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Beyond Lamentations, Excuses and the Blame Game: The North Must Salvage Itself Now
If there is anything particularly striking about Northern Nigeria over the last decade and a half, it is the level of resignation that has gradually enveloped the region. For years, millions of people have watched the systematic erosion of their security, livelihoods, and dignity to levels that should be unacceptable in any society. Yet, beyond periodic expressions of outrage and grief, many have remained trapped in a cycle of docility—waiting for governments, waiting for leaders, waiting for miracles, and waiting for solutions from God knows where.
Meanwhile, the crisis has continued to deepen. The human cost has been staggering. Although exact figures vary, estimates suggest that tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced and still counting. Large portions of agricultural land have also become inaccessible, contributing significantly to food insecurity across affected communities. Thousands of schools, healthcare facilities, markets, and other public infrastructure have either been destroyed or vandalised. Yet, the people are seemingly tranquillised into doing nothing.
Societies develop when peace, stability, justice, and personal accountability prevail. Citizens have rights, but they also come with responsibilities, the first being self-preservation. They must contribute to the growth of their communities while demanding protection, fairness, and responsive governance from those entrusted with authority.
Unfortunately, this simple philosophy appears to have been lost in much of the North since the turn of the 21st century. Its place has been taken over by endless lamentation, blame games, mutual suspicion, and helplessness, with no “red line”. The sense of collective civic action has all but evaporated among Northerners.
This is despite the reality that most of the challenges confronting the region today are man-made. Insurgency, terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, poverty, institutional decay, and social fragmentation did not descend from the heavens. They emerged from identifiable human actions, policy failures, corruption, and neglect. Consequently, they require human solutions. No society has ever solved its problems by doing nothing.
The first openly declared insurgency in Nigeria erupted in 2009 under the leadership of Mohammed Yusuf, founder of Boko Haram. What began as a localised extremist movement was seventeen years later, evolved into a hydra-headed monster with multiple manifestations and affiliates. While Borno and neighbouring Yobe remain the epicentre of the insurgency, violent extremist groups operating under different banners—including ISWAP, Lakurawa, Ansaru, Mahmudawa, and others—have emerged across various parts of the country, often adapting their tactics to local conditions.
Beyond insurgency itself, the activities of these armed groups have inspired and facilitated other forms of criminality that have now matured into full-scale terrorism. Kidnapping for ransom has become a thriving industry. Armed groups terrorise rural communities, attack farmers, seize territories, and carry out mass abductions with alarming regularity. Entire communities live under the constant threat of violence. No thanks to a challenged national security architecture, systemic corruption, the alleged complicity of some communities and highly placed individuals, and widespread and divergent interpretations and views of the very crises on the ground.
The consequences extend far beyond physical destruction. The crisis has deepened poverty and deprivation while exacerbating social divisions. Communities that once lived together peacefully, now increasingly view one another with suspicion. As violence intensified, many became consumed by the search for imaginary enemies within their midst. Trust broke down. Social cohesion weakened. Fear became normal.
For millions of citizens, life itself became increasingly desperate. Nigeria today has an estimated population of about 230 million people. Various reports indicate that roughly 130 million Nigerians—about 63 per cent of the population—live in multidimensional poverty. Around 80 million of them fall within the most severe categories of deprivation. A significant proportion of these citizens are concentrated in Northern Nigeria, as are the majority of the estimated 19 million out-of-school children. These conditions naturally create fertile ground for criminal recruitment, radicalisation, social unrest, and further insecurity.
It has now become an environment where people live on edge, and life itself is increasingly disposable.
A region where prominent elites often cannot visit their ancestral communities without elaborate security arrangements.
A region where rural settlements are being emptied by violence.
A region where military officers and soldiers continue to pay the ultimate price in defence of the nation.
A region where parents send their children to school without certainty that they will return home safely.
A region where entire generations are growing up surrounded by instability and hopelessness.
Yet, despite this grim reality, many citizens remain uncertain about how to pursue meaningful change. For years, they have looked to successive governments for solutions. They have waited through administrations, policy pronouncements, military offensives, political campaigns, and endless promises. Still, the killings continue. The displacement continues. The impoverishment continues. All these make development uneven and challenging, even under the best of intentions.
