Banditry In South West: Only ‘Balance Of Terror ‘ Suffices As Permanent Solution- ADAPHAI

It is regrettably sad that the government of Nigeria and it’s security agencies have failed woefully to carefully study and understand the psychology of bandits and the philosophy behind the economy of banditry, thereby, continued to do the same thing in the same way without result.

Contrary to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s report in May, 2026, quoting an estimated 30,000 Fulani militants causing mayhem in Nigeria, the numbers of bandits of Fulani extraction operating in the North East, North West and North Central of Nigeria are around fifty thousands, together with over twenty thousand insurgents of Boko Haram and Iswap groups, who are into gold theft and kidnappings.

As it stands, the numbers of Fulani marauders and Boko Haram insurgents operating freely across Nigeria’s forests as bandits are approximately 80,000, majorly in the North West and North Central, with renewed inroads of about 25,000 of these criminal elements into the South West geo-political zone, the development capable of causing unimaginable socio-economic crisis in the region that prides itself as the economic nerve centre of Nigeria.

It is, therefore, instructive to note that because of the peculiarity of the South West region, considering the level of it’s civilization and social consciousness, the new wave of kidnappings and gruesome killings in the land by Fulani militants could trigger an ethnic conflict of profound national impacts.

FAILURE OF GOVERNMENT

Unfortunately, the government of Nigeria has retained the old and ineffective security approach that has woefully failed in all dimensions, and that is the method of using conventional and formal security architecture to fight locally rooted criminality of present dimension.

The constant failure to stop the present wave of kidnappings and brutal killings of Nigerians by these criminal elements lies in the lack of creativity and sensitivity of the government, the government has failed to strategically look inward and change tactics as it necessarily required .

One wonders why the heavily financed intelligence community of Nigeria have not been able to device a home-grown security method that is rooted in communal realities to tackle this new dimension of security breach in the region and continues with their old way of little or no effect.

SOLUTION

Preamble: The Nigeria’s intelligence community has not painstakingly and technically study why the Ebira community of Kogi State hardly witness this wave of criminality in their forest despite the intensity of kidnappings around them(Okun and Igala communities). The answer is simple, the Ebira community has succeeded in managing the local terror in their community and tactically turned it to a local security instrument to fight external aggression successfully.

It is the same method that played out in the South East region of Nigeria, except pockets of this violence in Enugu because of it’s proximity to Eastern Senatorial District of Kogi State, other states of the South East are relatively free of forest invasion and renewed slavery of the people by Fulani marauders.

Many communities in the South South have also deployed the same method of converting the local terror tactically to a manageable communal guard of significant success.

These above instances are practical examples of the effectiveness of ‘Balance of Terror’ as a logical and realistic panacea to the menace of existential threat posed by the activities of foreign Fulani militants in conjunction with their local collaborators, who are hell-bent in disrupting the innocence and serenity of our local communities with impunity.

Only foolish individuals with less cognitive strength would think these criminals will back down in their nefarious activities and in anyway be deterred by the operations of the conventional security agencies and foreign mercenaries, only a locally rooted and organised ‘Balance of Terror’, can work in this regard.

Modality

Beyond the rhetorics of ‘ Forest Guard’, which has failed at its experimental stage as a lasting solution to the menace of Fulani invasion in various communities, the Federal Government in collaboration with state governors must quickly move and assemble different local security arrangements in the six states of the South West region and communities in southern Kwara and Western Kogi through traditional rulers of different communities for ‘Total War’ against Fulani marauders.

These local security arrangements must include(The OPC, Sunday Igboho’s Iru Ekun, Hunters, Agbekoyas, the combined warriors of Ife&Modakeke that confronted and defeated heavily harmed robbers that attacked banks in Ile -ife in 2009, among many others in the zone).

This ‘coalition’ of these brave men must be stupendously funded by the governors and the Federal Government and an immediate legislation must be enacted to make them bear assault rifles of high sophistication with accompanied monitoring and regulation mechanism under the traditional rulers and through potent and efficacious traditional instruments to prevent abuse.

Further covert strategy will be given at the point of implementation going forward. Without mincing words, this spate of criminality in the South West will stop within two weeks and significant peace of the past will be restored across our various communities without blemish.

If the Federal Government could legalized sophisticated weapons for Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, and continues to fund it with Billions of naira, an organisation established by an Ex-warlord in the creek of Niger Delta, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, to monitor oil pipelines in the region, nothing should stop the immediate constitution and funding of this Interventional Security Group in the South West zone as a matter of exigency.

From all indications, it is suffice it to say that the only way to go in the face of the urgent need to protect the people and the region of the South West Nigeria, known for it’s peculiar peaceful co-exietence and egalitarian society is the concept of ‘Balance of Terror’ against Fulani militants, strictly on the prism of “Lesser Evil Greatest Happiness”.

Never again should the region witness the horror of Oriire Local Government of Oyo State; eternal vigilance remains sacrosanct!

E-signed

Olaniyi Ajibola

Founder: Advocacy for Advancement of Peace & Harmony in Africa Initiative (ADAPHAI).

Email: advocacyinafrica@gmail.com