the incongruity in Wike’s current political posturing. Yes, he can hold his ministerial position.

But he cannot be the face of a troublesome faction in the PDP and at the same time seek to control the affairs of the APC government of Rivers State. Basiru was within his rights when he argued that Wike cannot challenge his job in the APC when he is yet to join the party. It is however curious that the APC is realising the duplicitous role of the FCT minister in the PDP in the last two years.

Not a few Nigerians had viewed with utter suspicion and dismay the double role he has been playing in both the opposition PDP and the ruling APC government. That suspicion came to a head when a couple of weeks back, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and Wike were embroiled in serious altercations.

The quarrel was sequel to the allegation by Makinde that Wike was attempting to weaken the PDP in support of President Tinubu’s second term ambition. He had alleged that Wike had during a meeting, openly offered to hold the PDP for the president ahead of the 2023 elections.

But Wike quickly denied Makinde’s allegation describing it as a blatant lie. He said there was no such meeting. We are faced with Makinde’s words against that of Wike with no evidence to determine their veracity or lack of it.

Even then, the body language and some utterances of the FCT minister have not helped matters. Not with recent unconfirmed reports that Wike is rooting for the former national secretary of the PDP, Samuel Anyanwu to fly the flag of the APC for the 2027 election in Imo State. Not with the impeachment notice to Fubara by the Rivers State House of Assembly last week.

Wike’s politics in the PDP is responsible for suggestions that the federal government has a hand in the PDP crisis. His politics in Rivers conveys the unmistakable impression that one man determines the electoral swing of a state. That is the impression we get each time people say this or that local government area is no-go-area. It is no credit to our democracy that Wike postures to be of considerable influence in the APC and PDP. His altercation with Basiru exposes all that. It is time for him to take a stand or be compelled to do so.

January 12, 2026
Designating bandits, kidnappers as terrorists

Federal government’s last week’s designation of bandits, kidnappers or any group that engages in similar criminalities as terrorists is very welcome. But it has long been overdue. But Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris betrayed official prevarication on the issue while announcing the decision when he said the era of ambiguous nomenclature is over.

“Henceforth, any armed group or individual that kidnaps our children, attacks farmers, and terrorises our communities is officially classified and will be dealt with as a terrorist”, he said.

The minister captured the seeming duplicity in the previous handling of killings when he stated emphatically that – “Now the era of ambiguous nomenclature is over, if you terrorise our people, whether you are a group or you are an individual, you are a terrorist and will be classified as such. There is no name hiding this again”.

Though the government did not explicitly name the groups under reference, armed killer groups such as bandits, killer herdsmen and sundry kidnappers fit into this categorisation. They have been involved in attacks and killings in our communities, kidnapping for ransom and abduction of school children.

The new stance by the government marks a significant departure from the previous order of treating mass kidnapping, abductions and rural attacks as ordinary crimes. By this, the full weight of counterterrorism will be deployed to confront the criminals behind these attacks.

It is heart-refreshing that the government is coming to terms with the mortal challenges posed by the activities of the so-called bandits, militant herdsmen, sundry kidnappers and an assortment of non-state actors challenging its authority and legitimacy. Before now, government’s handling of the criminal challenges by these groups had left discerning Nigerians doubting its seriousness in decisively taming the monster.

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The body language of the last administration on the twin issues of banditry and insurgency of the herdsmen did not help matters either. What we saw were rather strident efforts to rationalise the killings especially by herdsmen as communal or herder-farmer clashes spurred by climate change, pressure on land and migration challenges. These were the common terms deployed to obfuscate and conceal well planned and well targeted attacks to kill, displace and occupy targeted communities.

What of the alibi that the killer herdsmen were foreigners who got their arms and ammunitions when Libya under Ghaddafi was collapsing? That was how late President Muhammadu Buhari explained away the attacks and killings in the Middle Belt when he interfaced with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

He told the Archbishop that the problem has always been there, but now made worse by the influx of gunmen from the Sahel region into different parts of West Africa: “They were trained and armed by Muammar Ghaddafi of Libya. When he was killed, the gunmen escaped with their guns. We encountered some of them fighting Boko Haram”, Buhari had said.

That has been the level of official narrative that obfuscated clear understanding of the characters behind the apparent invincibility of the killer herdsmen, the source of their sophisticated arms and ammunitions, their purpose and overall objective. But the communities at the receiving end have not been under any illusion as to their attackers and their motivation. Not with the displacement of the natives and renaming of apparently conquered and displaced communities.