The Northern developmental challenge, however, presents a paradox because it has everything not to be so encumbered. It has vast arable land for agriculture, a favourable climate, a huge livestock base, the iconic waterways of the Rivers Niger and Benue, enormous solid-mineral deposits, and a large, though largely disempowered, population and manpower base.
The North also held political power at the centre for more than two-thirds of Nigeria’s independent existence. For some reasons, these advantages have not translated into sustainable development. Not even when power swung to the South through Obasanjo and Jonathan. Instead the North, with its over 120 million of diverse population become more vulnerable and impacted. Indicators of such socioeconomic conditions as literacy, poverty, unemployment, healthcare, etc., have remained abysmally low and endemic over the years.
The feeling in some quarters is that the North must play catch-up because it is constituting a drag on others. It is this perception that has been central to the hushed but now open calls for restructuring. Though it may its own merit, many hold the view that it could be a euphemism for confederation: a loosely held autonomous entities that are bound only by national defence, foreign affairs and the like.
While President Tinubu and many others have turned this vision into a political agenda, some feared that it could be a prelude to disintegration. The conflicting positions, as expected, seem to have stalled the idea. However, instead of mounting greater enlightenment campaigns on the issue, the Tinubu administration seemed to have devised a “backdoor” approach of sorts to advance the vision.
The indirect “restructuring” logic is such that, instead of pushing for the formal establishment of self-governing, semi-autonomous federating units, the President opted to populate the critical organs of governance at the centre with persons drawn predominantly from one region—in this case, his own—to govern the rest of the country. Naturally, with this arrangement, the distribution of developmental activities would be skewed accordingly.
The danger with this approach is that the leadership that may come after his tenure could be tempted to do the same thing. Against the backdrop of Nigeria’s ethno-religious politics, the new leadership would simply replace the existing configuration of governance with people from its own region or ethnic group. Eventually, a new variant of regionalism, or a system of “regional governance,” would emerge: a de facto ethnically restructured system of governance without the physical delineation of Nigeria’s geopolitical zones.
The trouble with such an arrangement is that it is largely driven by presidential patronage, which renders it highly vulnerable to impunity, with far-reaching consequences for national stability and development.
It is, in fact, an aberration of democratic practice and a self-serving model that is hardly sustainable in a diverse environment. If Nigeria is to decentralise, it should do so deliberately, constitutionally and transparently—not through the changing ethnic and regional preferences of successive presidents. It is a dangerous approach to nation-building.
As for the North, however, there is an even greater sense of urgency in view of some of its security and socioeconomic circumstances. The reality is that whichever “model” emerges from the nation’s current confusion, its component parts would end up with greater responsibility for their respective development. This is regardless of whether the country eventually adopts orthodox regionalism, confederation, or any other model.
The people of Northern Nigeria must therefore begin to take greater ownership of their collective destiny. This does not mean loving Nigeria less. Rather, it means recognising that active citizenship is indispensable to societal transformation. For, as it were, if the current disposition of things in the North does not change, it will not be too long before the region becomes ungovernable. And maybe the nation, too.
The era of passive acceptance of hardships as ordained must give way to civic consciousness and action. Man-made crises should be solved by man. The culture of docility that has gradually transformed citizens into mere spectators of their own suffering must be challenged. Communities must organise. Traditional and religious leaders should work to shape the future of the region and the nation instead playing divisive roles.
History offers numerous examples of societies that transformed themselves through peaceful civic engagement. Public demonstrations, advocacy campaigns, community mobilisation, voter participation, and sustained demands for accountability have forced governments around the world to become more responsive to the needs of their citizens.
Communities have a legitimate right to pursue lawful measures for self-preservation and self-defence within the framework of the law. Just as they hold both leaders and themselves accountable.
No society develops when its people surrender their agency. Also, no region prospers when citizens become indifferent to their own fate. Again, no government, however powerful, can substitute for an engaged and vigilant population. The North stands today at a historic crossroads. One path leads to continued decline, deeper insecurity, and greater despair. The other leads to renewal through collective action, civic responsibility, and a determination to reclaim the future. It must choose the path of self-preservation.
