Her name is Chinelo Megafu. She graduated in Dentistry from the University of Port Harcourt in 2015. Ah, you already know her? She had never been one to seek cheap popularity. Her becoming a household name was entirely beyond her control. As a medic, she was trained to save lives. Nothing prepared her for a situation in which lives would be ebbing away all around her (including her own life, by the way) and she would be totally helpless in doing anything about it.

The train ride had been a jolly one until the loud bang, which signalled the arrival of doomsday. Unknown to anyone on the train, some terrorists had mined a section of the rail track, which exploded as soon as the train crossed that part. Like bees, armed terrorists emerged from the bush and started shooting. She was hit. Many other people were too. Others were abducted and taken away by the agents of terror. There she was, a trained saver of lives unable to save anyone; helpless.

But she was not trained to give up. When in trouble, reach out. The common humanity that you share with the rest of humankind will propel them to come to your aid. So, in the midst of pain, loss of blood and ebbing consciousness, she did the best thing she could in the circumstance: She sent out a tweet about her predicament.

“I am in the train. I have been shot. Please pray for me.”

Internet fiends and trolls are always quick to the ball. One Big Dave, @odogwupanther, who obviously has lost his humanity, mocked her, “…Why would someone believe this? You got shot on a train, instead of calling for help the next thing is to come on twitter and say we should pray for you. And moreover no one is on the train with you…”

When other contributors descended on him for those insensitive comments, the coward quietly deleted his comments.

Another one, Abolore, @ysone2, sniggered: “Are you dead now?”

Comments such as the above are standard fare on social media whenever any grievous thing happens. Complete loonies, thinking that their comments won’t attract attention unless they are outrageously offensive, quickly populate cyberspace with their display of bad upbringing and savagery.

On the side of the angels, people like Cynthia Chioma Njoku, @cynchimanj, were on hand to give mockers a dose of their own medicine. On the confirmation that Chinelo had died, Cynthia frontally replied to Abolore @ysone2: “Yes, she’s dead now. You can come feast on her corpse.”

Another passenger in the same train, Anas Iro Danmusa, lived to tell her story. Immediately the attack started, she contacted both her brother and the Kaduna State Commissioner for Information, Samuel Aruwan.

How come Kaduna is becoming the headquarters of terrorists when the State hosts at least 12 military and police formations? Those who think that building monasteries and purchasing hoods are tantamount to acquiring holiness will eventually be consumed by the gaseous suffocation of their stupidity.

Anas also cried for help on her Facebook page: “Please this is an emergency. We are inside a train at the moment. Kidnappers planted explosives and the train engines have been ruined. We are helpless. Abuja to Kaduna train. Gunshots still being fired right around us. We are just under the seats praying to God while waiting for help. Since 8:00p.m. we have been here.”

Anas’ Facebook post was shared widely by concerned people in cybersphere, with many showing empathy. How different are the tribes of Facebook responders from their Twitter counterparts! Same incident, different reactions. Different folks, different strokes.

Aruwan requested her to share her location via WhatsApp and he promptly forwarded the coordinates to the military commanders, who swiftly traced the scene and rescued the remaining commuters. The rescue came too late for many passengers who had been taken away by the terrorists, allegedly in five Toyota Sienna buses.

Some puzzles, though: Anas noted that three doors of the coaches were left open as the train sped along and that a concerned passenger had to personally shut them. Why were the doors left open?

Also some passengers said they saw a strange man in mufti with a walkie-talkie but didn’t think much of it until they later saw that the terrorists too were using walkie-talkie to communicate with their coordinator.

Again, one lady saw a member of a gang that had kidnapped her before. She looked forward to exposing him when the train reached the Rigasa terminus. But the train never made it to destination and the kidnapper melted into the night with his fellow terrorists.

How come Kaduna is becoming the headquarters of terrorists when the State hosts at least 12 military and police formations? Those who think that building monasteries and purchasing hoods are tantamount to acquiring holiness will eventually be consumed by the gaseous suffocation of their stupidity.

