Saturday Southerner  – Another View
Saturday, November 15, 2025

It is common knowledge that one of the campaign strategies deployed by the All Progressives Congress, APC in the 2015 general elections was the promise to tackle insecurity head-on. Nigerians bought into that promise with the belief that, having a former General of the Nigerian Army as President would be very decisive in tackling religious extremism in Nigeria.

Since 2015 till date, the rate of killings, destructions, displacements and other heinous crimes in the country have worsened in greater heights. The number of deaths caused by insurgents, terrorists, bandits, armed militias, herdsmen and kidnappers rose astronomically without the federal government and its security apparatuses acting responsibly to push back.

These terrorists have killed souls, destroyed homes and religious centres, kidnapped and demanded huge ransom, raped women, caused sorrows, shattered lives and derailed hopes mostly in the Northern parts of Nigeria.

Let us accept that there is no targeted genocide against Christians or Muslims in Nigeria, but there are mass killings going on, and crimes against humanity being perpetrated by criminal groups whether religious or not in Nigeria. That cannot be denied.

It is a confirmed fact that human beings, Nigerians, men and women, old and young, children even the unborn, pregnant mothers are killed in a very gruesome manner. And, very disappointingly the effects of the military under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appears very ineffective in eradicating these violent crimes that have wasted thousands of lives.

Courageously, because there seems to be no strong opposition from the federal government of Nigeria, these killers are gradually and systematically making ways into the South West by attacking Kwara state which shares common boundaries with some South West states. They are doing so because they have cheaply without any resistance conquered and captured the North and made a show of our military.

Nigeria today, has been described as a killing field where life is short and worthless. A country where human beings are slaughtered like chickens for Christmas celebrations. A place where the number of deaths and killers keeps rising without the government of the day making any frantic efforts at eliminating this ugly and dangerous trend.

The primary responsibility of any government is to protect lives and property of its citizens. But the Nigerian Government in the last ten to fifteen years has woefully failed its people. The Nigerian Government and its military and other security agencies appear to have been looking the other way, while her nationals are cheaply and gruesomely massacred.

Our President and Commander-in-Chief, Bola Ahmed Tinubu must realize he swore to an oath to protect Nigerians. He has to take up the challenge and rescue the country from the grip of these criminal gangs. If the unity, peace and progress of the country are cherished, Mr. President must do the needful. Let him step on toes if need be to save Nigeria from disintegration.

Nigeria must begin to toe the path of truth, patriotism, nation building and abandon the lines of greed and selfish interests, usually associated with most individuals who have found themselves in political offices.

Nigeria’s problem is not caused by climate change. It is not the land, water, but humans, especially our elites that have put us in the mess we find ourselves. We have failed to buckle up as a people and resolve some of our socio-economic and political challenges.

Countries all over the world pass through challenges but the difference between Nigeria and other countries of the world is that, these other countries have used the the ability to unite to solve their common problems. In those other countries, their leaders display patriotism above selfish interests.

In Nigeria, we approach every of our national issues with political, religious and ethnic considerations. This is the bane of our insecurity challenges today. No doubt, it has brought us to the point where Donald Trump has labeled Nigeria, ‘a disgrace”.

Since we have gathered the woods together, we have equally invited lizards and ants to make the place their home. It is because our leaders have failed to build a country that all manner of insults have been heaped on us. Our leaders, rather than build a country are busy amassing wealth.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Nigeria has been insulted by world leaders. A British Prime Minister once described Nigeria as “fantastically corrupt”. Nigeria cannot be respected by any country until we retrace our steps, organize and begin to do better. It is not late. President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope must begin to have human face. The Renewed Hope must tackle the dwindling economy squarely and tackle insecurity headlong.

President Tinubu must rise up to reorganize the country. He has to restore Nigeria before thinking of second term. Nigeria as it is, is disorganized and unorganized. Our society is lawless. People do things without recourse to the laid down principles and procedures. The elites, especially, go against the rules of the country with impunity.

For any country to make meaningful progress, her citizens must be disciplined and united irrespective of their social, economic, political, religious or traditional status. Nigeria is in this terrible mess because we lack discipline and do not adhere to our own rules. We pander so much to our ethnic and religious sentiments instead of embracing unity and sticking to the rules.

Tinubu must approach the country’s insecurity with boldness, courage and determination. He must realize that, it’s Nigeria first. He should not bow before these hoodlums killing his people and forcing the rest into becoming Internally Displaced People, IDP. He should put all his energy at wrestling perpetrators of these mass murders.

