When the State Arms the Terrorist: How Nigeria’s Security Architecture Is Collapsing from the Inside

By Steven Kefas

On December 12, 2025, Nigerian security operatives arrested a group of armed Fulani militants in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. What followed should have triggered an immediate national security emergency.

In a video recorded during interrogation, one of the suspects calmly explained that the AK-47 rifles and patrol vehicle in their possession were supplied by officials of the Kwara State Government. According to him, they had been operating in the area “for a while” under the guise of patrol duties. “Ilorin government na him give us this motor and the weapons,” he said. “They were the ones that gave us the rifles.”

This was not the rambling of a cornered criminal improvising a story. Days later, the Kwara State Government itself issued a clarification confirming that the arrested armed men were members of Miyetti Allah, the Fulani socio-cultural organization, and that they were participating in a federal security operation coordinated through the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

In one stroke, Nigeria crossed a line that should alarm every serious observer of national security, human rights, and national stability: armed ethnic militia members linked to a group repeatedly accused of terrorism were officially embedded into state-backed “security operations.”

This is no longer about incompetence. It is about institutional collapse.

Vigilantes or Proxies?

Kwara State is not Fulani territory. It is a predominant Yoruba state, notwithstanding the historical emirate structure imposed during the 19th-century jihad of Usman dan Fodio. Over the past six months, Yoruba farming communities in Kwara have increasingly come under attack by Fulani terrorists.

Against this backdrop, a fundamental question arises: why are Fulani “vigilantes” deployed in Yorubaland to provide security for Yoruba communities while those same Fulani militias are widely implicated in the violence those communities are fleeing?

Where are the Yoruba vigilantes? Why are local populations excluded from securing their own communities, while an armed ethnic group with an established record of violent expansionism is empowered, armed, and legitimized by the state?

This is not community policing. It is demographic and security engineering.

A Pattern, Not an Incident

What happened in Kwara is not an isolated scandal. It fits a disturbing and well-documented pattern.

In January 2024, Miyetti Allah leader Bello Bodejo announced the formation of an armed Fulani militia of 1,144 fighters, euphemistically labeled a “vigilante group.” The launch ceremony took place in Lafia the Nasarawa State capital had among its invited guests the Governor of Nasarawa, Abdullahi Sule as special guest.

Nasarawa State has long been accused by survivors, journalists, and international monitors and even neighbouring state officials of hosting Fulani terrorist camps from which attacks against Plateau, Benue, Taraba Southern Kaduna, and other Middle Belt communities are launched.

When Bodejo was eventually arrested and charged with terrorism, his confessional statement reported by Punch newspaper in April 2024 contained an explosive allegation: he claimed that Governor Sule pressured him to form the militia group known as Kungiya Zaman Lafiya.

Bodejo was later released without trial.

The alleged architect of his release? Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

The 1,144 armed “vigilantes” subsequently disappeared into thin air. No disarmament. No accountability. No explanation.

From Appeasement to Empowerment

The Kwara arrests now place the Office of the National Security Adviser squarely at the center of another scandal involving armed Fulani operatives embedded in state-sanctioned security frameworks.

If confirmed, this represents a catastrophic breach of counterterrorism doctrine. No serious state fighting terrorism arms ethnic militias tied to insurgent violence. No professional security architecture outsources public safety to groups accused of mass atrocities. And no responsible National Security Adviser permits such an arrangement.

Yet this is precisely what Nigeria appears to be doing, repeatedly.

This pattern lends overwhelming credence to growing national and international calls for Nuhu Ribadu’s immediate removal as National Security Adviser. National security cannot be entrusted to an individual who repeatedly champions peace deals, protection, or legitimacy for armed groups responsible for spreading terror among citizens.

The Matawalle Question

The crisis deepens further with renewed allegations surrounding Bello Matawalle, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Defence.

In recent weeks, Matawalle has been implicated by his former aide in allegations of sponsoring key bandit leaders in Zamfara State. These claims resurrect older, widely circulated videos in which notorious bandit leader Bello Turji openly stated that Matawalle, then governor of Zamfara paid some bandits with public funds in the name of “peace.”

Turji is not a misunderstood local actor. He is a terror commander linked to the killing of hundreds, possibly thousands, of farmers across the North-West.

Matawalle denies wrongdoing, arguing that payments and negotiations were part of a peace strategy. But peace bought with impunity, cash, and legitimacy for terrorists is not peace, it is state-funded terror management.

When combined with the Kwara revelations, the allegations against Matawalle reinforce a chilling conclusion: Nigeria’s defence and security leadership is populated by individuals whose policies consistently reward, empower, and normalize terrorism.

This alone justifies Matawalle’s removal.

“Bombs Cannot Penetrate Forests”

Perhaps nothing illustrates the depth of rot more than the parting statement of Nigeria’s immediate past Defence Minister, Abubakar Badaru, who reportedly remarked during the week of his resignation that “bandits live in forests where bombs cannot penetrate.”

This is not merely false, it is professionally disqualifying.

Modern militaries conduct forest warfare across the globe. Nigeria’s armed forces have done so successfully outside Nigeria. The claim that bombs “cannot penetrate forests” is not a tactical assessment; it is an excuse, one that exposes a leadership class more interested in rationalizing failure than confronting terror.

Why the World Is Responding

In recent days, the United States announced visa restrictions affecting Nigerians. Predictably, outrage followed. Many Nigerians consider the decision unfair or excessive.

They are wrong.

The United States, like any rational state, has a duty to protect itself from countries where terrorism is being mainstreamed into governance structures. When armed ethnic militias tied to terror networks are armed by the state, embedded into official security operations, shielded from prosecution, and rewarded with political appointments, terrorism is no longer an aberration, it is policy-adjacent.

Visa restrictions are not punishment. They are self-defense.

Recommendations: What Must Be Done Immediately

If Nigeria wishes to arrest its rapid descent into international isolation and internal collapse, urgent action is required:

Nuhu Ribadu must resign or be removed as National Security Adviser. His continued tenure undermines confidence in Nigeria’s counterterrorism commitment and poses a grave risk to national cohesion.

Bello Matawalle must be relieved of his defence portfolio pending an independent investigation into allegations of terrorist sponsorship and appeasement.

Miyetti Allah-linked armed formations must be formally investigated for terrorism-related activities and barred from any security role.

Security appointments must prioritize professional competence over ethnic, religious or political proximity. National security is too serious to be managed through sentiment.

International partners must escalate targeted sanctions and visa restrictions against officials credibly linked to terror appeasement.

Conclusion: A State at a Crossroad

The arrest of armed Miyetti Allah operatives in Kwara State is not merely another scandal. It is a warning flare.

Nigeria now stands at a crossroad: continue mainstreaming terrorism through appeasement and ethnic favoritism, or reclaim the basic function of the state, protecting citizens without fear or favor.

The world is watching. And increasingly, it is acting.

Whether Nigeria chooses reform or further collapse will determine not just its security future, but its standing among nations that still believe terrorism must be confronted, not accommodated.

…Steven Kefas is an investigative journalist, Senior Research Analyst at the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa, and Publisher of Middle Belt Times. He has documented religious persecution, terrorism and forced displacement in Nigeria’s Middle Belt for over a decade.

WHY ARE THEY SO SCARED AT THE MENTION OF MIDDLE BELT?

By Col Gora Albehu Dauda Rtd
13 December 2025

They are feigning ignorance about the Middle Belt geographical space of Nigeria. Of course they know the Middle Belt, their pretences not withstanding. If they do not know where the Middle Belt is, then why are they always in a state of palpable fear at the very mention of the Middle Belt. One thing is very clear, the Middle Belt of Nigeria has existed in time and space and they know this to be true. The pretences aside, and their contrived blindness aside, WE shall help them register the Middle Belt of Nigeria in their brains.

The Social media space in the North of Nigeria has had to accommodate huge volume in of traffic on the subject matter of the Middle Belt. What is responsible for this state of affairs? The reason(s) cannot be too far fetched as it has to do with the potential unraveling of the old North into its component parts that were compelled into an unequal union by the Fulani settlers who the British colonialists helped to take over many of our lands. How can they now say they do not know where the Middle Belt is? Do they not understand that what was then called the Northern Region was more than 60 percent of Middle Belt territory?

How could they have forgotten so soon in the day about a Tiv man and one of the fighters for Nigeria’s independence Joseph S Tarka and whose main preocupation was to secure the independence of the geographical Middle Belt on the platform of the United Middle Belt Congress? Have they also forgotten that the Fulani settler political party NPC fought with all its might and strengthened by British colonial interest made sure that the agitation by JS Tarka for the creation politically of a Middle Belt was defeated?

