Politics
The week in 40 photos
July 19, 2024
May 6, 2025
Written by Evans Momodu, published 16: 20
It is undeniable that Nigeria operates under a de facto two-party system, where the more dominant party wields significant power, often undermining the opposition until a single, prevailing party effectively controls the political landscape. However, it is both disheartening and troubling that the entities involved are not traditional political parties, but rather religious factions—namely Christianity and Islam, further divided along ethnic lines.
The former group is primarily composed of educated elites. In contrast, the latter is led by highly educated oligarchs who command a following of semi-literates and illiterates, bolstered by a significant number of religious scholars who vehemently oppose Western education. Accordingly, Magbadelo (2004) and Marshall (2009) note that both traditional and Pentecostal Christians united to confront a common adversary, thereby strengthening the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in their challenge against what they perceive as an 'Islamic oligarchy’.
The term "Islamic oligarchy" refers to a form of governance characterised by the dominance of a small number of influential individuals. Magbadelo et al. clarify that Nigeria has long been a battleground defined by religious tensions intertwined with political strife. This ideological conflict predates the nation’s independence, as evidenced by the 1953 conference during which Chief Anthony Enahoro proposed a motion for independence that was dismissed by northern delegates.
Consequently, this paper aims to explore and analyse the ethno-religious political dynamics of the conflicting parties in this ongoing struggle, to identify pathways toward peace. It is equally important to emphasize the necessity of purging our political systems of religious biases and ethnic divisions, which are vital to the processes of nation-building and recovery.
Today, the political landscape and democratic process in Nigeria are significantly undermined by deliberate tribalism, aggressive ethnicity, and religious extremism. As a result, many voters base their decisions on tribal, ethnic, and religious affiliations, leading to the election of leaders who prioritise their particular ethnic or religious agendas in governance.
An electorate operating with such narrow and sentimental reasoning will inevitably produce leaders who exchange excellence for mediocrity, expertise for favouritism, and objectivity for religious bias.
This paper aims to remind the masses, who constitute more than two-thirds of the electorate, that our thoughts and actions are powerful instruments that shape the destiny of our nation. Furthermore, our leaders, who emerge from a voting system marred by tribalism and religious sentiments, must learn to transcend these ideological divides if we are to achieve meaningful national growth across all sectors of administration.
In his paper, “Writing Violence: Problematising Nationhood in Wole Soyinka’s A Shuttle in the Crypt,” Niyi Akingbe espouses the artificiality of the Nigerian federal state which reflects in the narrative of ethnic differences mediated by the 1966 political crisis which of course, led to the destruction of social and political equilibrium and metamorphosed into the civil war.
It is no longer news that the problem of a multicultural Nigeria is rooted in the amalgamation of the south and the north in 1914. Peoples, totally different in cultures, belief systems, practices, political structures and more importantly, religious sentiments, were brought under one political backdrop, falsely and forcefully nurtured to adulthood and eventually handed a permit to pilot their affairs in 1960.
Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the North, called the marriage of the various regions into a whole ‘the mistake of 1914’, which he feared might lead to unrest that would lead to the bloodshed that has been institutionalised in our dear country today.
During the centenary celebration of Nigeria’s amalgamation in 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan addressed the country as captured below by the NewAfrican:
The British colonial authorities amalgamated the southern and northern protectorates, giving birth to a single entity called Nigeria, which has become our home, our hope, our heritage… We are a unique country. We have been brought together in a union like no other by providence…the world awaits this African success story. With our sheer size, population, history, resilience, human and natural resources, and economic potential, Nigeria is divinely ordained to lead the African renaissance.
Those are the words of a president who did not just speak because he had to give a speech, but genuinely believed in the strength and beauty of a country bound geographically in a diverse, multicultural expression that seeks the limelight in a competitive front. A few other well-meaning Nigerians share the opinion of the former President that Nigeria’s multicultural nature has more pros than cons. In a telephone interview with Dr Felix Emoruwa, he revealed that multiculturalism in Nigeria is a phenomenon that contributes to the greatness of Nigeria and her reputation on the international frontiers.