The Nigerian Railway Corporation has not publicly released the train’s manifest. Many people have said that there is no reliable manifest because of the endemic corruption in the system, about which I have written in the past. The facts released are that 398 tickets were sold but only 362 passengers boarded. But some sources have put the total number of passengers in the train at 970. If true, the only plausible explanation for the difference is corruption — ticket racketeering.

As all the commotion — which Anas wrote so touchingly about — was going on, Dr Chinelo Megafu continued bleeding, having been shot in the stomach. She must have wondered how internet demons on Twitter reacted to her call for help. Those demons are irredeemable because even when their error was pointed out to them, they still insisted that they had a right to taunt a dying woman. Suppose she was lying, they argued.

I have written before about the opaque way we run public enterprises acquired with foreign loans. The railways are being run as an arm of the Ministry of Transport. I have used the service before and from what I saw, it is clear that the government has no intention of realising the huge funds sunk into the project. Train tickets are being sold in the black market at a premium right inside the train stations. The online portal is sometimes sabotaged so that passengers will have no option but to proceed to the station to negotiate with the touts. Selling train tickets is not rocket science. This is pure sleaze.

As all the commotion — which Anas wrote so touchingly about — was going on, Dr Chinelo Megafu continued bleeding, having been shot in the stomach. She must have wondered how internet demons on Twitter reacted to her call for help. Those demons are irredeemable because even when their error was pointed out to them, they still insisted that they had a right to taunt a dying woman. Suppose she was lying, they argued. The Devil has no salvation. No matter how hard you try, some people will still take the expressway to damnation.

What is the difference between the bandits who fired the shots and the internet terrorists who lie in wait to further confound anyone in distress? It is now fashionable for cowards hiding under the umbrella of anonymity in cyberspace to display their total lack of good breeding by putting down anyone they perceive as their betters. They will never find peace.

Apparently, a sense of peace, well-being and painlessness, a sense of removal from the world descended on Chinelo, as she set on her journey to eternity. Ever so polite, she still managed to thank a fellow passenger who was fanning her with his newspaper. The man says he will always treasure that final “Thank you”.

Experts say that when the departure of the spirit from the human body is imminent, the dying person is immersed in a powerful light and observes goings on around the immediate environment from above. They underline five stages: Peace; Body separation; Entering a void; Seeing the light; and Entering another realm of existence, through the light. The person sees his life flash before his eyes like the reels of a film. We shall never know what Chinelo saw. But she was at peace as she was evacuated.

The Nigerian Medical Association was distraught at the violent termination of such a promising life. “The untimely death of the young, promising Dr Chinelo who served at the Kaduna State Dental Centre and worked with St Gerrard’s Hospital, Kakuri, while striving to earn an honest living, is one other death too many. The Association notes that needless blood-letting and senseless loss of lives is fast becoming a recurring decimal in our country, thus worsening the alarming effects of brain drain, which in many instances have been attributable to the worsening security situation in the country,” the statement read.

One commentator who was a friend of the deceased actually revealed that she had recently resigned her appointment because she had gained employment in a foreign country and was due to travel out in a matter of days. The bandits arrested her future.

Goodnight, Chinelo. You are a metaphor for the state of the nation. When parents become pall bearers and their children become ancestors before their very eyes, you know that the society has fallen short of the glory of God. Peace to you, Chinelo, perfect peace!

Wole Olaoye is a public relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached on wole.olaoye@gmail.com, Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021.

A Welcome Message for the Newly Admitted Students.

You see, I’m not interested in Taliban and Afghanistan matter, neither will I choose today to discuss the hike in acceptance fee as claimed by some students. In fact I will not talk whether or not there will be increment in next session fees and why UDUS was ranked 38th in Top 100 university ranking.

At the same time, I will choose another day to write on how my takeaway was taken away by unknown person just “because I no get money.” However, today, I will be a pilot, piloting you to a journey of UDUS 101: An introduction to the most peaceful university.

Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, also known as UDUSOK, is a public research institution located in the city of Caliphate. It is one of the twelve universities founded in Nigeria by the federal government in 1975. In UDUS, certificate is awarded based on leaning and character. The institution is tolerant as it houses different people from different cultures, places, beliefs and languages but, bear in mind, the management will never tolerate intolerableness. Good character and decency is paramount, or else you want to see maggots in your salt.

Yes, I knew that you will be orientated and taught different courses but should know also that this kind of orientation and course will not be included, so I deem it fit to fit it in here.

Let’s unveil the curtain with Pressure in pleasure disguise. Dear new students, once you are given confirmation letters there are a lot you are going to encounter. Sometimes, it will glitter, whereas it is nothing but rusty dust or gutter.

Should I start with the school library? Many will leave their hostels with the intention to read but the reverse will be the case once the attractive plasma screen of the almighty library beeped into their eyes. A thought will then inculcate their minds. For instance: “This is a big and tough match between Chelsea and Manchester City. How about that of PSG and Barca. Oh, no! I must watch it.” Brethren, before you know it, book has been kept aside. My dear, don’t be like this. Be warned of failure.

Time consciousness is essential. Schedule your time judiciously and avoid any form of distraction. You should be a learner that reads at the end of every lecture and prepares ahead of examination in order to prevent failure. The saying goes thus: “A stitch in time saves nine.” Extra curriculum activities are good but excess of it is dangerous.

Should I even talk about different people whom your path will cross with? These type of people include the chameleons, the dove, the tortoise, the crocodile; the sweet and the bitter, or the good and the bad? No doubt, in your dormitories you will be mixed with different people, you have to be diplomatic and tolerant enough in dealing with people. University is a universe and not your mini home.

Lest I forget, apart from money, foods and book you’re bringing along, do not forget to stash mosquito nets in your bags. In Sokoto, mosquitoes are experienced professionals in their profession. Also, I must warn you of the harsh cold weather just the same way I’ll warn you of the stifling heat. I know you’re strong, you can bear the unbearableness.

You will surely encounter strange things but try to focus on your purpose. University is a microscope of real life, try to view it well. Be calm, humble, associate, explore and respect others and their differences.

As you resume to confirm your admission, let me warn you: At night, you should walk with your peers. Always be with your torch, if you don’t want something to touch you. Better heed these warnings to avoid stories that touch.

In the next chapter of UDUS 101, we shall discuss what creeps in the night, and why you must be a super creeper to overcome them.

To all newly admitted students, as you start receiving your confirmation today, I welcome you to the most peaceful university in Nigeria. And I wish you the best of luck in your study.

Wahab is an intermediate law student in UDUS

Fellow Nigerians and dear servants of God, please understand that the perennial challenges of disunity in the Nigerian church are not peculiar to Nigeria. It is a global phenomenon whose consequences are only much worse in our clime. Read with me Dr Tony Evan’s recent heart-cry about the American church:

“How else can we have all these churches on all of these corners in America with all of these preachers running all of these programs with all of these members using all of these resources and still have all of this mess. I would like to suggest that the church, while building great ministries and great buildings, has missed the kingdom.”

Interestingly, not even the notorious tyrant, “Adolf Hitler” could succeed in his destruction of the German church, without the dismantling of the church’s fabric of unity. Repeatedly, Hitler leveraged on “disunity” as his preferred weapon of mass destruction against the German church. He wrote in his book, Mein Kampf, that, “the best way to conquer your enemy is to divide them”. Powerful states have always leveraged on “disunity” to conquer “known” or “perceived enemies.” The world’s leading entrepreneur of colonialism, the British empire, which exercised extraordinarily strong hegemonic influences on many African nations, used the weapon of “divide and rule” to champion its imperialist agenda across the length and breadth of Africa. And that was Hitler’s main dagger to the heart of the German Church. According to the detailed account of the events that led to the collapse of the German Church prior to World War II, as given by Erwin Lutzer, Hitler once said, “when you want to tear down a world and build another in its place, you must first of all separate the supporters and the members.”