They may have forgotten that there is a subject called History. We remind them that History lives. Surely they will remember the Tiv riots or have they forgotten that too? If they remember, they will do well to also remember the reasons and or background to the riots. If they are able to recall the History very well, then they cannot but remember that the Middle Belt which they are now conveniently denying is alive and well. Ordinarily, responding to their denial would not have been necessary but because the records have to be updated and preserved, it became imperative to tell them to their faces that the Middle Belt is here to stay.

Through time, it was convenient for them to harvest our numbers as Middle Belters during all of the many fraudulent head counts of the past to find the strength they needed but only to disregard the very fact that the Middle Belt was deserving of the goodies and wealth the Northern Region of that time produced. They promoted their faith whilst also preventing the spread of other faiths, particularly the Christian faith. They have deployed all the means at their disposal to not only undermine or hinder the spread of Christian values, they have sought to acknowledge that there are Christian in the behemoth North.

Not surprising at all, because they have conveniently forgotten that it was largely Middle Belters who answered Gen Gowon’s wartime call “To keep Nigeria One is a Task that Must be Done” of the Nigeria Civil War years. Sadly after the victory, elements from the feudal regime pulled the carpets from under the feet of those who won the victory and now, they cannot tell on the map of Nigetia where the Middle Belt is located. They can continue living in denial for all we care but the reality of the Middle Belt will come upon them much like a thief in the dead of night.

The truth remains that their elite know for a fact the place as well as relevance of the Middle Belt in the Nigerian equation and by extension that of Nigeria as a country . Those ranting the denial of the Middle Belt are inconsequential and blind as bats but the scales will soon be falling from their unclean eyes. Because of the dictum that “Impossible is Nothing”, I thought that they should have been redying themselves for the reality that will in due time dawn on them. Some of the reasons they are so scared of what is to come to pass shortly includes the loss of votes, lands, cheap revenues they have been enjoying to sponsor terrorists, bandits as well as jihadists. Put in another way, they will no longer have others doing their dirty jobs. They are better adviced to face up to the imminent changes on the way. To God Be The Glory

An Open Letter to His Excellency, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, Executive Governor of Borno State.

By Suleman Ayuba

Your Excellency,

I write with profound respect and genuine gratitude for your latest act of leadership and compassion: the decision to give every family returning from Cameroon the sum of Five Hundred Thousand Naira (₦500,000) as repatriation support. This is not just money; it is a loud declaration that the people of Ngoshe, Kirawa, Attagara, Agapalawa, Ashigashiya, Warabe, Gwoza hills, Pulka, and every other mountain and valley community are still sons and daughters of Borno, not forgotten refugees. For this, Sir, accept my deepest thanks and the thanks of every family now preparing to cross the border back home.

But Your Excellency, gratitude must walk hand-in-hand with truth.

The same communities they are returning to Ngoshe, Kirawa, Attagara, Agapalawa, and so many others still lie in ruins. Houses are burnt shells. Schools are without roofs or teachers. Health posts are empty. Farmlands are overgrown or mined. At night, fear still rules because insurgents have not been completely pushed out of the surrounding hills. Five hundred thousand naira is a powerful seed, but it cannot grow where the soil has not been prepared.

I have spoken to returnees who are already back in Ngoshe and Kirawa. They tell me the money helps them buy food and a few zinc sheets, but after that, they sleep in church buildings or under trees because there is no coordinated reconstruction. Children in Attagara and Agapalawa are eager to resume school, yet the classrooms remain destroyed. Mothers in Warabe and Ashigashiya are afraid to farm far from the town because there is no guarantee of safety.

Your Excellency, you have rebuilt thousands of homes, schools, and hospitals across the state. We have seen the miracle in Kawuri, in Bama, in Konduga. Now the people of the Mandara Mountain axis Ngoshe, Kirawa, Attagara, Agapalawa, and beyond—need that same miracle. Without it, the ₦500,000 risks becoming not the beginning of a new life, but the end of hope.

Our returning brothers and sisters deserve more than transport fare and cash. They deserve: Reconstructed homes in Ngoshe, Kirawa, Attagara, Agapalawa, and every affected ward, with government-supplied blocks and roofing materials so that the ₦500,000 becomes a contribution, not the entire burden. Immediate rehabilitation of schools in these communities and free enrolment plus feeding for returnee children who have lost over ten years of education. Permanent security posts and regular patrols so families can sleep without one eye open. Seeds, fertilisers, and farming tools distributed before the next planting season, so the money can be invested in land instead of consumed in hunger. Mobile clinics and trauma counsellors deployed to these mountain communities, because the wounds of war are not only physical.

Your Excellency, the world is watching Borno’s repatriation effort. Let us make it a complete success not just bringing people back from Cameroon, but bringing life back to Ngoshe, Kirawa, Attagara, Agapalawa, and every village that once echoed with children’s laughter.

Thank you again for the ₦500,000 per family. Now let us match that generosity with the roofs, classrooms, and security that will turn repatriation into true restoration.

With highest regards and unwavering hope,

SULEMAN AYUBA

Concerned citizen,victim of the circumstances.

Justice Delayed, Justice Denied: The 11-Year Ordeal of the Gbagyi Three in Kaduna

By Steven Kefas

(Kaduna), On a November morning in 2025, Gloria Mabeiam Ballason received a WhatsApp message at 8:16 a.m. from the court registrar. Judgment would be delivered at 9:00 a.m.—in less than an hour. The lead counsel for the defendants was out of town and so she delegated a lawyer to attend the session. The court doors closed to others including journalists seeking entry.

Inside Court 15 of the Kaduna State High Court, three men who had already spent 11 years behind bars learned they would remain imprisoned for 10 more years.Their crime? Conspiracy and “Intention to commit culpable homicide”, a charge that has left legal experts questioning how Nigerian courts can determine the intentions of a person’s heart. “Not even the devil knows the intention of the heart of man,” Ballason said, her frustration palpable as she reflected on the judgment handed down by Justice B.M. Balarabe.

The case of the Gbagyi six, three of whom the prosecution presented at the High Court for trial, were arrested in January 2014 following a violent clash rooted in a land dispute in Jere chiefdom, Kagarko Local Government Area of Kaduna, has become yet another stark illustration of Nigeria’s troubled justice system, where prolonged detention, denied bail, and questionable verdicts have turned courtrooms into instruments of persecution rather than justice.

A Conflict Born of Land and Power.

The story begins in early January 2014, along the road from SSC Jere to Bwari in Kagarko Local Government Area. Dr. Sa’ad Usman, the Emir of Jere and husband of former Finance Minister, Senator Nenadi Usman, was traveling when he encountered a gathering of Gbagyi youths who stopped him. What happened next remains disputed. According to the Jere Traditional Council, one Ayuba Barde who was the first Defendant in the case but was not presented before the Court shouted at the traditional ruler, which led to a violent altercation in which the Chief, his driver, and police orderly were attacked with machetes and axes. The Gbagyi community told a different story: they claimed the Chief of Jere had for long formed the habit of confiscating lands from Gbagyi natives in Jere chiefdom with impunity, and that the most recent incident involved the destruction of food crops belonging to Ayuba Barde. Ayuba Barde was first shot by the orderly of the Chief following which a melee ensued.

A State Security Service source confirmed that serious crisis had been brewing in the area, with the Gbagyi people writing that their ancestral lands were being seized by the Fulani Emir. According to court documents, the incident left both the Chief and Ayuba Barde requiring hospitalization. In the days following the January 3, 2014 clash, Kaduna State Police Commissioner Olufemi Adenaike confirmed that several persons were arrested and would be detained until all principal characters could speak. Among those arrested were individuals who would spend the next 11 years fighting charges that evolved from “inciting disturbance” and “causing grievous hurt” to the far more serious charges of culpable homicide, and conspiracy.

A Trial Without End.

The Defendants ‘s Journey through Nigeria’s judicial system reads like a kafkaesque nightmare. They were first arraigned before a Magistrate Court, then transferred to the High Court. Their case moved from Justice Gideon Kurada, who granted them bail, to Justice Bashir Sukola, who also granted them bail, but on terms they could not meet despite repeated applications for review. Justice Sukola eventually died, and the file moved to Justice Binta F. Zubairu, who started the case afresh. After five years before Justice Zubairu, the longest period in their ordeal, the judge was elevated to the Court of Appeal just as the defense was set to open. The case then landed with Justice Buhari M. Balarabe, who again started the proceedings afresh. “The prosecution was not within reasonable time,” Ballason emphasized. “The trial took 11 years.”Throughout this period, the Defendants remained in custody. According to Ballason, Justice Balarabe’s court refused to take the bail application until after the hearings concluded, a decision she describes as “a violation of the right to fair hearing and presumption of innocence until proven guilty. “The Nigerian Constitution is explicit on this matter. Section 35(4) mandates that any person arrested or detained must be brought before a court within a reasonable time, and if not tried within two months (for those in custody) or three months (for those on bail), they must be released. Yet the Gbagyi defendants spent over a decade in pretrial detention.

A Judgment That Raises Questions.