Curiously, as this official prevarication and denial of the potent danger the insurgency of the herdsmen portends, Global Terrorism Watch had as far back as 2015 listed Fulani militants as the fourth most deadly terrorist group in the world coming after ISIS, Al-Qaida and Al Shabab.

Perhaps, the other group that has not been clearly decoded and understood is the so-called bandits. They made their debut into Nigeria’s insecurity matrix not long ago. At some point, they were taken for renegade Boko Haram insurgents or killer herdsmen.

But the characters behind the mask were seemingly unveiled when fiery Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi interfaced with them in Zamfara forests. In the discussions he had with them, they listed their grievances as cattle rustling, attacks by natives of Zamfara on the roads and attacks by the security agencies.

Gumi has been canvassing a lot of options from the federal government to rein them in. These range from the mundane to the very absurd. Of late, he went beyond amnesty advocacy to ask that they should be included in the budget by the federal government. He went very strange when a fortnight ago, he sought to rationalise mass abductions by bandits on the premise of being better than the killing of soldiers.

Ironically, this official duplicity has allowed the terrorism of the herdsmen and bandits to take root such that today Gumi is not only asking that bandits who share no visible dividing line with killer herdsmen, should not be attacked but included in the budget to share resources with other levels of the government. Yet nobody sees anything wrong with it even with the recent conviction of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu for terrorism.

Nigerians must have heaved a sigh of relief when the federal government announced the designation as a terrorist organisation, any armed group that kidnaps children, attacks farmers, or host communities. It has also come to terms with the deployment of ambiguous nomenclatures to camouflage acts of terrorism by sundry criminals operating in the country.

For long, questions have been raised about the real identity of the bandits. Curiously, these questions are usually brushed aside because those who control the affairs of the country either share sympathy with, collaborate, or, are the real enablers of the cascading insecurity for one objective or the other.

It is good a thing President Tinubu has taken up the challenge to call the spade by its real name. Realistic stance on the chequered issues of our national being holds the future for the peace and progress of the country.

But the government must go beyond words and initiate immediate and measurable interventions to confront the scourge. The bandits’ enclaves and some of their leaders in the forests are known to the security agencies. They have of recent, engaged them in negotiations. And unless they have extracted commitments from them to dismantle their cells within an agreed timeframe, the government should take the war to their hide-outs and smoke them out. That is the message served by the Christmas day strike on terrorists in Sokoto by the United States of America (US)

Matching words with concrete action will convince the international community of our commitment to stem the spate of insecurity that has diminished the worth of life in our country.

December 29, 2025
Sani and United States’ visa restrictions

Fiery lawmaker, Shehu Sani wants Nigerians to stay at home and develop their country as a way out of the sweeping visa restrictions imposed by the United States of America (USA). But is that really possible given extant realities?

The White House had in a proclamation published in its website barred 24 countries including Nigeria from entering the US as immigrant or on several non-immigrant visa categories, including-B-1(business), B-2 tourism, B-1/B2 (business and tourism), F (academic studies), M (vocational studies) and J (exchange programmes).

Before the latest far-reaching restrictions, there was an earlier partial one by the same government which was interpreted to apply to those engaged in religious persecution. But the latest one affects all categories of Nigerian visa seekers as can be seen from the listing.

The US government cited security concerns, difficulties in vetting applicants and high rate of visa overstay by Nigerians as reasons. That was not all. They also referenced the activities of radical Islamist groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP.

Details listed in the overstay report showed that Nigeria recorded 5.56 per cent in B1/B2 visa and 11.9 per cent on F, M and J visa.

A further breakdown of the countries involved in the suspension indicated that of the 24, Africa accounted for 17, Asia had three countries, the Caribbean/Oceania had three while the Middle East had one.

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The disproportionate number of African countries affected by the restrictions must have led Sani to the conclusion that the way out is for citizens of these countries to stay at home, solve their problems and develop their countries. Its corollary is that the humiliating treatment they get is on account of the inability of their leaders to develop their economies. That goes without saying.

It is doubtful whether Sani’s prescriptions can happen in the short run given that the world has become a global village with a greater level of interdependence among nations. Ironically, that global village is marked by glaring inequalities that are often to the disadvantage of the developing countries. That is why the US can wake up one day and bar countries from entry into its shores. But third world countries can ill-afford to initiate the same measures due to the fragility of their economies.