Femi Akomolafe, writing for NewsAfrican Publication, noted that following GEJ’s address, he received applause. However, Akomolafe pointed out that “Nigerians would prefer their officials to focus more on solving the country’s numerous problems rather than celebrating a union that has caused more harm than good.”
The Guardian Newspaper of March 11th 2019, captured an article titled The Rise of Tribalism and Religious Sentiments in Nigeria by Hassan Zainab, where she hammered that:
We are stuck in a nation where election processes have become a religious and tribalistic affair. Yes! We have a high number of illiterates in Nigeria, but at the same time, we also have quite a number of literates. Yet, it seems to me as though the so-called “literates” have joined the ignorant wagon and are seen to act irrationally in the aspect of voting, as the majority now vote based on religion and tribe rather than competence
Zainab laments that even literacy, with all its exposure and detoxification of the mind from stereotyping and conservatism, does not stop religious fanaticism from burrowing into choices based on competence.
Thus, as a result of the constant interference of religion and ethnicity in national decisions, the heterogeneous nature of Nigeria that is supposed to be a hub for beauty and strength in unity now tilts towards more pain than pleasure with the misdeeds of political fathers building strong angst that continue to reverberate on Nigeria’s political space.
Islam crept into Nigeria much earlier than Christianity did as early as the 15th century, and pitched its tent in the north eastern parts, rooted in the Yobe, Borno and Chad regions, from where it fanned out to other parts like a wild fire. It spread faster than a virus because of the enabling environment it found in the northern part of Nigeria for its propagation—the language of the Hausa-Fulanis and their way of life, especially their mode of dressing, were very receptive to Islam. From when Prophet Mohammed got the divine inspiration that birthed Islam, his method of propagation had been to convert the rulers, who would then convert their subjects, and this paid off greatly. Where it was rejected, factions would build up to challenge the religion, which led to the wars that Prophet Mohammed fought in his quest to enforce Islam until Mecca was institutionalised.
Similarly, the same pattern was adopted by Muslim faithfuls in Nigeria, not just to spread Islam but to take control of the governance. David Cook traces the institutionalisation of Islam in Nigeria very aptly as captured below:
…for some 800 years, powerful sultanates centred around the Hausa cities close to Kano and the sultanate of Borno (roughly the region of the states of Borno and Yobe together with parts of Chad) constituted high Muslim civilisations. These sultanates were challenged by the jihad of Shehu Usuman Dan Fodio (that lasted from 1802-1812), who created a unified caliphate stretching across northern Nigeria into the neighbouring countries. Dan Fodio’s legacy of jihad is one that is seen as normative by most northern Nigerian Muslims. The caliphate, still ruled by his descendants (together with numerous smaller sultanates), however, was conquered by the British in 1905, and in 1960, Muslim northern Nigeria was federated with largely Christian southern Nigeria.
Cook’s final statement is crucial for dissecting the ongoing political turmoil that will persist in the country until a religious and ethnic truce is established. Two ideologically different groups of people, culturally opposite, religiously antagonistic and educationally parallel, were dragged like warring rams to lock horns while trying to drink from the same bucket at the same time. These two parallel lines were made to sign up for what we call the Republic of Nigeria today, and since then, Nigeria has tottered from one political crisis to another.
Certainly, they will continue to lock horns because one wouldn’t wait for the other. The North wants to hold tenaciously to power as her birthright right while the South insists that she too, must rule. Little wonder that Nigeria recorded its first military coup in the wee hours of January 15th, 1966, led by young officers from the southeastern part of the country. Maybe the political frontiers wouldn’t have been steaming with the thirst for retribution if the Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Political and spiritual leaders of the Northerners, were not brutally murdered by these young southerners in the quest to seize power and restore normalcy in the political corridors.
