It is a deeply sorrowful and chilling reality that bandits and terrorists are winning the war against the Nigerian state and its people, while leaders and security forces stand by, seemingly paralyzed. There is no sheriff in town, and the symbols of this failure are stark. Consider the armed assault on the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Nigeria’s premier policy institute where top government officials, military brass, and civil servants train for leadership. On Monday night, gunfire erupted between attackers and security personnel on the institute’s grounds. This was no random act; it was a political statement, a taunt that says, “We can strike anywhere, anytime, and you cannot stop us.”
Then there is the case of General Rabe Abubakar, a retired military officer kidnapped alongside his wife on May 30 along the Marabar Musawa-Kafinsoli road in Katsina State. The bandits released a video of the couple in captivity, a cruel mockery of a state that could not protect its own. He served the nation, but the nation failed him. His wife was later rescued, raising the painful question: why not earlier? The Defence Headquarters praised him as a committed officer who contributed to counter-insurgency efforts, making his fate all the more tragic.
The core issue is that insecurity has been allowed to fester, spread, and deepen across the country. The bandits and terrorists are now so powerful that they overwhelm state forces. The reason? A self-serving ruling class more focused on looting the treasury than funding the fight. A fraction of the resources used to destabilize opposition parties could have expanded the armed forces and equipped them with modern weapons. The insurgents are not stronger than the state; the state simply refuses to invest enough to defeat them. Over the past three years, enormous sums have been spent to bribe, cajole, and threaten opposition politicians into joining the ruling party. The government is laser-focused on securing a second term for President Tinubu, not on providing safety for Nigerians.
The latest twist came from Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, who ordered the deregistration of key opposition parties, including the African Democratic Congress, Action Peoples Party, and Zenith Labour Party, for alleged failure to meet constitutional thresholds. The legal basis is not absurd, but the judgment ignored facts: the ADC won a federal seat in 2023, the APP won 22 chairmanship seats in Rivers, and the ZLP won 15 of 17 local government areas in Abia. The Court of Appeal later stayed the execution, rebuking Justice Lifu for flouting a May 22 order to halt proceedings. The appellate court called it a “brazen violation of the hierarchy of the court and the 1999 Constitution.”
If President Tinubu had kept his inauguration promise to focus on security, Nigeria would not be in this mess. But there is no sheriff in town. Bandits and terrorists kill and kidnap at will, emboldened by a state that watches helplessly. This trend must be reversed.