When Sani said the message of the restrictions is that third world countries are not welcomed with an advice for them to develop their countries, he had proper reading of the restrictions.

His position strikes at the heart of the glaring disparities between the developed countries and the less developed ones that compel citizens of the latter to seek better life in the former. But it is more of an indictment on third world leaders whose citizens flock advanced nations for the good things of life despite their huge natural potentials to transform their economies for the better.

The rate at which citizens of third world countries flee to the advanced ones in search of better living standards has become a huge embarrassment. The media space is replete with Nigerians of all hue, seeking both legal and illegal means to leave the country because of the suffocating economic conditions.

In Nigeria today, a family with people overseas irrespective of whether they left with any skill at all is considered a success. Not surprisingly, they return after some years to begin projects they could not have imagined before they left. This tends to spur others to seek avenues both lawful and the illegal to emigrate the country.

But these unguarded migrations raise questions as to what has become of our natural endowments and why they cannot be properly harnessed for the greatest good of the greatest number of our citizens?

When the US or any other country records a high rate of overstayed visas from national of third world countries, they cannot be blamed for taking steps to reverse the trend and protect their economies.

Unfortunately, this thinking has led to the weaponisation of visas to deal with the less developed countries. Why not when their leaders are more engrossed with primitive accumulation of capital? The message from the US restrictions is clear: if you don’t like what we have done, stay in your country and develop it.

But the restrictions have wider repercussions for the Nigerian economy and its people. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous Black Country with visible presence in all spheres of the US economy. Given the level of cooperation that has been existing between both countries, our citizens in all fields of the US economy; those seeking new visas and renewals will face stricter vetting, delays and even more denials. Their ripple effects are better imagined

They will not only constrict opportunities for studies and exchange programmes, but go with the additional burden of criminal suspicion. It is not just good for the image of the country. The US or any other country is within its right to determine the kind of people it admits into its shores. But it must not be done as humiliation.

Africa is hugely endowed by Mother Nature. But it has been constrained from utilising these natural and human capitals for the transformation of its people from hewers of wood and fetchers of water to modern living conditions. Virtually all social infrastructures have remained decrepit as leaders revel in sending their children overseas for studies even as medical tourism has become the fad for those controlling the affairs of the government.

The US cited the activities of Boko Haram and ISWAP and visa overstays for their restrictions on Nigeria. That should not be surprising. Of recent, the country has been on the US radar for religious extremism. It’s designation as Country of Particular concern (CPC) with threat of military action, and, the recent visit of a fact-finding team are evidence of increasing US focus on the country.

It should not be surprising that the restrictions mark the first steps in the chain of actions lined up for this country. But the US said the restrictions can be reversed if the reasons given for them are visibly addressed by the affected countries. That is a window for the Nigerian leadership. Even if it is possible to tame Islamist extremism, the factors that incubate visa overstays will continue to persist for quite some time.

They are largely developmental; the inability of the government to create living jobs for the unemployed, non-functional infrastructure and politics of self, one’s family and the ethnic group. Nigeria must rise beyond these predilections to save its citizens the disgrace and humiliation they suffer in foreign lands.

For now, our citizens will have to contend with the fallouts of the sweeping restrictions. Maybe, the situation will sufficiently challenge our leaders to address the debilitating cycle of underdevelopment that compels our citizens to flee to advanced nations and overstay their welcome. Then, the US or any other country will have little cause to tell Nigerians they are no longer wanted in their country. How soon that will happen?

December 22, 2025
When U.S. fact-finding team visited

It would appear US president, Donald Trump’s threat of unilateral military action against Nigeria for alleged Christian persecution and genocide is gradually giving way to diplomatic engagement. That much could be discerned from meetings between officials of the Nigerian government and the US, hallmarked by last week’s visit of a fact-finding team to Nigeria.

The evidence is also perceptible in statements emanating from both sides of the discussions. The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu had taken to his X handle to announce that he hosted a delegation of US congressmen as part of ongoing consultations between both countries. The meeting, according to him, followed earlier talks in Washington DC.

Ribadu disclosed that discussions centred around counter terrorism cooperation, regional stability and ways to “strengthen the strategic security partnership between Nigeria and the United States”. But the meeting with the Nigerian government team was not the end of the assignment of the US fact-finding team.