Dr. Nowa Omoigui’s account of the 1966 counter coup captures Bernard Odogwu’s January 23 1966, entry in his personal notebook as follows:
With all the returns in, we now seem to have a complete picture of the coup, the plotters, and the casualties. Reading through the newspapers, one gets the impression that this national catastrophe, which is termed a “revolution”, is being blown greatly out of proportion. It does appear to me, though, that we have all gone wild with jubilation in welcoming the so-called ‘dawn of a new era’ without pausing to consider the possible chain reactions that may soon follow.
Yes, the southerners called it a revolution that was believed to have wiped off the corrupt politicians who guided the baby country to the edge of the cliff. But the then Diplomat and Chief of Biafran intelligence was more concerned with the consequences of such actions. As the African adage goes, ‘you do not throw away the baby along with the bathwater.’ Yes, there was a need for a revolution, but not the type that would change the trajectory of an infant country from the wreck of corruption to a conflagration that would fan the flames of a civil war.
This must be what Odogwu had in mind when he continued his entry: “...I shudder at the possible aftermath of this folly committed by our boys in khaki; and what has kept coming to my mind since the afternoon is the passage in Shakespeare’s MACBETH - ‘And they say blood will have blood’.”
The phrase “blood will have blood" is a line from Shakespeare's Macbeth and is reminiscent of a similar theme in Ola Rotimi's Ovonramwen Nogbaisi. In this play, Ovonramwen sends his war chiefs to investigate the presence of foreign invaders in the Benin Kingdom at a forbidden time. He is devastated when his chiefs return with the heads of seven white men. Slowly, he girds himself as he replies to his chiefs, “Benin, I fear, has this day swallowed a long pestle. Now we must sleep standing upright.”
Unfortunately, our South-easterners, headed by Aguiyi Ironsi, took no caution as Ola Rotimi’s adage above and Shakespeare’s MACBETH lines warn.
Certainly, the Ibo man did not think there was a need for any defence; hence, the ground was set for a counter coup that not only killed many innocent Ibo soldiers but also plunged the country, whose unity was already shaking, into a civil war that lasted for three whole years.
From July 1966 to May 2010, Nigeria had 13 rulers, 4 of whom were Christians, while 9 were Muslims (all northerners). Of the 4 Christians, 1 was from the north, while the other two were from the southwest and the last one was from the south-south. It is therefore surprising that, when Boko Haram—a jihadist group that David Cook describes as "the popular title for a group that calls itself Jama'at ahl al-sunna li-da'wa wa-l-qital"—rose to prominence in 2010 and 2011, one of its demands was for the then-president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, to convert to Islam.
Timothy Njoku, in his article titled Christians and Muslims in Nigeria submits that “The Fulani have been the principal actors in Islamic religion in Nigeria…They have, since the 17th century, masterminded every religious revolution that sacked the existing social, economic and political order in West Africa”. Njoku, in his article, traces the introduction of Islam in Nigeria by the Fulanis, who quickly spread it to their Hausa neighbours. He added that
They are the most numerous nomadic group in the world. Their acceptance of Islam and propagation of it, from their early contacts with the Berbers in Futa Jalon of West Africa, has raised their social status. Through Islamic education, especially in Timbuktu, the ancient city of Islamic learning in West Africa, the Fulani became an aristocratic group to be reckoned with in the shaping of West African religious history.
Just as the aboriginal Islamists had fought to convert and capture rulers to control the socio-economic and political landscape of the territories they occupied, the Hausa-Fulanis in Nigeria have been fighting tenaciously to ensure that the North holds on to the political wheels of the nation. Since the brutal murder of Sir Ahmadu Bello and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, they have not only massacred the south easterners in the counter coup and the civil war respectively as payback but also, they wish to stay in power and possibly ensure that the government that runs the affairs of the country is peopled by northerners or at least, Muslims. Recall that also part of the demands of the militant group—Boko Haram is that Nigeria be Islamised—thus, it became worrisome that former president Muhammadu Buhari went ahead, against the opinions of many Nigerians, to register the country with an Islamic Sect in Saudi Arabia.
