Nigeria’s response to the onset of murder ous mass violence has evolved through phases of co-optation, brutal reprisal, appeasement, and state incapacity. Through phases of anti-terrorism, counter-terrorism and, now, interminable and metastasizing counter-insurgencies, the country has found itself mired in chronic mass violence as the only language of political dialogue. The spike in armed robbery in Nigeria coincided with the mismanagement by the Yakubu Gowon regime of demobilisation in the aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War. Law enforcement, hitherto used to deniable means of committing such atrocities, had become fully converted to the methods of outlawry. This appears to have led the rest of the country to the conclusion that insurgency was the only path to dialogue.

Source: Punch April 11, 2022 19:50 UTC