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For many Nigerians, life has become brutish in recent times. At home and abroad, they are haunted and vilified. Killings, abductions and harassment by state and non-state actors have become normal and no longer attract severe outrage. On January 18, 2026, about 177 Christians were abducted from three churches in Kurmin Wali village, in Kajuru Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State, by some terrorists. Eleven of them escaped with injuries and trauma. The rest are yet to regain their freedom.
The most annoying part of this problem was that when Christian authorities in the area raised the alarm over this issue, the police and the affected local government officials denied it. They emerged later to confirm the incident. What this means is that many of those in authority cannot be trusted. Denying the obvious without proper investigation is a sure way to cultivate trust deficit.
Rather than deal decisively with the bandits and terrorists in our midst, a state like Katsina is talking of granting 70 of them amnesty. The state Commissioner for Internal Security and Homeland Affairs, Dr. Nasir Muazu, even went as far as comparing their planned amnesty to criminals with exchange of prisoners during a war. During the Nigerian civil war, Muazu said, many prisoners were set free and exchanged between the Nigerian side and the Biafran side.
Typically, giving bandits and terrorists such soft landing emboldens them the more. They have continued to cause havoc and heartache to many Nigerian families. In this same Katsina, bandits reportedly killed over 1,500 civilians between 2021 and 2025. In August 2025 alone, they killed no fewer than 50 people in an attack on Muslim communities in the state.
Last November alone, they abducted over 300 students and 12 teachers at St. Mary’s Catholic school at Papiri in Agwara LGA of Niger State. Before this incident, they had also attacked Government Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, in Danko/Wasagu LGA of Kebbi State and elsewhere, abducting schoolchildren and putting fear into them and their parents. They also attacked a church in Kwara and killed two worshippers while abducting 38 others. For citizens of these areas, life no longer has meaning.
It also has no meaning for residents of Makoko in Lagos and other displaced citizens of Nigeria. These people may have wished that they are not Nigerians. The Lagos State Government demolished their properties with military fiat. No sympathy, no compensation, and no alternative accommodation. Their children’s education was halted. Traumatized residents embarked on a protest in Ikeja recently. They wanted the House of Assembly members to hear their plight and see if there would be any succour for them. The police clamped down on them, arrested and detained some and wounded others.
Possibly, these displaced Makoko residents have joined the estimated 139 million Nigerians who lived below the poverty line in 2025. PwC projected recently that at least 141 million Nigerians, representing 62 per cent of the population, might become poorer by December 2026.
Even those seen to be earning salary can hardly afford basic things of life. Immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, lamented last year that no fewer than 239 first-class graduates of UNILAG employed as lecturers quit the institution within seven years due to poor pay.
About 7.2 million Micro and Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) closed down between 2023 and 2024, according to the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG). The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) estimated that about 767 manufacturing companies shut down operations while 335 experienced distress in 2023.
On sighting President Bola Tinubu’s convoy on Lagos Island in December 2023, some Lagos residents shouted: “Ebi n pawa o!” (We are hungry o!) In 2024, there were hunger protests in different parts of the country. Between then and now, has the President shown that he heard the cry of his citizens? Not so.
Rather, what we see in many places is the proclivity for ostentatious display of ill-gotten wealth by politicians. They have not relented in acquiring state of the art vehicles, houses, and other properties. Our President junkets to different parts of the world in the name of looking for business and investors. He falls and stumbles in some countries just like our national grid that collapses every now and then.
For those who still manage to eke out a living in different sectors, nothing is sacrosanct. One’s business could be shut down with one government policy or the order. Traders at Onitsha Main Market woke up on Monday, January 26, 2026 to hear that their market has been shut down for one week. They used to close their shops on Mondays in obedience to the sit-at-home directive originally given by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). IPOB has since called off the exercise, but some people, either of out of fear or out of protest against the jailing of Nnamdi Kanu, have continued to observe the Monday sit-at-home order.
The Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, felt it was sabotage against the economy of the state. He had directed that the sit-at-home exercise should stop and that traders should open their shops on Mondays. The state reportedly loses about N8billion every week while the entire South-East loses about N19.6 billion to the sit-at-home. For flouting his order, the governor shut down the market.
Unfortunately, breadwinners who trade at the market had to spend their savings to feed their families for the one week that the closure order lasted. If they mess up by still not adhering to the governor’s directive to open their shops on Mondays, they risk losing their means of livelihood as the governor threatened to either send bulldozers to bring down the place or revoke their ownership of the shops.
Harassed and traumatized at home by poverty and some other ills of the Nigerian society, many of our compatriots were forced to search for greener pastures in foreign lands. Doctors, nurses, artisans and sundry other professionals have sought refuge abroad just to escape the existential problems at home. Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Switzerland and many other European countries are destination points for these migrants. I know someone who has just got Oman’s visa. He is currently looking for money to get his flight ticket. Once he gets that, he leaves the country.
Unfortunately, things are not rosy for many Diaspora Nigerians as thought. A lot of them face the dilemma of whether to return home or to stay abroad where they are treated as second class citizens.
Look at what President Donald Trump and his Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are doing in the United States. The harassment is becoming unbearable for many migrants, including Nigerians. As Saturday Punch reported last Saturday, January 31, 2026, many Nigerians have stopped going to work. They fear they could be arrested and have gone into hiding. Some now contemplate returning home.
The brutality and killings by these ICE officers have sent shivers down the spine of many. On January 7, 2026, they killed a 37-year-old Renée Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Hardly had the noise about this action died down when they killed another 37-year-old intensive care nurse, Alex Pretti, in the same Minneapolis on January 24. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initially claimed that an officer yelled multiple times that he had a handgun before they shot him. It later became obvious that his licensed gun was in his waistband, under his coat and he never brought it out not to talk of threatening the officers with it. They just killed him like that.
Trump is a cantankerous fellow. He has caused a lot of problems in the world. Unless he leaves the White House, immigrants will always be on their toes. Such is life.
Buffeted by the vicissitudes of life, many Nigerians have committed suicide. Some have developed mental illness. Some others prefer to turn themselves into professional beggars. Whatever be the case, it is important to note that when there is life, there is hope. President Tinubu promised to renew the hope of Nigerians. That has become a tall dream. Nigeria’s general election comes up next year. Politicians are scheming and realigning. They will soon begin to bombard us with fresh promises. They will pledge to provide constant electricity; to build first-class hospitals that will stop medical tourism; to equip our schools and to wipe out terrorists and bandits from our shores within one month.
Can Nigerians for once vote according to their conscience? Can they de-emphasize money in their quest to elect their leaders? Can the National Assembly give us a clean and unambiguous Electoral Act that will make the vote of Nigerians to count?
We can turn the ugly situation of the country to something better if only we can change our mindset. Government should make way for job creation and increased investment in agriculture. It should provide sustained macroeconomic stability, social protection and security. Rather than lament everyday about the state of things in the country, Nigerians should resolve to liberate themselves by voting for competence, character and compassion in 2027.