Self-help (taimakekeniya, gaiya) and communal solidarity once defined Northern society. It is time to reclaim them—the time for the people to help themselves. The responsibilities or messages to the citizens of the North regarding the way forward are as follows:
(i) Encourage each other to take your children to school. It is not acceptable that the North accounts for over three-quarters of the 19 million (UN) out-of-school children. The region also has the poorest performance record in the 2026 JAMB examinations. For instance, only a combined total of 54 candidates from four Northern states—Kano, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara—scored 300 marks and above, out of 12,414 candidates nationwide who achieved this score. The combined figure of 54 gives an average of 13.5 candidates per state. This is far below the national average of approximately 335 candidates per state, based on the 36 states and the FCT, in this category.
(ii) Hold your elected representatives to account. If hunger can make you subservient to them, it should make you angry with them.
(iii) Use ingenuity—native or modern—in tilling your vast arable land in areas less affected by banditry, terrorism, and insurgency.
(iv) Organise yourselves to protect your mineral and other natural resources as you protect your churches and mosques.
(v) Preach skills acquisition and entrepreneurship more in churches and mosques than tithes and sadaqat. People need to earn an income before they can give to charity.
(vi) Rein in clerics who preach tranquillising fatalism and extremism for selfish and pecuniary interests. Incidentally, the majority of them are in Northern Nigeria, not in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Dubai (UAE), or Indonesia. The Creator has said in clear terms that He helps those who help themselves, and that He does not change the condition of a people unless they change what is within themselves. A society reaps what it sows, and also gets a leadership that reflects its character.
(vii) Ranch your cattle and other livestock. They become more productive and generate greater income for pastoralists, apart from the peace it engenders. It is all a matter of mentality and not rocket science.
(viii) The few entrepreneurs and investors should aim at adding value along the value chains of agriculture, livestock, and solid minerals, particularly in processing, preservation, and marketing. The North did this in the 1960s and 1970s. Let that spirit be revived.
(ix) Don’t wait for the government to clean your drainage, repair primary school and healthcare windows and doors, or replace a few sheets of roofing.
(x) Expose informants among you. Conduct house-to-house security cleansing to identify terrorists, insurgents, kidnappers, and drug dealers. Let the towns be disinfected, to start with. It was done in Maiduguri, Biu, Azare, and many other places in the past, and it worked. Acquire defensive “weapons.” Highly placed Northerners, like Gen.T.Y.Danjuma and some traditional rulers, have spoken on the need for such.
(xi) Peacefully demonstrate against governors who prioritise certain projects, such as flyovers/underpasses, airports, palaces, and government houses, over and above human capital development. These projects are important, but they have their time and place in the developmental process. The same applies to mass weddings, sponsorship of pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Mecca, and humongous retirement packages for political office holders. These issues should be reviewed.
(xii) It is too optimistic, and even easier said than done, to expect a society like the North, which has been tranquillised and thrown into disarray, to embrace these suggestions overnight. But steps can be taken towards some.
The North has complained enough. It has mourned enough. It has waited enough. No politician is coming to save it. No government can do for the people what they refuse to do for themselves. It is therefore incumbent upon the people to get up, organise, and struggle while demanding accountability from their leaders. As it were, if the North does not save itself, nobody else will.
A. G. Abubakar
agbarewa@gmail.com
I hardly know the author of the so-called rejoinder, but I know we are classes apart.
Looking into his peice, it seems he does not have a good tutelage in public communication. And I dare say he needs better tutorials in the art.
For a toddler to attrmempt drawing a qualified athlete into a race, is to me the height of self delussion.
In the first place, what I wrote was neither a letter nor a rejoinder, rather,
it was an opinated analysis, from a partisan viewpoint, because I am a stakeholder, as a member of the APC.
I cannot remember having mentioned the ADC anywhere, and for party’s spokesman to assume the position if the defender of all opposition parties, makes it look desperate in wanting to come out of obsecurity, as the spokesman of a party, in a state.
