“There are no desperate situations; only desperate men [and women and children]” – Josef Goebbels, 1897-1945.

Adolf Hitler’s Chief of Propaganda, during the last hundred days of the fall of Hitler’s Third Reich, was the man saddled with the task of broadcasting frequently fake news about the war situation to the German people – who already knew the war was lost – despite their government’s attempt to deceive them.

History has revealed that every time a nation is in desperate situation, the first sign is lack of cohesion within the ruling class and an increasing lack of followership by the ruled.

Right now, Nigeria’s ruling class – not just the President, National Assembly and governors – is in disarray and totally clueless regarding insecurity in the country.

The current situation had its origins in the Buhari administration.1

 WHY BUHARI FLED FROM DAURA

  “The evil that men [particularly in high office] do lives after them…” – William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

Former President Buhari recently absconded from Daura, his long term residence, after he was thrown out of office and released from detention in the 1980s.

His inept spin doctors would have us believe that he always wanted to spend his last days in Kaduna. That is a lie.

If you believe that story, then you will believe anything. The real truth is: Buhari fled from Daura because his safety could no longer be guaranteed.

All sorts of hoodlums – insurgents, kidnappers and herdsmen – not to talk of ethnic avengers – have turned Katsina State into hell on Earth for every resident; Buhari included.

Meanwhile, the vastly reduced security guards assigned to protect him have proved inadequate to repel a full-scale assault by bounty hunters who would demand at least a billion naira if they manage to lay hands on him in Daura.

For his sake, as well as to save Nigeria unimaginable embarrassment, the man had to be proactively evacuated to a safer place.

Everything else said regarding his relocation is simply a load of cow dung; not to be believed.  

Otherwise, why would someone, who was well-advertised as a cattle farmer, managing a ranch, leave his flock in Daura and move to Kaduna?

Who is taking care of the flock? Buhari was the main architect of the pervasive insecurity, now experienced by Nigerians, which is now bringing us to the brink of anarchy.

Below are selected news reports about acts of banditry in 2022 alone – when Buhari and his spokesmen – Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina – were busy proclaiming that the security situation in Nigeria was improving. Lying was official policy making it impossible to seriously think about solving the problem which got consistently worse.

2.2 MILLION N/East residents, 452,363 households displaced – FG (PUNCH, JULY 1, 2022). Terrorists kill 20 military personnel, 7 mobile policemen, others in Niger…Dozens, including 4 Chinese abducted…2 policemen killed by gunmen in Enugu (VANGUARD, JULY 1, 2022). Nigerian govt shields herdsmen, blames ISWAP for Owo attack – Report (PUNCH, JULY 1, 2022). How terrorists overran Ajata-Aboki mining site in Niger…bandits kill seven soldiers in Taraba (NATION, JULY 2, 2022).

The carnage was nationwide; no state was spared.

Despite the damning daily abundance of evidence, Buhari and his officers kept releasing unpatriotic statements about progress being made without remorse.

It was disgraceful.

Former Editors, who spent years proclaiming that  “Facts are sacred”, turned the truth on its head for personal advantage and imperiled the nation.

  BUHARI LEFT TINUBU A COUNTRY ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE

  “Standing on the foundation emplaced by the current [Buhari] administration, we shall…” – RENEWED HOPE document, page 3.

I was tempted to throw away the RENEWED HOPE document after reading that declaration by the Tinubu and Shettima Campaign.

Anybody promising to build on the crumbling foundations left by Buhari either does not know what good governance is or is playing cheap politics with very serious matters. Tinubu soon discovered the sort of foundation, erected on quick sand, which Buhari left with respect to security.

Here are a few reports to remind the forgetful.

Bandits invade Kaduna school, kidnap over 200 pupils, teachers (VANGUARD, MARCH 8, 2024). Benue: Armed herdsmen killed 147 in 2 months – Ethnic leaders’ Chairman (VANGUARD, MARCH 15, 2024). Terrorists kidnap 87 in fresh Kaduna attack (VANGUARD, MARCH 19, 2024). Reign of terror: 165 farmers killed in March, farms deserted as bandits demand N3bn…Over 80 per cent of those people you see at various IDP camps are farmers…10,000 hectares of land could not be cultivated for over three years now – Chairman, AFAN, Sokoto, PUNCH (MARCH 20, 2024). KILLING FIELDS: 6,931 people killed under Tinubu in 10 months…Death toll higher than 5,356 wasted under Buhari; worse than Jonathan’s 2,059 all in 10 months (VANGUARD, MARCH 23, 2024). REIGN OF TERROR: Two monarchs, 28 others killed in Niger, seven in Benue (PUNCH, MARCH 23, 2024). In new attacks, 8 policemen killed in Delta, Imo, 6 missing (VANGUARD, MARCH 24, 2024). Terrorists kill Army Lieutenant, wound 4 soldiers [in Boko Haram ambush] (VANGUARD, APRIL 8, 2024). Bandits kill 30 security volunteers in Niger (VANGUARD, APRIL 9, 2024). 2,583 Nigerians killed, 2164 abducted in three months – Report (DAILY TRUST, APRIL 22, 2024).  