On November 19, 2025, Justice Balarabe delivered his verdict. The court found the defendants guilty of conspiracy and intention to commit culpable homicide. Notably, the defendants were not found guilty of culpable homicide itself, as the prosecution could not prove that Dr. Sa’ad Usman, who died on April 1, 2020, died as a result of an incident that occurred six years prior in January 2014. Dr. Usman had been hospitalized in London following the 2014 altercation and battled with injuries for years before his death in 2020. The court could not establish beyond reasonable doubt that his 2020 death was directly caused by the 2014 incident. Yet the defendants received five years for conspiracy and ten years for “intention to commit culpable homicide,” to run concurrently. Combined with the 11 years already served, they face a total of 21 years imprisonment. “To hand down 21 years imprisonment for conspiracy and intention to commit culpable homicide is not contemplated by Justice,” Ballason stated. “The punishment is excessive.”She pointed to critical gaps in the prosecution’s case: “The medical report as to the cause of death of Dr. Sa’ad Usman was not tendered as evidence, which would have been grounds linking the defendants with the alleged offence. It was not properly established by the prosecution that there was no break in the chain of causation.”

The Prosecution counsel led by J.N. Dan’azumi Esq, Solicitor General of the Kaduna Ministry of Justice, had hoped for capital punishment on the charges they filed before the Court but declined to react to the judgement on the records.

Echoes of Sunday Jackson.

The Gbagyi case bears disturbing similarities to another controversial verdict that has outraged Nigerians: the death sentence handed to Sunday Jackson, a farmer from Adamawa State. In 2015, Jackson was working on his farm in Kodomti Community when a herdsman, Buba Ardo Bawuro, herded his cattle into Jackson’s farm to feed on his crops. When Jackson confronted him, the herdsman attacked Jackson with a knife, stabbing him. In the ensuing struggle, Jackson managed to disarm his attacker and fatally stabbed him in the neck.Jackson was arrested and charged with murder despite his consistent assertion that he acted in self-defense. After years of trial marked by delays and procedural irregularities, he was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. In March 2025, the Supreme Court of Nigeria upheld Jackson’s death sentence, with the court reasoning that having seized the dagger, Jackson no longer faced an imminent threat and should have fled instead of retaliating with deadly force. The verdict sparked national and international outrage. Legal luminary Mike Ozekhome, SAN called the Supreme Court’s position “unrealistic and disconnected from the realities of violent encounters,” noting that the notion that Jackson had a clear opportunity to flee while entangled in a fight with an armed opponent was speculative and a dangerous oversimplification. It later emerged that Justice Helen Ogunwumiju, the most senior judge on the appeal panel, had issued a dissenting judgment that was initially omitted from the certified true copy. She ruled it was a case of self-defense. “In the circumstances, I am of the view that the defence of self defence avails the Appellant and that his response was not excessive. It is my view that the judgment of the two lower Courts should be set aside as a miscarriage of justice”. – Per HELEN MORONKEJI OGUNWUMIJU, J.S.C. Both cases, the Gbagyi defendants and Sunday Jackson emerge from the same context: Nigeria’s deadly farmer-herder conflicts, where disputes over land and livelihood frequently turn violent. In both cases, those who claim to have defended themselves or their property face the full weight of the criminal justice system, while questions persist about whether justice has truly been served.

The Broader Context: Gbagyi Marginalization.

The Gbagyi people are one of the most populous ethnic groups in the middle belt and among the bonafide owners of the Nigerian capital city, Abuja. When Abuja was chosen as Nigeria’s new federal capital, the Gbagyi were the largest among the ethnic groups that inhabited the land proposed for development, resulting in dislocation and the removal of people from their ancestral homes.The Gbagyi people are known to be peace-loving, transparent, and accommodating. Northerners often say in Hausa language “muyi shi Gwari Gwari,” meaning “let’s do it like the Gbagyi” or “in the Gbagyi way”. Yet their perceived docility has sometimes worked against them.Across the north, it is believed that the Gbagyi lost most of their ancestral lands to other tribes because of their laid-back attitude. The 2014 incident in Jere was rooted in exactly such tensions, a community feeling their lands were being systematically taken from them, with their appeals to authorities going unheeded. The defendants’ legal team believes their clients were not fairly treated. “Courts have a duty to not only do justice but to ensure that a reasonable man can come to the conclusion that justice was done.”

What This Means for Nigeria As Nigeria grapples with ongoing security challenges, from banditry in the Northwest to terrorism in the Middle Belt and North central that have claimed thousands of lives.

The cases of the Gbagyi four and Sunday Jackson send a chilling message: defending oneself or one’s property may be criminalized while attackers escape accountability. “Section 35(4) of the 1999 Constitution provides that any person arrested or detained shall be brought before a court within a reasonable time,” Ballason emphasized. “This constitutional provision was argued along with the bail application, but the court refused to take the bail application until the conclusion of hearing. This is against the law. “She continued: “No administrative issue can override the right to fair and timely trial. Eleven years for a criminal trial under a democracy is simply not justifiable. “The defendants plan to appeal the November 19 judgment. They argue that beyond the excessive punishment, the necessary elements of the alleged offenses were not properly examined, the medical evidence linking Dr. Usman’s 2020 death to the 2014 incident was never produced, and the prosecution failed to establish an unbroken chain of causation. As the four men begin what could be another decade behind bars, having already lost 11 years of their lives, their case stands as a stark reminder of the urgent need for judicial reform in Nigeria. The scales of justice, many argue, have tipped dangerously out of balance. “It is essential to recognize the importance of timely justice and justice according to law,” Ballason concluded.

For the Gbagyi defendants, and for Sunday Jackson still on death row, the question remains: When will Nigeria’s justice system deliver the justice its name promises? The defendants have confirmed they will file an appeal challenging both the conviction and the sentencing. Meanwhile, growing calls for clemency for Sunday Jackson continue, with human rights organizations and religious bodies urging the Adamawa State governor to exercise his constitutional power of pardon.

Archaeology of a Reflex (II)

By Ahmed Yahaya Joe

“Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.” – Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955

What subtlety in statesmanship can President Bola Tinubu grasp from the recent detente between Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani?
The American president’s “exceedingly warm reception” of the Mayor-elect of New York at the Oval Office was quite surprising even for close watchers as the duo have hitherto had a very vexatious relationship that even descended to constant name-calling and frequent taking swipes at each other. Despite the lack of parity between Tinubu and Trump as commanders in chief as Mao reminds us “Politics is warfare without bloodshed,” against the background of Clausewitz’s “war is the continuation of politics by other means.” If so, “The target of your strategy should be less the army you face than the mind of the man or woman who runs it.” – p.165 33 Strategies of War (2006) by Robert Greene

Little wonder, Ms. Onubogu entitled her November 21 presentation to the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, “A Serious, Well-founded Wake-up Call” – a rapprochement that should collectively jolt us to recover the pan-Nigerian story. More so, President Tinubu, as she had prior highlighted Nigeria’s unnecessarily longstanding ambassadorial vacuum in Washington DC, a huge challenge in bilateral relations albeit the recent better late than never foreign service nominations.

Interestingly, the Wikipedia page of our “master strategist” states that he got admitted into Chicago State University in 1975. This was when Henry Kissinger (1923-2023) was still in office as the 56th Secretary of State during which he famously enunciated “Diplomacy is the art of restraining power,” adding that “when statesmen want to gain time, they offer to talk.”
How could Asiwaju’s handlers whilst formulating the “Renewed Hope agenda” have missed that Kissinger in his 1994 912-page book simply entitled Diplomacy, states that “Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy”?
Again, if so, why are Nigerians getting so worked up over President Trump’s sabre rattling when, as we have already encountered in Part I, how Nigeria deftly outflanked an entrenched Italian position during the late 1960s?

The “12 disciples of Nigeria” were the pacesetting career diplomats who formed the nucleus of Nigeria’s foreign service ahead of national independence. These pioneers were recruited and trained by the British purely based on merit after rigorous vetting, a series of qualifying examinations, and extensive interviews that took place in Lagos and London in 1957.
They were as follows in alphabetical order of surnames: Phillip Asiodu, Chike Chukwura, John Garba, Adedokun Haastrup, Leslie Harriman, Chukwuemeka Ifeagwu, Dickson Igwe, Omotayo Ogunsulire, Olumide Omololu, Aminu Sanusi, John Ukegbu and Soji Williams.

Hear the Igbobi oldboy in his own words on that select group;
“We came from all parts of the federation with vastly varying degrees of years in the public service, and also a variety of academic backgrounds. All of us were put through the same furnace of training and were expected to emerge at the end of the conveyor belt as accomplished diplomats (and without any attempt at self-adulation), I could assert that by the time of our independence three years later, we were more or less reduced to a common level of awareness. We had brought to our new vocation, different ideas of what it meant to us, and what were our obligations, towards it. – pp.371-372

After the demise of Ambassador Omotayo Ogunsulire (1930-2023) leaves Chief Phillip Asiodu b.1934 as the last surviving of those magnificent men. Then there was Ambassador Aminu Sanusi (father of Khalifa Muhammadu Sanusi II), the only other Northerner apart from Old Grammarian Garba in that distinguished seemingly pan-Nigerian line-up regardless.

