Northern Nigeria: A No Go Zone for Life and Livelihood? A Wake-Up Call to Tinubu’s Leadership

DDNews Editorial
By Ogungbayi Adeyemi Beedee
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Is Northern Nigeria safe today for Nigerians to conduct business or live a free life? The brutal truth, etched in the blood of over 2,266 lives lost to bandits and insurgents in the first half of 2025 alone more than the entire previous year screams a resounding no. From the sun-baked markets of Zamfara to the dusty classrooms of Kebbi, the North has become a gauntlet of terror, where entrepreneurs shutter shops not from market forces but from fear of midnight raids, and families huddle in homes turned fortresses. This is no abstract statistic; it’s a daily dirge of displaced dreams, where farmers abandon fields to bandits’ “taxes,” and traders navigate highways haunted by kidnapping gangs. The U.S. State Department labels it a Level 3 “Reconsider Travel” zone, but for millions of Nigerians, it’s simply uninhabitable a vast swath where freedom is a luxury afforded only to the armed.

The toll on education and commerce is apocalyptic. At least six northern states Kebbi, Katsina, Niger, Plateau, Taraba, and Kwara have slammed shut schools, hostels, and even universities in a desperate bid to shield the innocent from the abductors’ grasp. The federal government, in panic, has shuttered 47 Unity Schools nationwide, a domino effect from the November 21 massacre at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Niger State, where 303 children and 12 teachers were yanked from dorms echoing the 25 girls snatched from Kebbi’s Government Girls’ School just days prior. Businesses fare no better: Insecurity has forced countless enterprises to fold in states like Zamfara, Kaduna, and Sokoto, with markets in the Northwest grinding to a halt amid cattle rustling, extortion, and raids that displace thousands weekly. The ripple? A humanitarian catastrophe: Over 33 million face acute food insecurity in 2025’s lean season, a 32% surge from last year, as bandits choke agriculture and insurgents torch villages. These shutdowns aren’t mere pauses; they’re indictments of a state that has ceded territory to terror, turning the North into an economic graveyard.

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And the southern states? The contagion creeps southward, with kidnappings spiking in Ogun and Ekiti, and herder-farmer clashes igniting in Benue and Delta. No longer a northern plague, this hydra of violence devours the nation whole, with 1,923 civilian attacks claiming over 3,000 lives this year alone. Even our guardians fall: Over 17 soldiers slain in Kaduna and Niger, 40 Civilian Joint Task Force members in Zamfara, and Brigadier-General M.A. Uba beheaded by ISWAP in Borno a general, mind you, in Africa’s vaunted third-strongest military. Schools attacked daily, police and soldiers ambushed weekly it’s a symphony of slaughter, with politicians as the indifferent conductors, sweeping crises under the carpet for the cheap politics of 2027 ambition.

Is this politically motivated? The shadows suggest yes. As former Army Chief Tukur Buratai warns, insecurity is “essentially political,” birthed by elites who exploit chaos to distract from graft and governance failures. Bandits receive amnesties while agitators like IPOB are branded terrorists; Fulani militias evade the jihadist label amid “herder-farmer clashes” that mask ethnic cleansing. Political godfathers arm thugs for electoral muscle, security votes vanish into patronage pits, and protests against hardship are branded “regime change plots.” Even the Kura church victims 38 worshippers freed yesterday from Kwara’s Christ Apostolic Church after a N100 million-per-head ransom demand deserve no celebration while hundreds of children rot in bandit lairs. One rescue is a flicker; the inferno of 857 abductions this half-year demands a reckoning.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s leadership must rise to the task or fall to history’s judgment. Nigeria cannot afford partisan politics when citizens’ lives hang by threads of neglect. This is a clarion call: Shelve the 2027 horse-trading; prioritize the people’s pulse.

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The way forward demands audacity beyond airstrikes and amnesties that breed more monsters. First, overhaul security: Enact state police with constitutional teeth, not leashes; fortify a National Forest Guard to reclaim bandit enclaves; and fuse intelligence with community rangers, not senatorial spies. Zero-tolerance for elite misuse: Prosecute governors deploying forces for land grabs or rallies; publish VIP protection rosters quarterly. Redirect election war chests to a ring-fenced Security Trust Fund, overseen by retired generals and civil society not politicians.

Address roots, not symptoms: Tackle poverty fueling recruitment 45% in the Northwest with job schemes and equitable resource sharing. Mediate herder-farmer wars through land reforms and climate-resilient grazing corridors. Expand deradicalization like Operation Safe Corridor, but tie it to genuine reintegration, not ideological blind spots. Shun foreign saber-rattling Trump’s threats risk escalation without cure and reclaim sovereignty via accountability: Court-martial failed commanders, recall derelict leaders.

Nigerians, demand this non-partisan pact. Tinubu, heed the graves of generals and the cries of captives: Secure the North, salvage the nation. 2027’s ballots mean nothing on bandit-riddled roads. Act now or etch failure in eternity’s ledger. The republic’s soul awaits revival, not rhetoric.