While Nigeria’s ruling class struggle to find solutions to the country’s multifaceted insecurity crisis, ordinary Nigerians are paying the price in lives, destroyed livelihoods and falling living standards.
Ahmed Idris reported for Al Jazeera today from Ibeto in Niger State about a surge in attacks by “bandits” that is ruining the economy with markets shut down, supply routes attacked regularly and farming in many areas suspended.
Many people in affected communities have relocated to safer areas. Idris spoke to a man who had members of his household kidnapped by the “bandits” and they still hadn’t been released even after he sold his possessions to pay the ransom.
The area has had no peace for months as farmers can neither plant nor harvest their crops. Banditry and kidnapping have disrupted food production. This has resulted in pushing up food prices, deepening hunger and malnutrition.
As many schools have closed, road projects are abandoned due to fear of attacks and very little is going on in terms of development when funding is diverted towards security. Whether the money allocated to security is spent for what it is budgeted for is another story.
A trader, Dantari Achiarage, said that two weeks ago, “bandits” blockaded a highway, operating for 24 hours without response from security agencies. Kabiru Adamu, a security analyst, lamented that “all conditions for descent into a fragile state are there”.
Things are pretty dire right now for many in Nigeria’s countryside. And what happens in those remote areas affects the rest of the country as that’s where most of the food is grown. Idris summed it up as “a stark warning for Nigeria, a threat to its economic future and stability if the violence goes unchecked”.