Arguably, no proudly Nigerian icon abroad is as symbolic as the Nigeria House along Second Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York. Built and commissioned in 1992 at a reported cost $32 million the 22-storey skyscraper wrapped in green reflective class was designed under the watch of President Shehu Shagari in 1982 by the now rested Kano architectural firm, Ella Waziri & Associates but delivered by the Lagos multinational outfit, AIM Consultants.
It remains mindboggling that such a massive investment in the financial capital of the US with over 90,000 square feet of letable space would not have since 2023 the compliment of hosting any Permanent Representative from Nigeria at the United Nations headquarters just next block on First Avenue. Unfortunately;

“The Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation has advised that since the New York edifice is strategically located, deteriorating and underutilized, it should as a matter of urgency, be comprehensively rehabilitated before it constitutes an embarrassment to Nigeria.” – Nation newspaper edition of September 5, 2022

Apparently, Ambassador Garba and Ms. Onubogu are not the only Nigerians at a precarious junction of inter-communal existence. Hear the 81-year-old ace columnist, Debo Sobowale, who puts it that;

“Irrespective of who is making the one-sided narrative regarding religious conflict in Nigeria, people like me feel cold. In the storm of national controversies ignited by President Trump’s threat to invade Nigeria, I am one of a very tiny minority of Nigerians caught in all the crossfire – whether religious, political, ethnic or just mischievous.
On my father’s side in Lagos, Christians constitute about 85 per cent of the people I serve as Head of Family. By a twist of fate, it is the same side of the family which, has linked me/us to the North. My paternal grandmother – Aisha — was a Fulani born and raised in Shinkafi, Zamfara State.
My grandfather was a Muslim and an Imam. His vault is still in our family house at Agbowa-Ikosi. My father, his only surviving son, was forced to convert to Christianity when he was dragged off to war in Europe. That was how generations of Sobowales became Christians. Muslims are in the overwhelming majority in my mother’s side of Lagos Island. My grandmother, also a rebel, married a Christian and had only one daughter, who also married a Christian. I was brought up as a Christian. But, my wife was the daughter of a chief imam in Lagos Island.”
– Vanguard newspaper edition of November 16, 2025

Now a final word on Ambassador Garba’s parental background in his own words but not before some more on his extraction. This writer believes such to be salient as we are all members of an increasingly cosmopolitan village in Nigeria. While how Nigerians would wrestle the behemoth of “politicization of religion” to the ground and exorcize the demon of the “religionization of politics,” is mainly left to us it is not entirely to the 47th President of the United States or the 119th Congress on Capitol Hill.
As Nigerians, we must endeavour to remain vigorously tolerant, positively optimistic, and overly inclusive in our national project lest we take that a tortuous road to Sudan. Unfortunately, Ambassador Garba’s book reprinted in 1998 is again out of print again. Sadly, many Nigerians have not benefitted from his vicissitudes;

“My people were originally Kanuri who lived in some unspecified part of the present-day Borno State. Owing to untoward circumstances, there was a large exodus a long time ago, which included members of my family. They moved westward until they reached Katsina. When my people reached Katsina, they were not allowed to settle within the city walls, being foreigners, but had to camp some distance outside it.
They eked out an existence through pursuits peculiar to rural dwellers, namely hunting and farming. My ancestors became great hunters, and it is a well-known fact in the Hausa social arrangement of earlier days, the hunting class formed the backbone of the army whenever there was war; and there were quite a few of these.

My people, being as renowned great hunters were invited from time to time by Sarkin Katsina to help him in his various wars against his numerous enemies, which ranged along all the four cardinal points of the compass. Having proven their prowess on the battlefield in the various campaigns over the years, Sarkin Katsina, on an occasion, in recognition of his appreciation and as a mark of gratitude, invited the elders among my people to nominate a leader who would be titled.
According to family legend, the title of Kauran Katsina (Chief Warrior of Katsina) was bestowed on our chosen leader, and this title was held by us until shortly after the Jihad of Shehu Usumanu dan Fodio.

Later on, Sokoto had appointed a Pullo (Fulani) Sarkin Katsina whose appointment had been rejected by a section of the Katsina community, including our own faction. Instead, we had appointed a rival Kado (Hausa). We rose in revolt but were worsted by the Fulani in the encounter by the Fulani and their supporters.
Our people had to flee westwards, once again and took refuge in places (in today’s Niger Republic) such as Damagaram, Tasawa, and Maradi. It is significant that the Chief (Emir) of Maradi, even today, which is a little short of two hundred years after the departure from Katsina, continues to style himself Sarkin Katsina, while the erstwhile French colonial rulers refer to Maradi as Katsina.” -pp. 1-2

In conclusion;

“My father (born in Gazawa near Maradi) spoke Hausa, Kanuri, Fulfulde, Shuwa-Arabic, and Sara-Kabam fluently. But this resourceful man had also taught himself English sufficiently as to bear the title of ‘Tafinta’ (Interpreter) at the Provincial Office, Nassarawa, Kano, between the years 1929-1930, and with the UAC at Gusau, from 1930 to 1934.
He had no formal education but never missed the opportunity to learn, to which I had contributed in no small measure. In the early years in Maiduguri, his Kanuri companions called him Garba Jibdama (Garba of the Jibda, or civet cat). Later in life, when he had risen to be foreman and lining-sinker in the well sinking section of the Geological Department, they called him Garba Baramma (Garba of the Wells).

He addressed himself as Mallam Garba Katsina throughout his life. Only after he had gone to the Hajj in 1960 did he change his name to Alhaji Garba Muhammadu, assuming his father’s name.
From 1939 to 1943, he worked for the Kano Local Authority, sinking wells mainly in the Hadejia, Gumel, and Kazaure emirates.
He retired in 1944 but continued to live in Kano City. During the years that he had been in and out of Kano, he had lived at Yakasai, Dan-Agundi, Gwangwazo, Tudun-Wazirci, and finally back to Kofar Dan-Agundi ward where he lived his last days on earth.
Here, he died on 13th March 1972, at the age of about eighty-seven years. My mother had left my father when I was about six years old. There was never a formal divorce. Before I was born, my father had married Fatu, a Fulani from the same Geidam where he had married my mother.” – pp 13-14

Concluded.

Archaeology of a Reflex (I)

By Ahmed Yahaya Joe

“Truth is found neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, but in an emergent synthesis which reconciles the two.” – Georg Hegel (1770-1831)

What is the moral for Nigeria from the Sudanese conundrum?
The question is pertinent because neither Sudan nor Sudan Sudan have known sustainable peace, significant progress, or any meaningful development ever since those nations parted ways in 2011;

“With its people deeply divided along ethno-geographic and religious fault lines, under a tense socio-political atmosphere arising from heightened insecurity, the situation in Nigeria today reads like a tragic plot from the Sudanese playbook. Like Nigeria, Sudan was a British colonial creation, in which the colonials lumped ethnic and religiously diverse peoples together in a self-serving scheme of nation-building experimentation. Nigeria, like Sudan, is almost evenly split into predominately Muslim North and Christian South.”
– Nigeria: On the Road to Sudan by Majeed Dahiru posted 5/28/2021

Yet, here we are in a protracted battle for the soul of our nation, of which according to Ignatius Kaigama, Prelate of Abuja, “God has nothing to do with it.” It has always been about power and control he opines on the recurrent strife bedevilling the presumptive capital of the Middle Belt, “No crisis in Jos is religious. The real issue is the competition for who owns Jos.”
The insight of then Archbishop of Jos and more are contained in the 2016 book by Tom Burgis entitled The Looting Machine: Warlords, Tycoons, Smugglers, and the Systematic Theft of Africa’s Wealth pp.175-187

Using Jos as a microcosm for Nigeria, irrespective of our polarized opinions on the “Christian genocide” thesis and the “religion is not the key driver in the attacks” antithesis, it is noteworthy that one of ours, senior fellow & Africa program director, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Oge Onubogu presented what Hegel describes as “sublation” – a synthesis.
In her must-watch presentation to the Africa Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives, Ms. Onubogu carefully reconciled the truths in the thesis with the shortcomings of the antithesis by transcending the limitations in both entrenched positions asserting;
“In Nigeria today, ethnicity, religion and language – not nationality – remain the benchmarks for identity for the country’s highly diverse population.”