In exactly the same way, the Nigerian church is on the verge of another sinister, “divide, and, conquer” agenda by powerful demonic forces within the Nigerian socio-political space. By targeting the church, which is widely divided along the lines of doctrinal differences and political interests, Satan and his agents within the Nigeria political space, have begun to tweak their strategies to weaponise this current division as a precursor to capturing the nation’s political climate, just like they did prior to the 2014/2015 elections. To all General Overseers and church leaders in Nigeria, I write this message with a very heavy heart. I have seen nothing more lethal than the force of disunity in dampening the spiritual influence of the Nigerian church within the current Nigerian state. We are so divided that the very thought of establishing widespread synergy across different streams of denominations, or even among the “Pentecostals”, is a dream waiting to happen after the rapture. Historically, successive leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria have found this matter daunting, herculean, and too high a mountain to climb.

This article is not, and will never be, a holistic, one-cap-fits-all attempt at solving the decades-old problem of disunity in the Nigerian Church.

However, it presents a little attempt at identifying an existential threat to the spiritual influence of the Nigerian church in establishing a united spiritual front for the emergence of God’s sovereign will for Nigeria in the 2023 presidential election. The problem statement is this: “How do we bring together the leadership of the Orthodox Churches as well as those of the Pentecostals, such as the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Winners’ Chapel, Deeper Life, Christ Embassy, Citadel Global Community Church (former Latter Rain Assembly), Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Mountain of Fire Ministries, Christ Apostolic Church, Dunamis Church, Salvation Ministries, Day Star Christian Centre and hundreds, if not thousands of streams of other denominations, for the sole purpose of enforcing the political will of God on Nigeria? These are denominations with highly diverse biblical doctrines, practices, and values. It is for this same reason I have been an advocate of far-reaching changes and reforms in the Nigerian church — such that in the wake of a defining moment like this, the church would have been spiritually prepared to build a very robust and formidable united force that can weather all demonic storms against the emergence of God’s best will for Nigeria as president in 2023.

When the forces of political exigencies stretched forth their hands against a section of the evangelicals in America — in a bid to use the forces of socialism within the marriage institution to divide the them, they repelled this attack with a common voice, displaying the spirit of unity with the following signed document, “The Manhattan Declaration”, which states that:

“We will not bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.

The role of the church is to pioneer the predominance of the kingdom of God and its values in the land. The role of the church is to perpetuate the spread of truth, honesty, and integrity, among others, in a nation. The role of the church is to enforce the will of God on the nation in the place of prayer. The role of the church is to leverage on unity to bring about a wave of value system transformation in the land; a development that will then pave the way for the emergence of upright and credible political candidates at all levels.

Following this declaration, Dr Tony Evans, one of the most outspoken American preachers, published a book that addressed this subject of “division” in the American church. He has the following to say to us, “When the church fails to act in concert with God’s prescribed agenda, then God often chooses to postpone His active involvement until His people are prepared to respond.”

Also, let me take you back to a more recent history. In the heat of the preparations for the 2014/2015 presidential election, a section of the Pentecostal movement in Nigeria favoured the candidacy of Dr Goodluck Jonathan, the incumbent president at that time, while another sectionr ooted for the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari, the present Nigerian leader. The divisions and many heated debates and arguments among leaders of various denominations led to several contentions and spiritual cracks in the walls of the church, leading to the emergence of a new wave of church politics and cliques that have, for the most part, done more damages than good to the unity and progress of Nigeria as a nation. Things went so bad in 2014 that many clandestine meetings were held by various segments of the Nigerian church leadership to force and foist their choices on other segments of the church leadership, a development that further widened the cracks of disunity in the church. The ultimate consequence of this crisis was the labelling of the Nigerian church by many onlookers and political gladiators as “corrupt”, given some rumoured exchanges of money between sections of the church leadership and certain political parties. Labels like this, whether true or false, are the bi-products of disunity in the church, and they do no good to its image.

