The Nation Newspaper

Category: Insight

  • Hostage season: Nigeria’s kidnap plague shatters homes, childhood, life as we know it

    Hostage season: Nigeria’s kidnap plague shatters homes, childhood, life as we know it

    •   Bandits strike Niger school, abducting 315, two days after armed teens murder Vice Principal, abduct 25 girls in Kebbi hostel
    •   Attacks escalate after President Trump’s threat to invade ‘guns-a-blazing’
    •   Parents keep vigil as classrooms turn hunting grounds for terrorists
    •   How citizens pay for safety in blood, money, alcohol, powerbanks, food items

    A hush falls over every memory of Hanifa Abubakar, beyond December 2, 2021. The five-year-old stays frozen in time, inside the heart of her loved ones.

    Born April 5, 2016, her story begins and ends where her small feet once pattered on the corridors of Noble Kids Academy (NKA), Kwanar Dakata, in Nassarawa Local Government Area (LGA) of Kano State.

    Her parents, Abdulsalam and Murjanatu Abubakar, believed that by enrolling her at NKA, they had entrusted her to safety: a classroom she loved, in a school that sheltered her from the world’s ugliness. But ugliness had a key to her classroom, they would find.

    On December 2, 2021, Hanifa was abducted outside the Islamic School she attended at Kwanar Dakata, by someone she trusted implicitly: Abdulmalik Tanko, her school proprietor.

    Tanko took her to his house at Tudun Murtala and told his wife that she was the daughter of one of his teachers who had traveled. Two days later, he contacted Hanifa’s family, demanding a N6 million ransom. The Abubakars barely scraped N100,000 together. Then, they prayed, hoping that their child’s abductor returned her.

    To guarantee her safe return, they reported to the police and the latter deployed Operation Puff Adder, while the Department of State Services (DSS) opened a parallel trail.

    For two weeks, Tanko confined Hanifa in his family house, while ransom calls passed between him and her grieving parents.

    On December 18, 2021, having realised that Hanifa recognised him, Tanko resolved to kill her.

    After he finished drinking tea around 11 pm, he put the remainder in an empty container of Bobo Yoghurt (a yoghurt-based milk drink for children), and poured rat poison inside the tea.

    Afterward, he picked her up and told her that he was taking her back to her family house. On their way, he gave Hanifa the drink and she drank it. Then, Tanko told her that he had to pick up something from his school’s branch at Kwanar ‘Yan Gana, also in Nassarawa, Kano.

    By the time, they entered the school, Hanifa had died. Tanko deposited her corpse in a sack, and called one Hashim Isyaku, with whom he buried her in a shallow grave within the school premises.

    Days later, he returned to her parents to offer sympathy, wearing the mask of a grieving volunteer and the deceased’s favourite school “uncle.”

    The Abubakars reported to the police and the latter deployed Operation Puff Adder, while the Department of State Services (DSS) opened a parallel trail. The chase circled Kano’s Nassarawa district until it led to Tanko. As the mask fell, Tanko confessed.

    He killed her because she recognised him; he used N71,000 from the ransom to pay teachers in the other branch of his school and so doing avert a “financial crisis.”

    The law surprisingly moved swiftly. Within six months, the High Court pronounced judgment: Tanko and his accomplice, Isyaku, were sentenced to death on July 28, 2022. The third conspirator, Fatima Musa, was jailed for two years.

    Read Also: Fresh posers as 315 confirmed abducted from Niger school

    The deceased’s father, Abubakar, commended the court for the judgment, saying that, he was happy his daughter, Hanifa, “gotten justice.”

    At least the Abubakars had closure. Unlike Umar Suleiman.

    Nine years ago, his little girl vanished without a trace in Kuje, Abuja. Her name is Khadija Suleiman. She was two years old.

    It happened on November 19, 2016, while Khadija followed seven-year-old Usman to buy milk cake. As they wandered through the neighbourhood, a woman approached them, flashing biscuits and drinks to earn their trust. As the little ones focused on the treats, the woman nudged Usman aside and disappeared with Khadija into the underbelly of the city.

    To date, there is no trace of Khadija. Her abductor hasn’t been arrested. Yet, the longing for her persists in her father’s heart.

    Hanifa and Khadija embody two different tragedies yet share the same national story. One crime unfolded in the trusted precincts of her school, the other on a street where no one anticipated a predator. While Hanifa’s abduction and subsequent murder reflect the ghastly manifestation of Nigeria’s kidnapping time bomb, Khadija’s case remains one among many unresolved child kidnapping across Nigeria.

    Both reflect Nigeria’s swelling pandemic of abductions: a national emergency reflective in the number of victims. Parents bury their children in real time and families vanish into forests to cautiously negotiate with kidnappers. Advocacy networks track statistics and trends as closure rates decline, leaving families to rely on memory, prayer, WhatsApp group appeals, and the hope that someone, somewhere, sees a photograph and calls the right number.

    Victims recount episodes often unrelated to banditry or terrorism but deeply rooted in urban predation and systemic failure, leaving parents like Abubakar and Suleiman at their wits end.

    Just recently, bandits struck the St Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School, between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 am, in Papiri, Agwara council area, Niger state, abducting about 303 students and 12 teachers, according to the Bishop of the Catholic Kontagora Diocese, Bulus Yohanna.

    The recent incident occurred, on November 19, two days after Fulani-speaking bandits abducted 25 students of the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, in Maga, Kebbi State.

    The raid that shook Kebbi

    Nobody, perhaps, will forget in a hurry, the ill-fated morning of November 17. Just about a few minutes past 4 am, gunfire shattered the dawn as armed men stormed Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School (GGCSS) in Maga town. The assailants, who arrived on motorcyles, scaled the school wall with practiced precision and seized 25 girls in a coordinated sweep.

    First stop was the apartment of the Vice Principal (VP) of the school, Hassan Makuku. Speaking to journalists, his widow, Amina, recalled the invasion of her home with the stunned realisation of a woman darting between anguish and healing.

    “To Allah we belong, and to Him we shall return,” she said, her invocation worn thin by grief. According to her, she startled awake around 4.00 am, at the creak of the window frame close to their headrest. She nudged her husband awake, alerting him that animals had gained entrance into their apartment.

    But as he stirred awake, Hassan and his wife realised that it wasn’t animals but bandits with guns who had forced the door open.

    The invaders, speaking Fulani and wearing army camouflage, confronted Hassan, asking if he was the school’s chief security officer. When he confirmed his role, they told him it was his last day.

    “They raised their guns to shoot him immediately they got in, but he said, ‘Don’t shoot me, let me get up.’ As he got up, he said, ‘Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar! La’ilaha’illallah Muhammad Rasulullah.’ He instructed me not to cry, that we should continue praying,” said the widow.

    While they prayed, the invaders “drew their guns and shot him at close range,” killing him. Subsequently, they dragged her daughter out, forcing her to lead them to the girls’ hostel. Although Amina’s girl escaped under the pretext of easing herself, the bandits made away with 25 girls from the hostel.

    Casualties from the encounter include VP Hassan and a security guard, Aliyu Shehu, who later died from gun shot wounds at the hospital.

    There is no gainsaying the fate of the Kebbi and Niger abductions -25 and 315 respectively – fold seamlessly into a nationwide tragedy. In the wake of the incidents, the Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago, has directed all schools in the state to shut down until after the New Year, while schools in affected area will be shut until further notice.

    Kebbi State Governor Nasir Idris has visited GGCSS, promising swift action, even as security teams comb the area. As rescue efforts persist, at least, two of the girls have reportedly escaped as their captors led them through bush paths. The rest remain wherever the forests conceal them: makeshift camps, tree thickets, and the northern wild.

    No ransom demand had been made to affected families in both states at press time. However, in the wake of the girls’ abduction, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Waidi Shaibu, has directed the troops to rescue the girls immediately.

    Describing the incidents as unfortunate, he said he would go to any length through the security agencies to secure their quick release. Kebbi witnessed a similar abduction in 2021, when over 100 students were whisked away. Parents paid ransoms for two years before students were returned in batches, some returned with babies after forced marriages, some with trauma too heavy for their young frames.

    Across Nigeria, over 1,500 schoolchildren have been kidnapped since the Chibok tragedy, where 276 girls were abducted by terrorist sect, Boko Haram, in April 2014, to Kaduna where 130 schoolchildren resurfaced after weeks of captivity. This is not to forget the myriad cases, often uncounted, where families negotiated ransoms, borrowed from neighbours, sold farmlands and landed property, or surrendered heirlooms and their last shred of dignity to buy back their children.

    The grim picture…

    A new report by SBM Intelligence paints a devastating picture of Nigeria’s kidnap-for-ransom epidemic, revealing how widespread, indiscriminate and increasingly lethal the crime has become. Between July 2023 and June 2024 alone, the country recorded 1,130 kidnapping incidents involving no fewer than 7,568 victims. During that period, abductors demanded at least N10.99 billion in ransom but received only N1.048 billion, a mere 9.5 percent of what they asked for. Analysts say this sharp gap reflects how kidnappers now cast a wider net rather than selectively targeting wealthy individuals. In previous years, high-profile victims such as business magnates, politicians, and other elites were the preferred targets because they guaranteed high payouts. But with worsening economic hardship, a shrinking pool of affluent Nigerians, and growing desperation among armed groups, the crime has become a mass enterprise. Today, students, villagers, market women, commuters, children and the elderly are just as vulnerable as the political class.

    Zamfara State recorded the highest number of incidents with 132 cases and 1,639 victims, followed by Kaduna and Katsina with 113 and 119 incidents, and 1,113 and 887 victims, respectively. The northwest remains the epicentre of the crisis, driven by large-scale assaults on rural communities where bandit groups exploit weak security presence to kidnap entire villages or convoys at once, sometimes forcing captives into labour while waiting for negotiations. The northcentral and southeast also witness mass abductions, though often on a smaller scale.

    Tragically, kidnapping has also grown deadlier: 1,056 people were killed in the 1,130 incidents recorded, meaning almost one life is lost for every attempted abduction.

    Inside a ransom economy…

    Findings revealed that kidnapping gangs operating across the country have escalated ransom demands, with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) leading with requests totalling N3.13 billion. The highest single demand emerged from Piko community in Bwari, where abductors sought N900 million for 13 residents in May 2024. Another major case was the January abduction of 10 members of the Al-Kadriyar family, during which kidnappers killed two victims to pressure negotiators and raised their demand from N60 million per person to N100 million, totalling N700 million. Although five Abuja cases involved ransom demands of N100 million or more, four occurred in Bwari. The lone exception was a September 2023 abduction in the Abuja Municipal Council, where a kidnapper who initially demanded N100 million settled for N110,000 before his arrest.

    Despite the staggering sums demanded in the FCT, kidnappers collected only about five percent—N117.5 million—of the total. The highest confirmed payment was the N55 million crowdfunded by the Al-Kadriyar family after the killing of Nabeeha, contradicting police claims that the victims were rescued. Lagos State followed closely with ransom demands totalling N2.24 billion, though almost all of it stemmed from a single case: the June 2024 abduction of the Fouani family, for whom kidnappers demanded $1.5 million. The only other confirmed ransom request in Lagos was the N20 million demanded after the November 2023 abduction of a government official in Ikorodu.

    Kaduna recorded N1.52 billion in ransom demands but confirmed payments of only N32.07 million, though on-the-ground accounts suggest that some payouts were far higher. The mass abduction of 130 pupils in Kuriga contributed N1 billion to the total demand, and eyewitnesses described a large-scale ransom delivery involving SUVs, Hilux trucks, and motorcycles ferrying cash into the forest, evidence that a significant payment was made despite official denials. The highest confirmed payment in the state was N16 million, made in June 2024 to free nine residents of Unguwar Iya Jere in Kagarko LGA.

    In the Southeast, kidnappers collected the highest proportion of demanded ransom—N419.2 million of the N645 million requested, representing a 65 percent payment rate. Anambra and Imo accounted for the bulk of these figures, including the high-profile kidnapping of spiritualist Chukwudozie Nwangwu (Akwa Okuko Tiwaraki), whose abductors demanded N300 million but ultimately received N350 million. In Imo, ransom payments often exceeded initial demands, such as the $50,000 paid for the body of retired Major General RC Duru. Across regions, kidnappers continued to request in-kind ransom items—from cigarettes and energy drinks in the South to motorcycles in the North—reflecting differing operational terrains. The review period also recorded rising dangers for ransom intermediaries, at least four of whom were killed and three abducted, including 27-year-old Abba, murdered in Kaduna after delivering N16 million and motorcycles to kidnappers who accused him of being disrespectful.

    There is no gainsaying kidnapping in Nigeria occasionally takes a strange turn, with abductors now demanding not only cash but everyday household items as part of ransom settlements. In one widely reported case in the South-West, a family was forced to provide N3.5 million alongside a carton of Schnapps, 30 litres of palm oil, 10 tubers of yam, and a keg of vegetable oil before three victims were released.

    Similar incidents have seen kidnappers ask for power banks, phone chargers, bags of garri, cooking oil, dried fish, groundnuts, alcohol and other provision-store staples. Security observers say this shift reflects the deepening economic hardship facing criminal groups who operate for survival as much as profit.

    The development also highlights how unpredictable and unregulated hostage negotiations have become. Victims’ families describe kidnappers barging into negotiations with long shopping lists, sometimes requesting foodstuffs because they spend weeks hiding in the forest without reliable supplies.

    Some analysts note that these unusual ransom demands demonstrate the collapsing financial value of criminal targets, as fewer victims can afford large cash payments. Whatever the motivation, the result is the same: Nigeria now faces a kidnapping industry in which abductors bargain in naira, food items and household essentials, further illustrating how deeply insecurity and economic decline have reshaped crime in the country.

    Victim recounts 11-day ordeal in bandits’ den

    A survivor of a deadly ambush and kidnapping incident in northern Nigeria has emotionally recounted how he spent 11 agonising days in captivity after gunmen opened fire on his convoy, killing four members of his team.

    Speaking with The Nation, the man, who had travelled to attend to family obligations following the death of his mother, said the attack occurred on Friday, July 17, while returning from a visit.

    “We were close to our destination when they laid ambush,” he said. “They came out of the bush and started shooting. My vehicle was hit massively. About three or four of our men died from bullet wounds. But God saved my life.”

    He described how the attackers forced the survivors into the forest, where they were held from October 17 to October 27, surrounded by armed men day and night. “We spent 11 days and 11 nights in the bush. They beat and tortured us. Those guys were merciless. But God Almighty gave me strength,” he said.

    The ordeal intensified when negotiations for ransom began. Captors forced hostages to call their pastors, families and employers to raise money for their release.

    “At one point, I wondered why they insisted I must call my pastor,” he said. “But I obeyed. And surprisingly, the pastor picked up, and God moved. They reduced the ransom themselves.”

    Church officials later revealed the ransom demands fluctuated, starting around N10 million before being negotiated down. Eventually, N2.5 million was raised to secure the man’s release,far lower than sums other victims were forced to pay.

    The Kogi conundrum

    Against the backdrop of studies revealing that women are more frequently kidnapped than men, the macabre reality manifested in the recent abduction of six female senior directors of the Federal Ministry of Defense, on November 10, 2025, along the Kabba–Yagba highway. The victims, Mrs Ngozi Ibeziakor, Mrs. C.A. Emeribe, Mrs. Helen Ezeakor, Mrs. C.A. Ladoye, Mrs. J.A. Onwuzurike and Mrs. Catherine O. Essien, all female staff, were travelling from Lagos to Abuja for a directorate-level promotion examination when their convoy was intercepted on the forested Kabba–Lokoja route.

    Militants suspected to be Fulani ethnic armed groups operating along the Kabba–Yagba corridor have demanded a N150 million ransom for the release of their captives. The abduction comes barely weeks after the United States designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) over worsening attacks on Christian communities, a move analysts believe may have emboldened armed groups seeking to pressure or embarrass the federal government.

    Indeed, communities along the Kabba–Lokoja axis say kidnapping and banditry have surged in recent months, turning one of Kogi State’s most important highways into a corridor of fear. The route, which connects Kabba through Yagba East and down toward Lokoja, winds through forest belts, broken road sections and sparsely manned checkpoints. Much of the stretch lacks surveillance systems or rapid emergency response, leaving motorists vulnerable to ambush.

    Survivors say attackers typically shoot at vehicles to force them to stop before herding abductees into the surrounding bush, where negotiations begin under armed guard. The latest incident underscores the growing brazenness of violent militias, the precarious state of interstate travel even for senior officials, and the shrinking influence of government authority across Nigeria’s central heartland.

    A nationwide emergency

    Contrary to the widespread belief that kidnap-for-ransom is a criminal enterprise rooted in Niger Delta militancy or Fulani militia in northern Nigeria, recent patterns show it has evolved into a nationwide emergency cutting across geography and ethnicity. Rising incidents in the South, particularly the Southeast, underscore the uncomfortable truth: kidnapping has become a domestic industry run largely by locals.

    In July 2025, Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo made a startling disclosure at a town hall meeting with Anambra indigenes in the United States. “Ninety-nine point nine nine per cent of kidnappers and other criminals arrested in Anambra since I assumed office have been Igbos,” he said, stressing that locals now abduct and kill their own people, not so-called invading Fulani herdsmen. Soludo noted that security forces had dismantled numerous camps operated by homegrown criminals, some of whom travel from neighbouring states specifically “to join the business.”

    These individuals, he said, purchase motorcycles, relocate to Anambra, receive training in the bush, and embed themselves in a well-organised kidnap-for-profit network. He accused separatist groups in the region of hijacking agitation for self-determination and turning it into a lucrative personal enterprise built on extortion and abduction.

    In February 2025, the Anambra State Police Command announced a major breakthrough in the investigation of the murder of Hon. Justice Azuka, Labour Party chieftain and lawmaker representing Onitsha North Constituency 1. Azuka had been abducted on December 24, 2024, and his decomposing body was recovered on February 6, 2025, near the 2nd Niger Bridge by a joint team of police and vigilante operatives. The police, led by Commissioner Nnaghe Obono Itam, arrested nine suspects and recovered two pump-action rifles. One suspect sustained a gunshot wound during a gun duel with operatives. The suspects, aged between 19 and 30, included several locals and one identified as the “most notorious,” bearing a tattoo reading “No Peace 4 the Government.”

    Anambra’s notoriety recalls the saga of Chukwudumeme “Evans” Onwuamadike, the billionaire kidnap kingpin from Nnewi, arrested in Lagos, in 2017. Known for multimillion-dollar ransoms, Evans was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Though he now claims reformation, his story further highlights Nigeria’s entrenched kidnapping economy.

    Taming the siege

    Although the country has recorded some achievements against insecurity including the killings of over 15,000 insurgents in the North-east, the arrests of Ansaru leaders and the killings of bandits kingpins, the continued waves of violence put these feats to test.

    Security experts have advised the government to address the growing threat of kidnapping and restore a sense of security to its citizens.