In March 2016, Premium Times in an article reported that “The decision to join the Islamic coalition also goes against the calls by many Nigerians who asked that the country not join the coalition. The Christian Association of Nigeria had in December cautioned against joining the 34-member coalition, called ISMAT.
According to the Vanguard news, Rev. Musa Asake, the general secretary of CAN, observed that:
This singular gesture of the Buhari government betrays so much, and tends to confirm our fears that underneath everything this government is doing, there is an agenda with strong Islamic undertones, aimed at undermining Nigeria’s pluralistic character and neutrality regarding the government’s affiliation to any one religion.”
The Vanguard reported that “the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Kukah, in a Christmas message, accused President Muhammadu Buhari of nepotism.” He also accused the former president of northern hegemony, saying there could have been a coup if a non-northern Muslim president practised a fraction of what he did. This is the supreme northern oligarchy Timothy Njokwu speaks of above. The bold submission by the cleric sparked reactions all around the country that immediately put him in the limelight of danger of mob action or assassination. Part of the reactions was that he should resign his position effective immediately, but for the interference of the likes of the Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka and the former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode.
Muhammadu Buhari eventually won the ticket to serve as Nigerian president in the fourth republic by unseating an incumbent president for the first time in Nigeria’s political history after losing three elections. The United States Institute for Peace described it as one of the freest elections in the history of Nigeria, according to reports of observers from the international community.
Undoubtedly, both the local and international communities were happy with the victory and so, in the quest to celebrate his tumultuous victory, at least three northerners trekked from Gombe, Yola and Lagos respectively to celebrate the new president. These individuals spent 18, 20 and 35 days, respectively, on the journey, sleeping anywhere night fell amidst the insecurity that ravaged the country. Little wonder that Governor Matawalle of Zamfara state did not find it a worthy venture when another young man embarked on a journey to celebrate his victory. In his X(formerly Twitter) handle, he expressed his thought:
I appreciate the solidarity of the courageous young man said to have embarked on the long trek to honour me. As a father, I want to discourage young people from such dangerous adventures, I sincerely hope he discontinues the trek and channels his energy into a more productive activity.
As disparaging and demoralising as it would have been to the young man, it remains the truth that many Nigerians fail daily to tell themselves. Many Nigerian leaders forget that their mandates are constitutional, and therefore, they cannot operate outside the confines of the constitution. Unfortunately, they are so overwhelmed by their religious sentiments that they act as though they are leading the people within the context of religious laws.
On November 8th, 2020, Mustapha Usman of Daily Nigerian reported that “the operatives of Hisbah led by the Deputy Governor, Kano State, Nasiru Gawuna, have destroyed 1,975,000 bottles of beer, worth two hundred million naira.” The report further read that the accumulated bottles of beer were confiscated in several operations within the Kano metropolis. The Daily Nigerian added that “…during the destruction exercise held at Kalebawa village in Dawakin Tofa Local government area, Mr Gawuna, who represented the governor at the event, said consumption of alcohol and all other intoxicants is forbidden in Islam.”
This means that businesses of well-meaning Nigerian citizens within the borders of Kano State, Nigeria, were destroyed because the Islamic religion forbids alcohol. Pain, hunger and possibly death will be the lot of the owners of these businesses worth two hundred million naira destroyed in one day just because our leaders have decided to replace governance and the polity with religious extremism.
Still on religious fanaticism, the Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru El-Rufai, ordered the demolition of a building alleged to have been an agreed venue for an allegedly proposed sex party. No court ruling proved Aisha Yakubu, the owner of the building, guilty of such an attempted criminal act due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Yet on the ground of religious distaste, disgust and zero tolerance for any form of obscenity, the Governor El-Rufai became the judge, jury and executioner by ordering the demolition of the Asher Kings and Queens Restaurant in Sabon Tasha area of Chikun local government area, Kaduna.