Straight from Abuja, the delegation made for Benue State where discussions were held separately with the governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia followed by another with religious and traditional leaders to get their own side of the story. It is not clear whether the visit was arranged by the Nigerian government. But it appears the US team had their itinerary even before they left their country.

US Congressman, Riley Moore posted in his X handle after one of the meetings: “It was an honour and deeply moving to meet with His Excellency, Bishop Wilfred Anagbe, Bishop Isaac Dogu and His Royal Highness, James Ioruza, the traditional ruler of the Tiv people to discuss the ongoing genocidal campaign by the Fulani in Benue State”.

Moore said the US will not ignore the suffering reported by local leaders. “The US has heard your cries and we are working diligently towards solution”, he said. The delegation also visited the camps of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) where they heard first-hand, gory details of the killings from victims. Moore shared some of these chilling and heart-rending killing details which he said, will remain with him all his life.

But he admitted that US concerns were positively received even as he hinted on the establishment of a joint task force between Nigeria and the US to “tackle these critical issues”.

So, guns-a-blazing may no longer happen in the form threatened. If it will come, that will be through mutual understanding and agreement. That appears the reading from statements by the US delegation and their Nigerian counterparts. But all will depend on how Trump receives the report of the delegation. Going by Moore’s statements during and after the visit, the report is not going to favour Nigeria.

Beyond this, there are, arising from the visit, issues that should not be allowed to peter out. And they relate to claims and statements that suffused the social space in reaction to Trump’s threat. Of particular concern was the insinuation that self-determination campaigns by the IPOB were responsible for Trump’s action. Those who canvassed this odious view, feign ignorance of the obvious infractions that influenced US action. It served their narrow interests to shift the blame to IPOB knowing the mortal harm it will inflict on the region where their activities are most felt.

But when the US delegation came, they neither visited the southeast nor IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu. They did not visit Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State to show evidence of Christians killing Christians which many writers have been referencing upon. He could not have shown them the Christians that populate the Ebubeagu security outfit or its variant called Agunaechemba that has been fingered in alleged extrajudicial killings.

In one of those incidents, construction workers including a man from Isuofia, Soludo’s community were murdered on allegations of being IPOB hitmen. Neither could he have shown the US team evidence of the sins of his kinsmen severally killed in the north during religion-induced riots.

Yet, he found comfort to say that Christians are killing Christians in the southeast in the circumstance he did. What could be the motive other than rope in the Igbo, majority of whom he admitted are Christians, in the US allegations of Christian persecution and genocide in Nigeria. But who said Christians or adherent of other religions do not commit crimes for it to be an issue?

The US authorities had their lead and knew precisely where to get instant corroborative evidence-the Middle Belt. So, they wasted no time to arrive Benue State where they conferred with Bishops Anagbe and Dogu among other Christian leaders. They met with the Tor Tiv, Professor James Ayatse.

Anagbe had twice prior to the US visit, made presentations to the US Congress on the killings in Benue. So, there was no limit to the weight of evidence the delegation could garner from Benue State. That fact is evident from Moore’s posts detailing chilling accounts of the killings through his interaction with victims in the IDP camps.

Read Also: Akinnadewo urges Christian, Nigerian leaders to deepen humanitarian efforts

The views of Tor Tiv are also not hidden. He had openly told President Tinubu at a stakeholders’ meeting last June that the killings and displacements in Benue State were a” calculated, well planned, full-scale genocidal invasion and land grabbing campaign” by herder terrorists and bandits and not mere herder-farmer clashes or communal disputes.

He had then also insisted the violence is a war and a systematic effort at ethnic cleansing while its characterisation as herder-farmer conflict obfuscates its true nature and deeply offends the victims’ realities. He is likely to show evidence of this claim to the US fact-finding team.

The findings of the US team are likely to puncture claims by Governor Alia in the wake of the controversy that: “in my state Benue, we don’t have any religious, any ethnic, any racial, any national or state genocide”. He had also claimed there is no jihad going on in any part of the country.

Alia must have been cornered by the dialectics of St. Aquinas’ allegory of two cities – the City of God and the City of Man when he said, “I’m speaking to you as a reverend father in the church. I’m speaking to you as a governor of a state”.