I did not have to write opinions before I was picked to serve in several capacities in government. I did not need to write one to remain on board. For the svoidance of doubt, I am an insider in government and do not need to court patronage or seek a return into government, because I am into it. Having served as two times commissioner, to two different governors, two times S A Media to two different governors, including one outside Borno:one time media adviser to the national chairman of a party that has history and class, and two times Local Government Chairman, makes me tower above the Ahmed of a man.
I do not need to air an opinion to be noticed, because I did not write an opinion to serve in all these capacities. I can see that, his emotions are not only short on facts, and logic, but for the sake of the public record, let me state clearly, that, I still hold the opinion I expressed and do not owe any political party, including the lameduck ADC, about it.
The so-called rejoinder is a classic case of playing victim while deliberately misrepresenting facts.
It is not my duty to explain the circumstances surrounding Hon. Atom Magira’s Plaza, as that has already been dine by the appripriate authoruties.
The ADC is being economical with the truth, to the effect that, the said property was demolished because he is in the opposition. The Borno State Urban Planning Board (BOSEPA) had issued multiple notices over clear violations of building approval and right-of-way encroachment in that corridor. The government has demolished properties belonging to even staunch APC members who violated the same rules. To reduce an urban renewal enforcement to “opposition witch-hunt” is mischief, no matter what coloration you try to give it.
If ADC has evidence that due process was not followed, let them publish the court judgment in their favour, not social media sentiments.
And on the alleged threat by the Commissioner for Youths, which has since been recanted, I believe no responsible government endorses threats. The video being circulated was an out-of-context political appeal at a youth rally, where the Commissioner warned youths against political violence and thuggery. He has since clarified his statement. The ADC is stretching a political statement into a threat to gain sympathy. If there was a genuine threat, the right place is to report to the Police, not to issue press statements.
The “Tinubu Must Go” protesters, which was the subject of my piece, is to me where the ADC is most mischievous. The arrest of persons carrying placards was done by security agencies in the course of maintaining public order during a period of heightened tension. Professor Zulum did not order any detention, and I chalkebge the ADC to orove otherwise. As you well know, the Governor as Chief Security Officer does not control Police remand processes. The State Government actually facilitated their release after preliminary investigations. Let the spokesman of the ADC, contradict these facts.
To blame Zulum for every Police action in Maiduguri is a sign of political defeatism.
Borno is perhaps the only state in the North-East where opposition parties held their major rallies in 2023 without any attack. ADC is barely four months and should asjed questions, or could have rallied for a joint press statement with other political parties. That may have been more credible, than taking the gaunlet on behalf of small, even as the youngest in the contraption called coalition in Borno.
If they were denied any venue, let them publish the application letter with an official stamp of rejection from the stadium manager or hotel, and the BOSEPA receipt for any billboard they claim was pulled down. Democracy does not mean impunity to deface Maiduguri with unapproved billboards.
Professor Babagana Umara Zulum has shown tolerance that is rare. He has openly told opposition members to criticize his government constructively. He has not sponsored any bill to suppress opposition like we see in other climes.
Governor Zulum’s passion for the Tinubu/Shettima 2027 is not about patronage. It is about conviction that at a time of national challenges, Borno stands with continuity, stability and a Vice President who is our son. That is not anti-democratic. That is political alignment, which the Constitution of Nigeria guarantees.
My advice to ADC Borno, especially this greenhorn spokesman is not built on press statements every week. Build structures in wards, sensitize your members, and stop looking for relevance by attacking Inuwa Bwala or Professor Zulum. Borno people know the difference between governance and propaganda.
Professor Zulum will not be distracted. He is focused on resettlement, security, and rebuilding Borno.
Hon. Inuwa Bwala
Stephen Olufemi Oni, Ilorin
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Kwara State Command, has arrested two suspects in separate operations involving alleged human trafficking and illegal medical practice, reaffirming the Command’s resolve to protect vulnerable persons and tackle criminal activities across the State.
A statement by the spokesman for the NSCDC, ASC 1 Ayoola Michael Shola, said the Command arrested one Victor Barry, 22-year-old, for alleged trafficking of a 17-year-old girl from Amoyo, Kwara State, to Mali under the pretext of securing employment for her in Senegal.