“It was evil that visited the state. As a government of less than two years we have significantly reduced the levels of violence we inherited” – Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser, April 22, 2025, in Benue State.  

In less than ten months, the security foundation emplaced by Buhari collapsed on Tinubu’s head.

He has not recovered till today.

Nuhu Ribadu also said that the Tinubu administration “inherited an extremely bad security situation.”

Ribadu, like everybody else in Tinubu’s government, lacked the courage to name who bequeathed the “extremely bad situation” to his boss.

But, even the village idiot knows who handed the baton of leadership to Tinubu on May 29, 2023 – after telling the entire world another bold faced lie – “I have left Nigeria better than I found it.”

That was despite data establishing that more Nigerians were killed, kidnapped, abducted and displaced in Buhari’s eight years than since 1960 – if the Civil War is excluded. Who wants to build on that literally bloody foundation? Who wants to be associated with the genocide and ethnic cleansing?  

WE ARE NOW ON A CLIFF’S EDGE

“We are on a darkling plain; and no one hears” – Matthew Arnold, 1822-88.

Our journey to the edge of the abyss started in March 2016; ten months after Buhari became President.

Before Buhari, the Life Patron of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders of Nigeria, MACBAN, there was never any reported incident of herdsmen invading farms and killing the farm owners.

I can state that authoritatively because of my involvement in farming.

Yes; there were always hundreds of thousands of cases where cattle strayed into farms and caused damage.

But, invariably, the herders would apologise and sometimes make amends.

The peaceful co-existence ended in 2016; when herdsmen first invaded and devastated Nemo in Enugu State; and followed that with the genocide at Agatu in Benue State.

For the first time in Nigerian history, herdsmen were carrying sophisticated weapons with impunity.

To the everlasting shame of Buhari, no Federal Government official visited any of the two communities; no relief materials were sent to the victims.

No effort was even made to search for the culprits; not to talk of bringing them to justice. Agatu turned out to be a rehearsal for other atrocities perpetrated by herdsmen all over Nigeria.

Incidentally, the first time the murderous herdsmen met their match was in Taraba State; where the Jukuns, General Danjuma’s people, repaid an eye for an eye and overwhelmed the herdsmen.

Suddenly, Buhari and the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido, another MACBAN Life Patron, were crying about herdsmen being slaughtered in Mambilla Plateau.

The Jukuns made a point which everybody must bear in mind.

 SELF-DEFENCE IS INDISPENSABLE FOR SURVIVAL NOW

  “Self-preservation is the first law of nature and life.”When General Danjuma advised his people to “defend yourselves”, a daft state governor in the North-West said that it would lead to anarchy.

What the governor did not tell us is what the people in a community are supposed to do when the invasion starts and there are no security forces to stop them.

Are the people supposed to wait to be slaughtered one by one – in order to prevent anarchy?

The truth is: most rural communities are kilometres away from the nearest Police Post and much further away from the closest Army Barrack.

It is simply idiotic to ask people not to defend themselves under the circumstances.  

An old soldier friend living in one rural community in Takum LG, Taraba State, who is the head of the vigilantes, told me the secret of their survival against herdsmen in our conversation in February 2023.”

As far as I am concerned, everybody in every rural community should have drilled into their heads a basic self-defence instruction.

One, every person in a household should own at least a cutlass – kept sharp always.

Two, have it near your bed before going to sleep.

Three, don’t hesitate to use it when the invader enters your premises.

Four, make sure you take one down with you. Five, never surrender your life without a fight for it.

Six, forget government. Dead men and women don’t have government. You have government only if you escape death.”There has been no invasion, after two disastrous attempts on his community by herdsmen – during which every single one of the attackers were eliminated.

Nigerians now live desperate lives on account of insecurity.

Self-defence is the first option for survival.

To be continued…

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