The role of the church is to pioneer the predominance of the kingdom of God and its values in the land. The role of the church is to perpetuate the spread of truth, honesty, and integrity, among others, in a nation. The role of the church is to enforce the will of God on the nation in the place of prayer. The role of the church is to leverage on unity to bring about a wave of value system transformation in the land; a development that will then pave the way for the emergence of upright and credible political candidates at all levels. This must be done through a concerted mental and spiritual synergy among all members of the body of Christ, or at least among most leadership of the church, in manners consistent with biblical standards. It is an open secret that the current church structure and system in Nigeria is fraught with enormous contradictions and widespread corruption, most of which are deeply rooted in the departure of many church leaders from sound biblical values of accountability, transparency, integrity, and truth.

However, there are still remnants of contrite and credible churches and ministries in Nigeria that are still doing the work of the kingdom with sincerity and truth. Thus, while trusting God for a thorough cleansing and purging of our churches, it is still crucial to our long-term survival that we begin to push for an upgrade in our present level of unity.

Where this unity is lacking, at least to a considerable extent, the propensity for the emergence of wrong leaders in a nation becomes very high. This was Adolf Hitler’s Christmas gift to the German Church, which paved the way for his transformation into a full-blown dictator in the 1940s. According to J.S Conway, “Under a barrage of accusations and vilifications, the German church grew more and more confused between their political and their theological loyalties. Poised between two choices, divided by compromise, and weakened through internal theological differences, the German Church lost its collective influence”.

And when they lost it, Hitler took over and the nation sank into the abyss — becoming the geographical trigger for the second World War. Thus, of all the forces confronting the Nigerian church, disunity remains a lethal weapon in the hands of the enemy.

I, therefore, suggest with utmost humility of heart and soul, and with due respect and honour to church leaders and fathers in the faith in Nigeria, that for the sake of posterity, they should endeavour to shun their differences and come together to establish some forms of synergy.

First, the leaders of our various churches need to congregate a round table conference. Differences must be ironed out in the spirit of love. Compromises must be established. My church is ten million in membership; your church is five hundred thousand in membership; I am a billionaire; you are a millionaire, must all be thrown into the sea of forgetting. I am talking about fathers here, many of who are now in their 60s, 70s and 80s. Posterity must dominate their minds. Without fostering any preferred political candidate on anyone, I believe that our father in the Lord, Pastor E.A Adeboye, one of the most respected church leaders in Nigeria, and some highly respected fathers and elders in the Orthodox cycle, have enough influence and weight to plan and execute this kind of meeting.

…a united prayer front for the emergence of God’s perfect will for Nigeria must be established. The church must not be apolitical. Similarly, we must not be partisan. It is about the will of God. This united prayer front should mirror a situation where leaders in the orthodox segment, as well as those from the Pentecostals, such as RCCG, Winners’ Chapel…and others will come together for a joint prayer movement, executed online and in various national locations to pray for the local, state and federal elections of 2023.

It is a meeting to broker peace and unity, and to establish a working document and an actionable spiritual direction that all church leaders, or most church leaders, must commit to; something similar to the “The Manhattan Declaration” by the Evangelicals in America. We must also be careful with our approach at creating “mechanisms” that will create the perception that a preferred candidate is being promoted by the church above others or even more qualified candidates, Christians or non-Christians.

Second, a united prayer front for the emergence of God’s perfect will for Nigeria must be established. The church must not be apolitical. Similarly, we must not be partisan. It is about the will of God. This united prayer front should mirror a situation where leaders in the orthodox segment, as well as those from the Pentecostals, such as RCCG, Winners’ Chapel, Deeper Life, Christ Embassy, Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Mountain of Fire Ministries, COZA, Citadel Global Community Church (former Latter Rain Assembly), Christ Apostolic Church, Dunamis Church, Salvation Ministries, Daystar Christian Centre and others will come together for a joint prayer movement, executed online and in various national locations to pray for the local, state and federal elections of 2023. This prayer movement must be inter-denominational and must run for an extended period of time under the joint leadership of all the heads of Pentecostal denominations in the country, prior to the coming together of other non-Pentecostal denominations.

