Friday Lines (118) With
Dr Abubakar Alkali
_To Generalize is to be an Idiot; To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit – William Blake_
It is very clear that banditry and terrorism are existential threats to the stability and corporate existence of our dear country Nigeria. However, it is very disturbing for anyone no less Mr Lasisi Olagunju in his ‘Monday Lines’ published in the Nigerian Tribune on 15/6/26 to use the current unprecedented insecurity in the country particularly the North to profile the whole of Northern Nigeria. Lasisi Olagunju’s article titled ‘Northern Nigeria will soon kill Nigeria’ is a very clear attempt at regional profiling where he stopped short of calling all Northerners terrorists or bandits-sympathizers. This is very dangerous and is nowhere near the solution to eradicating the kidnapping economy in Nigeria.
It would have been a better approach if Mr Olagunju had focused on the Fulani criminal gangs who are the main actors and who control about 95% of the kidnapping economy in the North particularly the North/west rather than label the whole of Northern Nigeria as some sort of terrorist sympathizers or people with affinity to terrorism. Yes there is an unprecedented level of kidnappings, insecurity and killings in the North perpetrated mainly by Fulani criminal gangs who constitute less than 5% of Northerners. Yes these Fulani criminal gangs who control the kidnapping industry in the North do not constitute even 5% of the entire Northern population. So why should Mr Olagunju profile all Northerners and hold all of us by the jugular for the crime of a few?
Moreso, the ‘entire Northerners’ that Olagunju heaped all the blame upon are actually the major victims of the kidnapping-economy-of-death being driven by Fulani criminal gangs. The Hausa are the major victims of the current insecurity perpetrated by Fulani criminal gangs in the North. In fact, not only the Hausa, even the peace-loving majority of the Fulani are victims as the few Fulani criminal gangs constitute less than 3% of the entire Fulani population.
Recall that on 4/1/25, bandits killed Alhaji Amadu Surajo, a fulani leader and the Katsina state Ag. chairman of Miyetti Allah cattle breeders association (MACBAN). Many prominent Fulani leaders were killed by bandits in recent times.
Most of the Fulani criminal gangs are actually Nigerians even though, the government and its agents in a bid to justify its failure to crush them, claim they are non-Nigerians. Most of these Fulani criminal gangs are actually indigenes of Zamfara and Katsina states.
By his regional profiling, Mr Olagunju was not being fair to the over 100,000 innocent Northerners who were either kidnapped and/or killed in the current banditry economy perpetrated by Fulani criminal gangs. In fact, if he doesn’t know, Mr Olagunju should be told pointblank that he is stocking ethnic tensions and putting the lives of Northerners who reside in the Southern part of Nigeria in danger. A lot of killings of Northerners over the years in Mile 12 Lagos, Sasa Market Ibadan and several other areas in the South-west and South-east zones happen as a result of sentiments spread through the media. Mr Olagunju should know better than to profile all Northerners as bandits sympathizers and people with affinity to terrorism. This is not true.
How could anyone accuse the victim through a deliberate generalization while he leaves the substance of the subject matter?
For a fact, Mr Olagunju should understand that it will make a better sense if he views Nigeria from a holistic perspective rather than from an atomistic one. Mr Olagunju should separate the wheat from the chaff; he should separate the majority peace loving Northerners from the very few Fulani criminal gangs that are main drivers of the kidnapping economy in Northern Nigeria.