All that had to be done was to arrest the would-be perpetrators or organisers of the purported sex party and their accomplices and bring them to book, even though the party was eventually cancelled and never held. It becomes difficult to decipher the reason for such a wanton decision by the Kaduna state government over a crime that never happened. Bulldozing the building down after several arrests had been made is like killing a fly with a hammer for an offence that was never committed.
When over 200 Chibok girls were kidnapped and carted away by the Boko Haram sect under the watch of President Jonathan in 2014, the same Kaduna state governor accused the president of not initiating negotiations alongside military action because his child or a child of important people wasn’t one of the victims. This statement was captured by the media then and replayed for him to hear when kidnapping with ransom payment was institutionalised in the Buhari administration following his open lashing of the GEJ administration in 2014.
Today, kidnapping has evolved into a highly profitable enterprise, frequently leading to the deaths of victims even after ransom payments are made. This leaves many survivors struggling to regain their sense of stability and sanity. This troubling trend can be linked to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, who, despite previously rejecting ransom payments and making disparaging remarks about the then non-Muslim president from the South, ultimately decided to pay ransoms in a similar case. This payment was made to secure the release of students kidnapped from the College of Forestry in Kaduna and Greenfield Private University, all of which occurred under his watch.
While the country is still lamenting the terrorism and insurgency often embellished with kidnapping that have crippled the nation and killing millions for over a decade now, Fulani herdsmen, armed to the teeth, joined the war and taking it directly to the south under the cloak of open grazing. Just as ferocious as their Boko haram counterpart, this group brings raw carnage to the very doorsteps of southerners and northerners alike, leaving behind death and destruction of lives and properties.
With such banditry on the rise and constant movement, each state in the south started taking concise actions to administer security checks on the activities of herdsmen. The former Ondo state governor, who already had herdsmen settled in the state, ordered them out of the forest reserves with a seven-day ultimatum. As expected, the presidency reacted against the move through the senior special assistant on media and publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, who told the Ondo state government to tread with caution and dialogue with the Fulani communities.
To add to it, the leader of the Miyetti Allah Vigilante group, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, declared that the Fulanis own all the lands in Nigeria and, as such, no power can remove them from the Ondo forest reserve. There is no doubt that ethnic hegemony displayed by the Buhari administration was responsible for such reaction that advised that such brutal mercenaries that bring nothing but robbery, kidnapping and death to defenceless indigenes be addressed with kid gloves.
The sentiment and ethnic impartiality exhibited by the Buhari administration intensified following the assumption of power by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Deputy, Kashim Shettima, who campaigned on a Muslim-Muslim ticket. This shift not only perpetuated the pattern of sponsoring select Muslim faithful for the Hajj using taxpayer funds, but it also emboldened the activities of violent herdsmen, who increasingly spread their influence into the southern regions of the country.
In March 2025, 16 hunters travelling from Rivers State to Kano to celebrate Eid with their families were attacked and killed by vigilante groups in Uromi, Edo State. The vigilante group claimed that the victims were Fulani herdsmen who repeatedly attacked their farms, bringing violence and chaos with them. This act of jungle justice sent shockwaves throughout the country, raising fears among political leaders about a potential civil war.
In response, the Governor of Edo State quickly sought to mitigate the situation by visiting the Governor of Kano State to condemn the killings and collaborate on an investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice. While this initiative to investigate and prevent further bloodshed is commendable, the blame for the killings ultimately lies with the federal government, which has failed in its duty to protect the citizens it vowed to safeguard.
Killer herdsmen and Boko Haram have taken over numerous communities in the north under the leadership of President Tinubu and his predecessor, and this trend continues to escalate. To stop herders from encroaching on people's lands and farms, grazing indiscriminately, and perpetrating violence against any community that opposes them, many vigilante groups have resorted to acts of jungle justice. Unfortunately, jungle justice will only lead to reprisal attacks that will plunge the nation into civil war. So what options are left to be explored regarding herdsmen and grazing?