    In the wake of the crisis, President Bola Tinubu has dispatched Vice President Kashim Shettima to Kebbi State to meet with grieving families of the abducted schoolgirls, likewise the Minister of Defence, Bello Matawalle. He also promised that the government is working to ensure their safe and swift return.

    Tinubu lamented that the abduction occurred “despite intelligence warnings of a possible strike by the bandits,” even as he commended the Kebbi State Governor Mohammed Nasir Idris “for the efforts made to avert the kidnapping.”

    Describing the attack as a painful setback, the President urged communities—particularly those in security-vulnerable areas—to work more closely with security operatives in order to avert or successfully quell similar attacks.

    Between June and July 2025, the Nigeria Police Force arrested 5,488 suspects and rescued 170 kidnapped victims, according to the Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun. The IGP detailed nationwide breakthroughs including foiling a kidnap attempt in Kogi, seizing arms from traffickers in Benue, dismantling a kidnap ring in Edo, rescuing ambushed passengers in Taraba, breaking a trafficking ring involving 46 Ghanaians through Interpol collaboration, and taking down a cybercrime syndicate in Jigawa, alongside the recovery of 316 firearms, 2,884 rounds of ammunition, and 216 stolen vehicles.

    Experts suggest a multi-faceted approach to combat kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria, combining security enhancements, economic interventions, judicial reforms, and community engagement. A key consensus is that good governance is essential to resolving the underlying issues.

    Doyin Olowoyo, a security analyst and private security proprietor, said Nigeria must overhaul its security system with modern surveillance and intelligence-led tactics to stay ahead of kidnappers. He noted that demand for private bodyguards is rising because “citizens no longer trust that the state can protect them,” arguing for nationwide deployment of drones, CCTV networks, and AI monitoring, alongside specialized anti-kidnapping units trained like those in Mexico and Colombia. He argued that Nigeria must strengthen institutional discipline and eliminate corruption to ensure that security funding results in real operational capacity. He said, porous borders, unregulated motorcycle use, and lack of fuel controls enable kidnappers’ mobility and must be addressed, while intelligence sharing across agencies must improve. Beyond security measures, he called for economic initiatives that reduce youth recruitment into gangs, a shift toward cashless transactions to disrupt ransom payments, stronger financial transparency, and judicial reforms imposing stiffer penalties, stressing that government, communities, businesses, and civil society must work together to restore deterrence.

    On his part, Kunle Gbadebo, a retired police inspector now in private security in Seychelles, noted that security forces have manpower but lack coordination, insisting that “money must stop disappearing at the top.” He recommended better funded tactical units, professional hostage negotiators, better federal-state synergy, and deeper integration of community intelligence networks, which are the most powerful tool in preventing attacks. Gbadebo also suggested stiffer penalties for offenders, structured trauma support for victims, and greater investment in rural economic opportunities to weaken criminal recruitment. While supporting reduced reliance on ransom payments, he acknowledged the ethical dilemma, adding that lasting progress requires Nigerian-led solutions reinforced by international training, and united action across government, the private sector, religious groups, civil society, and local communities.

    Chorus of the lost

    The names stack upon one another: Hanifa, Khadija, the 25 girls of Maga, Chibok’s 276 girls, Dapchi’s 110 girls, Jangebe’s 279 girls, Bethel Baptist’s 110 pupils, the recently abducted students of

    St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, and thousands yet unreported and forgotten.

    Kidnap for ransom has carved Nigeria open, exposing its soft underbelly: its weak institutions, exhausted security apparatus, abandoned families, underfunded investigations, and bruised faith.

    Trust has become a dangerous currency in Nigeria. Hanifa trusted the man who opened her classroom door. Khadija trusted the woman who bought her biscuits. The Kebbi girls trusted the walls of their hostel. Parents send their children into the world with prayers clutched like shields. They watch them walk away and hold their breath until they return. Some never return.

    Hanifa’s story rattled the country, her photos trended, even as more than 15,000 tweets and #hashtags bore her name. The Court delivered justice; yet the digital storm could not reverse the ravage of the rat poison or restore the heartbeat silenced by Tanko.

    No magnitude of outrage or thundering procession of tweets could bring little Hanifa back to life. These days, it is hard to stare at her pictures. Photographs of her in her final years are so incredibly hard to look at. Yet, her father, Abubakar, relives her final words to him in successive but bittersweet recalls.

    As she prepared to go to school on that particular Saturday, December 2, 2021, she pranced over to him, saying she was prepared to go for her Islamic lessons. He, in turn, told her to pray and she did in his presence. Afterwards, she turned to her mother and said, “Please, buy me Alewar madara (milk candy) on your way back from the market.”

    Today, Hanifa’s parents must relive such delightful moments spent with her as a necessary rite of remembering. Beyond nostalgia, the memories trigger tears. Perhaps because all they can do is remember her; they can no longer experience her.

    Still, her name will live in their prayers, like a plea that never gets answered.

  • The South-South, Southeast cult siege (2)

    The South-South, Southeast cult siege (2)

    •Unease in Awka, Ogidi, Obosi, other Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo communities

    The unease caused by the activities of separatists in the Southeast region is compounded by cult-related incidents. From Abia and Enugu to Anambra, Imo and Ebonyi states, cult-related killings have virtually become the order. Governments in some of the states in the region have had to pay ransoms in their efforts to tame rampaging cult groups

    In Anambra State, cult clashes became a daily routine during the time of former Commissioner of Police, Enaghe Obono Itam, as no fewer than five youths would be killed by their fellow youths. Awka, the capital city, was virtually drenched in blood and the town became too hot for its residents. Cult-related clashes have plagued Anambra for years, with Awka as the epicentre of violence, though the trend appears to have reduced in the current year.

    Some of the causes of these cult killings have been identified as peer pressure, psychological and family pressure or trauma, lack of parental care and desire for power and influence within the political class, among others. The harbingers of death inflict pains and agony on many families and communities.

    Even more worrisome is the fact that the menace has crept from the campuses of the institutions of higher learning to the streets. And the groups operate without restraints probably because they have powerful backers within the society.

    These days, secondary schools are in the fray as young students complain to their parents about pressure and threats from fellow pupils to join their groups. Towards the end of 2024 and early 2025, no fewer than 64 alleged cult members were arrested in Anambra State. How they regained their freedom, however, remains a mystery

    Cult related cases reign supreme in communities like Awka, Ogidi and Obosi, both in Idemili North local government area of the state, Ukwulu, in Dunukodia CC council area, among others. One of the governorship candidates for the November 8 election, Ozo Jeff Nweke, an Awka indigene, raised the alarm that no fewer than 64 youths had been killed in the community.

    The unseemly situation compelled him to in alliance with security operatives convoke a security summit with a view to finding a solution, but all to no avail.  Only last month, a Public Relations Officer of the police, Tochukwu Ikenga, a Superintendent of Police, said 54 persons were arrested over alleged involvement in cult related activities.

    He said out of the number, 39 were males while the remaining 15 were females. Human rights groups in the state had put the figure of casualties at more than 120. The arrest of the 54 suspects by the police, according to the PPRO, was achieved when the command raided a notorious spot at Ogidi, Idemili North Local Government Area of the state.

    He said the action had followed a credible intelligence that cultists routinely gathered at the location to perfect plans for their nefarious activities. The command has expressed deep concern about the rising cases of moral decadence in the state, particularly among the youth within the 18 to 26 years age bracket.

    The command said: “In spite of the successes recorded in the past, disturbing trends such as cultism and fake kidnap incidents continued to surface in Anambra.”

    The recent indiscriminate shooting of attendees of a burial ceremony at Ezi-Ogidi by suspected cultists of the, was another regrettable incident.

    He said the command had intensified surveillance, patrols and intelligence-gathering operations aimed at preventing such incidents.

    The Commissioner of Police, Ikioye Orutugu,said  through the PPRO that the Command has strategised further by adopting both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches to tackle crimes in the state.

    Despite the Police claims, one of the top security operatives in the state, who spoke with The Nation in confidence, said the figure of cult related deaths in the state was alarming

    Pressed further, the source said more than 300 youths had allegedly lost their lives in cult related clashes from Awka to Ogidi and other communities

    Speaking on the issue, the state Commissioner for Information, Dr Law Mefor, said the state government, in collaboration with the security operatives, are working seriously to stem the tide.

    He told The Nation that to stop the trend cannot be achieved by force but through appeal to parents, governments and other stakeholders in the society.

    Cultism in Abia schools

    Although there are no official data on the activities of cult groups in the state, Abia State has had its fair share of cultism and other related issues with the presence of various private and public institutions of higher learning across the three senatorial districts of the state.

    The activities of the cult groups in the higher institutions also have been cited as the reason street cultism has grown exponentially with the recruitment of both primary and secondary school students into various confraternities; a situation many attributed to have caused more damage to the society.

    The Nation investigation showed that apart from the university settings where the activities of various groups are usually noticeable, some locations within the locals are equally used for various cult related activities, especially their initiation process.

    It was gathered that some of the cult groups engage in various activities including rape (for more power), armed robbery and dispossession of innocent citizens of property which they sell and use the proceeds to buy weapons, alcohol or hard drugs.

    Information has it that the groups use bushes far or near their schools for their initiation rites.

    While the management of some of these institutions said they were doing their best to contain the activities of cultists within their schools, our correspondent reports that some of the activities of these cult groups starts from school and often times end outside the school, leaving parties with severe bruises/scars or dead in some cases.

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    In some lodges, some students who live off campus disclosed, they suffer intimidation at the hands of students who are members of various groups as they cannot freely say their minds to avoid being victims of attack by the cult groups.

    In March, 2024, there was reported tension at Abia State University (ABSU) following a renewed outbreak of violence between rival cult groups, the Vikings and the Aye, which reportedly left a 400-level student of History and International Relations and an alleged member of the Aye confraternity (attacked by members of the Vikings within the university area) dead.

    This incident forced the school to suspend academic activities for a few months to avoid further breakdown of law and order in the university community.

    In another scenario, one 18-year-old Prince Ugboaja, a student of Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic (formerly Abia State Polytechnic), was on April 2024 reportedly shot and brutally killed in Aba by suspected cultists after he was said to have resisted their attempt to forcibly initiate him into their cult group.

    Worried by incidents of cultism in the state, the Abia State Government recently said it was going after cult groups.

    The state Commissioner for Information, Prince Kanu, while briefing journalists in Umuahia, said: “The state government has observed with dismay the growing incidents of cult activities in the state.

    “Consequently, the security agencies have come back to go after cult groups that are disturbing the peace of innocent citizens in the state.

    “As a responsible government, this administration will spare no effort to ensure that the state is free of cult activities.”

    Menace of Cultism in Ebonyi State

    Once seen as a quiet and fast-developing state, Ebonyi has in recent years been rattled by a growing wave of cult-related violence that has claimed lives, destroyed property and left deep scars on families and communities. From the university campuses to rural towns like Oriuzor and towns in Ohaukwu, cultism has evolved from a hidden vice into a major social and security challenge threatening peace and progress.

    Old wounds, new fears

    A former Chairman of Ohaukwu Local Government Area, Clement Odah, recalled the state of insecurity that greeted him when he first assumed office.

    He said: “When I assumed office as caretaker Chairman, I was confronted right at the gates of the council with security challenges, especially the internal menace of cultism and cult-related crimes.”

    Odah did not mince words about what he met on ground, accusing his predecessor of “championing insecurity and cultism in the area.”

    Odah said his administration arrested and prosecuted more cultists than any other chairman before him. The statement underscores the persistence of cult-related violence in Ohaukwu; a local government that has witnessed repeated clashes and targeted killings tied to rival groups.

    Communities under siege

    In Oriuzor community, Ezza North Local Government Area, cult clashes have become a frightening routine. In January 2024, three people were reportedly killed in a violent confrontation between rival groups.

    The Ebonyi State Police Command confirmed the incident, saying that several others sustained injuries from machete and axe attacks.

    The leader of the Oriuzor Youths Vanguard for Good Governance, Igiri Innocent, lamented the situation in a statement, calling for collective community effort to tackle the crisis.

    “Oriuzor in Ezza North is my home. My home needs serious intervention. That community has been bedeviled by so many factors ranging from cultism to illiteracy and poverty, which is mostly attributed to the kind of leaders that have been in charge of the people’s affairs,” he said.

    He challenged local leaders to rethink their approach to governance and youth engagement. “Community of same equality in other parts of the state and country are busy embracing smart tech, AI, and other serious inventions of the time. Is our own different? Where are we not getting it right?” he queried.

    Schools and spread of the scourge

    Cultism has also found fertile ground in schools. The Ebonyi State Police Command, concerned by the trend, announced plans to launch a sensitization programme across secondary schools to educate students on the dangers of cultism and related crimes.

    According to the Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Joshua Ukandu, the campaign will form part of the 2025 Police Day celebrations and will involve volunteers from the Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV).

    “The programme will engage students in discussions on the dangers of cultism, violent crimes, and other related issues,” Ukandu said, adding that preventive education is a more sustainable solution than enforcement alone.

    Tertiary institutions have also not been spared. Recently, a Special Assistant to Ebonyi State Governor on Security was captured wearing an insignia suspected to be that of a cult group during the matriculation of one of the tertiary institutions in the state. The pictures generated so much uproar that Governor Francis Nwifuru was forced to sack the said aide.

    The Nigerian Army, through the Commander of the 24 Engineering Regiment, Lt. Col. A. S. Atumode, has pledged to support the fight against cultism at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike (AE-FUNAI).

    During a courtesy visit to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Sunday Elom, Atumode emphasised the army’s readiness to partner with the university in ensuring campus safety.

    “One of the crucial challenges that affect most universities in Nigeria is cultism,” he said.

    “Our partnership with the university will help curb such nefarious activities and ensure the security of lives and property.”

    The Commander stressed that the military understands the value of education in national development and would continue to support institutions to ensure that learning environments remain safe.

    Why cultism persists

    According to sociological studies, the roots of cultism in Ebonyi and across Nigeria are deeply embedded in family breakdown, peer influence, poverty and the quest for social recognition. In many communities, young people join cult groups in search of protection, belonging or political leverage.

    Researchers note that cult groups often mask their identities, using euphemisms like “fraternity,” “system,” “runs,” or “game.” These deceptive terms, combined with recruitment through peer pressure, have made it difficult for parents and community leaders to detect the early stages of involvement.

    Between the late 2023 and mid-2025, no less than a dozen deaths were linked to cult clashes across Ebonyi State. In Nkwagu, Abakaliki Local Government Area, at least three people were killed and several others injured in a clash between rival groups. Property worth millions of naira was destroyed as residents fled their homes in panic.

    In May 2025, four suspected cultists were sentenced to death by an Ebonyi State High Court for the killing of Chinonso Elom, a 26-year-old man in Ohaukwu Local Government Area. The judgment was hailed as a sign that justice may finally be catching up with perpetrators.

    The way forward

    The growing consensus among security agencies, community leaders, and the academic community is that the fight against cultism cannot be won through arrests alone. There must be a multi-dimensional approach — one that combines education, youth empowerment, counseling, and moral reorientation.

    As Ebonyi continues to rise as an emerging economic and educational hub in the Southeast, the hope is that collective action will help reclaim its communities from the grip of fear and violence.

    The menace of cultism in Ebonyi State is not just a law enforcement issue — it is a social emergency that demands the participation of everyone: government, schools, traditional rulers, and families.

    Enugu’s fight against cultism

    When the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) campus community gathered for a lively bonfire party in September, few imagined the night would end in bloodshed. But before dawn, a young guest, Mr. Chiebonam Nweze, lay dead. Reason: he was stabbed in what was later linked to cult rivalry that had spilled into the university’s grounds.

    The shocking incident jolted Enugu State, long considered one of the more peaceful parts of the Southeast. The university’s response was swift. Management banned all social events after 6 p.m., directing that future gatherings take place only in daylight and under the supervision of campus security.

    “We cannot afford another tragedy,” a senior university official said, describing the new restrictions as “a necessary sacrifice for safety.”

    But the murder has thrown a harsh spotlight on a deeper, spreading problem. Cultism, which once largely confined to student hostels and back-street bars, has begun seeping into townships and artisan communities, finding fresh recruits among jobless youths, commercial motorcyclists, and mechanics.

    What began as secret brotherhoods on campus is morphing into a full-blown criminal network across neighborhoods in the Enugu metropolis, Agbani, Nsukka, and Udi. The Enugu State Police Command says it has stepped up its anti-cult operations to stem the tide.

    Scores of suspects have been rounded up in recent months, and weapons recovered in raids coordinated by the command’s Anti-Cult Tactical Squad.

    Police spokesperson, Daniel Ndukwe, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said the operations are part of an “intelligence-driven strategy” combining arrests, community policing, and awareness campaigns.

    Also briefing newsmen in a recent press conference, the state Commissioner of Police, Maman Bitrus Giwa, disclosed that his command arrested 122 suspects for cultism and related crimes among others in six months between March and September this year.

    While noting that cultism is no longer a campus issue, the CP warned that “it is a community threat, and we’re treating it as such.”

    Yet many residents worry that periodic raids may not be enough. Social workers and youth leaders point to unemployment, drug abuse, and weak mentorship structures as the fuel keeping cult groups alive.

     “These boys want belonging and survival,” said a local artisan union leader in Abakpa. “When nobody offers them hope, the gangs do.”

    The UNN tragedy has revived calls for collaboration between universities, police and local communities to cut recruitment pipelines.

    Also, there are calls for civic groups to organise town hall campaigns, while student associations push for peer-education programmes and better lighting around hostels.

    IMO

    Two years of cult violence: grim toll of death, destruction

     Cult clashes in Imo State have over the past two years left in its trail countless deaths, injuries and property damage across the state. Reports showed that in the first six weeks of 2025, more than 144 lives were lost to violence as a result of cult clashes from locations in the state including Obinze, Ikeduru, Orlu and Owerri, described as ‘hotspots’ of cult activities.

    Coordinated attacks in the Orsu Local Government Area resulted in the death of at least 18 people in January. The violence followed a masquerade festival and victims suffered from deep machete wounds.

    Seven people were killed in February in a clash between rival cult groups, De-Gbam and De-Well, in the Mmaahu community of Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area while in the same month a cult war in Owerri claimed one life.

    In the first quarter of the year under review, security personnel reportedly arrested some NBM (Aye) members in Naze, Owerri. The arrests were made during a July 7 event where guns were reportedly found. A convention planned by two factions of the NBM (Aye) cult group was reported to be a potential flashpoint for violence due to internal tensions.

    In September, in the Owalla Avuvu area of Ikeduru LGA, a clash between the NBM (Aye) and DNKI (Vikings) cult groups resulted in the killing of an Aye member. The violence reportedly started after a robbery attempt by a Vikings member against an Aye member in Amakohia, while reports also indicate that in the same month, a clash between the “Acid” and “Achis” confraternities resulted in multiple deaths and casualties in the Awarra Court area of Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area.