Thirdly, I like to bring to our attention that the RCCG’s recent establishment of a directorate of governance is highly commendable. If run properly, it should create a strong platform to support home-grown Christian politicians in their quest to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy. However, the church must not be partisan. That is where the problem lies. Such a directorate should be inclusive to support the entire body of Christ, if truly we do not have any preferred candidate in view. Any perception of the church by other religious movements in Nigeria, as being partisan towards a Christian candidate will tarnish its image and, without doubt, create needless anarchy and confusion in the polity. I will advise that any directorate of governance or any of such initiative by the RCCG or by any other church, must provide a level playing field for all and sundry in the body of Christ. And ministers and church leaders must distance themselves from using their exalted altars for political campaigns or for promoting the interests of politicians, Christians or non-Christians.

In conclusion, it is important to note that we have, for the most part, concentrated on the successes of our personal ministries, rather than operating from a “kingdom perspective”, which is also one of the critical challenges confronting the Nigerian church. Personal ministry orientation is antithetical to Jesus’s kingdom-driven orientation that sees every Christian faithful as a member of the same body to which all churches must collaboratively commit to developing and supporting. This is not the time for individual and segregated efforts towards personal ministry successes, at the expense of a collaborative national transformation orientation.

This was exactly what the majority of the German church leadership were doing in the 1940s; they threw caution to the wind by ignoring all calls to unite and save Germany from the claws of Hitler. They all focused on the success of their individual ministries, damning the consequences until Hitler tightened his grip on the nation and sent most of the church leaders in Germany at that time into concentration camps. In the words of Helmut Thielicke, a German theologian who witnessed the collapse of Germany during the second World War, “…many of the German Church leaders were fixated on their personal ministry successes, but they failed to realize that the worship of success is generally the form of idol worship the devil cultivates most assiduously. Success is the greatest narcotic of all”.

Over-the-counter human remedies will not fix Nigeria; they will only mask the real symptoms for a season. It is now time for us to wake up, stand up and pray up. The destiny of two hundred million people is at stake. This is Nigeria’s last chance at salvaging the nation’s political destiny that is presently in ruins. A nation with some of the most brilliant minds cannot continue to trail the rest of world in development and competitiveness. The church cannot exercise any considerable influence when we are this divided.

Let me leave you with this wonderful message by Dr Erwin Lutzer, the pastor of Moody Bible Church in America: “When Muslim armies swept across North Africa in the seventh century, effectively wiping out Christianity, the church was so identified by its edifices, its priestly rituals, and leadership hierarchy that when the armies destroyed these symbols of Christianity, those few Christians who were left found themselves unable to survive. The church disappeared without a trace. The true church can survive without buildings, but not without united saints.”

Akerele, a leadership and system development strategist, and minister of the word, writes from Canada and can be reached through ayoakerele2012@gmail.com.

The recent attack on a Nigerian railway is the latest chapter in the country’s worsening security crisis and tottering democracy.

On Monday March 28, some gunmen launched a deadly attack on a Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) Abuja-Kaduna evening train carrying an estimated 398 passengers. After detonating explosives on the track (and possibly inside the train, according to conflicting reports in the local media), the gunmen surrounded the immobilised train and started discharging their firearms into the carriages. It took at least an hour before a detachment of the Nigerian military came to the rescue of the passengers, who had cowered under their seats as the bandits fired incessantly.

The incident left at least eight people dead — among them a young medical doctor, Chinelo Megafu, and Musa Lawal-Ozigi, secretary-general of the country’s Trade Union Congress — and at least another forty-one hospitalised, while the yet unidentified assailants also captured some of the passengers.

The toll on the Muhammadu Buhari administration and Nigeria’s tottering democracy is likely to be greater.