It is difficult to operate from the two contrasting realms without running into serious contradictions. Ironically, his claims mock the distinction by medieval philosophers between the ecclesiastical and corporeal realms; between the purview of state and religion. It was not for nothing that his Bishops opted to meet separately with the US delegation.

It is not clear why the US team did not visit Plateau State, another key Middle Belt state faced with the same pattern of killings as Benue. Jonathan Ishaku, a top journalist and author from Plateau State shared frustrations in his Facebook for inability to hand over three of his books to Moore.

He named them as: The Road to Mogadishu, Janjaweed in the Middle Belt, The Butcher of Kaduna and the Rise of state-backed violence. Their titles speak for the contents and add to extant evidence available to the fact-finding team. Do we still have to worry about how Trump reached his conclusions?

December 15, 2025
Citizenship; National identity question

Citizenship and national identity challenges in Nigeria took the centre stage last week, at a national discourse organised by the National Peace Committee in collaboration with the European Union (EU) Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS.

The event which has “Discourse on Nigeria’s National Identity: Revisiting Indigene-Settler Question” as its theme, brought together diplomats, clerics, policymakers and civil society leaders.

Speaker after speaker took turns at the Abuja summit to warn on the daunting challenges facing citizenship and national identity due to the inability of our leaders to effectively manage diversity.

Convener of the National Peace Committee and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah noted that national identity once occupied a central place in public discourse in 1980’s and 1990’s but regretted that unresolved tensions have turned nation-building into “syllabus of forced errors and crises”. The cleric stressed the “need to elevate the Nigerian identity to a higher pillar of common citizenship around which all other identities can stand”.

Kukah pointed out that failure to prioritise national identity over sub-national loyalties fuels mistrust, violence, and widening gaps between citizens’ expectations and state performance. “If we do not mend quickly, we shall break ultimately”, he warned.

Head of the EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Gautier Mignot wants Nigeria to resolve long-standing tensions around identity, citizenship and belonging to build a stable and prosperous future. He identified the imperative of dialogue especially amidst rising insecurity, communal tensions and social fractures.

“What is at stake is not merely social harmony but the essence of stability itself. Every citizen regardless of ancestry or length of settlement must enjoy the rights to reside, participate and prosper”, he stated, contending that constitutional guarantees must be realised in daily practice.

Read Also: Ribadu in talks with U.S. fact-finding Congressional delegation

Mignot further argued that embedding residency rights and federal character principles into governance would help to dismantle discriminatory practices that weaken state legitimacy and impede development.

Director-General of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre-Isa-Onilu highlighted the agency’s programmes to promote tolerance, peace, and inclusive citizenship while urging every Nigerian to recognise every citizen as a stakeholder beyond ethnicity or place of origin. Other speakers called for a new constitution to guarantee inclusiveness, participatory governance and residency-based rights.

The theme of the discourse and timing align with contemporary challenges of our time. Coming amidst rising insecurity and tensions which weaken citizens’ belief in the capacity of the government to protect them, such discussions reawaken our collective consciousness to all that needed to be done to stabilise the polity and accelerate national development.

At the centre of it are the inalienable rights of the people to live together with shared vision, common belonging and identity. It entails constructing a Nigerian personality out of the disparate groups that make up the country such that they see themselves first as Nigerians rather than members of their ethnic groups.

These issues are not necessarily new. But they have become more pronounced because of the inability of administration after administration to manage our diversities despite some measure of constitutional guarantees.

Even the federal character principle that is geared towards inclusivity has in many cases been applied in its breach. The assault on this pristine clause was so brazen during the last regime with the control of the commanding heights of the military, paramilitary and the highest echelon of bureaucracy in the hands of a section of the country. It fuelled feelings of exclusion, domination and alienation that incubate fission.

It is inconceivable how citizenship rights and national identity can grow and mature when the managers of our national affairs are neck-deep in promoting tendencies that nurture and promote recline to primordialism. Nigeria has become more divided and more fragmented than ever before since independence.

Policies meant to guarantee equity, fairness and inclusiveness are brazenly pushed to the back seat for political expediency. Nepotism and cronyism have become the major considerations for appointments into key government positions.

It is a verity of prebendalism, characterised by Richard Joseph as the capture of political power for the benefit of one’s family and that of his ethnic group that accounts for the bitter competition for political power among the dominant ethnic groups and the inability to evolve a rancour-free framework for power rotation.