    In October, an NBM (Aye) member known as “Emitex” was reportedly kidnapped and killed by unknown gunmen in Orlu. His body was found in the trunk of his car. Also in the same month, it was alleged that members of the government-backed Ebube Agu Security Network in the Orlu area were also Vikings (DNKI) cultists. They were accused by residents of crimes, including robbery, forced initiation, and killing rival cultists.

    Other incidents also occurred in Owerri and Obinze the same month when an altercation occurred in Obinze, Owerri, between the DNKI (Vikings) and NBM (Aye) cult groups. The confrontation, sparked by months of alleged harassment by one side, led to injuries.

    Police action against cultism

    Longer-term trends historical data from research by the Fund for Peace shows that:

    Last quarter of 2024, the Imo State Police Command arrested 2,785 suspects for various offences, including cult-related activities, and recovered a significant cache of arms during a crackdown.

    Also, a raid in Irete, Owerri, the same 2024, police apprehended five suspected members of the Black Axe confraternity.

    Police reports during the period under review indicate that seven suspected cultists were arrested and weapons recovered during a raid in the Irete area of Owerri-West.

    Cultism still remains prevalent in Imo schools even as school authorities have been applying various remedies to curb the spread of the menace. Mrs. Tessy Okwu, a school principal in Imo State, disclosed that cultism continues to affect both rural and urban schools, including some private institutions.

    According to her, the menace is widespread, and schools are taking measures to combat it.

    “Cultism is still a problem in both rural and urban schools, and even in some private schools,” Mrs. Okwu said.

    “To address this, we principals and teachers adopt strict monitoring measures.

    “We thoroughly search suspected students before allowing them into the classroom to prevent them from bringing in dangerous instruments.”

    She emphasised the need for vigilance, urging educators to remain proactive in identifying and preventing cult activities in schools. By taking these measures, schools can create a safer environment for students to learn and grow.

    The leader of All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) in Imo State Mr. K C Azugwu, said that there have been reported cases of success in the fight against cultism in Imo State in recent times.

    He attributed this success to the collaborative efforts of community vigilante groups, teachers, Parents-Teachers Associations (PTA), and the state government.

    According to Mr. Azugwu, “Our education-friendly governor has been supportive, and together with community vigilante groups, teachers, and PTAs, we are working to ensure that the menace of cultism is eradicated in the state.”

    BAYELSA

    Cult wars stoke fear, terror in Bayelsa residents

    In the last 10 months, cult related killings have reached unprecedented levels in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, with no fewer than 25 reported casualties, creating fear and terror amongst residents and disrupting social activities.

    The Nation gathered that the total number of cult-related incidents in Yenagoa from January to June stands at 10, with an estimated 25 deaths.

    Although there has been a lull in cult killings following intensified police operations on black spots, many residents are still wary of the ever present threat of cult violence.

    Since January 2025, clashes between rival cult groups, the Greenlanders and the Bobos, over the control of the government-owned transport terminal in Igbogene community have led to multiple casualties, including innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.

    The violence is believed to have escalated after the Bayelsa State Government, in late December 2024, ordered the relocation of all inter-state motor parks to Igbogene community.

    The decision, it was learnt, intensified the rivalry between two cult groups, Greenlanders and Bobo groups reportedly fighting over the revenue generated at the transport terminal.

    On Thursday, January 9, 2025, armed men suspected to be members of the Greenlanders cult invaded Igbogene community, killing three people, including the son of a former community vigilante leader known as ‘Money Sweet’.

    The attackers, numbering about 10 and wielding various weapons, stormed the area around 8 pm, forcing residents to scamper for safety.

    One of the victims was gunned down near his house while another youth was shot after failing to disclose his brother’s whereabouts.

    On January 17, a youth identified simply as Frank a.k.a. Akiman, was shot dead by a rival cult group in a continuation of the feud that began in Igbogene on January 8, in which three people were killed.

    It was learnt that Frank was ambushed on Punch Road by gunmen suspected to be members of a rival group. The incident, which occurred around 9.00pm, caused terrified shop owners to shut down business activities along Punch Road and neighbouring streets in Amarata.

    Many students from nearby Bayelsa Medical University were forced to skip classes for fear of being caught in the violence.

    On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, a 30-year-old man, Darlington Watson, allegedly a Greenlanders member, was dragged out of a moving tricycle and brutally stoned to death by suspected rival cultists in Agudama-Epie.

    Witnesses recounted how the assailants stopped the tricycle, pulled Watson out, and began to beat him with sticks, machetes, and stones until he died. The incident occurred around 5:15 pm, opposite a Pentecostal church in the area.

    After a lull, in June 2025, cult killings resurfaced in Amarata community after suspected cultists killed a policeman, which resulted in police raids on homes and an imposition of a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the community.

    The state owned tertiary institution Niger-Delta University (NDU), Wilberforce Island, Amassoma, has also not been spared. On the heels of the killing of Precious Briggs, an Engineering graduate of the state owned tertiary institution, Ayaokpo Sinclair and another unidentified friend, who were awaiting NYSC call-up letters, were clubbed to death by suspected cultists in nearby Gbanrantoru community.

    Chairman, Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Comrade David-West Bekinwarie, called for stiffer penalties, including the death sentence, for convicted cultists.

    He criticised the government for forming “peace committees” instead of prosecuting cultists, alleging that these groups are often rewarded with money and influence.

    He also blamed the political class for enabling cultists during elections, making law enforcement efforts difficult.

    He said: “Is it not when they’re broke that two or three of them decide the town is too quiet and then stir up trouble just to get the government’s attention for another peace talk?

    “The government should stop holding peace talks with cultists. Sometimes, these same boys are the ones politicians use during elections.

    “I sympathise with the police at times because when they arrest these cultists, you start getting all sorts of calls from different angles pleading for their release. Eventually, they’re granted bail and return to the same society to cause even more problems.”

    Bekinwarie urged the state to stop pampering criminals and to let the law take its full course.

    “For me, anyone caught in cult-related activities should face the full wrath of the law. The death penalty should be included as one of the punishments for cultism.”

    The Atissa Youth Council (AYC) Worldwide, representing the affected communities, strongly condemned the killings in Swali and other cult-related incidents within the Atissa Clan.

    Its president, Comrade Osomuze Clever Josiah, expressed concern over the deteriorating security situation, which he said has sown fear and disrupted peace in the community and Yenagoa.

    He urged Bayelsa State Government and relevant authorities to take immediate steps to restore normalcy.

    “The council demands immediate action by the state government to prevent further bloodshed and to restore calm and normalcy in our community. We will not remain silent in the face of violence and insecurity,” he said.

    Following the recent cult killings in Amarata community, stakeholders in the community in June staged a peace walk to protest the increasing cult-related violence and criminality.

    They warned cult groups to vacate the area immediately.

    The protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as “Say No to Cultism” and “Amarata Must Be Free,” while community stakeholders called on security agencies and civil society to support their campaign for lasting peace.

    Led by their Paramount Ruler, Chief Sam David, the community declared that it would no longer tolerate incessant robbery, killing and violence in the community.

    Chief David said Amarata had reached a breaking point and vowed that traditional authorities, security outfits, and youths would flush out the criminal elements.

    Youth President, Comrade Izibeya Excel, pledged that residents would no longer live in fear, insisting that offenders would be fished out “house to house.”

    Also, Comrade Gifted Natus launched Operation Set Amarata Free, stressing that even indigenes involved in cultism would face sanctions.

    In response to the escalating cult violence, Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, gave students engaging in cult activities at the state-owned Niger Delta University and ultimatum to withdraw from the institution or be ready for expulsion.

    Diri also directed the Vice Chancellor and the institution’s management to fish out culprits and dismiss anyone found culpable.

    The Bayelsa governor gave the directive during the NDU 7th Combined Convocation following recent incidents of students’ cult rivalry that reportedly claimed lives in the community.

    He gave a similar directive to security agencies in the state and the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice during the state executive council meeting to speedily prosecute anyone arrested for cult-related crimes in the state.

    He restated his call on students to avoid cultism, stressing that there was no room for such activities in universities, because the university is a place for character building and learning.

    He said: “Recently, I spoke to the Vice Chancellor about the resurgence of cultism in this university. May I use this opportunity to warn those who did not come here for learning and character building to on their own withdraw?

    “There should be no room for cultism in this university. I have given the Vice Chancellor a charge as the Visitor to this institution, and as government, I have also charged all security agencies in the state.

    “Anyone found engaging in cultism in this university, do not hesitate to apply the sanctions.”b

  • Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting: Two decades of courage, impact

    Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting: Two decades of courage, impact

    For twenty days, between October 4 and October 24, journalists who have done outstanding investigative reporting have the opportunity to submit entries for the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting.

    Since 2005, some of the brightest minds in Nigerian journalism have been honoured for their ground-breaking reports that exposed corruption, abuse, neglect and all kinds of misconduct in public and private sectors.

    They have received these recognitions after a panel made up of professors in media studies, outstanding media professionals and veteran journalist deem their works remarkable having passed criteria that emphasise rigour.

    In a statement, Motunrayo Alaka, Executive Director/CEO of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Reporting (WSCIJ), said the award is open to professional reporters or teams of reporters, whether full-time or freelance, whose works have been published or broadcast for a Nigerian audience.

    “This landmark edition celebrates two decades of honouring the courageous efforts of investigative journalists and rewarding best practices in the Nigerian media.

    “Since its inception in 2005, the award has recognised outstanding journalists whose work prevents or exposes corruption, highlights human rights violations, and uncovers regulatory failures in Nigeria. Eligible categories include print, online, photo, editorial cartoon, television, and radio,” the statement read.

    Entries, the centre said, will be evaluated by an independent panel of judges using its award coding system introduced in 2012 “to ensure fairness and confidentiality”.

    “Judges will evaluate based on investigative depth, evidence, human rights focus, ethical standards, courage, creativity, public interest, impact, and presentation. Applicants are encouraged to review category-specific criteria before submission,” the statement adds.

    “In 2024, WSCIJ received 219 entries, of which 113 met the eligibility criteria (18 from print media, 66 from online media, 94 from broadcast media (TV 87, radio 7), 10 photo news, and 4 editorial cartoons. From these, 15 journalists emerged as finalists.”

    This year’s edition marks the 20th anniversary of the coveted award.

    When the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism launched its award in October 2005, it sought to raise the bar for truth-telling in Nigeria. The idea was simple but bold: to honour journalists who confront corruption, abuse of power and injustice through fact-driven, courageous reporting. Twenty years later, the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting has grown into an institution that not only celebrates excellence but also shapes the standards of investigative journalism in the country.

    Award for journalistic integrity/criteria

    From the start, the award set itself apart with clear criteria and a transparent judging process. It was open to professional journalists working in print, radio, television, photojournalism, online platforms and editorial cartooning. Over time, new categories were added to reflect critical and emerging issues such as climate change, gender-based reporting and local governance. Every entry is evaluated on investigative depth, quality of evidence, creativity, ethics, courage and public impact. This process is guided by a formal coding system that has been in place since 2012, ensuring consistency and fairness. The organisers have always made it clear that the award is not about popularity or prestige; it is about journalistic integrity and societal impact.

    Past winners

    The record of winners over the first twenty years reads like a chronicle of Nigeria’s most significant investigative moments. In the early years, the award recognised journalists who exposed forced demolitions, failing hospitals, fraudulent contracts and neglected schools. The names of Deji Bademosi, Emmanuel Mayah, Nicholas Ibekwe, Seun Akioye, Olatunji Ololade, Kunle Akinrinade, Adekunle Yusuf and others became familiar to Nigerians who followed serious journalism. Their work forced government responses and, in some cases, policy changes.

    Mayah won the print category of the maiden edition with his story ‘Lagos: Inside Nigeria’s Industrial concentration camps’. Bademosi won in 2008 in the TV category with his report titled ‘In the name of the Police’.

    Akioye won the print category in 2012 with his story ‘ Behold! Village where kids are born to be househelps’ published in the Nigerian Compass.  Adekunle Yusuf won the print category in 2015 with his report ‘How Corruption, Leadership Hamper NDLEA’s Drug War’. He repeated the feat in 2017 with his report ‘Exposed: How Corruption, Favouritism Thrive In Unilorin’.

    In 2018, Mojeed Alabi of New Telegraph won for his investigation that uncovered a multibillion-naira contract scandal involving a top government official. That same year, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz of Premium Times earned recognition for the exposé that led to the resignation of a sitting minister. In 2020, Damilola Banjo of Sahara Reporters won the overall prize for stories that combined courage and meticulous reporting. Bukola Samuel-Wemimo of TVC and Samson Folarin of The Punch were also honoured for broadcast and print investigations.

    The 2023 edition celebrated Lami Sadiq of Daily Trust, whose investigation revealed an illegal organ-harvesting ring in Abuja. Sharon Ijasan of TVC News won in the television category for her work on human trafficking, while Kemi Busari of Premium Times emerged in the online category for his public-interest reporting. In 2024, Jemilat Nasiru and Mansur Ibrahim of TheCable took home the online award for a detailed report on the dangers of e-waste. Lami Sadiq, who had become one of the most consistent voices in investigative reporting, won again for her powerful piece on the organ trade in Nigeria’s capital. Each of these stories captured both the spirit and the ambition of the Wole Soyinka Award: to make journalism a tool for accountability.

    The credibility question and calibre of judges

    The credibility of the award has always rested on the calibre of the people entrusted to judge it. Over the years, the panel has drawn from a rich pool of talent across journalism, law, academia, literature, and human rights, ensuring that every decision reflects both excellence and integrity. Odia Ofeimun, the poet and public intellectual, brought early panels a rare combination of moral clarity and sharp critical insight, his work in literature and political discourse giving him a lens through which to evaluate submissions with both artistry and conscience. Ayo Obe, the human rights lawyer and former president of Nigeria’s Civil Liberties Organisation, ensured that every decision was grounded in ethical and legal rigor, while Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate and indefatigable defender of civil liberties, lent the panel his deep knowledge of constitutional matters and the courage of principle.

    Bimbo Oloyede, a pioneering broadcaster and the first female newscaster on the Nigerian Television Authority, brought decades of newsroom precision and an unwavering eye for storytelling. Chidi Odinkalu, scholar and human rights activist, added perspectives shaped by governance, accountability, and the pursuit of justice. Professor Ralph Akinfeleye, a seasoned academic and authority on media ethics, anchored deliberations with a commitment to methodological rigor, while Professor Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika, a trailblazing professor of journalism, guided the panel with a focus on transparency, evidence, and fairness.

    Until his passing, Professor Lai Oso of Lagos State University played a pivotal role in sustaining the panel’s high standards. A respected communication scholar and former journalist, he combined deep professional experience with academic insight, ensuring that every decision reflected both intellectual depth and practical understanding. Together, these judges, with their diverse expertise and unwavering commitment to excellence, have made the award not just a recognition of talent, but a standard-bearer for integrity and credibility in Nigerian journalism.

    What makes the award special?

    What makes the Wole Soyinka Award special is that it does more than hand out trophies. It nurtures a community of professionals who see investigative journalism as a public duty. The Wole Soyinka Centre tracks the real-world impact of winning stories and records cases where government agencies act after exposure. Many of the laureates have gone on to lead investigative units in their newsrooms, found independent media platforms, or mentor young reporters. The Centre also invests in capacity-building by offering winners training, international fellowships and networking opportunities. The goal is to ensure that investigative excellence does not end on award night but continues to shape the media landscape.

    Lasting influence

    Several factors explain the award’s lasting influence. First is its consistency. Since 2005, it has been held every year without interruption, creating an unbroken tradition that has helped sustain public trust. Second is the  rigour. The transparent judging process, supported by detailed scoring criteria, ensures that only work of real substance is rewarded. Third, its emphasis on impact. The award values stories that not only uncover wrongdoing but also lead to change. Finally, its commitment to mentorship. By building the skills of reporters, the Centre strengthens the profession itself.

    The impact of the award is not only seen in the journalists it celebrates but also in the broader media culture it has helped to build. Editors now take investigative work more seriously. Audiences have become more discerning. And public officials know that there are reporters who will dig, verify and publish, no matter the obstacles. In two decades, the award has become both a symbol and a standard — a marker of what good journalism looks like in a democracy that still struggles with transparency.

    As the award marks its twentieth year in 2025, it faces a changing media landscape. The pressures on journalism are intense, with shrinking newsroom budgets, digital disruption and threats to press freedom. Yet, the award’s continuing presence serves as a reminder that good journalism remains indispensable to national development. It honours not just individual excellence but collective responsibility, the belief that truth-telling is both an act of courage and a civic duty.

    The Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting has become more than an annual ceremony. It is a living record of how journalism can serve the public good. It has created a generation of reporters who see their work as a fight for justice, accountability and the preservation of truth. Its story is one of resilience and renewal, a testament to how one idea, nurtured with integrity, can transform a profession and, in its own way, a nation.

  • The South-South, Southeast cult siege (1)

    The South-South, Southeast cult siege (1)

    • Eiye, Aiye, KKK, others turn regions into killing fields

    • How economic interests drive cult activities

    For many years, cultism has remained a monster in Rivers State, leading to the killing of many people, including traditional rulers, youth leaders, security operatives and political leaders. Two communities, Iba and Obelle in Emohua Local Government Area, were once sacked by cult-related violence. So also were some communities in Ahoada East and Ahoada West.

    “It is a well-organised empire of crime,” said Philip Obed, who runs a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and has been following the activities of cult groups and confraternities in the area. Obed says cultism is so organised in the state that there is a clear difference between the cult groups that operate in the territory institutions and others that exist on streets and communities.

    Obed said: “Three months ago in Rivers State University (RSU), precisely at the back gate where they call Azikiwe by Opobo Lane, the Rivers State Police command announced that they arrested three cultists. The command concealed their names for investigative purposes.

    “They were arrested with English made revolver pistol, two live ammunition and one expended ammunition. Those arrested were members of the Klu Klus Klans (KKK). So, the ones that operate in the universities are different from the ones that operate on the streets.

    “The campus cult groups include Vikings, Black Axe Confraternity, Buccaneer Confraternity, Mafia known as Family Cult, Aiye or Eiye Confraternity; Two Two, Burkina Faso,  KKK and Mafait. So, we have nine of them in all the higher institutions in the state.”

    But he says three of the cult groups dominate the higher institutions in the state.

    Obed said: “In Rivers, there are three dominant cult groups in higher institutions. They are the Vikings, Black Axe and the KKK. Most times in the universities, you see clashes among these three big groups.

    “Those ones the police arrested at the university back gate was a clash between the KKK and the Vikings. You will recall that after two, three weeks there was a death at Iwofe. The police confirmed that the boy was a student of Ignatius Ajuru University and that it was suspected to be a cult clash.

    “So, if one clash starts in one institution, it spreads to other institutions. If they can’t find a target in one institution, they will look at other institution or areas dominated by students for a target.

    “Two or three months ago, five cult members were arrested in Ignatius Ajuru University. What happened? The Number 2 man of Black Axe came to write exams in the school, there was an existing war between the Black Axe and Mafian confraternity.