PM News notes that Hon. Justice Adewale Thompson’s 1969 judgement on open cattle grazing- Suit no AB/26/66 at Abeokuta Division of the High Court on 17th April, 1969 provides a clear direction below:
I do not accept the contention of the defendants that a custom exists which imposes an obligation on the owner of a farm to fence his farm whilst the owner of cattle allows his cattle to wander like pests and cause damage. Such a custom, if it exists, is unreasonable and I hold that it is repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience and therefore unenforceable…in that it is highly unreasonable to impose the burden of fencing a farm on the farmer without the corresponding obligation on the cattle owner to fence his cattle… In sequence to that, I banned open grazing for it is inimical to peace and tranquillity and cattle owners must fence or ranch their animals for peace to reign in these communities
The Ondo state government, which also grappled with herdsmen troubles with the federal government discussed above, was probably not aware of the above adjudication or would have taken a more decisive action against the itinerant trespassers. Instead, the Ondo state government replied through her commissioner for information that such an approach from the federal government is a brazen display of emotional attachments, which of course, is very inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria.
Premium Times further reported that the commissioner, Ojogo, lamented that “The question is, are the herdsmen who are perpetrating murder, kidnapping and robbery more important than government and even the Federal government in this case?” This is a question that was asked over 5 years ago, yet its answer continues to elude Nigerians even as we speak. The answer to the question is crucial to allaying the silent fears nursed by other ethnic groups. This is because the federal government seems to walk on eggshells by pampering criminals from the north. As Ojogo concludes, “ethnic nationality and activism on the part of anyone hiding under the presidency or federal government is an ill wind.”
It is no doubt an ill wind because such lapse to sentiments and partial judgement dished out to very serious issues is very poisonous to the tenets of equity, justice and national unity. Rumours have run underground for decades that it is those in leadership positions who sponsor terrorism in Nigeria. This rumour was confirmed by the Isa Pantamic pandemic that ravaged the Presidency, nay, Nigeria as a nation under President Buhari. This is so because Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, was discovered to have championed extremist ideals, which he did not deny.
According to BBC News, Isa Pantami “in one sermon from the 2000s said he considered al-Qaeda founder, Osama Bin Laden, a better Muslim than himself and in another, he said he was happy when infidels were massacred.”
When we refer to infidels, we mean Christians and other non-Muslims who do not adhere to Islamic beliefs. This presents a significant danger when extremists gain power and continue to influence decision-making. A Muslim who advocates for such ideologies in his second or third decade of life embodies the tide of violence that has plagued Nigeria, as well as the broader Sahel region, for many years.
Nduka Orjinmo of BBC News added that some documents appeared online from a 2010 meeting Pantami chaired at the Jama’atu Nasril Islam, a top Islamic body, where it was agreed that “Christians should be prohibited from building churches in city centres across northern Nigeria…”
If Pantami said he had changed, the question would be from what? Did he become a lover of infidels? Just like the case of the herders who kill and kidnap by whim, the presidency under Buhari, again, stood by such a fellow whose presence in governance represented the cancer that has eaten into Nigeria and set the nation on autopilot to doom.
Kemi Adeosun, the former minister of finance, still under President Buhari, was made to resign over forgery of her NYSC certificate to serve as a deterrent to others, while the presidency protected Pantami obviously because of ethnicity and religion.
Furthermore, during the endsars protest that crippled major cities in Nigeria in October 2020, the presidency’s unexpected disdainful silence and total disregard for the demands of agitating Nigerians led to adding Muhammadu Buhari’s resignation to the list. Immediately, Adamu Garba, the Chairman of IPI, who had been tweeting his opinion on the issue in English language quickly switched to Hausa to address fellow speakers, inciting them to fight against the demands of the End SARS protesters in the spirit of ethnic nationalism. It is elements with such ethnic consciousness, like Garba Adamu, that continue to oil the wheels of tribalism and ethnic nationality, thereby plunging the country deeper into religious and political turbulence.