The sheer brazenness of the attack throws into relief the administration’s so far unsuccessful struggle to impose some kind of public order, even as the country continues to spiral into general lawlessness. Inaugurated in July 2016, the Abuja-Kaduna evening train is a perfect metaphor for this struggle, as a growing number of travelers have embraced the service as travel on the highway between Abuja and Kaduna (a distance of 130 miles) became increasingly unsafe due to the activities of kidnappers and sundry gangsters.
Abuja is the seat of the Nigerian Federal Government, while Kaduna houses the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA).

In recent times, the northwestern state of Kaduna itself has been literally under siege. On March 26, gunmen attacked the Kaduna International Airport, killing an official of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), after allegedly storming the runway. In March last year, bandits abducted eleven people after a surprise attack on the staff quarters of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in Kaduna. In August, two military officers were killed and at least one kidnapped after bandits attacked the permanent site of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA). Over the past several months, attacks on various villages across the State have resulted in the death of dozens. Over the years, authorities in Kaduna and a local Shiite Muslim sect have been at loggerheads, with tensions boiling over in December 2015 after a military crackdown led to the death of 347 Shiites.

The situation in Kaduna is far from unique, the security situation across the country having rapidly deteriorated, even as government at various levels continue to scramble for a solution. According to the New York-based Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect, attacks by bandits across the Nigerian northwest have claimed at least 5,000 lives since 2018. Since 2009, nearly 350,000 people have been killed in the northeastern part of the country due largely to the activities of Boko Haram Islamist insurgents. The number of displaced people in the Lake Chad Basin is estimated at three million.

Violence in Nigeria is multidimensional and pervasive, ranging from perennial herder-farmer clashes to gang violence, armed robbery, attacks on state infrastructure, especially police stations, airports and power transformers, intercommunal violence, lynching, ritual killings, mob justice, and casual intimidation of ordinary citizens by law enforcement.

More than six million small arms are believed to be in the hands of civilian non-state actors in the country.

Nigerian police use lethal force on the slightest pretext. Ranked the worst in the world by the 2016 World Internal Police and Security Index, the Nigeria Police Force kills an average of 841 citizens every year. Nigeria (estimated population, 200 million) ranks eighth in the top ten of countries with the highest numbers of police killings.

Most murders in Nigeria — official or otherwise — go unsolved. The recent spike in vigilante justice, which has seen a ramp up in incidents in which citizens have taken the law into their own hands, owes in large part to distrust of the police and frustration with the justice system. In 2019, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranked Nigeria among the thirteen worst countries in unsolved murders of journalists.

Nor has increased spending on security produced a commensurate decrease in insecurity. Between 2015 and 2020, Nigeria budgeted an average of about $4.2 billion on security, with the total budget for security rising to 2.5 per cent of the GDP in 2020. In 2019, Nigeria had the third largest military budget in Africa, behind only South Africa and Algeria.

While, on paper, security expenditure goes toward the training of soldiers, operations, and purchases of vital military equipment, the reality is much different. Corruption is a major problem, with much of the funds budgeted for security regularly diverted. In 2017, at least $2 billion out of monies set aside for the Boko Haram campaign were diverted to other uses, including the financing of political activities. In 2016, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed that about $15 billion were stolen from the fight against Islamists under the previous Goodluck Jonathan administration. At the state and local government (LG) levels, governors and local government chairpersons regularly mismanage “security votes,” a monthly federal allocation towards security-related expenses within the states. An estimated $900 million is lost to their mismanagement annually.

Corruption in the security sector has been cited as a factor in some of the recent military takeovers in the region.

In the wake of Monday’s attack, President Buhari held an emergency meeting with service chiefs and heads of security agencies and promised to bring the bandits to justice. The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya and Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi both visited the site of the attack and echoed the president’s assurance. The latter promised, improbably, that all passenger trains will now be escorted by Nigerian Air Force jets. In truth, most Nigerians feel like Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, who confessed to being “angry, frustrated, and feeling totally helpless.”