    ‘So when the number two man came to write exams, they sent five people to guide him. But the police and the school through intelligence arrested those five people and the number two man.

    “Recently, the police released a statement that a policeman was arrested at UNIPORT. Even if they didn’t mention the name, those ones are black axe members. There are symbols that you will use to identify them.”

    Besides the campus cult groups, Obed says bigger cult activities take place on streets and communities. He maintains that his years of experience reveal that street cultism is severer than campus cult activities.

    He explained that the affiliates are identified as either Houses or Decks.

    He said: “On the streets, we have four major cult groups or community cult groups and they have affiliates. These are Island, Greenland, Degbam and the Junior Vikings also known as Dewell.

    “They now have affiliates like Degbam Houses. This means different branches of Degbam. The Islands call their braches Deck. Greeland also uses Deck because it came out of Island. Dewell also uses Deck.

    Obed recalled that earlier in the year, there was a serious clash between houses of Degbam and a taxi driver was killed. He said although cultism exists in other states, it is more serious in Edo and Rivers. In Rivers, he said, various cult groups control different territories, adding that the quest to take over another territory fuels cult clashes in the state.

    Obed said: “The cult groups own territories. They have unit leaders, community leaders, local government leaders and state leaders. If you go to places like the Marine Base and Makoba, those ones are the territories of the Island.

    “Places like Amadi Ama, Aboloma are the territories of the Greenland. Places like Mile One Diobu are territories of Degbam. When you come to Mile 3 from Ikoku as if you are going to the UST Back Gate, they belong to the Dewell.

    “So, in each LGA, they have territories. What causes the cult clashes is that to gain relevance you must be able to conquer territories so that you will be recognised.

    “If in that territory there is a bus stop, the dominant cult group will be collecting the marching ground. For another cult group to collect the marching ground there, you must be able to have fought and dislodge them from the territory.

    “Most of the clashes are for economic survival. If in your territory you have a booming drug business, for another cult group to take over the booming drug business, the group must be able to dislodge the one in charge of that territory. The more territories you take over, the more is your survival guaranteed.”

    On their sources of incomes, Obed said: “One of their major sources of income is political patronage. If you check the bus stops, those boys that collect money from bus drivers and taxi drivers, it is their sources of income, and they are compensations from politicians they worked for during elections.

     “They collect money from the traders in the market as marching ground. It is political settlement.

    “Another way is political thuggery, especially during election periods. Another source of making money is kidnapping and armed robbery.”

    He further said there is a nexus between other vices and cultism.

    “You cannot be a don in illegal oil bunkering without being a cultist. Almost all the drug barons are cult leaders.

    “If you reduce cultism to the barest minimum you have succeeded in reducing armed robbery, illegal bunkering, kidnapping and other vices.

    “Cultism is a major support to these vices”.

    Obed listed institutional involvement, political patronage and sabotage by security agencies as factors hindering the war against cultism.

    He said: “Some of the security agencies are involved, and it is a major challenge. If some serving security agencies are members, there will be sabotage on the war against cultism.

    “I remember in 2016, a Garrison Commander in the Nigerian Army accused a National Assembly member from Rivers State of siding with the Greenland while a royal highness was siding with the Island.

    “So, the involvement of highly placed persons is the major challenge in the war against cultism. Even if they don’t carry guns openly, they aid and abet by their sponsorships and provision of economic survival for them.

    “The politicians are the ones giving them markets to collect money.

     Obed regrets that many people have died in Rivers street cult clashes. He said the death tolls cannot be determined, because cult wars are not like conventional fights.

    “The cult clash that happened in Dioubu about five months ago, we recorded about five deaths before the police clamped down on them.

    “A cultist is a potential armed robber, a potential drug baron, kidnapper or rapist. In Rivers State, you cannot be a drug baron, an oil thief, kidnapper and armed robber without first being a cultist.

    “In other states, someone can be an armed robber and a kidnapper without being a member of any cult. You cannot perpetrate crimes in areas you don’t own the territory.”

    Obed recalled that in the past, some communities were under siege by cultists.

    He said: “Like in 2023 after the election, in Ahoada West, cultists killed five men in the community because one General Danger imposed a levy the community should be paying to him. So in the month of June, they failed to pay him and he moved into the community and killed people.

    “Before the death of the infamous cult leader 2Baba in Ahoada East, communities were paying levies to him and cultists were installing traditional rulers, youth leaders and CDC leaders.

    “But now I can comfortably tell you that no community in the state is under the control of cultists.

    “Cult groups exist in the communities but they no longer control them like before. Iba and Obele in Emohua suffered at the hands of cultists before, but now what they do is to come, kill and go. They killed a traditional ruler and a vigilante leader.

    “Recently, the chairman of the LGA placed N2 million bounty on one General Cairo and his gang, and all of them are on the run. The army unit is still patrolling between Iba and Obele. They have informants in the communities.

    “Obed further raised the alarm that cultism is creeping into the primary and secondary schools in the state. There is also a major challenge: cultism is now creeping into secondary and primary schools.

    “Some years ago in Mgbosimiri, a pupil was arrested with a pistol and he said he had issues with the teacher. We also have clashes in secondary schools along Aba Road.”

    On what the government and security agencies should do to stop cultism in the state, he said: “The cult groups have launched a campaign of catching them young. They are not only going to universities, they are also going to public primary and secondary schools.

    “The government should include in their syllabus dangers and negative consequences of cultism in primary and secondary schools. Churches should also teach the negative consequences of cultism, emphasising the ultimate gain, which is death.

    “Our reward system is another problem. Even if you want to grant amnesty to cultists, it should not be from the side of weakness. The person must have shown genuine remorse and repentance.

    “But what do you see? The government will say that someone is killing too much and begin to approach the same person to make peace. It is not supposed to be.

    “Youth elections, CDC chairmanship poll, traditional rulers also cause these clashes. When cult groups support different candidates, there will surely be a clash.

    “The government should conduct such elections in a way that cult groups would not align to support anybody. The security agencies should take intelligence gathering seriously.”

    A rights activist and National Coordinator, Centre for Basic Rights Protection and Accountability Campaign, Prince Wiro, described cultism in Rivers State as severe and widespread.

    More worrisome, he said, is the discovery that the menace is spreading to secondary and primary schools. Insisting that the only gain of cultism is death and imprisonment, Wiro called on the students to abstain from cult-related activities.

    He also advocated the inclusion of anti-cultism courses in primary and secondary school curricular to teach the students the dangers of cultism.

    Worried by the development, the Rivers State Police Command, in collaboration with the Police Campaign Against Cultism and other Vices (POCACOV) on Thursday launched a comprehensive anti-cultism and drug abuse campaign to combat the rising trends of illicit drug use and youth involvement in cult activities.

    The initiative, held on October 3, 2025, at Community Secondary School, Rumuolumeni, Obio Akpor LGA, Rivers State, underscores the command’s unwavering commitment to ensuring the safety and security of the citizenry.

    The campaign with the theme “Cultism, Drug Abuse and My Academics,” was specifically designed to enlighten students on the severe effects/consequences of joining secret cults and engaging in substance abuse; promote a safe and conducive learning environment; discourage youth involvement in cult activities and illicit drug use and to foster a culture of peace and harmony in the community.

    Confirming the campaign, Irringe-Koko said: “The Rivers State Police Command reiterates its unwavering commitment to tackling the menace of social vices, including cultism, drug abuse, and other forms of criminality. 

    “The command is dedicated to ensuring the safety, security and well-being of all citizens through collaboration with relevant stakeholders to prevent the spread of cultism and drug abuse, provide support and counseling services to victims of cultism and drug abuse amongst others.”

    Cultism reigns supreme in Edo

    Last month, the ugly trend of cultism reared its head at the signing out of some students of the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State. Among the students that wrote his final year examination was the alleged number one man (leader) of Eiye Confraternity in the school. Members of Eiye took to the streets to celebrate their leader’s graduation but it took a tragic turn.

    While at the hotel where Eiye members gathered to celebrate, members of the Black Axe Confraternity stormed the place to celebrate and chaos erupted. Both cult groups engaged in a shootout. Four persons were later shot dead in different parts of Auchi following the fracas. Among the deceased was a barber.

    In July this year, 12 persons were killed in various parts of the state including Oluku, Ogida, Textile Mill Road, 3rd East Circular Road, Ovbiogie, Ugbowo, Siluko Road and Uzama Street. A staff of the Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital in Benin identified as Iyamu was among the victims.

    Cult clashes in Edo State are mostly either between Eiye and Maphites, Eiye and Black Axe, Vikings and Eiye, Vikings and Black Axe or Black Axe and Eiye. A repentant cultist who pleaded anonymity said the supremacy battle between Eiye and Black Axe remained eternal. He said there would be no end to their fight.

    In September, suspected cultists killed two persons, Eboh Enomwa and Stephen Imaghodo, at Iyanomo community, Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area,

    At Evboyare community, Uhunmwode Local Government Area, a bloody cult clash led to the killing of one Festus. Several other persons, mostly youths, have been found beheaded in different parts of the state. Cultism and cult-related killings have been a recurrent event across Edo State.

    During the administration of former Governor Adams Oshiomhole, the late Commissioner for Police, Chris Ejike, arrested and paraded suspected cult leaders in the state after weeks of killings and maiming. An aide to Oshiomhole was among those paraded. The arrest of the cult leaders stopped cult killings during that period.

    Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo gave his administration a thumb up for confronting and defeating the twin scourges of cultism and kidnapping in the state. This was because shortly after his inauguration as governor, Edo State was plunged into a cult war in which 20 youths were killed.

    In a move to curb cult killings, Governor Okpebholo amended cultist and cultism law tagged the Secret Cult and Similar Activities (Prohibition) Law, 2025. It became operational on January 24, 2025. The amended law had stiffer penalties. The punishment prescribed for being a member is life imprisonment or a minimum of 21 years in jail.

    The new law criminalised any form of sponsorship or support. Traditional rulers or any persons who aid cult activities will be dethroned and jailed.

    Also to be affected are property owners whose premises were used for cult meetings knowingly or unknowingly. The property owners risk a minimum of ten years imprisonment and possible demolition of the property.

    Chief Press Secretary to Governor Okpebholo, Fred Itua, said: “With the passage of this law, the Edo State Government has taken a firm stand: cultism, in any form, will no longer be condoned.

    “The law places responsibility on all stakeholders—schools, traditional institutions, hospitality businesses, parents, and security agencies—to uphold the values of peace and safety.

    “As Edo moves to rid itself of the scourge of cultism, the success of the new law will depend not only on legislation but also on consistent enforcement and community participation.

    “This legal reform is a bold declaration that the lives of Edo youths matter—and that the era of violence, fear, and impunity must come to an end.”

    Several buildings in Benin City and Auchi suspected to have been used for cult meetings and cult activities have been demolished.

    Governor Okpebholo further set up a Special Security Squad, codenamed “Operation Flush Out Cultists and Kidnappers” to pursue and chase out kidnappers and cultists.

     The Special Security Squad has arrested more than 30 suspected cultists and demolished several buildings belonging to suspected cultists.

    No longer at ease in Bayelsa

    Forty-five-year-old Alexander, from Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State, did not start off as a cult member. He was, however, visited by social vicissitudes which turned him into a monster for many years as a cultist.

    Alex, as he is fondly called, who is from an average family, joined the Vikings Confraternity while in the university after allegedly being lured by his friends who painted a picture of Utopian world as a member.

    He was with the cult group throughout his university days and after his graduation in 2012, coupled with lack of jobs, he still remained in the group outside the campus and became the Capone (the leader) of the Vikings.

    For several years after leading the notorious cult gang, he became a central figure in a violent gang that terrorised his local community in the state through acts of theft, armed clashes, intimidation, and other criminal activities.

    Alex and his gang members became willing tools in the hands of some desperate politicians who used them to silence their opponents and sponsor them to engage in rigging during elections. Their actions instilled fear and instability in the community, disrupted local economic activities, and led to multiple injuries and reported fatalities.

    Like a man who has seen it all, Alex is lamenting his many years involvement in cult activities, noting that cultism has destroyed his life.

    Reflecting on his past life, he regretted that at 45, he has yet to marry and does not have sustainable job to eke out a living. He lamented that most of his colleagues he finished university with are doing well in their chosen vocations.

    “There is nothing in this cult thing. It is like I was blindfolded before. I can now see that I have wasted over 25 years of my life.

    “My parents warned me about cultism, but because I did not know what I was doing, I rebuffed them. Because of the problems I was always involved in, my father suffered hypertension and died. Today, I am regretting my action.

    “All my mates have left me behind in every aspect of life. Initially, I thought I was catching cruise, but I have now discovered that I was fooling myself. I totally regret all my past actions. I pray God will forgive me.”

    Alex urged parents and guardians not to give up on their children and wards as well as monitoring the kind of friends their children keep.

    He said the most worrisome aspect of cult activities is that they have crept into basic schools, advising the governments not to rest on their oars by ensuring that schools are well monitored and policed.

    He equally advised the relevant authorities not to handle issues of cults with kid gloves, stressing that there’s a thin line between cultism and other criminal activities such as rape, stealing, armed robberies and murders.

    Also speaking on the menace of cultism, a parent and educationist based in Asaba asserted that people join cults due to a need for belonging and community, especially during vulnerable life stages, as well as due to manipulation by charismatic leaders and a desire to escape personal dissatisfaction.

     The educational psychologist, who identified herself simply as Veronica, said factors like a charismatic leader, a strong sense of community, and the rejection of mainstream societal values could make cults appealing, particularly to individuals experiencing significant life transitions, emotional distress, or a feeling of being disconnected.

    She said individuals undergoing major life changes such as starting college, experiencing a death, or facing financial hardship are particularly susceptible as well as people who are feeling unhappy, insecure, or disconnected from society often look for a place to belong.

    Veronica said some people join cults to fulfill a desire for meaning, purpose, and acceptance that they feel is missing in their current lives.

    She offered further insights, noting: “Cults and their leaders often target individuals who are looking for something to believe in and use persuasive techniques to recruit them.

    “Cults are typically led by a charismatic and persuasive individual who attracts followers and provides a sense of direction. They offer a strong sense of belonging, acceptance, and community that can be very appealing to those who feel isolated.”

    She further said that recruitment often happened through existing members who are friends or acquaintances, making it seem more legitimate, stressing that some groups attract people who feel disillusioned with mainstream society, as they offer an alternative ideology to embrace.

    In all of these, she advised strong parental roles and governments’ uncompromising resolve to rout the menace.

    She stated that cultism is the brain behind so many atrocities being committed in society today, indicating that it is a lunching pad to thefts, robberies, armed robberies, murders and assassinations.

    With the spread of cultism across all states of the country, Veronica advised: “The menace is a cankerworm eaten deep into the moral fabric of society. The situation has become a pandemic and something drastic must be done to eradicate this scourge in our society.”

    Believing that the baby cannot be thrown away with the bath water, she offered some suggestions as part of the ways to prevent the menace of cultism in society.

    The educationist advocated education and awareness campaigns about the dangers of cults, fostering strong family and community bonds, promoting critical thinking skills, and providing effective counseling and mental health support.

    She urged educational institutions to implement stricter laws, better discipline, and more engaging co-curricular and sporting activities to keep students engaged and remove their minds from cults.

    Veronica urged the government to integrate education about cults and their tactics into school curricula and organize awareness campaigns.

    She also urged the utilisation of of media and community outreach to inform the public about the risks and consequences of cultism as well as making moral and religious education compulsory from primary to tertiary levels to instill good values.

    She advised parents to pay close attention to their children’s upbringing, provide emotional and psychological support, and monitor their friends and behaviour.

    She advocated the implementation and enforcement of strict laws with significant consequences, including death sentences in some cases, to deter cult activities.

  • Reflection, reinvention, and winning at sixty-five: a field note for Nigeria’s next chapter

    Reflection, reinvention, and winning at sixty-five: a field note for Nigeria’s next chapter

    By Alim Abubakre

    I pen this article with a humble sense of responsibility hoping to contribute to this critical national discourse of proffering actionable insights to nation building. This article is informed by insights gleaned  from my engagements with more than 1,000 leaders globally in the past year and close to a gross of this number fifteen years after I founded These Executive Minds (TEXEM) in the UK.

    Sixty-five years after independence, Nigeria stands at a crossroads that is both sobering and promising. The sobering part is familiar. Too many citizens experience public services that arrive late or not up to par. Firms face a cocktail of inflation, logistics friction, and regulatory uncertainty. Civil society carries heavy loads where formal systems falter. The promising part is quieter but powerful. In the past year I have sat with more than a thousand leaders in ministries, agencies, boardrooms, factories, start-ups, cooperatives, and classrooms from Kano to Lagos to Abuja and cities in other emerging and developed countries. The appetite I have encountered is not for new slogans. It is for practices that produce compounding improvements citizens can feel. My contention is that the leaders who will move Nigeria forward in the next decade will practise three disciplines with rigour: reflection that rebuilds trust and sharpens judgement, reinvention that converts constraints into design choices, and winning that scales what works and protects it from erosion.

    Reflection must come first because progress without trust rarely survives the news cycle and more importantly does not lead to sustainable inclusive impact. In many of our institutions there is an inherited deficit of confidence. People discount statements before they hear them. Officials are assumed to be evasive until proven otherwise. In this context, the most strategic act a leader can take is to make the logic of decisions visible and testable. I have watched permanent secretaries and chief executives shift the temperature in a room by explaining the trade-offs behind a policy or a pivot in two pages of plain English, then inviting challenge before the implementation plan is final. That small ritual does more than inform. It signals that citizens and staff are not audiences but partners in judgement. Rwanda’s experience with public performance contracts for officials is instructive because it illustrates how visible targets and steady follow-through can change the relationship between leaders and citizens. Nigeria does not need to copy the mechanism to embrace the principle. We can begin with published choice notes that state priorities, the reasons for those priorities, and the measures by which success will be judged.

    Reflection also requires safety for truth. In utilities, hospitals, and agencies I often meet talented professionals who knew trouble was coming but said nothing because it did not feel safe to do so. The cost of that silence is measured in failed projects, service outages, and avoidable controversy. A modest institutional habit can reverse this dynamic. Start formal meetings by asking for the pieces of bad news that no one has voiced. Reward the messenger rather than the fixer. In a northern water board I watched how this practice reduced the number of last-minute crises and improved relationships with suppliers who were finally hearing about risks early enough to help. Psychological safety is not a fashionable idea. It is a governance advantage.

    Strategy is the next frontier of reflection. Plans that attempt to please everyone end up straining everyone. Strategy is not an inventory of hopes but the courage to choose. What distinguishes Ethiopia’s early industrial zones, despite all the imperfections, is not simply the infrastructure but the choice to concentrate on a small number of sectors where jobs could be created quickly and learning could compound. Nigeria has too often pursued breadth without depth. A commissioner who commits to a two-page statement of where the state will compete in transport or health, how it will win there, and what will be left aside this year, has already advanced execution. The power of this clarity lies in how it enables other actors to align. Suppliers, investors, and civil society can only complement a public agenda they can see.