The case, according to the Command’s spokesman, was reported by the victim’s mother at the NSCDC Amoyo Division on the 9th of October 2026 before it was transferred to the State Headquarters in Ilorin.
He said: “Preliminary findings indicate that the suspect allegedly met the girl at his shop on the 5th of October 2026 when she visited to purchase noodles and subsequently offered her an opportunity to travel to Senegal for employment.
“The suspect reportedly took the girl to Lagos on the 7th of October 2026 and handed her over to an unidentified individual at Mile 2 for onward transportation abroad. He later informed NSCDC operatives that the girl had arrived in Mali on the 12th of October 2026.
“The suspect further alleged that an agent identified as Joy redirected the girl’s destination to Mali, contrary to their initial arrangement for her to travel to Senegal.
“The suspect’s parents have pledged to cooperate with the Command to facilitate the girl’s return to Nigeria within two weeks. The Command is pursuing the necessary steps to establish the full circumstances of the case and secure her safe return.”
Also, in another separate operation on the 13th of October 2026, NSCDC operatives, acting on intelligence, arrested Bello Maruf, 56yrs, for allegedly operating an unauthorised medical facility and performing abortions without any recognised medical qualifications or a valid licence.
“During preliminary investigations, the suspect reportedly admitted to performing multiple abortions but failed to produce any certificate or licence authorising him to practise medicine. Medical instruments suspected to have been used in the procedures were recovered during the operation.
“The suspect will be charged to a court of competent jurisdiction upon completion of the investigation,” ASC 1 Ayoola stated.
Meanwhile, the State Commandant, Commandant Abbas Ndah Mohammed, has reaffirmed the Command’s commitment to protecting lives, safeguarding vulnerable persons and ensuring that individuals suspected of criminal activities are brought to justice in accordance with the law.
He urged parents and guardians to exercise caution over overseas employment offers made to young people and called on members of the public to promptly report suspected human trafficking, illegal medical practices and other criminal activities to the nearest NSCDC office.
The Command has, however, assured residents of Kwara State of its continued commitment to public safety and called for credible, timely intelligence to support its operations.
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Kwara: Physically challenged man, two others held for alleged arms supply to criminals
Stephen Olufemi Oni, Ilorin
The Kwara State Police Command has arrested a physically challenged man, Joseph Adeoye, 52, and another suspect, Issa Fatai, 35, for alleged illegal possession and attempted purchase of a locally made pistol.
The arrests were among several criminal cases presented by the state Commissioner of Police, Adekimi Ojo, during a press briefing in Ilorin on Tuesday, October 13, 2026.
According to Ojo, police operatives intercepted Adeoye at a drinking spot around Ojatuntun Market during a surveillance operation and recovered a locally made cut-to-size pistol from him.
Further investigations led to the arrest of Fatai, who was allegedly identified as the intended buyer of the firearm.
The Commissioner of Police said both suspects reportedly admitted their involvement in the transaction during interrogation, adding that investigations were ongoing.
The suspects remain in police custody and are expected to be arraigned upon the conclusion of investigations.
Ojo said the arrests formed part of the command’s intensified efforts to tackle illegal firearms possession, kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent crimes across Kwara State.
In another development, the Command arrested Abubakar Usman, also known as Jaye, a wanted suspect allegedly linked to kidnapping incidents in Oke-Ode and Oro-Ago, as well as the killing of members of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria in Oke-Ode, Ifelodun Local Government Area.
The suspect was arrested at Jebba Cattle Market on October 11 following sustained efforts by security operatives.
The Commissioner of Police said investigations also linked him to a May 2025 incident in Labaka village, where four suspected kidnappers arrested by local vigilantes reportedly escaped after a group allegedly led by him arrived and fired gunshots into the air.
Usman was also accused of threatening to kidnap a prominent member of a cattle-rearing association and demanding N10 million.
Ojo said the suspect had reportedly confessed to his involvement in the crimes under investigation and was assisting the police in identifying other persons connected to the incidents.