While she warned against reducing the prevailing thesis to “a single story” she nonetheless admitted that the antithesis is laced with “religious extremism,” but she still deliberately glossed over the virulent marginalization and systematic oppression by Muslims against non-Muslims and vice versa as the case may be.
Overtly her testimony was a conciliatory beacon for a way forward. It is still however afflicted the selective amnesia on how the fallout of Muslim-Muslim rhetoric of 2023 had deepened the political fault lines still reverberating to date.
Regardless, every discerning Nigerian knows that the root cause of the very challenged inter-communal relations in our nation is variously the “politicization of religion,” and “religionization of politics,” across the board.
Here, The Manipulation of Religion in Nigeria Today: Its Social and Political Basis, published in New Nigerian newspaper edition of 13th- 14th January, 1978 by Dr. Yusufu Bala Usman remains instructive after 47 years and still counting.

Ms. Onubugo was probably not even born when, in the mid-1960s – twenty years prior to the heated Organization of Islamic Controversy (OIC) controversy of 1986 under General Ibrahim Babangida, when religion was on the front burner.
But she grew up “In Jos, Plateau State, an area that has been plagued by ethno-religious violence. Her upbringing in this complex environment profoundly shaped her understanding of conflict dynamics. Growing up in Jos during periods of recurring violence gave young Oge a front-row seat to the devastating impact of governance failures on ordinary communities.”

In looking back, the must-read memoirs of John Mamman Garba (1918-1989) entitled The Time Has Come: Reminiscences and Reflections of a Nigerian Pioneer Diplomat (1989) is collector’s item for us particularly for us in the present-day.
A book full of painstaking details drawn from his personal diaries spanning nearly a 60-year period is included a minutiae of when then military governor of the Eastern regional government in 1967 wrote the Italian Prime Minister and the Vatican City horrendously claiming that;

“Weapons and planes manufactured by Catholic Italy, were being sent to Muslim Northern Nigeria to be used in killing the Catholic Ibos of Eastern Nigeria….
In the beginning, a good number of Italians had been led to believe that the conflict between the federal government and Colonel Ojukwu was based on religious differences.” – pp. 291-293

As the babel of voices on “Christian genocide” continue to divisively rage in our polity the need to reflect upon Churchill’s maxim of “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see” cannot be overemphasized particularly with a man in the middle of sorts who introducing his recollections writes;
“Dedicated to my grandfather, Muhammadu Sarkin Hako, who died at Maisandari on the outskirts of Maiduguri town in July 1931, and had vowed, I would never attend the Whiteman’s school while he lived.”

Ambassador Garba then goes on to give a glimpse on how the worst fears of Sarkin Hako were processed in the overall context;

“My father did not receive the news of my having embraced Christianity in good spirit. This was as expected. When he and his friend, retired Regimental Sergeant Major Sule Gumsuri took me along to the Church Missionary Society (CMS) bookshop school at Kano in 1926, such an eventuality of turning a Christian had never crossed their minds even for a moment.
They were then solely preoccupied with the thought of placing me in an institution that would prepare me for a better place than they themselves had had the privilege of attaining in our society.
No more, no less.
There was a serious rift between me and the family, or rather my father, for some years after my conversion. But neither of us wanted to see this as the permanent parting of ways. My father eventually accepted the situation as ‘Kaddara’ (fate, already predetermined by God).
He did not die until forty years after I had been baptized into Christianity, and he, as well as my mother, two brothers and one sister, and all their children and grand-children were and have remained today, professed Muslims.” – pp. 384-385

This writer encounters in Garba and Onubogu (even Kaigama) not only unique perspectives but what Bernard-Henri Levy describes as the “archaeology of reflex” which in the trio is neither “an immutable automatism,” nor “immune to learning,” in the Nigerian project as that French public intellectual puts it in 2021 book entitled The Will To See: Dispatches From A World of Misery and Hope.
Outstanding is how Ambassador Garba was able to reclaim the Nigerian story in Italy and Vatican City. This hugely contrasts present-day diplomatic vacuum during the gestation period of the “Christian genocide” more so that quite recently Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy has become the second G7 leader to internationally subscribe to that thesis as Mallam Garba goes on in retrospect;

“The Italians were made to believe that Colonel Ojukwu’s succession attempt and declaration of total war on his fatherland represented the manifestation of the determination of ‘the very progressive, intelligent, Westernized and hardworking Roman Catholic Ibos to live their own existence in peace and prosperity, free from domination and annihilation by the backward Hausa/Fulani Moslems of the North.’” – p.293

Ambassador Garba, a scion of al-Barnawi and al-Kashinawi, “that is a Bornoan and also a Bakatsine, at one and the same time,” not unlike Abu Abdullahi b. Masanih b. Nuh also known as Dan Masani (1595-1667), further puts it;

“As part of the counter for the expressed suspicion that the civil war had a religious undertone, the federal government decided to send to Rome from time to time some leading members of our government who were of the Catholic congregation so that these highly-placed persons could speak to the Holy Father as one Catholic adherent to his Pontiff.
Amongst those who came to Rome for this purpose may be mentioned Louis Orok Edet, first Nigerian inspector-general of police; Federal Commissioner Joseph Serwuan Tarka; Federal Commissioner Anthony K. Enahoro; Admiral Joseph E. Akinwale Wey; and the military padre, Monsignor Colonel Pedro Martins.
As I had the duty of arranging the audiences for these senior representatives of our government with the Holy Father, I had opened a corridor of communication with the Vatican. I found the Papal Secretary of State – the Pope’s prime minister, as it were – Cardinal Amleto Cicognani, a man of friendly disposition and charming personality.” – p.294

The veteran diplomat whose fluency in Latin eased Nigeria’s access in the Vatican kick-started the acquisition after a 21-day trek from Maiduguri to Kano. He then attended middle school in Zaria before proceeding to CMS Grammar School Lagos, where he picked Greek. He was eventually admitted into Igbobi College, where he fine-tuned his French and bagged the Latin prize sitting for his Senior Cambridge in 1934 but not before attending the World Scout Jamboree in the United Kingdom in 1929.
After an extensive training and brief working career in the British colonial agricultural value chain, he proceeded to the London School of Economics, graduating in 1950.
Ambassador Garba rose to the position of Executive Director at the World Bank in 1963 when Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was still in primary school, a good 44 years before she became Managing Director there in 2007.
Ambassador Garba became Nigeria’s envoy to Italy with accreditation to Vatican City, Spain, Greece and Cyprus in succession eventually the United States in 1972 from where he eventually retired from public service in 1975 living out the rest of his idyllic days in quiet contemplation in Kano.

Ambassador Garba’s tour of duty based in the “Eternal City” between 1966 and 1970 was peculiarly challenged against the background that;

“Immediately after the military incidence of July 29, 1966, Colonel Ojukwu’s agents had launched an extensive propaganda campaign in Italy as they did in other places. Because of the understandable sensitivity of the Italians to religious matters, this wicked and erroneous interpretation of our crisis was accepted even in some responsible circles. The rebel camp had certain advantages in this regard in Italy.
As the late Dr. Nabo Graham-Douglas, onetime Attorney-General of the Eastern Region, and later of the federation as a whole, had pointed out in his well-written pamphlet: Ojukwu’s Rebellion and World Opinion, the intention of the Catholic church was to constitute the Eastern Region into a Catholic state.” – p.293

While this writer has not been able to actually go through any copy of the erstwhile Biafra insider’s 1968 publication to independently verify the details on the reported clamour for a faith-based breakaway entity from Nigeria, the following under the title Clandestine Role of Religious Bodies in the Nigerian Civil War 1967-1970, beggars the question: if history is apparently repeating itself currently?

“In a bid to attract sympathy and support of the international community, the Biafran government hired Markpress, a Geneva-based public relations firm. The public relations firm constantly used genocide and religion as its propaganda themes.” – pp. 78-85 American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research (AJHSSR) Vol. 3, Issue 12, 2019

It, therefore, remains to be seen if there are any lessons for the recent ambassadorial nominees of President Tinubu from Ambassador Garba’s capacity and cognition.
One thing fundamentally remains;
“There was once a country.”- Chinua Achebe (1930-2013)

Continued in Part II

FULANI SETTLERS SHOULD STOP HIDING BEHIND AREWA AND ISLAM TO MESS UP OUR COUNTRY 

By Col Gora Albehu Dauda Rtd.

For a start “Arewa” as many of our southern friends usually describe those of us from the Northern part of the country should rather be called “Hausaland” after the owners of the lando. Arewa means North, therefore it ought not be deployed to describe any part of this country specifically.or its population. Wherever you stand on the planet there is a north as one of the cardinal points of a compass much in the same way as there is a South, East and West, The Fulani settlers in Nigeria have classically boxed themselves in, as they cannot fail to remember that they do not belong here. They know too well from whence they came because written History has already chronicled that. They know also the tones of lies they have told over time some of which was recorded as History and thought in Northern Schools for a long time. In due time the truth has come to the fore and before our own eyes . They ought to know that they are now boxed in on all fronts and not too long from now they wil be frying in their own oil.

