21-8-25.

I do not know whether the video of Governor Dikko Umar Radda, PhD, where he appeared to be talking a selfie, walking in a comfortable looking resting room, is a recent one or an old one, but one thing I am sure about is the savagery with which bandits visit my neck of the woods (Malumfashi), its environs, and the Southern part (Karaduwa) of the state in general.

On Tuesday, the bandits unleash their babarity on Muslims saying the early morning prayer (Subhi), KILLING 13 people (state government figures), but some people claimed that the actual number of those killed was more like 23, plus about 20 others abducted in the town. The governor has started his annual leave a day earlier.

To be candid, Governor Radda has chosen the most inauspicious time to go on his annual leave to “seek medical help for his health”, as he stated in the letter transmitting power to his Deputy, His Excellency, Faruk Lawal Jobe, the Sarkin Fulani of Katsina. 

The governor was so lucky to be able to seek medical health abroad. But the 13 people in  , Malumfashi local government, were not that lucky. They were massacred by the non state actors, who have defied the might of state actors, including Soldiers, the Police, and other security agencies.

The regularity with which bandits attack towns and villages in Southern Katsina has forced some able-bodied people to stage a regular protest, by blocking the highway leading to some towns in the area, as a way of getting the attention of the authorities, who often promise to protect the people’s “lives and property”.

It is definitely a non brainer to say whether that promise is kept. But what challenges the understanding of ordinary people like yours sincerely is the reason why the authorities are unable to defeat this rag tag of non state actors, despite the equipment that are at its disposal. The equipment includes Airforce planes (that appear good at accidental bombings), Airforce drones, sophisticated weapons, and well trained and horned personnel.

However, the bandits appear to enjoy the protection of the high ups in the country because, oftentimes, an order is received from above demanding that they be NOT killed when captured, that the volunteer people (Ýan sa kai) be disbanded, and be told their service is not needed anymore.

A video of a bandit kingpin recently trended on the social media where the outlaw claimed that he was tired of banditry because he had made enough money to buy ‘a plane and travel around the world’, but ‘those we are working for in the government will not let us go’.

A culture of blocking highways is developing in the Southern part of Katsina state to draw the attention of the authorities and the public to the constant fatal attacks by bandits on the communities.

A security officer, traveling from Funtua town to Malumfashi town was blocked by protesters and told to go back where he “came from”, a development that, according to him, added some 40 minutes on his journey as he had to take a dirt road to go round the protesters to get to Malumfashi.

That is not an isolated case these days. It is as regular as the attacks by the bandits. Yet, President Tinubu, accompanied by some high government officials, including the chief of defence staff, General Christopher Musa, stated in a Japan that there was an increased security in Nigeria due to the active support of the military, Police and other security agencies. Sometimes one is forced to wonder whether the president knows what is going on in the country. He will say one thing, while the exact opposite is the truth. The truth is that there is more INSECURITY in Nigeria now than before, especially in the North Western part of the country.

More than half of the security architecture of the country is in the hands of Northerners. The National Security Adviser, the two Ministers of Defence, the Chief of Defence Staff, Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, and a raft of top security personnel, are all Northerners. Yet, the North knows no peace. It is either Boko Haram in the North East, the bandits in the North West, or the militias in the North Central.

The bandits attack in Katsina state has been happening for a long time, and the Katsina state governor has INITIALLY showed no sign of relenting in his efforts to see to the end of insurgency in his state. In a previous article on insecurity, I lauded the Katsina state governor for talking tough to the military high command, where he accused some military personnel of compromising the fight against the bandits in the North West.

The article shared on some social media platforms on 17-8-2024 titled, ‘Increasing Bandits Attack In Katsina State’, reported Dr. Dikko Umar Radda, PhD, CON, the Governor of Katsina State as being “frustrated by the constant attacks of bandits in his state that he once accused one of the security forces of compromising the battle to end the menace for good. This allegation pitched him in a battle of words with the Military High Command, which dared him to substantiate the claim.”

Again, to make his counterparts ready for the fight against the insurgency, as the chairman of the North Western Governors Forum, Dr. Dikko Radda, mid last year, led a delegation of the governors in the region to a security meeting in the US, where they brainstormed with with the host country’s experts on security.

Even before the US meeting, Governor Radda had established the Katsina State the Community Watch Corps (a kind of Rapid Response Squad) with a view to responding to any reported threat of the bandits to the people of the state.

Still, the governor took a commendable stance against INFORMANTS, directing the Judiciary to amend the law against banditry in the state, and make the offence punishable with death. That was THEN, but NOW, a mare one year after, the menace is more menacing in his state, and the North West in general.

Another PhD holder, Dr. Nasir Mua’zu, the Honourable Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, has a lot more duty before him, as the daring bandits keep on striking regularly with even more ferocity than their last attack.

His Excellency, the governor may be well advised to cut short his annual leave and come back to his state, because things are not very well. Not that I have no confidence in the Acting Governor (He is a very brilliant person, for sure), but substantive capacity he has not. The governor has all the power to face the challenge face on, but the Acting Governor has not.

May God expose, and shame the bandits and their sponsors, whoever they may be, wherever they may be, and in whatever clime they may be.

Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.