Over the past week, no fewer than nine Governors from the North were in Washington, D.C. to attend a conference organised by the United States Institute of Peace, USIP, with the theme: “Drivers of Instability and Opportunities for Stabilisation”.

These were: Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau, Abba Yusuf of Kano, Uba Sani of Kaduna, Umar Bago of Niger, Hyacinth Alia of Benue, Umar Namadi of Jigawa, Dauda Lawal of Zamfara, Nasir Idris of Kebbi, and the Deputy Governor of Sokoto, Idris Gobir. Apart from Jigawa and Kano, the rest of the governors are bedevilled with the menace of violent bandits and jihadists killing, abducting people, destroying communities and displacing innocent citizens.

Former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, in a social media post, blasted them for embarking on a jamboree. He said the matter of security for which they were invited is on the Exclusive List, which is beyond the purview of their constitutional powers.

We slightly fault Lamido over his assertion that governors have no role in security, a function he ascribed wholly to the Federal Government. Governors are called the chief security officers of their states, though for now, they have no direct control of any security organisation except vigilante groups. It is a major fault in the 1999 Constitution which the current debate over the suitability or otherwise of state police seeks to address.

What bothers us more is the predilection of Nigerian politicians to seize every little opportunity to troop abroad, as if the solution to our problems will be found there. Every presidential hopeful runs to Chatham House in London to make a speech as if seeking the blessing or validation of the British authorities.

The first foreign trip Muhammadu Buhari undertook when he was sworn in, in 2015, was to the same USIP, where he infamously declared he would favour those who voted for him. Northern governors were “summoned” by the Barack Obama regime to Washington in 2015 and told to join the agenda to remove Goodluck Jonathan from office.

Perhaps, the incumbent Northern Governors also trooped to Washington in the belief that some aid would follow their effort, whereas the USIP is just a talk shop. If the American government wanted to partner Nigeria in tackling insecurity here, President Tinubu would be at the head of the Nigerian delegation.

We advise Nigerian political leaders to look inwards for solutions to our problems. The insecurity in the North is caused by misrule, corruption, religious intolerance, imperialist mentality and lack of socio-economic inclusion. The people carrying guns, occupying the wilderness and attacking innocent people are Northerners, especially the nomads, the poor and disadvantaged classes who were abandoned to their fate. They are fighting back.

The Northern elite must re-engineer their mindsets, carry everybody along and drop religious extremism. No amount of running abroad will bring solutions.