Let us examine some of the nonsense and falsehoods which was chronicled as History. First, dubious lies that the Fulani came to Nigeria as learned Islamic preachers. The truth is that they arrived Gobir as gypsies as has always been their culture to move about in search of pasture for their cattle. This is to say that they have always been nomadic by nature. History though, has nor recorded whether or not Usman.Dan Fodio’s forebears came along with any cattle to Nigeria. It was upon their arrival that they embraced Islam as a religion from their Hausa benefactors.

After many years of association with the Hausa hosts and because they were in search of land and power, they came up.with the ploy that the Hausa leaders were brutish in the treatment of their subjects and that the subjects were being overtaxed against the teaching of Islam. Additionally, they accused the Hausa of corrupting Islam by observing pagan practices.These were the principal excuses that were advanced to justify the rebellion which culminated in the Jihad of 1802-1804.

The Jihadists overthrew the Hausa rulers of that period and established a bridgehead in Hausa land. They took over and occupied Palaces built by the Hausa people and installed Fulanis as Emirs to this day. Because they did not have the numbers to make any noticeable difference aside the fact that they were in power, they had to attache themselves to the Hausa majority to make meaning. Meanwhile, the Hausa people and owners of the vast northern landscape became subjects of the settlers on their own land and that has also continued to the present time. The Hausa technically became a marginalized people on their own land.

Wherever you can find a Fulani, all he craves about is to occupy a position of leadership or power even when such may not actually be qualified for such positions. They have personalized Islam to themselves which is why in almost every mosque not limited to the core North, no other clerics are worthy to lead prayers if not themselves. They are to be followed but not for them to follow as a people, they have rubbished the well known thinking that one must be ready to follow if such expects to be followed in due time. The Fulani settlers over time have over exploited the peaceful nature of the Hausa people to such a level that they have lorded it over them since the dubious Jihad. Let nobody be deceived, the Fulani are not in anyway better Muslims than the others yet, they will not follow others as their religious leaders.

There are essentially 2 classes of the Fulani, the first being the elites who are mainly those who chose to abandon the nomadic way of life for a settled lifestyle. This class has produced the educated group who acquired Western Education and have gone into intermarriages with the Hausa and perhaps other indigenous peoples. These intermarriages birthed the fraud called Hausa Fulani. This coinage was on purpose as to creat a close bond between the Fulani and the Hausa people. The coinage ended up benefiting only the Fulani as the Hausa people remained abandoned. The benefits for the Fulani accrued in a number of ways, first, it provided them a willing host and a much larger space to operate. Second, it provided them the opportunity to usurp much of what would have benefited the Hausa owners of the land. On the political part in modern times, they have latched on the huge Hausa votes to access political power and other influences. Quite paradoxical that the Hausa contribute the votes, yet the Fulani coast home with the victories.

Here is how the Fulani have manipulated the Hausa people politically. The Fulani always made sure that only Fulani candidates emerge to contest any election in almost all the political parties from the Councilors, Chairmen Members of the State Houses of Assemblies, Governordship and up to the National Assembly. The only role left for the Hausa people is for them to cast their votes for Fulani candidates. The moment the victory is won, the Hausa electorate are abandoned to their uncertain fate. Once in their offices, the Fulani will always be focussed on their kinsmen when it comes to appointments and contract awards. It has therefore been a deliberate policy of ensuring that the Fulani continue to exploit the Hausa such that they are always relegated to the background.

The situation is set to change in the years to come thanks to the Hausa Renaissance currently underway. Some folks may be holding the Hausa to blame for their condition in Nigeria politically and otherwise because of their state of inertia or atrophy for this long since the dubious jihad. The activism of the Hausa heroin Hajiya Khaltum Allumbe Jitami of Jaruma Hausa TV 24 is providing the spark or igniting the Hausa into realizing that the balance of political power in Nigeria lies with them as they have the numbers to effectively turn the tables against the Fulani settlers. To succeed the Hausa must not allow the imposition of candidates at all levels in all the political platforms. This way, it will be practically impossible for the Fulani settlers to extend their political hegemony over them. Put simply, let the Hausa votes go to Hausa candidates. That done, the Hausa would be in a position to reclaim their lost glory.

The Fulani settlers have positioned themselves in positions of authority politically as Councilors, Council Chairmen, Members of State Assemblies, Members of the National Assembly, Governors and Ministers but the current advantage will expire if elections do hold come 2027. The agencies the Fulani are using to plough their way into positions of authority include the impotent so-called Arewa Consultative Forum that does not consult anybody, and the equally impotent Northern Governor’s Forum almost populated by Fulani settlers as members. There is also the Northern Traditional Rulers body which ironically has a religious leader as its Chairman. What is the Sultan of Sokoto doing in such a forum? Is he also a traditional ruler aside the religious portfolio he is holding? All these worthless bodies should be scrapped as they are creating more problems than they are solving.

Religion is a personal relationship between an adherent and the Creator. Not so in Nigeria for religion has from time been a formidable tool for oppression. There is no issue of National importance that is not given a religious coloration. Religion, rather than bringing the people together is putting them asunder. The place of religion in our lives has been elevated to a ridiculous level as it is being used to discriminate against other faiths. As the opium of the people (apologies to Karl Marx) it is religion that was deployed to producing the Tinuku leadership. Can you now see the relevance of the Muzilim Muzilim ticket? The truth remains that those guys high up the political ladder are not so concerned about religion, all that they care about is to flaunt religion for the oppressed masses to kill themselves over. The next Constitution that is if we get to having one, should relegate religion to where it belongs that is in the minds of the practitioners.

If Islam as a religion was practiced in Saudi Arabia where that faith originated the same way it is practiced in the North of Nigeria, the KSA would long have disintegrated. There are many Muslims.in the Southwest of Nigeria and in almost every family BUT you never will hear acrimony, violence or riots on account of religion. Had Islam originated in the North of Nigeria, a curious observer could understand in part why these guys up here are so fanatical about the faith but it did not. To the extent that faithfuls cannot practice Islam in their own language but only in Arabic and given that so many faithful rely on barely learned Muslim scholars to interpret the text for them, many understand differently. Many from the Fulani stables still hold on to the falsehood passed on to them into believing that Usman Dan Fodio bequeathed Nigerian territory to them as a Fulani homeland, a land to which they are settlers.

Generally speaking, the Fulani settlers have applied a strangulating hold on the throat of Nigeria for far too long. From the colonial period during which they were the next in command to the British exploiters through to the Independence era, the period of Military rule till date the Fulani settlers have eaten their cake and they still have it. The time has therefore come for the people who have suffered under the yoke of the Fulani oppression to say NO, IT IS ENOUGH and we cannot take more. They must be made to abandon the spurious tale of the territory of Nigeria being a Fulani homeland they must also be reminded that they left their homeland, back in Fouta Djalon and Fouta Toro. Nigerians must be mindful of the fact that the Fulani settlers have not completely given up on Usman Dan Fodio’s fraudulent dream of dipping the Quran into the deep blue waters of the Atlantic which he failed to do. Realising that they do not have the numbers to militarily achieve that bogus dream, Muhammadu Buhari sought to achieve it through a more subtle manner which was why he prioritized the Ruga and Grazing reserves Bills. Knowing that his kinsmen were armed to the teeth with arms from the fallen Libyan regime of Muamar Gaddafi and exploiting the ECOWAS Protocol on free movement Fulani tribesmen from everywhere were to move with their cattle and to occupy other peoples lands and forests. Before the hosts communities would realize what was going on, it would have been too late as Fulani AK 47s would already be pointing to their heads. Thank God, Allah, Chineke, Oluwa, Agwazah that the bills were defeated in Parliament. Nigeria did live to fight someday as we are into that right now.

The ongoing insurgency in Nigeria is understandably the last kicks of the Fulani settlers in Nigeria.Tinuku obviously committed a huge blunder by appointing the likes of Nuhu Ribadu, Badaru Abubakar and Bello Matawalle into strategic positions in his government. The counter insurgency operations were deliberately frustrated because of these characters who were playing the role of moles or fifth columnists to the effort. As this essay was being concluded, news came through that the Defence Minister Badaru Abubakar has resigned his appointment. Good news, 2 more to go. Further down the line, Tinuku must ensure that the security forces keep an eye/ear on Sheikh Dr Gumi, Yahaya Jingre as well as many other extremist Islamic clerics muddying the waters in Nigeria. To God Be The Glory.

Gora Albehu Dauda

2 December 2025

Boastful Chinese Miners Storm Ambam Lithium Field with Armed Escort, Vowing Abuja-Backed Takeover and Ousting Rivals

By MBT Investigative Desk

December 1st, 2025, Ambam Community, Jema’a Local Government Area, Kaduna State

Beneath the tranquil farmlands of Ambam community in Kaduna State lies a treasure of the modern age: vast deposits of lithium, the coveted “white gold” powering the global revolution in electric vehicles. For two years, this potential wealth was managed under a peaceful and mutually beneficial coexistence, governed by a Community Development Agreement (CDA) between the residents and Range Mining Ltd, a Nigerian company with a UK parent. But that peace shattered on November 15, 2025, when a Chinese-owned company, Mystics Mining Resources Limited, arrived with armed security and a brazen claim of ownership, igniting a conflict that reveals a dark underbelly of Nigeria’s mining sector.