Peter Eke’s theory of two publics has continued to find relevance in Nigeria, 65 years after independence. Competition between the primordial realm and the civic public for the loyalty of the citizens with the former having ascendancy, signposts the failure of a sense of national belonging and identity.

Ironically, such challenges are usually more pronounced during the foundation stages of modern states. At 65, Nigeria should have long left that stage. But its citizens are still engrossed in the crisis of national identity. And you cannot talk of citizenship when the average individual first regards himself as a member of his ethnic group.

That is the challenge. And matters are not remedied by cascading insecurity across the country that is pitching groups against others. Unmitigated violence associated with the activities of terrorists, killer herdsmen and bandits have also raised suspicions of domination and extermination.

These have had deleterious repercussions on the task of imbuing a culture of common identity in all citizens such that they begin to see themselves as Nigerians rather than members of their ethnic groups.

It is good a thing Kukah and Mignot took time to identify policy measures to promote citizenship rights and grow national belonging and identity. Sadly, the sentiments raised by the discussants as ennobling as they are, may not go beyond the four walls of the conference room. Why? Exclusion profits some people and those who benefit from it are unlikely to let go.

Exclusion has continued to define our politics as evident in the bitter competition by the ethnic groups to take a shot at the presidency. There is the increasing belief that the surest way an ethnic group can get the best from the national affairs is by having one of theirs ascend the presidency of the country. Even those that claim to be patriots or moderates have been found floundering on this issue.

They may pretend to be patriots, nationalists because of the positions they held in the past, but the reality is that they easily succumb to the ethnic card. The reality today is that ethnicity has become a major commodity packaged and marketed by the elite. But all hope is not lost.

It requires a leader with vision, one with uncommon political will to steer the ship of this country to the right direction; a leader with genuine committed to the progress and development of the country to put things right. Certainly, he will be cheered by a populace hungry for a break with the decadent past. Kukah’s warning that we either mend or break should be instructive enough.

December 8, 2025
Security emergency

Before President Bola Tinubu’s announcement of nationwide security emergency, this column was putting together an article titled, “Gumi: A budget for bandits”.

The title had to be stepped down to accommodate the far-reaching measures in the president’s statement meant to address the contradictions thrown up by Gumi’s advocacy on how to handle the insurgency of the bandits. Even then, some of those nagging issues still reared up their ugly heads in the negotiations heralding the safe release of abductees from Eruku in Kwara State and the 24 school girls in Kebbi State.

Securing the freedom of the abductees unharmed came as a huge relief given the deadly and violent manner they were ferried out by the bandits. But the account of the negotiations by the security agencies which left gaps as to the fate of the terrorists/kidnappers created some puzzles. It fuelled speculations as to whether the authorities had succumbed to Gumi’s advocacy even as the government said no ransom was paid.

What did Gumi really say? The fiery Islamic scholar who has not hidden his uncommon expertise on what constitutes bandits’ grouses had in a viral video in the wake of the threat by the United States of America (USA) to attack terrorists in Nigeria, vehemently warned against military action.

“Attacking the bandits will be a mistake. The cause of this chaos is because they are not included in the budget. So, USA attacking them will cause more chaos in the country. The best solution is to negotiate with them and they should be included in the budget. Give them what they want for peace to reign”, Gumi sternly warned.

That was the setting in which the abductees from Kwara and Kebbi were released through negotiations with the bandits which the presidency said were to ensure the safety of the victims. The government defended the approach on the ground that bandits use the victims as shield and it would have inflicted collateral damage had the kinetic option been called into action.

But the government did not leave anyone in doubt that it had the capacity to neutralise the bandits after credible intelligence revealed their location. That could as well be though the previous regime had argued along the same lines. Ironically, the terrorists have not relented in their devious enterprise.

Curiously, the position of the presidency shares some traits with the warning and recommendations by Gumi on how to go about the matter. Bandits were not attacked. And there were negotiations with them. What we are yet to be told is whether any concession was made by the government before the bandits acceded to release their victims. Did Gumi’s warning play any role in the negotiations? If yes, what implication does it hold for the authority and legitimacy of the government?

There is everything wrong with this advocacy even as the grouse of the bandits has, at best, remained opaque.

