The state of affairs of the nation is deeply troubling. Ours is a nation in anguish and at war with itself. Nigerians are suffering self-inflicted pains occasioned by decades of misgovernance, miseducation, miscalculated leadership and misplaced priority. There is this deep mistrust between the government and the governed. This is why the average Nigerian will obey the command of non-state actors before paying allegiance to the constitution, after all our laws and those operating them do not protect the weak, but mere instruments and agents of oppression. The national despair and indifference are real.
How did a once beautiful country turn into a theatre of the absurd? Want to learn how to ruin a nation and turn green field into a killing field? Look no further from Nigeria where life and democracy are in rapid decline. The Nigerian brand of democracy is not by the people and for the people. The people believe their votes do not count and as such, talking about rescuing the country by another band of politicians is mere rhetoric. With almost two and half years to election, the polity is already heated up to boiling point. The government is further distracted from governance and dealing with issues of 2027 re-election. In my opinion, the government should focus more on delivering the renewed hope agenda, rather than be distracted by politics of 2027.
Recently, in a bustling barber’s shop in Abuja, I encountered some noisy young men chatting just about everything and anything; from football to Natasha, politics, deepening hardship and insecurity facing millions of Nigeria. And then the discussion veered into the person of 36-year-old Captain Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. These young Nigerians who had disagreed on just every single subject were united in their admiration for the Burkinabe leader. Some of them even vowed to enlist into the Burkina military to fight France should the former colonial overlord dare threaten Captain Traore. Even though 40 per cent of Burkina land is under the control of Islamist Jihadists who have killed thousands of people, these Nigerians believe the young leader is not just saying the right things but doing everything right to keep the country secure and prosperous. To them, Traore resonates hope for Africa. They wished our own leaders are as inspirational like the upright leader of Burkina-Faso. They wished our leaders could face off the neo-colonial overreach of the West. Ironically, these same young men willing to enlist to fight for Burkina Faso are unwilling to enlist into the Nigeria military. The foundation of their discouragement in Nigeria has been laid by successive corrupt leadership that has ruled the country even before their fathers thought of marrying their mothers.
Bishop Mathew Hassan Kuka of Sokoto Diocese in his Easter homily aptly described Nigeria as being nailed to the cross and begged the Nigerian leader to bring us down from the cross. Bishop Kukah drew a striking parallel between the crucifixion of Christ and the pain currently endured by citizens across the country, describing Nigeria as a nation dangling and bleeding on a cross of pain and mindless suffering. There was a sense of urgency in Kukah’s message as he lamented the spread of kidnapping, hunger, cynicism and a growing culture of savagery and brutality never witnessed before.
Kukah is not a lone voice. He is no John the Baptist. Nothing said by the revered Bishop is new. Nigeria is bleeding. In most parts of the country, people can no longer sleep. They are tired of running away from their homes and losing everything to bandits. Not protected by security agents, nor allowed to bear arms to protect themselves, they just wait to die in communities that have been turned into community of morgues.
This is life in most parts of Northern Nigeria, particularly in states like Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Kaduna, Benue, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Plateau, Kano Bauchi and Niger where people are experiencing widespread violence and attacks from Boko Haram with thousands of deaths and injuries documented. Warri, Port Harcourt, Imo, parts of Anambra has been plagued by various forms of violence, resulting in significant number of killings.
According to a study analysing secondary data from 2006 to 2021, there were no fewer than 169,003 violent deaths occasioned by insurgency, rural banditry and active cultism attacks on schools, kidnappings and economic hardship. In the first six weeks of 2025, at least 805 lives were lost to violence and insecurity across the country, thus making Nigeria one of the un-safest places to live.
Insecurity in Nigeria remains complex. In Benue for instance, the killings had been attributed to either sectarian or farmers herder’s clash. There is this notion that the powers that be had beckoned on Fulanis from all over Africa to descend on Nigeria and become indigenes. With no land of theirs, they must fight to displace the indigenous people or force them to co-exist with them. The precarious situation is faced by Benue people where death toll within the past one month has risen to over a hundred due to lack of effective governance. Evidentially, successive governments, due to political miscalculations and neglect, have been unable to provide adequate security and address the root causes of violence which has exacerbated the situation.
Many such as TY Danjuma, Nigeria’s civil war hero and former Chief of Army Staff has called on victims of bandits and terrorist attacks in Benue and Plateau to rise in self- defence against marauding gunmen invading their communities. Danjuma argued that relying on government protection is no longer realistic, which seems right. However, some well protected elites argue to the contrary, The Governor of Jigawa State Umar Namadi was quick to dismiss the call for Nigerians to bear arms. These elites also dismissed the call for state policing which they say will breed anarchy. The governor in a media chat had argued that Nigeria has not reached that level whereby individuals should bear arms in self-defence. I personally disagree with this notion. People being slaughtered every day while the government feigns helplessness is shameful. Week after week, people are dying in Benue in tens and hundreds. Fulani herdsmen are killing them. The people need help which they are not getting from anyone. Yes, the governor of Benue is a Reverend Father, a priest of the Roman Catholic Church but Jesus will not come down from the cross to help Benue people except they rise to help themselves. It doesn’t matter how many coffins they display and how long they pray or hold a night vigil, and I am not mocking their God, but God only helps those who help themselves. The people will be foolish not to defend their homelands against armed marauders. Knowing that a community can pose strong resistance will deter the bandits from further attacks, otherwise Benue will continue to bleed until there is no more blood left in them to offer.
A man or woman who cannot die for a cause is not worth the life he or she is living. On the last day, how do you as a Nigerian from Benue or any of these unsafe regions explain to your creator that you watched your fathers killed, your brothers brutally murdered, your wives raped and daughters abducted and subjected to rape, and young babies still suckling breast violently butchered by bloodthirsty invaders, and you do nothing to defend and protect your mother land. How do you explain that you watched your hard labour destroyed and homesteads razed down and you did nothing to protect your space. Fight or hide your heads in the sand, violent death awaits you. It is better to die fighting than to die not fighting for freedom.