Two principal clerics, Bishop Mathew Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese and Tunde Bakare of the Citadel Global Community Church, did not spare words in commenting on the fragility of the Nigerian political wellbeing.
The Punch Newspaper dated 5th April 2020 reports that the Catholic priest in a message titled ‘Nigeria: before our glory departs’ …” recalled that Buhari on May 29, 2015, during his inauguration said, Boko haram was a typical case of small fires causing large fires.” Unfortunately, these fires have not only grown into full-fledged conflagrations, but have continued to burn down more villages than before since a Muslim President from the north assumed the leadership of the country.
Kukah’s exposition, captured by the Punch, is very apt:
Sadly, human life is haemorrhaging so badly in Nigeria, but the greatest tragedy is the death of empathy from those in power. Mysteriously, the government is investing billions of naira in rehabilitating so-called Boko Haram repentant members and their other partners in crime in the belief that they want to turn a new leaf. These criminals have waged war against their country, murdered thousands of citizens, destroyed infrastructure, and rendered entire families permanently displaced and dislocated.
The absence of empathy among those in power, as the cleric accurately pointed out, is a significant factor in the ongoing nature of this ethno-religious conflict.
On April 24, 2021, Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President and spokesperson for the Presidency, made headlines in the Vanguard with his statement suggesting that people are reporting killings as though they had never occurred before. One might wonder if the increasing frequency of killings, banditry, kidnappings, and massacres in Nigeria over the past decade has led to a perception that such violence has become an accepted part of daily life.
Our soldiers are on the battle field dying daily to protect the country from the acidic activities of these terrorists and when they are arrested and taken into custody, our government cleans them up, forgives them for plaguing humanity and reabsorbs them into the society using several programs while the remnants of their victims scuttle for food in various IDP Camps. The terrorists get pardoned because they are northerners and fellow Muslims who only need to be corrected and guided in the way of true Islamic indoctrination. Thus, Kukah concludes that
When governments face legitimacy crises, they fall back on serving the sour broth of propaganda, half-truths and outright lies. They manufacture consent by creating imaginary enemies, setting citizens against one another by deploying religion, ethnicity, region, and other platforms while appealing to the base emotions of patriotism.
Emotions of ethnic and religious patriotism constitute the two-prong fork that bedevils governance in Nigeria. Nigeria already sits on the brink of a precipice and may explode into another civil war or a total breakdown if this trend in governance continues unchecked. According to the Punch, the General Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church and a former running mate of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2011 elections, Tunde Bakare recalled Buhari’s passion for fixing Nigeria against the backdrop of the socio-political landscape and lamented “I am compelled to speak out at this point because given the state of the nation, the legacy of President Muhammadu Buhari is in grave danger of being confined to an unsavoury side of history. I am indeed compelled to speak out because Nigeria is in a state of emergency.”
On banditry, kidnapping and robbery in the north, the cleric noted that if the government allows the attack and mutilation of farmers to continue, her agricultural program and upscaling of food supply will suffer a serious setback when farmers abandon their farms to save their heads. Bakare averred that the start-up kidnap industry secured funding and scaled from Dapchi to Kankara and from Kagara to Jangebe and elsewhere. “We have experienced the cycle of abduction of school children, alleged ransom payments sometimes in hundreds of millions of naira, the release of the abducted school children, the denial by the government of any ransom payment, followed by the next cycle of abduction. Nigerians are then left wondering which school will be next.” The cleric noted.
Similarly, we have heard of members of Boko haram raid and reduce towns and villages to rubble, carting away young girls and men to serve in their dens. Also, various news reports of herdsmen going into local communities and unleashing mayhem with their AK-47 weapons have made the headlines on countless occasions. Boko haram hoisted flags in certain communities and villages in Yobe and Niger state, captured fleeing men’s wives as theirs, killing scores. The question that will continue to pop up is, who or what community will be next?