While horse-trading among the political class for next year’s all-important elections hums along in the background, it increasingly feels like a sideshow — an expensive one, to be sure — to the anarchy that daily life in the country has become. If, as some have plausibly contended, the Nigerian state failed a long time ago, what we seem to be witnessing is the unfolding reel of its agonising decomposition and dismemberment.

It has been long in coming, but what used to be a geographically coherent unit is now effectively a collection of parts barely managing to keep in touch with one another. Nigeria, in theory, has become incommensurate with Nigeria, in reality.

The first task before the next president (there will be an election, the question is what kind) is to put Nigeria back in sync.

But first, the incumbent must restore law and order.

Ebenezer Obadare is Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

This article was originally published by the Council on Foreign Relations as part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy.

Corruption is the single tremendous obstacle preventing Nigeria from accomplishing its enormous potential. It depletes billions of dollars a year from the country’s economy, stymies advancement, and weakens the social contract between the government and its people. Nigerians view their country as one of the world’s most corrupt and struggle daily to cope with the effects. Yet few logical tools exist for examining the full range and knottiness of corruption in Africa’s largest economy and most populous country. This paper proposes a new, context-specific framework for understanding a problem that will remain a focus of international and domestic Nigerian policy discussions for decades to come.

Transparency International (TI) has issued its Corruption Perceptions Index. As in prior years, its citizens together with a selection of international organizations perceive Nigeria as one of Africa’s most corrupt countries. Nigeria’s ranking—146 out of 180 countries surveyed worldwide—is little changed from years past. TI measures the perception of corruption, not corruption itself, in the public sector. (It does not measure the perception of corruption in the private sector.) The current low ranking is no surprise. Nigerians commonly regard the state as corrupt, and President Buhari campaigned successfully for the presidency in 2015 on an anti-corruption platform.

The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. A country or territory’s rank indicates its position relative to the other countries and territories in the index. People most commonly define corruption as the “abuse of entrusted power for private gain,” and government officials and citizens feel its effects on a daily basis. It is a growing political issue around the globe, but developing countries like Nigeria often struggle deeply to control or combat corruption.

Corruption is a crucial obstacle to business in Nigeria: companies are very likely to encounter bribery and other corrupt practices. Corruption risks are growing throughout all institutions but the oil sector is particularly corrupt. Corruption is criminalised primarily by the Criminal Code and the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act. Accepting or giving gifts as well as facilitation payments are illegal, and individuals can be punished with up to 7 years’ imprisonment. Despite a strong legal framework, enforcement of anti-corruption legislation in Nigeria remains weak: in practice, gifts, bribery and facilitation payments are the norm.

Nigeria has executed a fixed exchange rate for its currency, the naira, in hopes of preventing further inflation from corruption. The naira is currently one of the lower performing currencies in the world largely due to prolonging corruption in Nigeria. This new rate has caused prices of imported goods to double and inflation to impale.

Corruption in Nigeria has neither improved nor declined in score over the past several years. Typically, the country’s score varies from 25-28 any given year. Although there has not been a sharp increase or decrease, Nigeria still ranks below the average of 32 for the sub-Saharan African region.

Nigeria has two major political parties: the All Progressive Congress party (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). These parties are almost comparable in platforms but still oppose one another. Each party often increases corruption in Nigeria by taking up misappropriated public reserves to run obstructing campaigns.

Entrepreneurs generate 50 per cent of the GDP in Nigeria but often face deception and racketeering from police forces. Federal legislators have diverted $433 billion to vague projects in the past several years. This hurts small businesses in the country and allows corruption in the government to continue.

Corruption in Nigeria affects poorer families most severely. These high levels of corruption could cost individuals $1,000 per person by 2030 if the country does not address it. Further, the levels of imbalance continue to increase in the country due to corruption.

Government offices are abused and misused when these individuals at the helms of these government offices gives out payoffs to hijack government policies for personal gains. Irrespective of these, government positions are offended for private gain even though there were no bribery cases. This is because the stealing of state assets and resources has been identified as one of the major means corruptions are measured which creeps into the public sector of any country.

Hozaifah is a Nigerian Journalist