Every day, Nigerians wake up to fresh reports of banditry, kidnapping, and killings. The conversations have become so frequent that insecurity now dominates our national discourse. Recently, I had the opportunity to watch an interview in which Rev. Ladi Peter Thompson shared his views on the insecurity in Nigeria, its root causes, and what he believes are the solutions. His perspective challenged many of the popular narratives surrounding this crisis.
I decided to share some of that conversation in this article because I believe the insights are worth acting on. I hope you find it helpful. If you find it valuable, kindly share it with others.
Nigeria, as the most populous country in Africa, is reputable and well known for many things, including her creativity and innovation.
However, recent events surrounding insecurity in Nigeria have given it a new identity: a home for insecurity.
Conversations surrounding banditry and kidnapping grow more common with each passing day. An avenue to share opinions, rant, and discuss the government's failures now unites Nigeria in ways that culture no longer can.
Rev. Ladi Peter Thompson, a security expert who served as the Deputy Secretary General for Directors for Peace and Security at the African Union, offered a counterposition to the noise surrounding this crisis during an interview.
Talking about it, he said, is not enough. What Nigeria needs is a solution.
Rev. Thompson made it clear that Nigerians need to put pressure on the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces before there can be any true change.
Several issues stood out in his assessment of Nigeria's fight to combat the insecurity crisis. The first being that the Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria's Armed Forces has refused to define the enemy. As Rev. Thompson noted, the inability to define the enemy is also an inability to decisively defeat them.
He pointed out that the internal agents destroying Nigeria are fewer than the media, or even the people, have presumed them to be. But because Nigerians, as well as their leaders, have refused to "name names," the noise continues.
Another question Rev. Thompson raised is why already convicted terrorists are reintegrated and given room not only to return to the midst of civilians but also to serve as military officers, among the very people whose colleagues, friends, and family members they killed.
He reminded us that Nigeria has a population of approximately two hundred and forty million people. Without the complicity that exists within Nigeria, he argued, it would not be impossible for two hundred and forty million people to intelligently establish that the primary responsibility of governance has been abandoned.
About religion, Rev. Thompson was clear.
The terrorism crisis in Nigeria, he said, is not a religious problem. Instead, it is a supremacist agenda wearing a religious cover. The Kanuris and the Fulanis, who do not see eye to eye, are fighting for a position as the predator of the nation.
He acknowledged that America has done the country a great service with its recent intervention. But he noted that, before the current administration, the American government was actively aiding the defeat of Nigeria. Nigeria was traded off on the table, sacrificed to keep certain Western states safe at the expense of a destroyed Nigeria.
He went further to describe Nigeria's response to this intervention, which is flooding the United States of America with money and denying the existence of a genocide. As a result, many people in Washington, previously passionate about speaking up against the genocide, have since been dampened and discouraged from doing so. All but a select few have refused to be swayed.
This, Rev. Thompson said, goes to prove a bitter truth: whatever problem money cannot solve will be solved with more money.
To truly solve Nigeria's problems, we must first understand that the greatest problem in the equation is Nigerians themselves. But in the same vein, we also hold the solution in our hands.
Read Next: Part 2
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