According to NaijaTimes of April 28th, 2021, Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state, who has survived two attacks from the insurgents, lamented that the Presidency needs to be told the truth as the security crisis in the country continues to snowball. On the same 28th April, 2021, Joseph Wantu and Saxone Akhaine of TVC News reported that Benue state was thrown into mourning after seven IDPs were killed while scores were left injured by herdsmen. The then governor, Samuel Ortom, wept as he lamented that over seventy persons had been killed in the state capital by herdsmen in one week in Markurdi local government alone.
On April 9, 2025, Vanguard reported statements from the Governor of Plateau State, Calab Muftwang, who revealed that over 64 communities in the state had been overrun by bandits allegedly sponsored by external forces, leading to their occupation and the display of flags. “I can tell you in all honesty that I cannot find any explanation other than genocide sponsored by terrorists,” the Governor stated. “The question is, who are the persons behind the organisers of this terrorism? This is what the security agencies must help us to unravel.” The day we uncover the answer to that question will be the day Nigeria frees itself from the grip of terrorism.
A pressing question that often arises is, "When and how did we go astray?" We are certainly on the wrong path. However, when one strays from their course, the sensible approach is not to persist on that wrong path, but to return to the point of deviation and chart the right way forward. Under the Buhari administration, Nigeria seemed to be on autopilot, which some might refer to as a surrogate presidency. If the nation continues down this perilous route under this current dispensation, the prospect of national decline becomes inevitable.
Reverend Father Kukah’s words continue to echo: “They manufacture consent by creating imaginary enemies, setting citizens against one another by deploying religion, ethnicity, region, and other platforms while appealing to the base emotions of patriotism.” Until ethnicity, religion, regional hegemony, and appeal to emotions give way to objectivism, altru-collectivism, competence, meritocracy, true nationalism and oneness, Nigeria will remain in a state of motion estasis, which refers to movement without motion.
Osita Ezenwanebe’s Egg without Yolk espouses the movement without motion in the wheels of the Nigerian governing system quite aptly. Dozie and Mma, the central figures in the play, battle endlessly to conceive and birth their child to no avail. The barrenness that fills the worldview of the play is reminiscent of the unproductive nature of the socio-political systems that leave the citizenry grappling in a thick, gloomy darkness of poverty, unemployment, inflation, a mutilated economy, insecurity and its seeds of armed robbery, banditry, kidnappings, incessant killings and death. Daily, the economy is raped with impunity and abandoned to bleed to death at the detriment of the masses.
The Erudite professor Osita Ezenwanebe points at a political system without the blueprints of governance in her play. Consequently, religion, ethnic nationality and favouratism become institutionalised to serve as the standard operating procedures. Such governing systems hinged on ethnic bifurcation will certainly remain barren to ‘national infidels,’ a term that should not exist in the dictionary of governance in a multicultural state with more than one religious practice.
To move forward, our leaders at all levels must succumb to introspection—look deeply inwards to learn again how to live, what to live for and how to relate with a fellow Nigerian without appealing to the divides of religion and ethnicity. We must all understand that humanism does not antagonise religion, but provides an opportunity to practise the good pedagogy that religion preaches. Nationality and conscious effort towards nation-building should replace ethnic and religious divides.
More importantly, we must rise from the ashes of the tragedy that shattered national conscience and consciousness in 1966—a huge blow that fragmented the nation into several pieces that can only be knitted back together and healed up by a conscious and concerted effort. A deeper examination of the crisis that rocks Christians and Muslims in the north would reveal that it is actually between the descendants of the Igbo group that fractured Nigeria in 1966, and, of course, the Hausa counterparts. It is indeed a case of the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge. Other non-Igbos that get caught in the crossfire are merely a case of collateral damage.
Conclusively, we must set aside our differences and embrace forgiveness to prevent the ongoing impact of past grievances from perpetuating in our socio-political and economic spheres. The insights of Femi Akomolafe are particularly significant to our argument. He clearly states that the persistent crisis in Nigeria feels unresolvable because we lack love for one another. The moment we begin to practise a true religion of love is when this prolonged conflict will start to diminish.
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