The communique issued by the 19 Northern Governors

NORTHERN LEADERS: YOU CANNOT FUEL INSECURITY FOR YEARS AND NOW PRETEND TO SEEK SOLUTIONS
By Chief Malcolm Emokiniovo Omirhobo

The attention of the public has been drawn to the communique issued by the 19 Northern Governors and the Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council after their emergency meeting in Kaduna, where they called for a six-month suspension of mining activities, a ₦1 billion monthly regional security fund, and full support for state police.
While these resolutions appear bold on the surface, Nigerians must not forget the historical truth:

The very same Northern political, religious, and traditional elites who now claim to be searching for solutions are the ones who created, nurtured, defended, and protected the insecurity consuming Nigeria today.

1. Northern leaders legitimised and romanticised bandits
   For years, influential Northern politicians, clerics, and community leaders openly described bandits as:
   “Freedom fighters”
   “Peacemakers”
   Individuals to be negotiated with, compensated, and granted amnesty
   Some even provided them moral justification and political cover.
   They refused to label them as terrorists, preferring weak euphemisms like “misguided youths.”
   Today those same leaders now want Nigerians to believe they are “suddenly” ready to confront the monsters they created?
2. They institutionalised the Sharia criminal justice system and weakened the Constitution
   The instability we face today did not start today.
   For over two decades, Northern elites:
   Propagated, implemented, and institutionalised the Sharia criminal justice system in 12 states
   Created a dual, unequal legal regime within a supposed secular republic
   Undermined national cohesion
   Inspired radicalisation and parallel loyalty structures
   This deliberate political project fractured national unity and laid the foundation for today’s extremism and lawlessness.
3. They weaponised poverty and refused to educate their children
   Northern leaders also:
   Refused to prioritise basic education
   Allowed millions of out-of-school children, the highest in the world
   Weaponised poverty as a political tool
   Allowed ignorance, hunger, and unemployment to create the perfect breeding ground for banditry
   Now the same leaders who deliberately engineered mass illiteracy suddenly want billions deducted “at source” every month to fight insecurity
4. Mining suspension is not new , it is merely convenient
   Illegal mining has funded banditry for years. Communities screamed. Experts warned. Security agencies reported it.
   Northern leaders ignored every alarm until their own political and economic interests came under threat.
   A six-month mining suspension is not a courageous move , it is a late admission of complicity.
5. You cannot support State Police while empowering warlords
   The same elite who:
   Shielded terror financiers
   Negotiated with criminals
   Paid ransom under the table
   Released arrested bandits “to maintain peace”are now calling for State Police?

If established without strict checks, state police in the hands of governors who cannot even manage education, transparency, or local government autonomy may become:
Instruments of ethnic domination
Tools for political thuggery
Paramilitary wings for entrenched interests

“Legalised banditry” under state authority

6. Real solutions require honesty, not propaganda
   If Northern leaders are serious about ending insecurity, they must first admit:
   “We caused this.”
   They must also undo their past mistakes:
   Dismantle ideological support for banditry
   End selective justice
   Reinforce constitutional supremacy over Sharia criminal law
   Mandate compulsory education for all children
   Punish terror financiers
   Stop shielding extremist clerics and warlords
   Empower communities instead of silencing them
   Until then, no communique or ₦1 billion deduction can rescue the North from the fire its leaders ignited.

Northern Nigeria’s insecurity is not an accident. It is the direct product of decades of elite decisions, ideological extremism, political hypocrisy, and social engineering.

The same hands that fertilized the soil of banditry cannot pretend to be the gardeners of peace today.
Nigeria must refuse to be deceived again.