Memorila

15/09/2025

*From Sholay to Zamfara: How to cut the cord that fuels banditry*

_By Faruk Ahmed_

Growing up in 1990s Kano, our window to the world was a black-and-white television. Every Sunday, the community would crowd into whichever house had a working set to watch CTV’s broadcast of Indian films.

One film that seared itself into my memory was *Sholay*. It told the story of two heroes, Jay and Veeru, hired by a retired police inspector, Thakur, to protect his village from the terrifying bandit Gabbar Singh and his gang.

One scene still haunts me. After a long and brutal fight, the hero Jay is finally killed by Gabbar Singh's men. As a boy, I was heartbroken. I didn’t understand why the good guys didn't always win.

Years later, I rediscovered *Sholay* while researching how India tackled banditry. I learned the film was based on a real bandit, Malkhan Singh. But one scene in particular now feels chillingly familiar.

At the climax, when Thakur is about to finally kill Gabbar Singh, the Indian police suddenly arrive—not to arrest the bandit, but to stop Thakur from taking the law into his own hands.

These were the same police who had placed a bounty on Singh's head but had never dared to storm his den. In that moment, they weren’t upholders of justice; they were the bandits’ protectors.

*The Sholay playbook is Nigeria’s reality*
This is not just a movie plot. This is the reality for millions of Nigerians today.

Recently, a video of Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal went viral. He wept openly. He stated that with control of security forces, he could end banditry in two months. He knows the bandits' hideouts in real-time but cannot act because the security agencies take orders only from Abuja.

Just like in Sholay, the authorities who should protect us instead seem to shield the criminals. Innocent people in Bukkuyum and Kauran Namoda are killed and abducted while the "federal might" is absent.

Yet, during the recent Kasuwar Daji bye-election, that same might magically appeared—with full weaponry—to secure a political victory for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

*The real fuel for insecurity: secret money*
Insecurity persists because powerful people have a vested interest in its continuation. The more violent a state is, the more money—called "security votes"—its leaders can request. This cash, often in the billions, is spent in complete secrecy. No one knows if it buys bullets or funds mansions and cars.

We have seen the evidence: former governor Attahiru Bafarawa’s nephew arrested for selling military equipment to bandits; soldiers and police with hundreds of millions in their accounts from selling weapons.

This opaque system starves our troops of resources and funnels money to the very enemies they are supposed to fight.

*How we break the cycle*
We may not have guns, but we can strike at the heart of this system: the money.

This is why The Fix Naija Movement launched the * petition.*

The Public Resources Oversight and Accountability for Countering Terrorism, Insurgency, and Violence (PROACTIVE) Bill will:
- *Force full transparency* on every naira spent as "security votes."
- *Mandate open contracting* for all security-related projects.
- *Establish independent audits* to find and punish corruption.

This law will choke off the funding for banditry and ensure our security forces get the equipment and pay they deserve.

*We cannot wait for a hero to save us. We must become the Thakurs of our own story.*

We are not asking you to take up arms. We are asking you to take up your phones.

*👉 SIGN THE PETITION to demand the National Assembly here:* https://www.change.org/end-secret-security-votes

Your signature is your defiance. Share it with your families, your friends, and on every platform you have.

Let’s end this shameful cycle. Let’s build a Nigeria where our children’s stories are not about bandits, but about peace.

_Faruk Ahmed is the Coordinator of The Fix Naija Movement. He can be reached on 080 3535 4008 or [email protected]_

Stop secret security spending that fuels banditry & kidnapping |

03/09/2025

*They are not just killing us — They are eating us, and we are paying for the feast*

_By Faruk Ahmed_

We read the headlines and look away. We hear the stories and change the subject. We have become numb to the unthinkable.

But we must not look away from this: bandits in Nigeria have moved beyond kidnapping and killing. They now barbecue and eat the corpses of their victims.

Let that reality sink in.

Will you wait until they consume the flesh of your brother, your sister, your child—before you accept that this is not just a "security problem," but a profound descent into hell?

You might ask, *“How did we get here?”* The answer is not just in the bush; it is in the bank.

The weapons that slaughter Nigerians are not forged in distant lands. They are sold from our own armouries by our own protectors.

*Operation Hadin Kai recently arrested 15 policemen and 18 soldiers for selling weapons to terrorists.* An armourer had ₦45 million in his account. A police inspector had ₦135 million flowing through his account. A soldier had ₦34 million. Another officer in Katsina was killing his own colleagues to steal and sell their rifles.

Why? Greed? Poor pay? Yes. But that is only half the truth.

The full, rotting truth is captured in the old proverb: *“A fish rots from the head down.”*

These low-ranking personnel are mere conduits. They are small pipes in a vast, corrupt plumbing system that floods our country with violence. The real architects sit in comfort, their pockets heavy with money meant for bullets, armoured vehicles, and soldiers’ salaries.

Think of the wife of a former Chief of Army Staff, famously buying land and building mosques. A noble act, yes—but funded by what? A soldier’s salary? We all know the answer. We all whisper about it. It is time to stop whispering.

