USA Africa Dialogue Series - State

The Nigerian State is Crumbling as we watch

Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, 13th March 2026

The Nigerian State is crumbling. There is widespread violence
orchestrated by state actors and state supported actors at the same
time that violent insurgencies and bandit-orchestrated violence is
spreading and deepening. At the same time, institutions are crumbling
as they get diverted to serve the interest of those in power. The
judiciary has become a sad tale of the perpetuation of injustice to
serve the interest of those in power. The tax authorities have been
turned into a weapon to impoverish the people as multiple taxation
through bank withdrawals, VAT, personal income taxes augmentation is
all synchronized to get every last kobo from ordinary Nigerians whose
income is incapable of meeting their daily needs. The police lives
simply to provide security for VIPs and not security for the people.
Meanwhile, electricity and other municipal charges have been
multiplied to actively promote mass penury. The irony is that the
president finds it funny and announces with glee that he has made the
state set up an independent solar system for his house and office just
as he tells Nigerians they must pay the "unpayable" electricity
charges being charged to consumers. Objective political science can
only describe such policies as wickedness.

In his recent article on constant government violence organised
against opposition members, my good friend Dakuku Peterside warms
against the dangers of allowing violence to consume our democracy:
"Democracies do not usually collapse because one day violence suddenly
appears from nowhere. They decay when violence is normalised in
increments—first as intimidation, then as disruption, then as
reprisal, and finally as a parallel language of politics. Once public
life begins to reward menace more than persuasion, elections stop
being contests of ideas and become tests of brute capacity. At that
point, the ballot is still printed, the rallies are still advertised,
and the parties still campaign, but the civic meaning of politics has
already been hollowed out."

The tragedy of the situation is that the government is acting this way
in a context in which decades of poor governance has already created a
context of State fragility that can easily push the country into the
abyss. Nigeria remains one of the most terrorism-affected countries in
the world. There is mass violence driven primarily by Boko Haram,
Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), armed bandit networks, and
emerging jihadist groups operating along the Sahel corridor.

The insurgency that began in 2009 has killed more than 40,000 people
and displaced over 2 million civilians in northeastern Nigeria alone.
Subsequently, militant violence developed in the Northwest - in the
Nigeria–Niger–Benin border region covering most States and then moved
to the Northcentral zone of the country.

In the Northeast, terrorist attacks on army formations have increased
considerably over the last six months and the terrorists appear to be
besieging and encircling Maiduguri for takeover. In its propaganda
messages published by its media wing, Amaq, ISWAP has been boasting of
the successes of its attacks against the military in the zone and the
elimination of officers. In the Northwest, terrorist forces from Mali
and Niger have descended southwards and now occupy territory from
Sokoto through Zamfara to Niger and Kwara states. Armed bandits from
these forces with an agenda of pillaging and implementing a scorched
earth policy have moved to the Northcentral and to the south as Benue
and Plateau States continue to bleed. Increasingly the situation has
been turning into an equal opportunity action with other youth gangs
integrating into and spreading the chaos.

The response of the Nigerian Government is to get the United States to
deploy about 200 soldiers to Nigeria's North-east to provide training
and support counterterrorism operations. The deployment came after
weeks of diplomatic tension between the Nigerian government and the
United States, sparked by remarks from President Donald Trump, who
claimed that a "Christian genocide" was carried out by Islamist
militant groups in Nigeria. The reality is that Christians, Muslims
and everyone else are being massacred. The Nigerian Government is yet
to do what is necessary, expand the armed forces and adopt their
strategy to successfully combat scattered fast moving asymmetrical
bandit/terrorist warfare.

Rather than focus on trying to reassert state authority and
re-establish peace, the government is concentrating on destroying the
political opposition with the objective of ensuring they are not
capable of contesting the 2027 elections. The risk is that they might
succeed in disrupting the opposition and ALL OF US LOSE the country to
terrorists and insurgents. What would it profit President Tinubu to
destroy the political opposition only to find out he has no country to
rule over?

Meanwhile, The Nigerian economy is doing very badly if you talk to the
people and very well if you talk to the IMF. The more the Bretton
Woods institutions praise President Tinubu for cutting fuel subsidy,
floating the Naira and overtaxing the people, the more Nigerians groan
on their plight. The divide is about the interest of the people and
can clearly be seen when we look at agriculture. Under President
Tinubu, Nigeria spent N51 billion ($34.4 million) on foreign rice in
2024, signalling a sharp reversal of the self-sufficiency gains by the
previous administration. Today, local rice has become uncompetitive
against cheaper imports. Government policy has imposed high production
costs and expensive energy pricing Nigerian farmers out of their own
market. Concordant reports indicate that farmers in key States such as
Kano, Kebbi and Jigawa are exiting rice production.

Most of the rice mills that were flourishing under President Buhari
have shut down operations because they cannot compete with the price
of foreign rice. Small-scale millers are particularly vulnerable to
the rising costs of diesel and high interest rates on loans. The Rice
Millers Association of Nigeria has warned that the local industry is
on the brink of collapse. Most surviving mills operate with massive
unutilised capacity, which drives up their overhead costs. The federal
government's decision to grant import waivers on essential goods has
created a crisis for agricultural production. Farmers find themselves
in a new reality in which rice cultivation has become a loss-making
venture. The collapse of the rice value chain is undoing years of
carefully crafted agricultural self-sufficiency programming.

A situation in which State power is abused, government is extorting
citizens, non-state actors are killing and maiming the people and the
economy is made to work against the people is a dangerous one. The
present conjecture of elections on the horizon that are being eroded
of a level playing field adds to the overriding sense of growing
injustice. If the government does not care, we the people must do what
is necessary to save our country, our institutions and our democracy.
The time has come to move from lamentations to action.





Professor Jibrin Ibrahim
Senior Fellow
Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja
Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

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USA Africa Dialogue Series - When 10 Million Naira Only But Buys You Death

When 10 Million Naira Only But Buys You Death

https://thisdawn.com/when-10-million-naira-only-buys-you-death/

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USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Outstanding Entries for "Encyclopedia of Black British Writing"

 

Dear Prof. Falola, thank you for circulating the list of available entries for The Bloomsbury "Encyclopedia of Black British Writing" Volume 1 (1723-1914) on your listserv. Could you please circulate the final list (outstanding entries) attached to this email, as we conclude the project?

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Professor (Emer.) Joan Anim-Addo

Dr. Kwame Essien

Dr. Anyaa Anim-Addo

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