Poverty as a cause for insecurity in the North

One of the major reasons why Goodluck Jonathan was defeated in 2015 was the insecurity situation ravaging mostly the Northeastern part of the country, Boko Haram insurgency has claimed thousands of lives, destructuction of properties and caused severe damages to health and education sectors of the affected areas, many people have been displaced from their communities and their source of livelihood destroyed.

There is no doubt that there was a bit of improvement in the fight against insurgency immediately after the Buhari led administration assumed power, as there are no more serial bomb blasts and the activities of the insurgents have been degraded.

But the situation we have at hand now is not much different from the one we experienced in past few years, the recent security challenge of kidnappings and banditry keeps increasing inspite of the measures put by authorities to tackle the menace. The axis of Katsina, Zamfara, parts of Sokoto, Kebbi have become kidnappers and bandits den costing lives of innocent people, burning down of towns and villages and paying huge amount of money as ransoms. The people of these states have continued to mourn the slaughter of their people everyday.

The stories of horrors inflicted on the victims is quite touching, scary and worrisome, its almost on daily basis now that you must catch upon news of either abduction, bandits attack or kidnappings.

Insecurity in Northern Nigeria cannot be unconnected to the failure of leaders and governments at all levels to address properly the basic needs of people, provide jobs, eradicate poverty, create opportunities for people and improve their general well being.

Many Northern elders had already foreseen and warned against the possible security threat facing the region if the ever growing youths population and increasing overall population of the region continued to be neglected, denied jobs, and other basic amenities there and poverty keeps engulfing the region.

There have been reports by National Bureau of Statistics, World bank and other institutions that significant percentage of Nigerians live below poverty line. Many nigerians are living on less than one dollar a day. It may interest you to know larger part of that percentage is in northern Nigeria mostly Northwest states, the award of poorest states have been rotating among northwest states for quite a long time.

The rapidly increasing population in North without any provision for what the population will feed on is another issue to look on,  people especially in the rural areas marry as many wives as they could and give birth to as many children as they desire but unfortunately can't cater for them, hence pushing them to streets to cater for themselves. This is one of the reasons we are having millions of out-of-school children and they are increasing everyday, these kind of children will grow up on their own at the mercy of the environment they find themselves, this alone poses a greater security risk both for the North and the entire country.

All these threats coupled with unemployment rate that is ever increasing poses much greater  risk to the security of the North and the country entirely. As the popular proverb says "An idle mind is a devils work shop"

In conclusion, the solution to insecurity isn't just military action, governments at all level must ensure people are provided with jobs and opportunities, access to good education and qualitative life considering the enormous wealth of resources Nigeria posses, citizens must know and feel the impact of their resources.