Who will save the north?

Northern Nigeria comprises 19 states. Politically, the region produced the one and the only Prime Minister in the country, three democratically elected presidents and four military heads of state. Agriculture and commerce are the major economic activities in the region. Before the discovery of oil, infrastructural development in the region was financed through revenue that had accrued from agriculture. It was so peaceful a region that became a melting pot of different cultures.

This hitherto peaceful region is currently embroiled in a wave of insurgency and banditry which are seriously taking toll on the economic, political and educational development of the area. The security challenge in Northern Nigeria didn’t start overnight. Boko Haram that started in 2002 as a ragtag organisation has morphed into an international terror group capable of attacking military barracks and formations. Similarly, the banditry started as cattle rustling with the criminals attacking villages and stealing cows of their fellow fulanis in some parts of Sokoto and Zamfara states. Today, they have acquired enough experience in their heinous act and transformed into a recalcitrant kidnapping syndicate that operates across all the states in the Northwest.  Failure of government and community leaders to nip the problem in the bud resulted in the current monster threatening to consume us all.

The activities of kidnappers and insurgents have negatively affected the economy of the region. Farmers have been coerced to abandon their farmlands in various parts of Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Borno states due to fear of being kidnapped or killed. In some places, the farmers have to pay as high as 800,000 to 900,000 naira as tax to bandits in order to access their farms.   Additionally, insurgency in Northeast has brought agricultural activities to its knees in Borno State and it environs. Farming is not only a source of food to the people of the rural areas affected by insecurity   but also a means of livelihood. Therefore, the decline in agricultural produce translates into less revenue accruing to the affected households which ultimately push more people to live below poverty line.

With insecurity tightening its grip on the jugular veins of Northern Nigeria, we need no rocket to know that the country is heading towards a food crisis unless the tide is changed.

The security situation in Northern Nigeria is getting out of control at the time when the occupants of highest echelons in the country’s security organisations are northerners. The president is also a northerner. The big question now is who will save the north?

Abdullahi Sadiq Mohammed.