    Foresight completes reflective leadership. Oil shocks, currency swings, (though the latter two have been quite stable in the past six months) import disruptions, and climate stress are not surprises. They are conditions of the game. The organisations that navigate them well do not predict the future. They rehearse it. In Vietnam, which has climbed the manufacturing ladder over the past two decades, routine scenario exercises allowed managers and officials to pre-commit to responses when supply chains wobbled. In our context the same discipline means agreeing on three or four numbers that, if breached, trigger specific actions within a week. It means deciding in advance which contracts can be slowed without losing capability, which social programmes must be protected under any scenario, and which suppliers or ports will be used if a route closes. When senior teams practise these drills quarterly, they do not eliminate volatility. They convert volatility from a reason to panic into a reason to act calmly and quickly.

    Once reflection has cleared the fog, reinvention can proceed with precision. Reinvention in Nigeria must start with an unflinching acceptance of constraints. Capital is tight. Power is unreliable in too many places. The skills we most need are scarce and globally mobile. Rules sometimes move mid-stream. These constraints do not forbid innovation. They shape it. The leaders who make headway begin by asking what job the citizen or customer is hiring the service to do. In one health programme I observed, teams stopped designing features and started listening to mothers who simply wanted certainty about vaccination days. A low-cost text system that reminded families and local clinics of fixed days in each ward lifted attendance without expensive infrastructure. India’s Aadhaar system, whatever one thinks of it in the round, succeeded because it focused on a minimal identity layer that others could build upon. Kenya’s M-Pesa was born because the banking system ignored the unbanked. Both cases show the pay-off from designing to the job, not to the institution.

    Reinvention demands learning before scale. In too many Nigerian settings pilots are a performance rather than a process. They lack a falsifiable question, a clear owner, and a path to either stop or scale. The fix is not complicated. Any initiative expected to touch a large population should be tested in two locations, with one sharp question set in advance and a date by which a scale or stop decision will be made. The results should be published in language citizens understand. Failure then becomes an investment rather than a secret. I saw a state education agency kill three shiny ideas quickly and redirect funds into a teacher coaching model that improved learning outcomes because it treated the pilot as an experiment rather than an announcement.

    Reinvention gains momentum when public institutions become conveners of ecosystems rather than providers of every function. Big problems yield when government, private firms, and civic actors share accountability for outcomes that citizens feel. Bangladesh offered a vivid lesson. Partnerships between government, a major telecom, microfinance institutions, and social enterprises created rural digital kiosks run by women that offered identity, market information, and payments. The result was a commercial model that advanced connectivity and income at the same time. There was no philanthropic afterthought. Incentives were aligned at the design stage. Nigeria’s agriculture and health sectors can embrace the same logic. Shared cold chain investment for vaccines, joint platforms for farmer data, and managed marketplaces for produce are all areas where no single actor can win alone, yet every actor can win if the rules of cooperation are clear.

    The final discipline is winning. By winning I do not mean a one-off success that makes good copy. I mean the craft of scaling what works, protecting it from erosion, and compounding advantage. The first move is to pick a narrow transformation where citizens will feel the difference within months, ‘a low hanging fruit’. A permit workflow, a claims process, a land registry, or a targeted procurement system are good candidates. The rule is simple. The process must be completed end to end in a single digital flow. A named leader must own service levels. The model that drives decisions must be monitored so that it does not drift. Small wins matter because they change expectations. Once a citizen experiences a permit that takes days rather than months, tolerance for delay declines across the board. Indonesia’s progress on e-procurement and tax administration, while uneven, shows how patient systems work can raise revenue and trust at the same time. We should be stubborn about this kind of boring progress because it pays compound interest.

    Winning also requires decision-making that treats a downturn as a time to prune and plant rather than to freeze. The instinct in a crisis is to cut across the board. The better move is to cut visible waste, protect muscle, and pre-fund two moves that will pay off when others are distracted. When India’s Tata Group bought Jaguar Land Rover in the depths of the 2008 crisis, it was not a gamble on prestige. It was a calculated bet on future capability. In Nigeria the equivalent in the public sphere could be a state securing a long-term power arrangement for critical social infrastructure when prices soften. In the private sphere it may look like acquiring a distressed logistics asset that reduces cost to serve for essential goods. These are not headline moments. They are compounding moves.

    The strongest fosses in emerging economies are often social and institutional as much as technological. A company that ties its profit engine to a farmer’s gain by reducing post-harvest losses creates an affinity that is difficult to copy. A ministry that becomes the trusted orchestrator of identity or payments in a sector makes duplication wasteful for others and partnership sensible. Vietnam’s rise in manufacturing is instructive here. Once clusters matured and supplier development programmes took root, firms preferred to deepen rather than exit. In Nigeria we can replicate the principle if not the exact model by choosing the lever we will own, whether identity rails for SMEs, last-mile logistics in a large state, or a vocational pipeline that gives investors’ confidence.

    Every serious proposal invites counterarguments. The first is that our constraints are too severe. It is true that power, security challenges, still high inflation and undervalued Naira shape the feasible frontier. Yet they rarely block the first disciplined step. Narrowing focus, publishing choices, and testing cheaply are possible even in tough conditions. The second counterargument is that pilots never scale here. That is not a law of nature. Pilots fail to scale when ownership is vague and money is episodic. Tie each pilot to a named leader with a budget gate and an adoption target. If the target is met by a stated date, the next release triggers automatically. If not, the idea is retired without controversy because the condition was agreed up front. The third objection is that openness hands advantage to rivals or invites misuse. Opacity is more expensive. Clear interfaces, shared dashboards, and pre-agreed escalation channels protect the public interest while letting private actors bring energy and ingenuity. The fourth objection is that our context is unique and therefore resistant to lessons from elsewhere. Culture and politics matter. So does execution. The underlying disciplines of reflection, reinvention, and winning have travelled across Asia, Africa, and Latin America because they are grounded in human behaviour and institutional incentives rather than in fashion.

    Actionable suggestions matter most when they become routine. A practical rhythm helps leaders avoid performative announcements. Each quarter, senior teams should meet for a candid review of trust, choices, and scenarios. The output should be three objectives with dates and owners that are shared with staff and, where appropriate, with citizens. Each month, the organisation should pilot two new practices and retire one legacy habit that no longer serves. A one-page learning note in plain English should capture what moved, what did not, and what will be changed as a result. Each week, leaders should review a single measure that protects their moat, whether adoption, cost to serve, or ecosystem leverage, and then remove one blocker that slows progress. This cadence is not a ritual for its own sake. It is the mechanism through which reflection feeds reinvention and reinvention feeds winning.

    The independence anniversary invites a final reflection. Nations and subnational do not become trustworthy because they declare it. Companies do not become competitive because they wish it. NGOs do not become impactful because they are earnest. Trust grows when leaders expose their logic to scrutiny and follow through. Competitiveness grows when organisations choose a place to compete and then refine how they win there through fast learning. Impact grows when coalitions form around measurable outcomes that citizens experience in hours saved, income gained, and safety improved. I have seen these habits in pockets across Nigeria. A cooperative that became a disciplined buyer and seller on behalf of its members and cut their losses. A state-owned entity that digitised a creaking process and recovered weeks of time for small businesses. A private firm that opened its platform to complementary services and grew by letting others create value. These are not miracles. They are crafts. Crafts improve with practice.

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    Examples from other emerging economies are not medals to hang on a wall. They are reminders that the work is doable. Rwanda’s visible performance contracts demonstrate how public accountability can reset expectations after trauma. Aadhaar in India shows that a minimal, interoperable public good can unlock many private innovations when designed with restraint. Kenya’s mobile money revolution proves that leapfrogging can occur when a clear job is served on a platform people already use. Vietnam’s steady climb through manufacturing illustrates how clusters, supplier development, and predictability attract commitment. Indonesia’s progress on tax administration and procurement shows how patient system building raises revenue and trust together. Bangladesh’s rural digital models illustrate the power of aligned incentives across public, private, and social actors. None of these examples is a blueprint. Each is a provocation to ask what the Nigerian equivalent would look like under our constraints and with our strengths.

    As we enter the sixty-fifth year of independence, the choice before Nigerian leaders is not between idealism and realism. It is between a loud cycle of fresh promises and a quieter craft of institutional improvement that compounds. The second path is less dramatic, yet it is how countries change without fanfare. It begins with leaders who listen before they speak and who effectively communicate the reasons that informed their choices. It gains speed with teams who test efficiently, measure honestly, and stop what does not work. It consolidates with organisations that scale what works, protect their edge, and reinvest in capability in good times and bad. I wrote earlier that the mood is sober and promising. It will remain promising only if it becomes disciplined.

    The most powerful sentence I have heard in the past year came from a nurse in a secondary hospital who said that the only thing that had changed her day was a new process that meant a critical drug arrived on Wednesday without fail. It made her sound less like a hero and more like a professional. That sentence is the heart of development. When essential functions become reliable, professionals emerge, and citizens begin to trust. The path to that sentence is neither glamorous nor impossible. It asks us to reflect with candour, to reinvent with humility, and to win with patience. If we make those verbs our habit in the year ahead, the country we will write about at seventy will look less like a set of crises to manage and more like a system that works. That would be an independence worth celebrating.

    •Dr Alim Abubakre, the Founder of TEXEM and Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Business School.

  • High point of Nigeria’s participation at UNGA 80

    High point of Nigeria’s participation at UNGA 80

    By Tunde Rahman

    A major human foible is the tendency to pursue symbolism at the expense of substance. It is not a particularly Nigerian flaw. But the desperation that has characterised our politics, especially amongst the opposition, often makes it seem so.

    An example is the criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s inability to personally attend the recently-concluded 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 80).

    Meetings are memorable, not just for the faces present, but also for the things said. Those who take unnecessary umbrage should look for something else to do with their time.

    The point should not be about the President’s presence or absence at the UNGA annual global event; it should be about the content,  the quality of the country’s national statement and the President’s message at that extraordinary gathering of world leaders.

    Held under the theme, “Global Partnerships, Local Prosperity,” this year’s session of the United Nations provided a platform for Nigeria’s leaders to promote reforms, woo investors, and assert Africa’s place in global decision-making, international finance and trade.

    Vice President Kashim Shettima led the Federal Government delegation to the talks. As he did last year at the behest of President Tinubu, the vice president was in his best elements as he delivered Nigeria’s national statement on Wednesday, September 24, on that global platform.

    In that national statement, President Tinubu restated his advocacy over which he had been vocal and consistent: reform of the world body to include a permanent seat for Africa, particularly Nigeria, at the UN Security Council; nuclear disarmament; equitable access to global trade and finance; debt forgiveness; and climate justice, among others.

    President Tinubu is passionate about these issues and never misses any opportunity to highlight them. The President has utilised every forum, including the 78th UNGA, which he attended a few months after his inauguration in 2023, and the Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2024, to advocate for these demands strongly. He restated them in the message delivered by Vice President Shettima in 2024 at the 79th session of UNGA and in his message to a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in 2024 in Kampala, Uganda, among others.

    President Tinubu must underscore these issues repeatedly in a bid to promote global peace, stability, and economic growth. The continental imbalance in representation at the UN, the imbalance in international trade among the regions, the Israeli genocide in Gaza, wars and threats of war in some parts of the world, among other agonising global issues, deserve to be stated, restated and frontally tackled.

    Delivering Nigeria’s national statement, Vice President Shettima said: “We are here to strengthen the prospect for peace, development, and human rights. Madam President, I would like to make four points today to outline how we can achieve this. First, Nigeria must have a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. This should take place as part of a wider process of institutional reform. Second, we need urgent action to promote sovereign debt relief and access to trade and financing. Third, the countries that host minerals must benefit from those minerals. And fourth, the digital divide must close. As our Presidential Secretary-General has said, AI must stand for Africa Included.”

    Expatiating on this, he said the United Nations would recover its relevance only when it reflects the world as it is, not as it was. “Nigeria’s journey tells this story with clarity. When the UN was founded, we were a colony of 20 million people, absent from the tables where decisions about our fate were taken. Today, we are a sovereign nation of 236 million people, projected to be the third most populous country in the world, with one of the youngest and most dynamic populations on Earth, a stabilising force in regional security, and a consistent partner in global peace-making.”

    The Vice President followed up his presentation with a meeting with the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, where he further reiterated the demands.

    Given the UN Secretary-General’s temperament and positive posture towards reforms, Nigeria’s demands must have struck a resonant chord. Elected Secretary-General in October 2016, succeeding Ban Ki-moon, Guterres reformed the UN and addressed multiple global refugee crises.

    On the sidelines of the 80th UN session, Vice President Shettima addressed a Global Champions Roundtable on Housing, led bilateral talks with investors on agriculture, solid minerals, and technology, and engaged with Nigerians living in the United States.

    Two other important side events, among others, took place on the sidelines of UNGA 80 leaders’ talks. One was put together by the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, to showcase investment opportunities in Nigeria and demonstrate that the country is ready for business. The other, the 2nd Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa, which Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, chaired, stood out this year.

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    The vice president attended both events and delivered important statements on behalf of President Tinubu.

    At the first event, the consensus was that Nigeria has become one of the best places to invest, given its reform momentum and investment profile—namely, a large consumer market of over 200 million people, an over $280 billion economy, the largest in West Africa, and a 4.23% GDP growth rate that is still accelerating, among other things.

    President Tinubu, in a message delivered by VP Shettima, canvassed a total re-drawing of the global financial architecture for Africa’s mineral resources, saying it was time for its nations to begin not only financing their mineral sector but also asserting their influence and power in the global supply chains of African products.

    According to the President, this has become necessary if the sovereignty of African nations is to be protected. He recommended collective action by development allies and partners to bring Africa’s mineral economy to reality for the benefit of the continent and its people.

    It was just as imperative for Alake, Solid Minerals’ minister and AMSG’s chair. He called for cohesion among African nations, saying that with a determined focus and a reinvigorated sense of partnership and transparency in the minerals sector, Africa will harness the benefits of a sustained, deepened, and well-harmonised mineral sector in all ramifications. “These resources are indispensable for global sustainable development and remain catalysts for Africa’s rapid industrialisation,” he said.

    Indeed, from the intermittent applause that greeted the delivery of Nigeria’s national statement on the floor of the UN General Assembly and the overwhelmingly favourable response to the country’s presentations and positions on issues canvassed at the side events held on the margins of the conference, there was little doubt that Nigeria’s messages resonated well at UNGA 80. That is indeed what matters, not whether President Tinubu physically attended.

    •Rahman is Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Media and Special Duties.

  • South-South residents groan under broken state-owned roads

    South-South residents groan under broken state-owned roads

    Our reporters take an inventory of state-owned roads requiring serious and urgent attention in the South-South region in the face of rising revenue from the federal purse.

    Residents of the various states in the South-South have decried the poor conditions of their state-owned roads, especially access routes located within their capital cities.

    Investigations revealed that most of the state-owned roads have remained impassible, impacting negatively on commercial activities, businesses and socio-cultural interactions.

    While people are always quick to point accusing fingers at the federal government over the conditions of the federal roads in their domains, the decrepit nature of most state roads in the South-South have caused lamentations among the road users.

    Residents insisted that with improved revenue accruing to their states under the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, watching critical and internal roads degenerate to their present conditions, especially in the state capital, is inexcusable.

    For instance the South-South states of Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Edo and Cross Rivers received N568.9bn in the first quarter of 2025 from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, according to a report by BudgIT Nigeria. It represented the highest regional share for a period and was said to be a 27.74 per cent increase when juxtaposed with the N445.3bn the zone received in the first quarter of 2024.

    In the first quarter of 2025 Rivers State got N374.56bn; Delta, N368.75bn; Akwa Ibom, 309.15bn; Bayelsa, 259.94bn; Edo, N138.34bn and Cross Rivers N106.34bn from the FAAC. The states also generated humongous amount of money in Value Added Tax (VAT) in the first quarter with Rivers posting N278.23bn; Bayelsa, N27.26bb; Delta, N20.04bn and Edo N20.73bn.

    In 2024, out of the N15.26tn distributed by FAAC, the South-South states received N1.57trn according to the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transperancy Initiative (NEITI). Delta state topped the list with N450.4bn; Rivers, N349.9bn; Akwa Ibom, N309.15bn; Bayelsa, N259.94bn and Edo, N138.34bn.

    With such significant improvement in revenues accruing to the South-South states, residents insisted that their governments should embark on massive repairs, rehabilitation and reconstruction of deplorable internal roads and other highways linking their communities.

    RIVERS

    In Rivers State, for instance, many internal roads within the Port Harcourt capital city are in deplorable conditions. The Chinda-Douglas Road linking other communities in Obio-Akpor has been impassible for many years. Commercial drivers are plying the routes sparingly. The drivers of commercial tricycles, who ply the route regularly to eke out a living, complained that they spent all their money repairing their vehicles because of the chains of failed portions of the road.

    Businesses along the road are suffering low patronage, unable to break even. Matthias, who sells electrical fittings, said commercial activities along the popular road dropped significantly as people avoided the road.

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    “Rather than patronise us, they prefer to go to other areas with good roads. We are suffering and we are appealing to the state government to come to our aid.

    “We hear that states are having a lot of money from the federal government. We are begging them to help us reconstruct the Chinda-Douglas Road, because it has failed completely.”

    Other roads that require urgent attention in the capital city are Obi Wali, Okporo, Eliowhani-Eneka, Rukpokwu roundabout and some parts of Rumuokwuta-Choba Road, among others.

    BAYELSA

    In Bayelsa State, many internal roads are in deplorable conditions. Residents lamented the decrepit state of Ambassador Otiotio Road located in Yenizue-Gene in the heart of Yenagoa, the capital city. 

    Residents, motorists and commuters plying the road have continued to groan over its deplorable state. With the rainy season peaking and most of the area without drainage, and with potholes often filled with stagnant water, residents and tenants alike lamented the negative impact of flooding on their businesses and homes.

    Ambassador Otiotio Road is strategic and hosts the headquarters of the Nigerian Army Sector 2, Operation Delta Safe as well as hospitals, shops, restaurants, churches and residential buildings.

    A landlord, Deacon Marcel Osuji, decried the deplorable condition of the road, adding that his house adjacent the worst failed portion of the road gets flooded if the potholes are filled. He said the flooding occasioned by the bad road often leaves his premises muddy and waterlogged.

    Osuji said: “Honestly speaking, since the road got bad, it has affected business and social life. Sometimes when it rains, we experience flooding of our homes and shops. In front of my house rainwater collects in a massive crater that releases its contents into my home and other buildings.

    “It is a terrible situation we face due to the bad road condition. The road is affecting us badly —commuters, residents and even students. The worst part of it all is the absence of drainage to channel flood to nearby canals.”

    Osuji appealed to the state government to rehabilitate the road, adding that adequate drainage must be built to ensure long lasting work.

    Africa, a graphic artist, who bemoaned the flooding of shops and offices, stressed that the muddy and waterlogged environment discourages potential customers.