For one, it goes with the unmistakable impression that the bandits have morphed into an alternative government and can in verity square up to any threats from the government. That should be a serious challenge to the authority and legitimacy of the government. And for another, including bandits in the budget would amount to recognising them as a sub-national unit. So, in preparing the national budget, allocations will be made for the bandits. That sounds strange indeed.

Perhaps, the question Gumi needs to answer is the activity the budget will be deployed to? And in what domain – a bandits’ republic?

In this column in 2021, I wrote an article titled: “A bandits’ republic”. The thesis of that presentation was anchored on the dialectics and inherent dangers in allowing the bandits to operate as if they were a government in a government. Attention was drawn to the foreboding prospects of emboldening the bandits through policies that allow them dictate the terms of engagement

Events are quickly pointing to that direction. Or how else do we explain the demand from Gumi that bandits should be included in the budget and be given whatever they want for peace to reign? What manner of peace can there be in the atavism of the state of nature? In saner climes, Gumi should have been interrogated to say all he knows about a budget for bandits and the purpose it will be applied to. And within what domain?

Read Also: Nigerians urged to support FG’s fight against insecurity

This is not the first time Gumi is entering advocacy for the bandits. Before now, he had called for amnesty for them. He is also known to have asked that bandits be treated the same way the Niger Delta issue was handled. But none of these is as offensive as the demand that bandits should not be attacked, should be included in the budget and given whatever they demand. Where on earth is that done?

This advocacy is at the centre of scepticisms on the nature of negotiations leading to the release of the Kwara and Kebbi abductees. Those who pick holes with the idea of treating terrorism with kid gloves are on point. It emboldens them to the point of threatening the authority of the state.

This danger is brought closer home by the kidnapping of 11 people in Isapa in the Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State shortly after the release of those kidnapped from the CAC church premises. Isapa’s closeness to Eruku says it all. There have also been other kidnappings since the release of the two sets earlier kidnapped. So, at what point will the negotiations stop and the kinetic option called into quick action?

That underscores the weaknesses and futility of any policy that seeks to reward criminality. In Afghanistan, concessions to the Taliban including prisoner-swap allowed them to re-group. They eventually succeeded in overthrowing the entire government and restored their own rule. And in Mali, deals entered into with the bandit/jihadist groups allowed them to spread violence to neighbouring countries.

Back home, the so-called de-radicalisation and rehabilitation of Boko Haram insurgents allowed the group to transmute into five splinter groups. It is not hidden that much of the reverses suffered by Nigerian troops in the fight against Boko Haram were as a result of insider sabotage. So, we have our own experience to draw from.

The situation calls for urgent and decisive responses from the government to restore order and protect the dignity of citizens seriously assailed by unabating terrorism. That is where the president’s directive for the recruitment of additional hands into the military, police and allied security agencies to root out terrorism comes in handy. His order to security agencies to deploy into the forests and smoke out undesirable elements taking refuge there to levy mayhem on citizens is the way to go. There is no doubt that strong government presence in notorious forests and a rapid implementation of the policy on ranching will rid the forests of all undesirable elements. But the president must muster the political will to confront the sponsors and enablers of terrorism in high places. That will give real meaning to the demands of national security emergency.

December 1, 2025
Trying times

What could be the motive behind the rising insecurity in the country? This question appears to have gained traction with Nigeria’s designation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) by the United States of America (US) for alleged Christian persecution and genocide.

Since then, events have occurred in several fronts in quick succession to inject complications into the country’s insecurity matrix. Curiously, these are taking place at a time the authorities have been striving to correct the narrative of Christian persecution and genocide.

The issues may not all have to do with Christians. But they revolve around terrorism, the malfeasance on which the allegation of persecution and genocide by the US was predicated. There was a re-enactment of the Chibok school girls’ saga of 2014 when a couple of days ago, 25 girls from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga town, Kebbi State were abducted by terrorists.

The bandits invaded the school at midnight, killed the vice principal in the presence of his family before absconding with the poor school girls.

As the country was brooding over the incident, another set of terrorists again abducted students at St Mary’s Catholic School Papiri, in Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State. The number of abductees was yet to be released as at the time this article was being put together.

Terrorists unleashed mayhem inside Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in Eruku, Kwara State killing three worshippers, abducting several others including the pastor. A video footage of the incident showed worshippers including an elderly woman who could hardly walk scampering for safety inside the church.

And in Kano, bandits abducted five nursing mothers in the Faruruwa community of the Shanono Local Government Area.