The Command also arrested Ahamdu Dahiru, a suspected kidnapper allegedly linked to a wanted kidnapping kingpin known as Aro.
According to the commissioner, Dahiru confessed to leading four kidnapping operations in Eruku, Oke-Ode, Idofin and Babanla, during which large sums of money were collected.
The suspect subsequently led police operatives and members of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria to a forest between Bani and Kaiama, where four AK-47 rifles allegedly used in the operations had been buried.
However, the weapons were no longer at the location, as the suspect’s alleged accomplices, identified as Aminu, Sani, Yellow and Dogo, had reportedly moved them to an unknown destination.
A bag containing suspected hard drugs, chains and a padlock believed to have been used to restrain hostages was recovered at the location.
The police said Dahiru remained in custody and was providing information to assist efforts to apprehend the fleeing suspects and recover the firearms.
In another case, two suspects, Kamalden Lukmon and AbdulGaniyu Ibrahim, were arrested along Bakase Road, Alapa, on October 8, following the recovery of two suspected human hands.
Ojo said preliminary interrogation indicated that the suspects allegedly intended to use the body parts for money-making rituals.
The suspects reportedly claimed that a vigilante member, identified as Abdulraf Apata, handed the body parts to them. The police said the allegation was being investigated to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident and determine whether other persons were involved.
The commissioner also disclosed the arrest of three suspected motorcycle thieves, Mohamed Umar, 20; Aliyu Aliyu; and Babuga Umar, 30, at Dankurumi Settlement, Kosa, through an operation involving police operatives, local hunters and vigilantes.
A red Bajaj motorcycle allegedly stolen from the Daba area of Bani was recovered, while efforts were ongoing to arrest another suspected accomplice identified as Hanaruwa.
On child protection, Ojo said three suspects, including a 12-year-old girl’s biological father, stepmother and their neighbour, had been arraigned over alleged cruelty and physical abuse of the child.
The incident came to light on September 30 after a concerned resident of the Idigba area of Adewole, Ilorin, questioned the girl after seeing her buying a solution from a chemist late at night.
The child reportedly disclosed that she had been beaten with an electrical wire and burnt with a hot coal-pot over the loss of N100 while hawking soya beans for her stepmother.
The suspects were subsequently remanded at the Oke-Kura Correctional Centre, according to the police.
The command further reported the arrest of Saba Ismail, 25, over an alleged N10 million kidnapping threat against a resident of Batakan, via Tsaragi, in Edu Local Government Area.
Investigators reportedly traced the telephone number used to make the threat to the suspect, who allegedly confessed to the offence.
Other cases presented by the commissioner included the arrest of Umaru Ahmadu over an alleged kidnapping in Okeya, the arrest of Musa Hussein over suspected kidnapping activities, and the apprehension of three suspects in connection with an armed robbery at Gure Fulani Camp.
The police also arrested three suspects over the alleged exhumation of graves and removal of human heads at a cemetery in Omupo, Kwara State.
Ojo said the investigation into the cemetery incident began after community members discovered in May 2026 that some graves had been disturbed and the heads of bodies buried there were missing.
Two suspects, Abu Jimoh and Ayo Jimoh, were arrested on October 8 while allegedly digging graves at the cemetery. They reportedly identified a herbalist, Mukaila Bello, as the alleged buyer of the missing body parts.
The commissioner urged residents to provide credible information to security agencies, stressing that public cooperation remained critical to preventing crime and bringing suspected offenders to justice.
He also commended Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for donating 25 brand-new Hilux vehicles to the police, saying the gesture would strengthen operational mobility, improve police visibility and enhance responses to security threats across the state.
Ojo assured residents that the command would continue to pursue intelligence-led operations, professional investigations and community engagement to protect lives and property.
He, however, urged the media to report cases still under investigation accurately and responsibly, while assuring the public that suspects would be dealt with in accordance with due process.
ON BORNO ADC’S LAME REJOINDER: MY RESPONSE.
Alleged Human Trafficking: Two Suspects In NSCDC’s Net
Kwara: Physically challenged man, two others held for alleged arms supply to criminals
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