The arrival of Mystics Mining was not a quiet entry. Community sources describe a convoy rolling into the field where Range Mining was legally operating, escorted by armed personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). The show of force sent a clear and unsettling message: a new power had arrived, and it was not interested in negotiation.

When contacted by this newspaper, the State Commandant of the NSCDC, Mr. Panam Musa, who authorized the deployment, initially defended his actions. “The reason for deploying new security personnel on the mine field was because there are up to four companies claiming ownership of the field,” he stated. He promised to visit the site to resolve the matter.

However, the legitimacy of Mystics Mining’s claim quickly began to unravel. A source within the Ambam community, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that the Chinese company claimed to have the permission of the Kaduna Mining Development Company (KMDC). But when confronted with this claim, the Managing Director of KMDC, Engr. Shuaibu Kabir Bello, was unequivocal in his denial.

“I am telling you now that we don’t know Mystics Mining and I have ordered Civil Defense to stop them immediately. They will be arrested,” Bello declared, exposing a stark contradiction between the company’s assertions and official record.

The swift denial from the state’s own mining company raises a critical question: what was the basis for the NSCDC’s armed escort? Pressed on this, Commandant Musa offered a vague explanation. “Mystics Mining came to my office with some documents which warranted the deployment of armed personnel,” he said. He notably failed to specify what these documents were. “Later I found out that the field they were going to was the same being occupied by Range. As we speak now, I am on the site and have ordered them to stop work immediately.”

This reactive stance, coming only after the illegal incursion was exposed, points to a deeper problem: the alleged use of financial influence to bypass due process. A high-level security source, who also requested anonymity, disclosed that Mystics Mining Ltd had already engaged in a massive bribery scheme to gain access.

“As I am talking to you now, Mystics Mining has spent over 250 million naira bribing some key people in Ambam community,” the source revealed. “With that, they believe they can do and undo.”

This allegation of a N250 million bribe is at the heart of the community’s new turmoil. It suggests a deliberate strategy to create division and sideline the established, lawful agreement with Range Mining Ltd. Another community source, fearing persecution, confirmed the aggressive posture of the Chinese firm. “They boasted to us that whether we like it or not, they will soon be in charge of all the mining lands here. They told us that they have backing from the top in Abuja and that they will surely kick every other company out.”

The CDA: A Broken Covenant and a Community Torn Apart

The CDA between Ambam and Range Mining was more than a contract; it was a covenant that outlined tangible benefits, jobs, infrastructure, and social services, in exchange for the community’s most valuable asset: access to their land. The arrival of Mystics Mining, with its alleged cash injections, has violently ruptured this social fabric.

“This N250 million is a poison,” laments a community elder who pleaded for anonymity for fear of reprisals. “It has divided our sons and daughters. Where we once had a collective agreement for our future, we now have whispers, suspicion, and the violence of silence. Those who have taken the money are now agents of a company that does not know our name, only our resource.”

This internal conflict is a classic tactic observed in resource-rich but governance-poor regions. The large, upfront sum from Mystics Mining creates a powerful, immediate incentive for a few, effectively dismantling the collective bargaining power of the community and undermining the long-term, structured benefits of a formal CDA.

Landowners Cry Foul: “The Chinese Lied to Us”

The depth of what now looks like Mystics Mining’s deception has now become painfully clear to those who initially engaged with them. In a revealing development, landowners who received N50 million each from the Chinese company are now expressing deep regret and alleging they were deliberately misled.

Two landowners, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, confirmed to this newspaper that they were told a fundamentally different story. “The Chinese told us they have an agreement with Range Mining for some form of collaboration. That was why we listened to them. But now we know they lied to us,” one landowner stated with evident frustration.

The landowners were adamant about the nature of their transaction with Mystics Mining. “There’s no agreement between the landowners and the Chinese. They are telling people that we sold our land to them. That is not true,” the source emphasized. “Tell the Chinese to show the land document. We didn’t sign any agreement with them.”

This revelation exposes a calculated strategy by Mystics Mining: rather than pursuing legitimate land acquisition through proper legal channels, the company allegedly used cash payments to create the appearance of authorization while falsely claiming partnership with the legitimate title-holder, Range Mining. The landowners now find themselves caught between the promise of immediate financial gain and the realization that they may have been used as pawns in an illegal takeover scheme—without even securing the legal protections that a formal land sale agreement would provide.

A National Pattern of Predatory Mining

The drama in Ambam is a microcosm of a national crisis. Research into the activities of Chinese mining companies in Nigeria reveals a consistent trail of legal breaches, environmental degradation, and community conflicts.

Federal Government Crackdowns: In recent years, the Nigerian Federal Government has repeatedly called out and taken action against illegal Chinese miners. In May 2020, former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, explicitly stated that “a lot of illegal mining is being done by Chinese companies in the country.” He highlighted their tactic of operating with fake licenses or none at all, precisely the allegation facing Mystics Mining.

The Akwa Ibom State Government closed Ruitai Mining Company in August 2023 after the Chinese-owned firm failed to produce valid operating licenses. Uno Etim Eno, the state’s Commissioner for Environment and Mineral Resources, announced the shutdown during a press conference in Uyo. He explained that Ruitai Mining, which operated a titanium ore extraction facility in Ibeno community, could not provide the necessary authorization documents required for its mining operations. The closure highlighted ongoing regulatory enforcement challenges in Nigeria’s mining sector, particularly regarding foreign-owned operations and compliance with federal licensing requirements.

The “Backing from the Top” and a Flawed Security Apparatus

The most chilling aspect of the Ambam case is Mystics Mining’s alleged boast of having “backing from the top in Abuja.” This claim, whether bluff or reality, points to the high-level corruption that enables such brazen operations. It suggests a network of complicity that reaches into the federal ministries and regulatory bodies tasked with overseeing the sector.

The initial compliance of the NSCDC, a federal security agency, adds credence to this fear. The fact that armed state personnel were deployed based on unspecified “documents,” directly contravening the rights of a title-holder and the knowledge of the state mining agency, reveals a critical vulnerability in the nation’s resource governance framework. It underscores how easily security apparatuses can be weaponized by private interests with deep pockets, turning state-protectors into facilitators of illegal takeover.

The Verdict: Status Quo Ante and the Rule of Law

The investigation reached a critical juncture on Friday, November 28, when the Commander of the NSCDC Mining Marshals, John Onoja, convened a meeting with representatives from both Mystics Mining Resources Ltd and Range Mining Ltd. Onoja, a no-nonsense, award-winning officer known for his commitment to the rule of law, delivered a decisive ruling that exposed the fundamental flaw in both companies’ claims.

“By the submission of both parties and their respective presentation, none possess the requisite documents for mining in the disputed area,” Onoja stated in his official assessment to this newspaper. “Same was confirmed and admitted to by both parties. Both parties also stated that they are still in the process of obtaining necessary licence from Mining Cadastre Office. Hence, it was only normal to resolve that all parties should suspend mining activities pending when requisite documents to do so is gotten. So none are to work in view of the indication of the preliminary investigation conducted with both parties. Further investigation continues.”

However, Onoja’s ruling made a crucial distinction between the two companies’ positions. While neither possessed a valid mining license, Range Mining’s activities on the site were deemed lawful and beneficial to national security efforts.

“During the meeting with both parties, it was confirmed that Range was not mining on the field but was providing security while awaiting their mining license,” Onoja explained. “That is a welcome development we encourage from citizens. It is on that basis that I advised that status quo be maintained until either of the companies is able to secure a license to mine.”

This ruling effectively validates Range Mining’s presence on the site as a security measure against illegal mining—precisely the activity that Mystics Mining’s armed incursion on November 15 had threatened to enable. The decision to revert to “status quo” (the situation before November 15) means that Mystics Mining’s controversial entry, backed by alleged N250 million in bribes and armed NSCDC personnel, has been officially rejected as having “no business on the controversial minefield.”

When asked if the directive to revert to status quo has been followed, Onoja indicated that compliance is being monitored. “That is being looked upon at the moment and I assure you that everything will be alright,” he said.

A Victory for Due Process, But a Community Still Divided

The ruling represents a significant victory for the rule of law in Nigeria’s troubled mining sector. It confirms that neither deep pockets nor alleged connections in Abuja can substitute for proper licensing procedures. The exposure of Mystics Mining’s lack of documentation vindicates the concerns raised by the Kaduna Mining Development Company and validates the suspicions that the Chinese company’s “documents” shown to the NSCDC were insufficient or fraudulent.