    He urged the state government to come to the aid of residents by rehabilitating the road.

    Mr Wealth Obio, a commercial tricyclist, appealed for state intervention, adding that the poor condition of the road was having a negative impact on maintenance costs.

    Obio said that riders plying the road often experience aches and pains resulting from the poor condition of the road.

    He said: “The road is really affecting us. It is making us (tricyclists) to go to the mechanic frequently.

    “It also affects our body system and our passengers, especially pregnant women who attend hospitals situated on this road.

    “We are crying for help. The state government has not done any remedial work since the construction of the road in 2004, and, as a result, the road is in poor condition.”

    DELTA

    In Delta State, road users lamented the deplorable condition of the ever busy Otor-Udu/ECN Road in Udu and Ughelli South local government areas.

    They particularly lamented the terrible condition of the Ovwian Grammar School, Ujewu, Otu-Jeremi, Ekakpamre, and Iwhrekan sections of the road.

    The road, which is a major access to the Ujewu Terminal of the Warri-Itakpe train route, connects scores of communities such as Aladja and Ovwian, hosts to Delta Steel Company, as well as Iwhrekan and Otu-Jeremi which also host West Africa’s biggest gas plant, the Utorogu Gas Plant.

    Other communities linked to the road are Ubogo, Egini, Owhrode, among others.

    Some road users disclosed that palliative work carried out on the road by the incumbent council chairman in 2024 could not stand the test of the rains this year.

    They lamented that they were losing time that could be put into productive use on the road, adding that their vehicles also suffer damage caused by the potholes and floods.

    A trader at the popular Ubogo Market located off the Udu road said: “This road, we have cried and cried for government to fix it.

    “When it rains on market days, we find it difficult to get keke (tricycles) because it gets flooded. The keke that would be willing to carry us will charge us (transport fare) very high. This affects the market (business).

    “So the government should consider our plight and do the road.”

    A tricycle operator, Jackson, recalled that protesters mounted the road a few months ago demanding the state government’s attention.

    “Well, all I can say is we spend more on fuel, on repairs and wasted time because of the bad condition of the road.

    “So if government can come and repair it, life would be made easier for us,” Jackson said.

    A bus driver at the Otor-Udu Express Junction noted that due to the bad portions, motorists become susceptible to attacks by hoodlums when driving at night.

    EDO

    In Edo State, residents raised concerns over St Saviour Road in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area, which was reconstructed in 2020. After its reconstruction, the road brought relief to residents of more than 10 communities and helped to reduce heavy traffic congestion on the Benin-Abraka Road.

    The 10.92-km St Saviour Road was awarded at for N3.55bn by the Edo State Oil and Gas Producing Areas Commission (EDSOGPADEC).

    The road users expressed fears over failed portions of the road following poor channeling of flood water at the time of construction. The failed sections of the road usually resulted in heavy traffic whenever it rains.

    At the Tipper axis of the road, residents are constantly living in fear during the rain due to heavy flooding. It was gathered the road would cost as much as N10bn if proper drainage were to be constructed.

    Other areas where the road has failed are Umelu and Evbologun.

    AKWA IBOM

    In Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, residents of some areas are experiencing intense hardship and discomfort caused by the collapse of internal roads.

    People living at Urua Ekpa, Udoete, Itu Road, Ikpa Road, Church Road, Idaha Okpo Road, Ukana Offot Road and many other adjoining streets have been cut off from the city centre due to bad roads.

    Ukana Offot Street, which links two major roads, Aka and Abak, is not only in bad condition but is also a death trap. The Federal Government Science and Technical College is located along Ukana Offot, making it one of the economic nerve centres of Uyo metropolis.

    It was rehabilitated by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) few years back but the road broke down within a year, probably due to the poor quality of job done.

    Urua Ekpa, Udoete, Itu Road, Ikpa Road, Church Road, Idaha Okpo Road, Ukana Offot Road and many other adjoining streets are densely populated with students due to their proximity to the University of Uyo and the Uyo City Polytechnic.

    Yet these roads are impassable. They have been major sources of agony to residents as flood water pours into people’s houses whenever it rains.

    In response to the situation, the Akwa Ibom State Government had two years ago awarded a contract for the rehabilitation of the roads to Benest Engineering Technical Services.

    However, despite the mobilization of heavy construction equipment to the areas, the roads are still in terrible shape.

    Some residents of the areas lamented their plights, saying rather than bring succour, the rehabilitation works have caused more damages and pains to them. Commercial activities in the affected areas have also slowed down.

    Smart Ifiok, a 400 level student of the University of Uyo, who resides at Church Road, lamented that with the rainy season the roads have become impassable.

    He said: “I was in 100 Level when this construction company brought their equipment to try to rehabilitate the roads, but almost three years now, nothing has changed.

    “We experience heavy flooding whenever it rains, and you would see people scooping flood water out of their houses.

    “You can imagine the situation at times. We have lost a lot of property to flood.”

    Mrs. Akpanette Mboso, a resident of Udoette Street, says she has not driven her car for months because the roads are impassable.

    Mboso also complained about the problem of flood, warning that if nothing is done urgently, most houses in the area will be destroyed by water.

    She said: “I haven’t driven my car for months because there are no roads. The construction company has blocked the roads with their heavy equipment yet we cannot see anything it is doing.

    “I board keke (tricycle) with my family to be able to access the city centre. Even at that, it is very difficult for the tricyles to navigate the bad roads.

    “The governnment really has to show more commitment to redressing the situation.

    “It is either this construction company is changed or the government funds it to do a faster and good job.”

    State governments react

    The various state governments in their reactions said they were paying attention to all internal roads in the state expressing commitment to making the people’s lives comfortable.

    The Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, upon resumption of office after emergency promised to address the concerns of the people.

    Speaking to Rivers’ people, he said: “Our immediate responsibility is to return to the path of governance and development by completing the projects which we started by ensuring none of them is starved of funds or neglected, thereby reviving our economy, protecting lives and property, and improving the wellbeing of all Rivers people

    Akwa Ibom State Government said that the pace of repair work on internal roads in Uyo was being slowed down by heavy rains.

    Commissioner for information, Aniekan Umanah, said that government was working to rehabilitate roads in Uyo and other major towns in the state.

    He said the government had already awarded contracts for the repair of the affected roads, urging residents to be patient until the rains are over.

    The State Commissioner for Works (Highways and Urban Roads), Reuben Izeze, said: “Weeping may tarry in the night, but joy comes in the morning.

    His Excellency is not unaware of the present state of the road and is only waiting for the rains to abate.”

    Edo State Commissioner for Information, Paul Ohonbamu, said the state government planned holistic repair of failed roads across the state.

    Ohonbamu said the state did not want to follow pattern of precious administration where roads were hurriedly rehabilitated but failed after a few days.

    He said the plan of Governor Monday Okpebholo was to ensure that proper repair works were carried out.

    In Bayelsa, the state governor, Senator Douye Diri, was said to have given a marching order for comprehensive rehabilitation of internal roads in Yenagoa, the state capital.

    Diri’s Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, said a directive to that effect was given to the Ministry for Works and Infrastructure for an audit of failed internal roads in the capital city.

    He said the directive was to enable strategic planning and execution of roads as the dry season sets in.

    He said a comprehensive audit of internal roads was ordered for reconstruction works on Ambassador Otiotio Street, Swali Market Road and Okaka Road, among others, in the next dry season.

    Alabrah lamented that many internal roads were in a deplorable conditions because they were poorly constructed in the past, stressing that with new directive, many internal roads will be adequately addressed.

    He added that marching orders had been given to the Ministry for Works and Infrastructure to ensure that high engineering standards are maintained when reconstruction works begin.

  • With Operation Dudula, South Africans renew assault on Nigerians, others

    With Operation Dudula, South Africans renew assault on Nigerians, others

    • Immigrants battle rising xenophobia as irate mobs barricade hospitals, schools
    • Conflict mimics apartheid era violence amid South Africa’s anti-immigrant rhetoric
    • Culprits must be arrested, prosecuted, says NIDCOM boss Dabiri-Erewa

    Tola Shoile endures Johannesburg like a mental wound. Twelve years after he relocated to the South African capital to make ends meet, the city seems poised to end him.

    “Jo’burg has taken too much from me. It cost me my business and bankrupted me. I lost everything in the xenophobic attacks of 2022,” he said, recalling how two members of his staff led an assault on his auto dealership in Cleveland, Johannesburg.

    Shoile disclosed that it took him a long while to recover from the shock of the betrayal. “I was very good to them. And I gave them bonuses even when they hadn’t earned it. Yet, they led a mob to burn down my shop. They burnt about 50 cars,” he said. “They accused me of taking their jobs but how is that possible when all I did was provide them employment? Now, they have started again,” said Shoile, bemoaning the recent wave of xenophobic attacks spearheaded by the Operation Dudula movement.

    Shoile’s fears are accentuated by the sad fate of fellow migrant, Ifeanyi Obi. Few months ago, Obi encountered terror in common hours. The 41-year-old had gone to the Jeppe Clinic with his wife and daughter for a post-natal check-up. While in the clinic, he stepped outside to “receive a package” from a client with whom he had previously fixed a meeting.

    “On my way out, I saw a crowd assembling at the hospital entrance and I suspected that it was the Dudula gang. But I had to get the cash from my client. I discharged him immediately and

    returned to get my wife,” he said.

    But as he approached the clinic, Obi saw that the crowd, previously scattered and ragtag, had coalesced into an organised mob: men and women from Operation Dudula milled around the hospital chanting “Foreigners must go!”

    As tensions intensified, the mob prevented Obi and a few others trying to access the clinic. To their chagrin, security personnel watched unperturbed as mothers with babies and other patients identified as foreigners were shoved back into the street.

    A section of the mob surged towards him and Obi scampered to safety. From a distance, he craned his neck to see if his wife, Bridgette, would emerge with their daughter pressed safely to her chest. But she didn’t.

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    “I went back later, after the mob dispersed, but I couldn’t find them. I dialled her number unsuccessfully and called our friends but none of them had seen her. I was so scared,” he said.

    Bridgette would later reach out to him from the outskirts of Johannesburg via a terse message. “I am at my cousin’s,” she said. She subsequently called him at midnight to tell him that: “A man like you stayed back to help me.” Since then, they have been estranged from each other.

    The Obis represent a fragment of a wider migrant community afflicted by South Africa’s xenophobic rage. Across Johannesburg’s inner-city tenements and the scattered townships of Gauteng, several migrant families, grapple with the consequences of xenophobia and other forms of anti-immigrant hysteria. Husbands vanish in street attacks and wives retreat to safer districts or back across the continent.

    For Rotimi Adegboye, the experience has been both “good and bad.” According to the 48-year-old, who hails from the Omowumi Abisogun Royal Family of the Iru/Ilashe kingdom in Eti-Osa area of Lagos State, since he relocated to South Africa in 2006, he has met with lots of wonderful South Africans who accepted and befriended him without discrimination.

    “On the other hand, I met with some South Africans that get intimidated because I am Nigerian. These ones attack you verbally, directly and indirectly, labelling you a drug mule or a scammer,” said Adegboye, adding that he has never suffered any grievous xenophobic attack.

    Yet, Oyindalopo Muyiwa, 46, recalled how her Zimbabwean neighbour was hacked in broad daylight, and the night a Malawian acquaintance’s cries carried through the alley as he was burned to death by people who used to be their neighbours.

    She subsequently relocated from her “toxic neighbourhood in central Joburg” to the northern part of the city, and subsequently, “a more friendly environment in Ontario, Canada.”

    South Africa, according to Muyiwa, is fast becoming a graveyard for African migrants and she didn’t wish to become a random casualty of xenophobic attacks by natives who think of immigrants as criminals and social parasites stealing their jobs and medicines.

    The hospital, internet as battlefield

    Through it all, the Operation Dudula movement has found a new stage for its campaign of erasure: the public health system. Hospitals and clinics, once sanctuaries for healing have been turned into scenes of exclusion. Recent viral videos circulating online, show men and women storming waiting halls and commanding patients to stand if they are foreign, demanding proof of their citizenship before they are allowed access to treatment.

    “If you know yourself that you are not a South African, please stand up,” one Dudula leader barked menacingly at the Roodepoort Clinic. “Don’t try us. We will check everybody.”

    The viral video of a defiant Nigerian woman being chased from a South African clinic and the euphoric approval by South Africans of the treatment meted to her further accentuates the wider climate of anti-Nigerian sentiment that has long simmered in the country’s streets and now thrives in its digital commons.

    Clutching her infant daughter in one arm and medical documents in the other, she dared her assailants to assault her even as she hurriedly left the hospital – without seeing the doctor – for her safety and that of her child.

    But rather than show compassion for mother and child, most South Africans on the comment thread attacked her.

    “Her bold attitude would have helped her in Nigeria, but no, she chose to come to SA to fight for her wrongs,” wrote @andiswatembela4942. His words setting the tone for many others who framed the woman’s presence in the hospital as an unwelcome intrusion.

    @NtombiMaseko-m7d was blunt: “Let them go,” and @PenelopeNgqumaza insisted, “Go and shout in your country.”

    The repeated use of “makwerekwere,” a slur for foreign nationals, underscores hostility. “Makwerekwere hasihambeni,” posted @LinaAkokwa. “Hambani makwerekwere,” echoed @sisterashericharmaine1602.

    For many, Operation Dudula embodies patriotic action. “Viva Dudula and March on March,” declared @thabojosepgsekhabisa9593, while @LizaMashaba celebrated: “Viva Dudula viva.” @BulelwaMatiwana-q9k added, “Thanks, viva Dudula vivac,” and @mrscashqueenb8855 endorsed the group’s stance: “They are doing a great job… even in Nigeria there is no free clinic and hospital.”

    Beyond nationality, some reduced the woman to a caricature. “They always shout. Fighting. Imagine this Nigerian oooo,” wrote @PenelopeNgqumaza. While others framed her “boldness” as arrogance. For @andiswatembela4942, her assertiveness was evidence that she didn’t belong.

    The stereotype of Nigerians as combative, disorderly, and unwilling to assimilate saturates the views while the struggle over scarce resources was a recurring theme.

    “There is a Nigerian who was talking on TikTok who said they have free hospitals in Nigeria lol, so my question is why they come to SA manje?” asked @triston9618.

    “Why would you have multiple children in a country you are not familiar with and you weren’t born in?” questioned @NomalwandleNdlovu, who acknowledged trauma for the woman’s children but still placed blame on her choices.

    The rhetoric sometimes turns chilling. “Uyazi lezizinja zama Nigeria kumele kezifundiswe isifundo,” posted @MarrySithole, adding that “These Nigerian dogs must be taught a lesson.”

    Yet amid the hostility, a few commenters pushed back. “This aggression of yours bro, is not necessary,” countered @rejoicevuragu651.

    “It’s painful though,” admitted @phumilushaba4892. “Chasing poor women and children is wrong,” said @PaulineVeremu.

    @brewedcoffee727 struggled with ambivalence: “This feels harsh and it’s pulling on my heart strings… painful to watch. But it has to be done… there needs to be order.”

    A broader reflection came from @TinasheManuel: “South Africa is isolating itself from a future that is united.”

    Some redirected their frustration toward the South African government. “Ma South Africans, let’s fast move this issue yamakwerekwere, so we can proceed to fight this Cape Independence. The country is going thanks to ANC & DA,” posted @ndukhumalo7794.

    The hostile commentaries illustrate how Nigerians are perceived as invaders by members of their South African host communities. The widespread support for the Operation Dudula shows how the sentiment is deeply entrenched in everyday discourse. While a handful of voices call for empathy, they are drowned out buy a swell of resentment.

    On social media, as on the streets, Nigerians in South Africa face a reality where their very presence and humanity are contested and too often denied.

    Offline, inside the clinical halls of Yeoville, Roodepoort, Lilian Ngoyi, and beyond, the refrain is the same: foreigners out.

    Pregnant and nursing mothers, including Nigerians, are driven out of hospital waiting halls and labour wards. Consequently, some pregnant women have gone into labour and birthed their children outside barricaded hospitals, unattended by qualified medical personnel.

    The Nigerian Union South Africa (NUSA) has catalogued these horrors: infants born on the cold bare floors, and mothers bleeding, unattended to, in waiting areas, as their weeping husbands are beaten up and chased away from hospital gates.

    NUSA President Smart Nwobi, a human rights lawyer, described the actions as “illegal and xenophobic,” warning that Nigerians are “dying daily” due to the blockades. “They are criminals operating under the guise of community activism,” Nwobi told reporters, urging President Bola Tinubu to raise the issue at the upcoming G20 Summit in Johannesburg. 

    More Nigerians in South Africa are pleading for urgent diplomatic intervention as the anti-migrant vigilante group escalates its campaign of intimidation, blocking foreigners from public hospitals and forcing vulnerable women to give birth on bare floors amid a fresh surge of xenophobic threats.

    Community leaders report that the group’s members have been aggressively confronting patients at facilities like the Roodepoort Clinic west of Johannesburg, demanding proof of South African citizenship before allowing entry.

    In viral videos circulating online, Dudula activists are seen marching through waiting areas, ordering non-citizens from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and other African countries to leave immediately. 

    “If you know yourself that you are not a South African, please stand up. Stand up right now. Don’t try us because we are going to check everybody,” one leader declared in a clip that has drawn widespread condemnation. 

    Operation Dudula’s gospel of expulsion

    Operation Dudula, founded in Soweto in 2021 and now a registered political party, claims its “Put South Africa First” slogan addresses crime, unemployment, and strained public services caused by undocumented migrants.

    Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini aka Nhlanhla Mohlauli, a South African activist, pilot and anti-immigrant activist, founded the movement at the age of 35.

    The group’s name, meaning “to force out” in isiZulu, reflects its goal of expelling perceived illegal immigrants, whom it accuses of fueling drug trafficking and job theft.

    The movement’s incumbent leader, Zandile Dabula, recently announced plans for a December 2025 school blockade campaign to bar non-South African children from enrollment, signaling further escalation amid claims that she actually hailed from Zimbabwe, and not South Africa.

    Speaking to the media on Monday, Dabula clarified that she is South African. She responded to critics calling for her deportation that she was born in Soweto.

    “I’m a bona fide citizen of this country. I was born and bred in Diepkloof in Soweto and not in Zimbabwe. That’s the only reason I want to put my fellow South Africans first, because I know their struggles,” adding that she is a victim of a smear campaign initiated by members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

    The EFF leader, Julius Malema, had taken a swipe at Operation Dudula, calling it “a group of thugs.”

    Malema said on X: “Operation Dudula is a group of thugs and must be subjected to the political killing task team. Period!”

    Interestingly, his statement ignited backlash from his supporters, with some accusing him of prioritising foreigners over South Africans and threatening to punish him at the polls.

    On its part, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has dismissed claims that it is protecting illegal foreigners due to its stance on protecting human rights for all individuals in South Africa, regardless of their nationality or immigration status.

    The commission condemned Operation Dudula, among others, for blocking immigrants from receiving medical care in public clinics and hospitals.