Catholic clerics and community groups in Southern Taraba also raised an alarm over what they described as coordinated attacks by armed herdsmen leading to widespread killings and displacements. Director of Social Communications, Catholic Diocese of Wukari, Rev, Fr. John Laikei said dozens have been killed and several communities abandoned as the attackers continue to occupy farmlands.

Within the same timeframe, Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP) ambushed Nigerian military along the Damboa-Biu axis in Borno State, killed and abducted some soldiers. In the ensuing confrontation, the terrorists captured and killed the brigade commander, Brigadier-General Musa Uba after a failed attempt by his colleagues to rescue him from where he managed to escape.

Read Also: Insecurity: Nigeria welcomes help without intimidation – Senator Oluremi Tinubu

Not unexpectedly, the upsurge in terrorism has raised speculations regarding the motive. Could it be a mere coincidence or choreographed to give the dog a bad name so as to hang it?

Before the recent escalation, some commentators had linked the upsurge in violent killings to the 2027 general elections. Parallels were quickly drawn between the renewed attacks and the escalation of terrorism before the 2015 elections-a period hallmarked by serial abduction of school children. Could it be a case of self-fulfilling prophesy or deliberate attempt by politicians to instigate violence for some foggy selfish interests?

New ideas seem to be creeping into these puzzles especially with the US designation of the country as CPC and threat of military action against terrorists. Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) George Akume toed this line when he sought to link the upsurge in violent attacks by extremists to the US action.

The SGF had said profiling the crisis in Nigeria “as genocide against Christians fuels religious tension, emboldens extremists and criminal factions seeking to exploit sectarian narratives, undermines Nigeria’s longstanding efforts to build constructive internal security and partnership”. Can this angle be reasonably sustained?

There is nothing that has happened in the insecurity dynamics of the country since the US action that is new to us, except the capturing and killing of a general by ISWAP. Acts of terrorism and killings witnessed in the last couple of weeks followed the same pattern as the previous ones. School children had been serially abducted in larger numbers in Chibok, Jangebe and even in some higher institutions around the states most prone to the attacks. Neither is the attack at CAC Church, in Kwara State the first of its type.

Perhaps, Akume’s claims may find some support in the call by the factional chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Kabiru Turaki on President Trump to intervene and save Nigeria’s democracy.

Apparently piqued by the fracas at the national secretariat of the PDP, Turaki accused Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike of leading thugs in connivance with the police to create the mayhem. “So, we are now calling on the international community. I want to call on President Trump. What is at stake is not just genocide against Christians. He should come and save democracy in Nigeria. Democracy is under threat” Turaki cried out loudly.

By extrapolation, Turaki tacitly admitted claims of genocide against Christians in Nigeria as well as serious threat to democracy. Had the US not designated Nigeria as CPC on account of alleged religious persecution with a threat of military action, Turaki may not have found a handle to call for Trump’s intervention.

In a sense, it could be argued that Turaki’s call may have been emboldened by US position on the crisis in Nigeria. If the US could intervene to degrade terrorism and protect Christians, it could as well protect Nigeria’s democracy when it is under threat, the argument further goes.

Yet, the issues that led Turaki to that desperate call are quite different from those Akume said are bound to worsen due to US characterisation of Nigeria’s crisis as genocide against Christians. But who is to blame? Definitely not the US government. Acts of terrorism have in the past decade or so tilted the country to the precipice. They had nothing to do with US characterisation of the Nigerian crisis.

The brand of politics at play in this country is at issue. The earlier we come to terms with that reality the better for all. Before now, copious attention had been drawn to the increasing slide to one-party state.

But the trend continued even as the government at the centre rationalises it on the lure of its policies. Almost all the major political parties are entangled in one crisis or the other. The PDP which is the major opposition party is a ghost of its former self as virtually most of its governors have decamped to the ruling party.

Yet, a serving minister remains a leading figure in the crisis rocking the PDP. Wike cannot be the new face of PDP in his current official position. He cannot represent credible opposition. His activities in the PDP do not help the image of the government he serves. That is why Turaki spoke in a manner that sounded unpatriotic. He did so out of frustration.

Trump spoke the way he did because we could not find a handle to the suffocating terrorism. Turaki spoke unpatriotically because of the seeming emasculation of credible opposition – the lynchpin on which the wheels of democracy revolve. The problem is within, not outside!

November 24, 2025