But for the people of Ambam, the battle is far from over. The N250 million that allegedly changed hands continues to divide the community. Range Mining’s Community Development Agreement, once a source of unity and hope, now competes with the immediate cash that has already been distributed to select individuals and landowners who now express regret over being misled.

The landowners who received N50 million each have been vindicated in their claim that they signed no formal agreement with Mystics Mining and were deceived about the Chinese company’s relationship with Range Mining. Yet the money they accepted has already complicated the community’s solidarity, even as they now distance themselves from the Chinese firm.

The lithium field remains a flashpoint—a test case for whether Nigeria can enforce its own mining regulations against well-funded interests that employ bribery, deception, and the weaponization of state security forces. Commander John Onoja’s decision to prioritize legal compliance over competing claims is a rare bright spot in a sector plagued by corruption and regulatory capture.

The battle for Ambam’s lithium is more than a corporate dispute; it is a critical test of Nigeria’s political will to govern its resources, enforce its own laws, and protect its most vulnerable communities from the predatory forces of illegal, often foreign-backed, mining conglomerates. The outcome will resonate far beyond Kaduna, signaling to other would-be predators whether Nigeria’s “white gold” rush will be governed by law or by the highest bribe.

For now, at least, the law has spoken—but whether it will be obeyed, and whether the community of Ambam can heal from this divisive episode, remains to be seen. As Commander Onoja’s investigation continues and authorities monitor compliance with the status quo directive, the residents of Ambam wait to see if their lithium wealth will finally deliver the promised prosperity, or if it will remain a source of division and conflict.

The Cost of Silence: How Apathy Deepens the Middle Belt Crisis

By Ankeli Daniel

For years, the Middle Belt has been crying out for help, sometimes in quiet pleas, sometimes in desperate screams. Whole communities have been destroyed by waves of terror and displacement, yet the silence that follows often feels even heavier than the violence itself.
This silence from citizens, leaders, and the global community is not an absence of sound. It is a decision, and that decision carries consequences.

The Sound of Neglect

In a country that never stops moving, tragedies easily fade into background noise. One day it is villages burned in Benue, the next it is kidnappings in Kogi or fresh attacks in Southern Kaduna. The headlines shift quickly, but the survivors do not get to move on.

Behind every “breaking news” alert are people who may never return home, families trapped in makeshift camps, and children who learn the meaning of loss long before they learn the meaning of hope.

The scale of this crisis is undeniable. According to Amnesty International, over 10,217 people were killed in armed attacks across several Nigerian states in just two years, with Benue State alone accounting for 6,896 deaths. UNHCR estimates that Nigeria now has roughly 3.5 million displaced or stateless people, about 600,000 of them from Middle Belt communities.

Still, the silence continues in offices, churches, and conversations. We scroll past these tragedies, waiting for someone else to care first. But silence always takes a side. It stands with power, not the powerless, with comfort
instead of conscience.

When Silence Becomes Complicity

When we stop asking where security funds disappear to, when we look past displaced families struggling to live with dignity, and when we downplay acts of terror by calling them “skirmishes”, we are not just ignoring the problem, we are helping it grow.

Injustice doesn’t survive because evil is powerful; it survives because good people stay quiet.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reported 291,000 new conflict-related displacements in 2023, pushing Nigeria’s total to 3.4 million internally displaced people. Each displacement left unresolved, each attack left unpunished, becomes soil for impunity to grow. The suffering of the Middle Belt is not inevitable. It is the result of what we have tolerated for decades.

Apathy in High Places

It is not only ordinary citizens who stay silent. Many in positions of power, with the means to make real change, have chosen indifference over action.

Governments at both the federal and state levels often respond with words of sympathy but show little accountability. Security funds disappear without explanation, while communities remain unprotected. Relief materials arrive too late or not at all.

Every broken promise leaves another scar, and every ignored report erases another piece of truth.
Yet, the apathy of those in power is fueled by the apathy of the people. When we stop demanding better, they stop delivering.

Breaking the Silence

There is strength in our collective voice. Each time people speak out, ask the hard questions, or tell the story of someone who has survived, the walls of silence begin to break.

This, is why Middle Belt Concern (MBC) exists; to amplify those voices, to remind Nigeria and the world that silence has a cost too heavy to bear.

We stand for a region that refuses to be forgotten, for survivors who deserve justice, and for accountability that rebuilds trust in those who lead.

Speaking up means choosing courage instead of comfort, truth instead of silence, and life instead of loss.

What We Can Do

Breaking the silence is more than just speaking; it’s about taking action.
Share verified stories from the Middle Belt, because every repost helps fight misinformation.
Ask your leaders the hard questions. Demand transparency about how security funds are used.

Support local efforts that provide relief, education, and advocacy for displaced families and communities.
Organize or join dialogues and discussions that keep these conversations alive.
Every voice raised brings us closer to justice, and every action taken helps a survivor take one step closer to healing.

Hope in the Noise

Silence may have allowed this crisis to grow, but purposeful, persistent, and united voices can help bring it to an end.
The story of the Middle Belt is not one of defeat, but of strength and defiance. Its people have endured unimaginable pain and are still standing. What they need now are allies who will speak when it is easier to stay quiet.
In the end, history does not honor those who chose comfort; it remembers those who chose courage.
So, speak up.
Share the truth.
Stand with the Middle Belt until silence is no longer an option.

Daniel Ankeli is a photographer, media professional, and human rights advocate who documents insecurity, displacement, and community resilience across the Middle Belt. He is a member of Middle Belt Concern and writes from Jos, Plateau State.

The Silent Genocide: Gwoza’s Christians in the Grip of Jihadist Terror

By Suleman Ayuba

Gwoza, a once-vibrant Christian enclave in Nigeria’s Borno State, is thick with grief. For over a decade, jihadist insurgents primarily Boko Haram have waged a relentless campaign of terror against the region’s predominantly Christian population. Homes have been razed, churches reduced to rubble, and families torn apart. More than 60,000 Christians have fled across the border into Cameroon, only to face hunger, disease, and despair in overcrowded refugee camps. Many who attempt the treacherous journey back to Nigeria perish along the way, succumbing to starvation or exhaustion in the unforgiving bushes. This is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is a targeted, systematic assault on a religious community, one that many now describe as genocide.

Gwoza’s nightmare began in earnest in 2014 when Boko Haram seized the town and declared it the capital of their self-styled Islamic caliphate. In the years since, the group has returned again and again, launching coordinated attacks on Christian villages. Just last month, in October 2025, insurgents overran Kirawa, a settlement near Gwoza, forcing over 5,000 residents to flee into Cameroon. This was not an isolated incident. In January 2025, more than 4,000 Christians were displaced from nearby Chibok after similar raids.

The human toll is staggering. Since 2009, over 50,000 Christians have been killed nationwide by extremist violence, with Gwoza and surrounding areas bearing the brunt. Of the 176 churches that once stood in Gwoza Local Government Area, 148 have been destroyed. Pastors, farmers, and children have been executed in cold blood, often forced to renounce their faith at gunpoint.

For the more than 60,000 Gwoza Christians now living in Cameroon, exile offers little solace. Most are crammed into camps like Minawao in the country’s Far North Region, where aid is scarce and conditions are dire. Families live in flimsy tents, battling malnutrition, cholera outbreaks, and the constant threat of Boko Haram incursions across the porous border.

Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum visited these refugees in October 2025, acknowledging their plight but offering little in the way of immediate solutions. Many feel abandoned by the Nigerian government, by the international community, and by the world’s conscience.

The journey home is even deadlier. With internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Nigeria closing and repatriation programs faltering, desperate refugees attempt to trek back on foot. Hundreds have died en route, their bodies claimed by hunger, dehydration, and ambushes. One of the survivor recounted walking for days with nothing but wild leaves to eat, only to find his village in ruins upon return and bokko haram still targeted him until he run again to Nasarawa state.

The deliberate targeting of Christians for elimination based on their faith. A Gwoza Christians elder recently received death threats for daring to call it what it is a genocide and demanding international intervention.

Regardless of terminology, the facts are undeniable: entire Christian communities have been erased from the map. Land once farmed by generations of Marghi, Chibok, and Gwoza believers now lies fallow and is occupied by settlers aligned with the insurgents.

The world cannot afford to look away. The Home for the needy foundation in benin Open Doors for 3000 Gwoza orphans, providing critical support, but their resources are stretched thin. Safe, voluntary repatriation must be prioritized, alongside robust security for returnees. International pressure is needed to ensure Nigeria fulfills its duty to protect all citizens regardless of faith.

The people of Gwoza are not statistics. They are mothers who buried their children, pastors who preach in the ruins of their sanctuaries, and refugees who still dare to hope. Their story is one of resilience amid unimaginable loss.
It is time for the global community to act not with silence, but with solidarity. The Christians of Gwoza have suffered enough.