    The commission slammed Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi’s plans to clear out informal settlements at night, citing concerns about the danger and trauma it may cause to vulnerable groups, thus raising further concerns about the commission’s ability to prioritise South Africans.

    In an interview with the SABC, SAHRC chairperson Chris Nissen said the commission has noted concerns from South Africans complaining about not receiving adequate care in public healthcare facilities due to the overburdened system allegedly caused by foreigners.

    “It concerns us [that South Africans believe we are protecting illegal foreigners]. Unfortunately, our constitution is very clear that we need to protect the rights of all people in South Africa,” he said.

    Illegal immigrants ‘should not be here drug trafficking’, said Firoz Cachalia.

    “The fact is we are not protecting illegal foreign nationals. We are protecting people in this country, and we are looking after our citizens,” he said, stressing that the commission shouldn’t be accused of protecting illegal foreigners and that the responsibility to ensure all people in the country are in the country legally lies with law enforcement and the home affairs department.

    “Our home affairs need to do their work. People are accusing the commission and saying foreigners are being served more than South Africans. People are accusing us of protecting foreign nationals. Our act says we must protect the rights of our people, but it doesn’t say we can allow any illegal activity. If there’s any illegal activity, the police must take their course, relevant government institutions must take their course and do whatever they have to do to stop illegal activity.”

    Nissen added that borders need to be protected to stop the influx of illegal foreigners.

    “We are dealing with the end of the problem. Our border management and home affairs are not doing what they are supposed to do. I’ve visited so many borders, and there’s no border fencing; people can just walk across, come in, and do whatever they want to do.”

    Yet, section 27 of the South African Constitution promises healthcare for all, without discrimination. Doctors, bound by oath, echo the same. Yet at hospital gates, Dudula enforces its own constitution: one of violence, intimidation, and exclusion.

    The Department of Health has condemned these disruptions, calling them unlawful. Police have occasionally arrested Dudula members for storming clinics, only to release them on bail. The cycle continues: mob, arrest, release, repeat. The state’s condemnation, therefore, rings hollow in the ears of those still chased from wards.

    For most Nigerians, the betrayal cuts deep. They migrated to South Africa as students, traders, and professionals. They built shops, paid rent, and contributed to the urban hum. Yet in return, they are subjected to slurs, random beatings, and are now denied medical treatment.

    Why xenophobia thrives

    South Africa’s rage has roots. Xenophobia, argued doctoral major Bastien Dratwa, has a long and bloody history in post-apartheid South Africa. Social media has enabled anti-immigrant movements to reach larger audiences, harass migrants digitally, and organise across geographic boundaries. As elections approach in South Africa, xenophobic political rhetoric has intensified through online anti-immigrant movements like Operation Dudula and Put South Africans First. Without long-term strategies against the proliferation of hate speech and a pervasive anti-immigrant discourse, violence against migrants will be a hindrance to the socio-economic transformation of South African society, notes Dratwa.

    There is no gainsaying that xenophobia in South Africa stands out for its particularly violent nature. According to Witwatersrand University’s Xenowatch, xenophobic attacks resulted in 669 deaths, 5,310 looted shops, and 127,572 displacements between 1994 and March 2024. In May 2008, attacks took place in at least 135 locations across the country. The perpetrators of such attacks did not target white people but rather migrants from other African countries and to a lesser degree from South Asian countries, whom they blamed for increased crime and the high unemployment rate in South Africa.

    Yet, amid the widespread sentiments of disillusionment and inequality, politicians fan the embers. Foreigners become scapegoats as the ruling elite, eager for easy applause, point fingers outward rather than inward.

    Some political actors have tacitly approved of or encouraged xenophobia by accusing non-nationals of being criminals or pitting them against South African locals. On August 1, 2019, for instance, Community Safety Gauteng Member of the Executive Council, Faith Mazibuko, accused foreigners who fought back during a counterfeit goods raid in Johannesburg Central Business District of being “ungovernable” and striving “to turn the country into a lawless Banana Republic.”

    Gauteng premier David Makhura also contributed to the us-versus-them narrative by tweeting, “We are cleaning up our Central Business District. We will not rest until we take our city back” as he joined police in counterfeit goods raids on August 7, 2019 that resulted in the arrests of hundreds of undocumented foreigners. 

    The statement he released the following day appeared to pit South Africans against foreigners, stating that “as South Africans we must work collectively to build our economy.”

    Then, in the same month of that year, the Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba blamed undocumented foreigners for the shortage of medication, saying that “unfortunately we cannot send them back…we have got to treat them.”

    Furthermore, on October 26, 2019, he tweeted a photograph of a breakdown of arrests of non-nationals from Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The numbers of arrests spanning from 2016-2019 in Johannesburg, were high but were mostly for driving under the influence of alcohol. He did not reveal the number of arrests of South Africans, or of European, Asian or other foreigners, recklessly misrepresenting the picture of crime in the city and placing blame on African foreigners.

    Following xenophobic riots and attacks in Diepsloot in January 2020, Home Affairs Minister Motsoaledi, said, “Most people are not documented because they came here to commit a crime. They came as criminals, not as migrants. The fact that people just remain here and kill police, it is because they don’t want to be seen, and they don’t want to be known. They don’t want their fingerprints to be captured. Don’t confuse them with migrants.”

    Such language, no doubt, leaves all non-nationals susceptible to attack. The narrative hardens as foreigners are seen by larger segments of the citizenry as criminals and parasites. These sentiments have spread through Diepsloot, Port Elizabeth, Soweto, Gauteng over the years. Migrants have been robbed and beaten; their shops looted and torched, while the police often stood by, indifferent or complicit.

    One migrant recalled reporting robbers to police only to be told: “My brother, I don’t want to die for your safety.” Another watched officers smoke his cigarettes and sip his drinks after his shop was burned.

    Consequently, many African migrants live in fear. In Limpopo, Eritrean traders were chased from their homes as their shops got looted and burned to ash. In Soweto, spaza shops worth millions were destroyed in broad daylight and in Orange Farm, foreigners were robbed seven times over while local shops stood untouched.

    Nigerians on the receiving end…

    Few Nigerians will forget in a hurry, the South African assault on immigrants, in 2019. The attack started from the suburbs of Johannesburg on Sunday, September 1, 2019.

    By Monday, September 2, South African men and women wielding clubs and stones were marching through the central business district chanting war songs. In the melee, they looted and burned more than 70 businesses owned by Nigerians, Zimbabweans, Mozambicans, among others, to the ground.

    In the wake of a previous attack few months earlier, precisely July 2019, the then President of the Nigerian Senate, Ahmed Lawan, condemned the persistent attacks and killings of Nigerians in South Africa, warning that further attacks won’t be tolerated.

    Lawan, who hosted the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Bobby Moroe, said at least 118 Nigerians had lost their lives in xenophobic violence over the years, including 13 allegedly killed by the South African police.

    “These killings must stop,” the Senate President said even as he cautioned that the circulation of graphic images of victims on social media could spark reprisals beyond the control of government, urging the South African leadership to urgently protect Nigerians living in the country.

    Lawan recalled Nigeria’s role in South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle, stressing that it was unacceptable for Nigerians to continue to die violently in South Africa given their history of helping the country in its time of need.

    Nigeria repatriated more than 600 citizens from South Africa following the spate of deadly xenophobic attacks that left at least 12 people dead and scores of businesses destroyed.

    The violence, which erupted in Johannesburg and Pretoria, targeted nearly 1,000 foreign-owned businesses and drew international condemnation.

    Predictably, the attacks strained relations between Nigeria and South Africa, triggering diplomatic protests and calls across Africa for boycotts of South African interests.

    In his remarks, Moroe expressed regret over the killings and conveyed his government’s condolences to the families of the victims. He said an inquest had been launched to investigate the xenophobic attacks and identify lasting solutions.

    “Our government will continue to be committed to the good relationship with Nigeria,” Moroe said. “On behalf of the government of South Africa, we express our sincere condolences to the Nigerian government for this unfortunate incident.”

    Yet, that grisly history is about to repeat. Against the backdrop of Operation Dudula’s campaign, the anti-immigrant rhetoric escalates like wildfire, threatening to ignite classrooms as it has ignited clinics.

    From public officers to private citizens, many South Africans have lent legitimacy to the brewing xenophobic fervour. Some accuse migrants of turning Johannesburg into a “banana republic.” Others blame them for medicine shortages, crime surges, and even the instability of the state itself.

    Evidently, their words are tinder, Dudula simply strikes the match.

    Culprits must be arrested, prosecuted – Dabiri-Erewa

    In an exclusive chat with The Nation, the Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, assured that all hands were on deck to resolve the crisis.

    Dabiri-Erewa declared the imperative for immediate intervention, and urged the African Union (AU) to intervene in the renewed xenophobic attacks on some Africans – including Nigeria – by South Africans seeking to prevent them from accessing medical care.

    She said that the renewed attacks of Africans in South Africa have been confirmed in one or two viral videos.

    “This is an issue that the AU has to strongly take up.  The attack is targeted at Africans not just Nigerians. Though, President Ramaphosa has spoken strongly against this, the AU has to intervene urgently,” she said.

    Meanwhile, she said that the Nigerian High Commission in South Africa has appealed to Nigerians to be calm and not take laws into their hands while “we urge South Africa government to apprehend and prosecute those found culpable and citizens openly seen carrying out these xenophobic attacks.

    Dabiri-Erewa recalled that both Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria and South Africa are working on finalising the early warning signal mechanism which is aimed at protecting Nigerians in South Africa from any form of attacks.

    Ghosts of Johannesburg

    There is no gainsaying that Johannesburg wears two faces. To some, it is the city of gold, a metropolis brimming with opportunities. To others, like Muyiwa, it is a haunted tract, where every corner conceals knife-like memories.

    Until she relocated to Canada, Muyiwa dreaded something as mundane as a harmless stroll through the street. There was the possibility of being mauled to death by an irate mob, just like her Zimbabwean and Malawian friends who got butchered by neighbours laughing maniacally as they swung.

    Their individual experiences depict the collective fate of many: Obi’s estrangement from his wife, Shoile’s torched auto dealership,  Muyiwa’s PTSD, and their collective dread of suffering a fatal death.

    Together, they present a composite portrait of Nigerians living in South Africa.

    Like ill fated travelers, forced on exile within an exile, each migrant lives with the fear of being attacked. Those who are yet to embrace the trauma of living in a hostile community, startle to the surge of irate mobs shoving pregnant women and nursing mothers cradling newborns out of the hospital corridors on to the sidewalks.

    For many migrants, the realism is jarring: they either return to Nigeria and a life of struggle, or remain in South Africa to brave hatred and the possibility of a bitter death. For anyone, either choice is a wound.

  • Who really was Charlie Kirk?

    Who really was Charlie Kirk?

    Grief is a curious performance. It relives Charlie Kirk in the hearts of enamoured fans. Thus, stories about him are told from only one perspective: that he was a hero, whose murder by Tyler Robinson, 22, was unconscionable.

    Yet, that is only one way to grieve his death. Amid the elegies and swell of tributes, one voice cuts through the smog of sentimentality with the keenness of a blade. That voice belongs to Stacey Patton, a College Professor, author and award-winning journalist.

    “We cannot allow this tragic assassination to whitewash Kirk’s legacy…” she wrote, emphatically, to her 215,000 followers.

    And in that sentence, the haze of public mourning split open, revealing a dark ledger of 31-year-old Kirk’s life; one crammed with alleged persecution and weaponisation of digital mobs.

    Patton comes with receipts. In her account, America learns that grief is also a house, where the mirrors forget how to reflect the dead, and the grief-stricken, how to remember.

    Patton suggested, in order words, that grief may paint halos where once there were pitchforks; that it can smudge scars and blur the harsh contours of a life lived combatively.

    The historian and college professor disclosed: “I am on Charlie Kirk’s hit list.” The so-called “Professor Watchlist,” according to her, was an initiative under the aegis of Kirk’s Turning Point USA but which doubled a digital hit list of sorts.

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    Patton claimed that she made the list after penning commentaries that unsettled the Make America Great Again (MAGA) faithful in 2024. The consequences, she recounted, were terrifying.

    Threats from unknown persons flooded her inbox and voicemail. “For weeks my inbox and voicemail were deluged. Mostly white men spat venom through the phone: ‘bitch,’ ‘c*nt,’ ‘n****r.’ They threatened all manner of violence,” she said.

    “They overwhelmed the university’s PR lines and the president’s office with calls demanding that I be fired,” Patton wrote. “The flood was so relentless that the head of campus security reached out to offer me an escort, because they feared one of these keyboard soldiers might step out of his basement and come do me harm.

    “Basically, anyone who challenged white supremacy, gun culture, or Christian nationalism suddenly found themselves targets of coordinated abuse,” she said.

    “Some received death threats. Some had their jobs threatened. Some left academia entirely. Kirk sent the loud message to us: speak the truth and we will unleash the mob!” she continued. “That is the culture of violence Charlie Kirk built. He normalised violence.  He curated it, monetised it, and sicced it on anyone who dared to puncture his movement’s lies.”

    “And now the same violence he unleashed on others has come full circle…It is so revolting to watch a bipartisan wave of grief sweep over this hateful racist as if he was a neutral community servant,” she concluded.

     Patton’s statement has gone viral precisely because it disrupts the neat choreography of public mourning. Tributes have cast Kirk as a civil debater and patriot, a man of conviction who loved family, football, and freedom.

     The Ezra Institute published a tribute penned by Joe Boot which states that, “Charlie Kirk was assassinated as a faithful Christian man defending biblical truths and Christian virtues in the public space.”

     But for Patton, such elegies erase the years of torment inflicted upon educators by his platform. The irony, she noted, is bitter: the same violence Kirk’s rhetoric helped normalise returned to claim him.

     Gordon Lynch, Professor of Religion at the University of Edinburgh, studied the rise of Kirk’s movement with a forensic lens. His analysis places Patton’s experience in a wider context: Kirk’s Turning Point USA called upon students to “name and shame” professors suspected of socialist leanings or problematic views. It was, in essence, a witch-hunt codified into campus culture, a watchlist that turned education into surveillance.

    Kirk’s blueprint for influence rested on debating ideas in calm, democratic exchanges and stigmatising opposition in same breath, labelling it dangerous, and unleashing the wrath of his base upon it.

    Lynch’s research underscores how Christian nationalism, the ideological manure from which Kirk drew sustenance, sees schools and universities as hostile ground. Separation of church and state loomed as a threat to them, not a safeguard. Kirk’s digital crusade made professors into enemies and valid targets.

    Melissa Butcher, Professor Emeritus at Royal Holloway, studied his rhetoric at AmericaFest in 2021. What she heard, she argued, wasn’t simply policy debate but a culture suffused with fear. Ordinary Americans, she found, saw the future as collapsing: environmental crises, economic fragility, communities fragmenting. Fear hardened into rage and Kirk became a megaphone for that rage, offering the illusion of strength alongside the balm of belonging.

    Yet his record brims with positions that triggered outrage. On race, he belittled the Civil Rights Movement and denounced Black Lives Matter. On Fox News, just a day before his assassination, he accused Democrats of fabricating a narrative of Black victimhood, insisting instead that whites were the real targets.

    On Islam, he once sullied the Holy Prophet Muhammad and declared the religion incompatible with Western values. On Gaza, he supported Israel, dismissed Palestinian identity and justified devastation as the “firestorm” of consequence.

    In a 2024 debate, Kirk condemned abortion even in cases of child rape, insisting that a hypothetical 10-year-old daughter must carry the pregnancy.

    And on firearms, he fanatically declared that the Second Amendment was worth the price of lives lost annually to gun violence. The deaths were the necessary toll of liberty, he claimed.

    Kirk’s positions ignited criticism, yet painted a portrait of a man who gloried in provocation and transacted outrage as a currency.

    Then, who really was Charlie Kirk? Was he a glorified provocateur or a patriot? A trigger of harassment or martyr of free speech? Was he an orator who sought dialogue, or a schemer who weaponised mobs?

    Patton’s testimony tilts the scales toward the latter. For her, his watchlist was traumatising, symbolic and personal. Lynch’s scholarship affirms this broader pattern of intimidation even as the surge of academic distress that followed Kirk’s campaigns cemented his legacy less as a defender of debate than as a curator of suppression.

    Even in critique, the paradox persists. Kirk’s appeal subsists in his pluck and refusal to dither when he could roar. He mirrored America’s anxieties: its fear of decline, yearning for assurance and desire for leaders who cast the world in binaries of good and evil.

    As the elegies fade beneath more recent buzz, the question persists: what does it mean to remember a man whose life both reflected and intensified America’s warring parts?

    There is no gainsaying that Kirk embodied the fissures of an America at war with itself. He was charismatic, combative, and strategic, a young man with boundless energy to “save America” from its perceived decline. Through a national radio show, campus tours, and his sprawling network of organisations, he reached millions. His gift was his fire; his curse was the same.

  • Nobody came for the drowning boys: How flood disaster erased Mokwa’s almajirai, others

    Nobody came for the drowning boys: How flood disaster erased Mokwa’s almajirai, others

    • As floodwaters rose on May 28, about 870 almajiri boys got swept into its maw

    • Neighbours allege hundreds died in storm as cleric claims ‘just 48’ missing, 241 alive

    • The nation mourns Niger’s loss but not the boys it buried

    • I saw children, small children, drown – Teen survivor

    Tiffin Maza pulses in a mournful rhythm. That shattered expanse in the heart of Mokwa, Niger State, implores the passing tribute of a sigh. Between the dirt paws of the township, a persistent draft of misery stretches its slack, indifferent limbs and leapfrogs through the ruins, as if to reenact the tragedy of Wednesday, May 28.

    On that day, a deadly flood tore through Tifffin Maza, until it got to the Madarasatul Tarbiyyatul Islamiyya, a Quranic school hosting about 870  almajiri boys and the mosque opposite it.

    The river did not knock. It found the boys sleeping, their bodies curled like commas in the sentence of dawn. It peeled them from the floor like ripened fruit and flung them into its mouth. AbdulMalik, 15, from Sokoto, screamed his mother’s name until the flood washed it  from his tongue. Abba, also 15, from Sokoto, thrashed in the dark until his frail limbs stilled. Lawwali, 16, from Niger, equally got swept away, vanishing beneath the serpentine tide. Salamanu, 18, from Niger, had barely opened his eyes when the water closed its mouth around him. Muhammadu, 20, from Niger, equally drowned. The harder he fought, the deeper he sank. The sixth boy, unnamed, was found with a body battered beyond identity, yet no less mourned.

    The flood did not care that they were almajirai, mostly underage boys learning prayer and survival. They screamed for help, but no helper came. The water devoured them slowly, stifling their wails and sweeping them along in its tide.

    On May 28, 2025, floods spurred by hours of relentless rain ravaged Mokwa, a town tethered to the belly of the Niger River. By dawn, the market town lay submerged. Officials later confirmed at least 206 people dead and over 1,000 missing, and more than 400 homes destroyed. Some 121 were injured. A disaster among many in a country fast becoming familiar with watery graves. In 2024, flooding across Nigeria killed over 1,200 people. This year, Mokwa became the weeping eye of a nation’s swelling crisis.

