Insecurity is clearly getting beyond the capacity of our elected leaders to confront. While some state governors have settled for appeasement of the bandits, Fulani militants and terrorists in their domains, some have tried to tackle it with law making, as if that alone can solve the problem. Yet others have established and trained vigilante outfits which operate alongside the military, police and security agencies as joint task forces.
Governor Umar Bago of Niger State has now taken up the call issued by former Army Chief of Staff, retired Lt Gen Theophilus Danjuma, for Nigerians to pick up arms and defend themselves, as the military, whom he accused of collusion, cannot defend them.
The Governor visited communities in Rijau Local Government Area, which were recently attacked by “bandits”, and told the people to prepare to defend themselves, as the government does not have the money to pay ransom for abducted persons.
“The state has reached a point where the people must stand up and defend themselves because ransom will only turn kidnapping into a thriving business,” he told them. “I will not negotiate with bandits. I will not pay ransom…the situation has reached a state of war that requires collective resistance”.
Governor Shehu Sani of Kaduna State is among those who believe in negotiations and settlements “to save lives”, as he put it. But, as Governor Bago rightly observed, each time these negotiations take place and money exchanges hands, it only yields brief peace of the graveyard while the criminals arm up, recruit more gunmen and return, bigger.
However, much as the call for self-defence sounds “good”, we must approach it with great caution. In the first place, is this call by a governor not an abdication of his constitutional mandate to defend the people? Is this not admission of failure by the Chief Security Officer of Niger State and agencies charged with securing the territorial integrity of Nigeria and protecting its citizens? Where are our military, police and security forces?
Asking people to defend themselves is exposing civilians to bush-dwelling hardened fighters armed to the teeth with military-grade assault weapons. The law does not allow any Nigerian to own or operate the kind of weaponry required to confront the terrorists.
On this issue, we have for long advocated for the inclusion of the citizens as part and parcel of an effective security architecture to reclaim Nigeria from insecurity. We were excited when President Bola Tinubu promised to set up a 130,000-strong Armed Forest Guard, AFG, to secure our 1,129 forest reserves which are currently occupied by this motley of bandits and terrorists. We have not heard anything more about this since it was mooted in May 2025.
Civilians should not be turned into cannon fodder for terrorists.
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