KIDNAPPING, BANDITRY AND GENERAL ACTS OF CRIMINALITY HAVE PUT NIGERIA ON A CANVASS OF BLOOD.

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Kidnapping, banditry and general acts of criminality have put Nigeria on a canvass of blood. But the Northern political elite may not be exactly concerned as outsiders are as long as they are personally safe and secure. The strange spirit spinning things out of control there is the same demon pushing them to politicise everything and ignore the security and well-being of their masses.*

*They are more interested in conjuring oil in the North, do deadly gold rushes and hold Federal power in perpetuity. Now, shall we pray for them to know that having oil, gold, the presidency, the security forces and the whole of the other two arms of government forever would not translate to success and peace for their region and their people?*

*The defence minister is from Zamfara, it is in turmoil. The National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Chief of Army Staff are from Borno which is the capital of terrorism in the subregion. These men have power and influence and money but they can’t help their homes. Years of power kidnap for Northern elite enjoyment birthed the grinding poverty and insecurity of today.   Using the same power to unleash billions of dollars to prospect for oil up North won’t end in praise and joy.*

That the North sees its deliverance in a frantic search for crude oil at a time the industrialized world is phasing out fossil-fuel powered vehicles should explain why the down would always remain on the floor.

Now, like Emperor Nero and Rome on fire, ‘they’ have revved up politics while the nation boils in the hands of bandits, terrorists and kidnappers.

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The Sultan of Sokoto was reported yesterday as expressing worries about the future of Nigeria. Given his position as the Caliph and his pedigree as a battle-tested general of the Nigerian Army, he should be worried. *We should all be worried too no matter the depth and I wish those in government share in these worries.*

If the last elections were about choosing another country, and not about electing a president, I am sure the turnout would have been above 90 per cent – not the miserable 30-something per cent which INEC recorded.

The country is in perpetual presence of malevolent forces. It is right here in the air. After the baleful staleness of Boko Haram, new bloody tasks have been invented. The reigning crimes in the country now are the noxious identical twins -kidnapping and banditry.  They are so democratized that even imperial governors and military generals feel very vulnerable. They now fight for space in dirty, creaky trains in Kaduna and Abuja. They feel mortally unsafe, very captive; they wail silently at the insecurity eating furiously into their comfort and privilege.

I do not think there has been a period darker than now in our national history. Not even the civil war gave as much hopelessness as these times. Nothing saddens elders as oracular verdicts of remedial voidness. There is no solution to the tragedy peering into Nigeria’s sad eyes.

President Muhammadu Buhari is probably the only Nigerian that is safe today. He is from Katsina State. But before his very eyes, the state has spinned out of control. There are reports of terrified persons working in that state during the day and crossing the border at dusk to sleep in Niger Republic. That is their local solution to kidnapping at night which has been their own dividend of democracy.

Nothing explains the frustration of the ordinary people with the Nigerian state than the fact that there is, today, a mad rush for bullet proof charms in that Sharia state. Nineteen persons died and 38 were injured in an accident some days ago on Funtua road. They were coming from a young man in Tsaunni village who has grown to be very popular selling protective charms against the bullets of bandits.

His state governor, Aminu Masari told the acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Muhammed Adamu last Thursday that “parts of Katsina State have been taken over by bandits and kidnappers. These bandits strike at will, maim at will, destroy lives and property at will.” The governor is personally qualified to speak on this Armageddon. He is a direct beneficiary of the deregulation of insecurity in the country. Governor Masari’s mother-in-law was kidnapped in her house in Katsina some weeks ago. Ransom was paid for her release.

From the northern North, words of exasperation, scarlet words on security and the wellness of the land keep pouring in: “We can’t travel to Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and parts of Taraba by road – not to mention Jos. You can’t travel to Lagos from Kaduna through Birnin Gwari. Travelers have to pass through Kogi State in prayer mode until they get to Akure,” a friend who lives there told me.