    Deathflow at dawn

    Fourteen-year-old Saminu Abdullahi saw it all. He remembers the moment before the flood, like a wound. Speaking to The Nation, he recalled how the first gush of water slithered into the mosque. “We were sleeping in the mosque, opposite our school. Suddenly, there was water everywhere, and it was rising fast. Through the pandemonium, we all tried to escape. Some of us were able to run to the hilly side of the affected area, but others, like me, panicked and didn’t know where we were going. I saw houses being swept away by the water, roofs floating on the river. I saw children, small children, drown. It was a sight that will haunt me forever,” said Abdullahi. Somehow, through it all, his legs carried him to safety. How? He cannot say. “I just ran. I kept running. I thought I would drown if I stopped.”

    When he stopped, he found himself in a strange place, ringed by strangers. “They said I was crying. They held me. I didn’t even know I had survived.”

    The 14-year-old cannot recall how many of us were in the mosque.  “I don’t know the exact number, but we were many. After our Quranic recitation each night, we’d find a spot in the masjid or some open space or room to sleep.”

    The teenager, while bemoaning the loss of his friends and fellow almajirai, revealed that he was brought to Tiffin Maza five years ago, and apprenticed to Mallam Hassan Alhaji Umar, the proprietor of the Madarasatul Tarbiyyatul Islamiyya, where he schooled. “My parents brought me to Tiffin Maza,” he said, blinking into the distance. He doesn’t remember when he last saw them or if they know that he is still alive.

    According to neighbours, more than 120 almajirai were washed away by the flood. They recalled the almajirai’s cries; how it split the morning. “We heard the children screaming,” said Aliyu Maza, a trader whose house stood three blocks away. “Their cries got louder as the water rose. Then, we heard nothing again. Nothing. The water drowned them all.”

    Another resident whose house borders the Quranic school claimed that some of the boys probably got swept away by the flood because their movement was impeded by shackles placed on their feet. “Some of them were chained,” he said.

    However, the proprietor of the school, Mallam Umar, disagreed.

    The 58-year-old native of Sokoto, who was born in Mokwa, dismissed such claims, stating that none of it was true. According to him, just 48 students are missing, of which six have been confirmed dead. He said, those spreading such rumours should fear God. “We come from Allah and to Him, we shall return,” he said.

    “Before the flood, I had 870 Almajiri students, but unfortunately, many were displaced. Only four have returned so far, and we’ve received word that six more will be coming back,” disclosed Umar, adding that it is quite challenging to determine the exact number of students who were killed or survived the flood.

    Findings revealed that when the incident occurred, some parents evacuated their children without Umar’s knowledge, thus making it difficult to account for all the students.

    He said, “I have been compiling a list of those who are confirmed alive, and as of yesterday, I have 241 names. Initially, the number was around 100, but more students have been returning. I’ve also been informed that more students are returning. As more students return, we will be able to determine the accurate numbers better once everyone is accounted for.”

    Umar stated that he has received helpful assistance from the Sarkin Hausawa of Ibbi town, who contacted him and facilitated the return of two of his students. “They had been trying to trek to their families in Sokoto due to a lack of funds, but fortunately, they were stopped and brought back to safety. The trauma of the flood likely led them to make such a decision,” he said.

    The Malam denied ever chaining or beating his almajiri students, though he admitted to occasionally threatening to use chains to deter theft. He claimed to have returned over 1,000 mobile phones found by the boys, who are taught to hand over lost items so the rightful owners can reclaim them. Hosting students from across Niger, Sokoto, Kebbi, and beyond, he stressed his focus on both Quranic memorisation and moral upbringing. “If a child becomes difficult,” he said, “I ask the parents to take them home until they are reformed.” He ended with a solemn oath, declaring his conscience clear before God.

    Umar disclosed that the May 28  flood was unprecedented. “I grew up in this area and I can remember that the water would flow from the other side of the railway track opposite our community without causing any issue,” he said. “However, this time, the water accumulated behind the railway track, overflowed, and caused significant damage.”

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    A town submerged…

    Mokwa, with its estimated 416,600 population, sits like a throat between rivers and trade routes. Traders come from the south to purchase agricultural produce from the north. But on May 28, commercial activities came to an abrupt halt as the Niger River, once a source of life, became a harbinger of death.

    The Mokwa bridge—an artery of connection—collapsed in the flood, severing the town from rescue and government interventions. Vehicles were washed away, including a tanker truck. Whole families vanished as several homes crumbled and floated away in the tide, like driftwood.

    The Tiffin Maza and Auguwan Hausawa districts were hardest hit as residents were swept into the river and borne away as if they never existed. An excavator was brought in to dismember a mangled debris pile to recover human remains stuck beneath it. Beneath the bridge alone, 153 bodies were recovered by June 1. The local authorities subsequently halted rescue efforts, claiming that “There is no one left to find.”

    This was, however, not the first flood. On April 16, weeks before the Mokwa tragedy, the Jebba Hydroelectric dam had released water, flooding the town and killing 13 people. Three of them died in a canoe that capsized. Paddy fields were drowned under water, and over 10,000 hectares were lost, causing dry-season farmers indescribable pain. Mokwa had barely recovered before the rains returned.

    As reactions trail devastation caused by the flood, the Federal Government has refuted claims that the recent deluge was caused by water released from Kainji or Jebba dams, affirming both dams remain intact and operational. Minister of Water Resources, Prof. Joseph Utsev, attributed the disaster to torrential rainfall, climate change, and blocked waterways due to poor urban planning.

    Why do almajiri boys drown easily?

    Notwithstanding, the flood did not discriminate in its fury. Although it did not seek out the almajirai, they were the easiest to drown. Dispersed across the urban belly of the north, tens of thousands of almajiri boys live in abject circumstances. Their schooling, a threadbare form of Islamic tutelage, is often underpinned by struggle and denial. Their homes are makeshift dormitories; sometimes mosques with no walls, unplastered buildings, underneath market stalls, verandas, and the underbellies of township bridges. They do not live within society. They hover beneath it, often one step removed from the shelter of legality and care.

    So when the rains came, the boys enjoyed no high ground. No radio to warn them, nor a parent to call their name in the dark. And so, they drowned. “Many of them were already sleeping on the floor when the water began to enter,” said a volunteer who helped identify some of the drowned boys. “They didn’t have the instinct or training to escape.”

    Their tragic end was inescapable because their lives were perhaps smaller than others’ lives. Less visible. Less mourned. The disaster that struck Tiffin Maza and the rest of Mokwa was hydrological; the consequences that followed was societal.

    Why almajiranci thrives

    The almajiri system, once a noble vessel of Islamic scholarship, now bleeds at its seams. The system involves sending boys, typically aged 4 to 12, to distant locations for religious study under nomadic scholars. For families who are unable to afford formal schooling of their wards, this system seems a lifeline. However, the idyllic vision of pious learning often shatters as these children, instead of being sheltered by their supposed guardians, find themselves thrust into the streets, begging for survival.

    More worrisome is their exposure and vulnerability to danger in times of environmental disasters, like the May 28 flooding of Mokwa.

    Poverty is a major cause of almajiranci. Associate Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna, Salim Bashir Magashi, argued that, traditionally, African societies cherished large families, considering children assets. The progress of an agrarian family, for instance, depended on its size. A large family seldom required paid labour to work on its farmland. As a duty, every member of the family participated in farm labour and even helped other members of the community as a neighbourly gesture, which is reciprocated.

    For this reason, men married as many wives as was permissible. However, the society became capitalist and individualistic, owing to cultural imperialism by Western civilisation and its attendant traits, the use of money as a medium to get goods and services affected the erstwhile communal and egalitarian societies fostered by traditional African families.

    The size of the family, over time, became a burden to family heads, who must provide the necessaries of life to the entire household. Hence, parents sent their children or wards away to seek knowledge, thus reducing their familial responsibilities.

    Many Almajirai emerged from this family divide. On the other hand, children from affluent families rarely left the comfort of their homes for such a purpose; whenever they did, the families made proper arrangements for the children’s welfare, said Magashi.

    There is also a lack of political will by the northern elite to address the issue because they fear it might result in a loss of political advantage during national elections.

    What Islam prescribes

    Islam prescribes that the primary legal and moral duty of parents is to take care of the welfare of their children, to provide them with food, shelter, security, health, and education. Parents are also instructed to instil morals into their wards, to the best of their abilities.

    Thus, memorising the Qur’an, which is largely what an almajiri does, is a desirable (mustahab) act. It is not compulsory for every Muslim, though it is encouraged, but because of bandwagon following (and of course poverty), most parents would rather trade their compulsory duty (wajib) for a desirable one (mustahab).

    The Hausa word almajiri was derived from the Arabic term almuhajir, meaning ‘a migrant.’ In a Nigerian context, it could mean a boarding student of Islamic studies; a student learning the science and truth of the Qur’an, as revealed by Almighty Allah, while committing the text to memory.

    In Hausa, almajiri means ‘child-student’; almajirai is its plural, and almajiranci is the process or practice of learning, travelling, and all things that come with travel.

    The school itself is called makarantar alio or tsangaya in Hausa. Historically, it was rooted in Muslims’ religious obligations to learn the Qur’an and acquire knowledge for this world and the hereafter.

    Types of almajiri

    According to Jimoh Amzat a Professor of Medical Sociology and Social Problems at the Department of Sociology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, it is pertinent to distinguish three sets of almajirai. The first set of almajirai is sent to the urban centre to live with an Islamic scholar (Mallam) permanently until the completion of their Islamic education. Those almajirai are generally given in trust to a resident mallam but they have to fend for themselves and may not return until they graduate. Another category may return to their parents during the rainy season for farming activities. The last category migrates from rural areas with their Islamic scholars during the dry season to the urban centres to return to rural areas for learning and farming in the rainy season. However, the majority of them now live on the streets and attend lessons according to their whims.

    Past attempts at reform

    Several attempts have been made to modernise the system, ranging from personal efforts to government intervention. For instance, Sunni (Izala) Muslims, who view the practice—the method, not the teaching—as anti-Islamic (bid’a) for dehumanising the child, established Islamiyya schools, which teach both conventional Western education and Islamic education simultaneously. However, these schools are elitist in character, commonly situated in urban areas, and rarely appeal to rural dwellers.

    Again, Islamiyya schools, unlike the almajiri (or tsangaya) or makarantar allo are organised as conventional schools and are mostly day schools. The pupils continue to enjoy the comfort of their daily lives from their homes, as against the almajiri system, which is mainly a boarding and nomadic setup.

    The first attempt to reform the system was made in 1959, when the Kano Native Authority warned parents against abandoning their children in the name of Islamic education and the teachers were directed to refuse any almajiri. This was unsuccessful.

    In 1985, the military government enacted an edict to control Quranic schools. The thrust of the law was to regulate these schools and the movements of the teachers and students to certain urban centres – however, like the previous measure, the law was ineffective, in part, because most of the teachers and the students were unaware of its existence. The law generated criticism as many considered Western standards weak and doomed to fail, because they fostered “individualism, careerism, and materialism.”

    Between 2003 and 2011, the Kano State government tried unsuccessfully to improve the system by providing free food to the students and giving the mallams monthly salaries and cattle for farming. Also, the federal government, under former President Goodluck Jonathan, devised a means to reform the system by integrating the almajiri system with orthodox model schools, but these efforts remain ineffective as the rights of children to education, parental love, care, good health benefits are often bargained away without legal consequences.

    Prominent northerners, including the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, have expressed concerns over the menace that has denied so many children in the region their rights to basic education. The former CBN governor said fathers should be arrested for sending out their children to take alms. He argued that fathers who can’t fend for themselves should go out and do the begging themselves instead of sending out their children.

    Minna, Niger-based Islamic scholar, Mallam Ishaq Hussein, said, “Everybody accuses us of maltreating the boys but all we do is impart useful knowledge into them. Many parents are too poor to educate and take care of their children. Most times, they beg us to go with them and we do our best to take care of them. But whenever anything bad happens, we are blamed. Allah knows best.”

    To sanitise almaijiranci

    Good governance is at the heart of the solution. Several measures including firmer enforcement of anti-trafficking laws protective of minors and bio-data tracking have been suggested to curb the menace. Experts urge the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to track and provide specific data on almajiri children and their parents. Sourcing accurate data can help to forge a partnership between policy makers and the parents of the almajirai who are far away from their family homes.

    While successive governments have been accused of displaying a lacklustre approach to sanitising the almajiri system, Sheikh Ibrahim Adam, an Abuja-based Islamic cleric and scholar, argued that aside from government and other stakeholders including non-governmental organisations, parents must also accept to play their part by having only the number of children they can cater for.

    “It is very wrong and irresponsible of parents to have more children than they can care for. Islam forbids this,” he said.

    On his part, Professor Magashi argued that destitute almajirai can be saved through the instrumentation of the law. He said, “To save destitute almajirai and to educate and care for them with the dignity and respect they deserve, laws already in place need only be enforced. This, however, must be a firm and focused decision, which may require the use of force and diplomacy, as well as provision of the necessary environment to benefit from a reformed, available, affordable, acceptable, and in some cases compulsory system of education.”

    The northern almajirai must, however, stay alive to enjoy the full benefits of such measures. Many of them contend, daily, with dangers lurking in plain sight, like the peking order that empowers Mallams and senior almajirai to bully younger boys in their informal school setting; and the deathly flash flood that devastated Mokwa.

    Study proves many almajirai die before age 16

    A recent study revealed that, “half of the boys who go into the almajiri system will die in the long run; 17 percent survive, and the remaining 33 percent get lost, of which some will eventually also die. In other words, at least 50 percent of the boys born into this system die.

    The study was conducted by a team of researchers across four universities including Funom Theophilus Makama, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester, United Kingdom (UK); Esther Funom Makama, Department of Business Administration, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Borno State; Peter Maitalata Waziri, Biochemistry Department, Kaduna State University, Kaduna State; and Attahiru Dan-Ali Mustapha, Resident Public Health Doctor Community Medicine Department, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State.

    The research team noted that at least three of every six boys involved in the almajiri system die prematurely because they “are exposed to harsh conditions and subjected to begging to fend for themselves, leaving them susceptible to violence, hunger, starvation, infections, child predators, and being used as elements of violence. This decreases their chances of surviving till adulthood as a lot die even before they reach age 16.”

    The research, which was carried out to determine the survival rate of boys enrolled in the almajiri system was conducted in 137 villages across two northern states, Kano and Kaduna, where the practice is endemic.

    The study concluded that for every six boys sent away to participate in the almajiri system of seeking knowledge in northern Nigeria, three die, one stays alive and the other two get lost, their whereabouts unknown. This is at least 50 percent of the child mortality of boys born into the almajiri system of northern Nigeria.

    A system that kills three out of every six children and subjects two more to be missing, leaving only one to survive, is not a system to tolerate, no matter its cultural or religious correlation, according to the researchers.

    This is a case to be investigated and urgently resolved by all stakeholders including the parents, civil societies, religious and political leaders.

    The grim fate of Almajirai

    Against the backdrop of the conundrum, the sad fate of dead and forgotten almajirai presents a sour note. Few people would forget in a hurry the sad event of July 7, 2023, when three almajirai were burnt to death in a fire ignited by a burning mosquito repellent coil, killed in Yola, Adamawa State. The trio, comprising Ismaila Muhammadu, 12, Yusuf Abubakar, 13, and Mustapha Ahmadu, 17, resided in the premises of their school at Sabon Pegi, a community in Yola South Local Government Area. The owner of the school, Malam Abubakar Usman, confirmed that the pupils died due to the fire from the mosquito repellent, which engulfed their room.

    Equally instructive was the sad fate of the Kebbi eight, who were crushed to death in a burrow pit while digging for clay to mend their hut.

    Then there is the sad case of Abdul Malik, 15, from Sokoto, Abba, 15, from Sokoto, Lawwali, 16, from Niger, Salamanu, 18, from Niger, and Muhammadu, 20, from Niger – students of the  Madarasatul Tarbiyyatul Islamiyya, in Tiffin Maza, Mokwa LGA  and all casualties of the May 28 flood disaster.

    In the wake of their demise alongside several others, the State Governor, Mohammed Umar Bago, has expressed regret over the tragedy, promising to resettle those affected and implement measures to prevent future flooding, including erosion control and infrastructure development. “Local governments will also benefit from road construction and drainage projects, such as the road from here (Mokwa) to Raba, which includes three bridges,” said

    the Director of Information at the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Dr. Ibrahim Audu Hussaini. Hussaini described the Mokwa flood as a major catastrophe affecting a large population. “As of the most recent count, the flood has claimed approximately 207 lives, destroyed 458 homes (with over 500 affected), displaced more than 3,000 individuals, and impacted over 9,000 people in total,” he said.

    Despite the scale of destruction, he noted that the situation is being handled with coordination and resolve. Interventions have been extensive and collaborative as all relevant ministries and agencies are actively involved, ensuring that no one is left out, said Hussaini.

    According to him, “The federal government has dispatched 200 trucks of grain and pledged ₦2 billion to aid resettlement. Governor Bago, on his part, has allocated ₦1 billion for temporary shelters. Additionally, Certificates of Occupancy have been issued for lands designated for federal housing projects.”

    On the issue of missing persons, Hussaini stressed that NEMA is taking a cautious and thorough approach. Misreported cases often turn out to be individuals later found deceased or discovered to have travelled. Thus, officials are carefully verifying each report before making formal declarations.

    Of course, the debate persists on the number of the missing. Mallam Umar dismissed claims that over 120 almajirai in his care were swept away by the flood, stating that “just 48” of his students are missing. The Sarkin Hausawa (Chief of the Hausa people) of Mokwa, Alhaji Tanko Bala, corroborated him, stressing that although he has personal records of families that lost as many as 10, 20, 26 members, and so on. “The number of persons missing based on my records is above 200, while the number of those confirmed dead and buried is 165, that is aside from Mallam Hassan Umar’s almajiri school. Honestly, I don’t have fully verified information on the school. Just accept any information that he tells you as the truth,” he said.

    Yet, beyond the numbers war, death has no interest in clashing arithmetic. On May 28, one day after the “Children’s Day” celebration, a manic flood slithered through the streets of Mokwa like a reptilian beast, collapsing bridges, vanishing houses and entire families in its tide.

    More heartrending is the fate of the almajirai of Madarasatul Tarbiyyatul Islamiyya in Tiffin Maza. While hundreds of boys are still missing. The dead have been buried quietly. There were no marble tombstones. No televised mourning. Just rows of anonymous graves, rapidly dug amid the mudflats.

    The boys’ cries, like the floodwaters, have completely disappeared from public consciousness. And yet, their memory still lingers. In their drowned jotters left with ink smears in a ditch. In their worn sandals, found buried in mud.

    In the voice of Saminu Abdullahi, 14, who ran from death until he collapsed into life.