You can be angry with American President, Donald Trump but he has told us the plain and painful truth, that Nigeria is a disgrace. He has declared Nigeria, a Country of Particular Concern. He has not made any mistake. The proofs are enormous.

Any country with the kind of resources pumped into our military in the last fifteen years yet, still sleepwalking in the protection and defence of her citizens from these mindless killers can only be described and classified a disgraced country, a failed state demanding particular concern.

Nigeria is a country where the leaders don’t care about its citizens. For years these killers have intensified their efforts at shedding blood without our leadership rising to the occasion.

A country where billions are looted by public servants without fear, that country truly requires intensive care or state of emergency declared.

As I write, the evil attackers are in some parts of the North causing deaths, sorrows and pains. Yet, last week, we heard the newly appointed military chiefs issuing orders that have no value.

This is a battle our military can win squarely if allowed to operate without hiccups from any quarter. The President must first take the driver’s seat in this war against terrorism. He should take absolute control of the situation. He has to declare full blown war against these terrorists without any apology. He is the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

The President should hold meetings with all the military and para-military agencies in the country and issue them with stern directives. How do these murderous groups get their weapons? How are they financed? It is the full responsibility of the financial units of the Police, the EFCC, DSS, Military Intelligence and financial institutions to uncover and block the sources for the financial and arms flow.

They must identify sponsors of these criminals and pick them up for prosecution no matter how highly placed they may be. We cannot seek to fight terrorism and not want to touch the sponsors of these groups. We have heard names of some big politicians allegedly involved in establishing and watering these terror groups. The security agencies can do Nigeria a whole lot of good by arresting these sponsors and getting them tried.

It is never the place of the military to negotiate. They are definitely not trained in that aspect. The military are trained to fight with every arsenal available to defeat the enemy threatening the cooperate existence of their country. We must encourage the military to do its job. For the military to negotiate with terrorists won’t ever work and it has never worked.

The Presidency should direct the military to go all out for the terrorists until Nigeria is fully recovered from them.

The country’s political leaders have not been fair to her citizens. They have failed the people. In the last 15 years that the killings and destructions heightened, they have not tasked themselves on finding the root causes of the killings and battle them once and for all.

It is quite unfortunate that some of our retired but tested Generals are still alive yet, these criminals have brought hell to our country. What is the essence of having hundreds of Generals in and out of service and some ragtag militants have turned Nigeria into a killing field?

Today, Nigerians find it extremely difficult moving on our roads for fear of abductions and possible deaths in the hands of these terror groups who kill at will. It is time for Mr. President to invest resources in the lives of the ordinary people.

The economy is in tatters. He has opened plenty of inroads for the political leaders to acquire more wealth. He has given more than enough to our political office holders since resumption as the President while abandoning and impoverishing the commoners. Nigerians are suffering. There are hardship, sickness, hunger, poverty and untimely deaths everywhere. Are these Nigerians, the same people President Tinubu will seek for their votes in 2027?

President Tinubu should invite these retired and present Generals to holistically look at the present insecurity situation on ground and advise on the way forward. Let’s face it, Nigeria is marching to the precipice. We are close to the cliffhanger. Nigeria is sitting on a time bomb. The time is ticking faster for the country’s destruction than we ever imagined.

President Tinubu should immediately call on some very Senior religious leaders for a meeting and make them understand that the killings just got to stop. The country must be recovered from these vandals and they have to publicly distance their groups from these trigger happy touts.

Mr. President should without delay invite some leaders like Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, Alhaji Sulu Gambari, Gen. Ishola Williams, Cardinal Okogie, Bishops Kaigama, Lucius Ugorji, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Emir Lamido Sanusi and the Sultan of Sokoto to do the diplomatic relations with America and the rest of the world with the prime purpose of stopping the US from carrying out their threat.

But the Nigerian Government must show seriousness in its battle to stop the killings and chase away these criminals from the country. Nigeria’s economy is already in a terrible situation to withstand the effects of America’s possible sanction or embargo.

Nigerian Government must stop the illegal mining operations in some parts of the North. For years, there have been reports of the Chinese involved in the illegal mining of gold, tin, lithium and others in Zamfara, Jos, Nasarrawa, etc.

While the Chinese are carrying out their illegal activities, they have also callously, according to reports, supported the killings going on in some parts of the North as they don’t care about our pains, sorrows and deaths. Now is the time to act.