This is how the vicious cycle works:

1. *Corrupt officials at the top* steal funds meant for security, leaving soldiers underpaid, underequipped, and desperate.
2. *The resulting insecurity* justifies massive, secretive "security votes" for state governors—a honey pot of billions of naira with no oversight.
3. *This secret cash* is used for everything but security: political thugs, patronage, outright theft. Some of these thugs are the very criminals terrorising us.
4. *The more violent a state becomes,* the more security votes it requests, and the more politicians steal. They have no incentive for the violence to end.

We are not just being terrorised. We are being *farmed.* Our pain is their profit.

*But we can sever this umbilical cord feeding the monster.*

We cannot outgun them, but we can outsmart them. We can cut off the money.

This is why the * movement*, a coalition of Nigerian citizens, created the * petition.*

The *Public Resources Oversight and Accountability for Countering Terrorism, Insurgency, and Violence (PROACTIVE) Bill* is a surgical strike at the financial heart of this crisis. It demands:

1. *Total Transparency:* Every naira of "security votes" must be published online quarterly—every payment, every recipient, every purpose. No more secrets.
2. *Open Contracts:* All government contracts must be published from start to finish, ending inflated deals for cronies.
3. *Independent Audits:* A committee of citizens, auditors, and experts must have the power to investigate and enforce compliance.

This bill will ensure our soldiers are paid and equipped, and it will expose the traitors hiding in uniform and in government offices.

*Your signature is not just a click. It is an act of defiance.*

It is a declaration that you refuse to be farmed. You refuse to be eaten. You refuse to pay for the feast of your own destruction.

When we arrive at the National Assembly with 100,000 signatures, lawmakers will not be able to look away. We will force them to listen. We will force them to act.

*Do not wait for the knock on your door. Do not wait for the unthinkable to become personal.*

👉 *SIGN THE PETITION NOW.* Demand that our lawmakers .
👉 *SHARE THIS STORY.* Tag everyone you know. Flood social media with the truth.

*The road to a safer Nigeria does not begin with a bullet. It begins with your signature.*

➡️ *SIGN HERE:* https://www.change.org/end-secret-security-votes



_Ahmed is the Lead Catalyst of the campaign._

Stop secret security spending that fuels banditry & kidnapping |

12/08/2025

* : How I rode with a bandit leader*

By Faruk Ahmed | |

It’s not every day you share a seat with one of Nigeria’s most feared criminals — and live to tell the tale. But that Friday, April 11, 2025, I unknowingly did just that.

I had boarded a tricycle from Zawachiki in Kano State to Kofar Ruwa to buy a bicycle. Already inside was a heavily built, fair-complexioned man with a woman beside him. The woman had distinct facial marks. We rode together to the Dantata junction, a 40-minute journey, chatting casually before parting ways.

A month later, in May 2025, while browsing X in search of a speaker for the live summit that the campaign was planning, I came across a news report. It stated that the wife and mother of a notorious bandit leader, Adamu Aliero, had been arrested in Saudi Arabia.

When I saw the photo of the wife and the bandit leader, my heart froze—it was the exact couple I had shared that tricycle ride with weeks earlier.

I was baffled. How could a man of such infamy move freely from his Zamfara terror base to Kano without being apprehended? And how did his wife and mother pass through Nigerian airport security without being flagged?

But then I remembered—this is Nigeria. Atrocities against the poor go unnoticed and unpunished. But touch the high and mighty, and the full weight of the law will crush you.

This is * *. Have you or someone close to you been affected by insecurity? Do you have solutions for how we, as Nigerian citizens, can confront these threats head-on?

📢 Share your story on any social platform with the hashtag * * and send a copy via WhatsApp to *08035354008* or email *[email protected]*. I will feature it on the Nigerian Track blog and in the * Nation Builders* WhatsApp group.

If you want to contribute your skills, ideas, or time towards ridding Nigeria of insecurity, join the group here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/BKoLmbMI1sNEvFdzgswjaD?mode=ac_t

Together, we can issues.

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09/08/2025

* : When security becomes a spectator*

_By The Convenient Muslimah_

In January this year, a friend of my brother was kidnapped along the Zaki Biam–Wukari road — the same axis where Nigerian Law School students were abducted. He was travelling in a commercial vehicle when the kidnappers took all the passengers.

For five days, his family lived in fear while the kidnappers demanded ransom. They finally secured his release after paying ₦2 million.

In Bauchi, another tragedy unfolded. A colleague’s neighbour was kidnapped from his farm while harvesting produce. His daughter escaped and ran to a nearby military checkpoint, but the soldiers said they couldn’t help. The police offered no help either. The local vigilante also refused to intervene.

The poor man’s neighbours rallied to raise ransom, but it fell far short of the kidnappers’ demand. The criminals took the money anyway, attempted to kidnap the deliverer (who escaped with bullet wounds), and still killed the farmer — or so we assume, because he has never been seen or heard from again.

The harsh truth? Security outfits in Nigeria _no longer_ work for the masses. They take orders from above and protect the interests of those who control them.

For ordinary Nigerians, the safest civic duty has become to stay out of trouble by all means — because the system doesn’t work for us, it works for itself.

Your Turn: Has insecurity touched your life or the life of someone close to you? Share your story with the hashtag * * and send it to *08035354008* or *[email protected]*. Let your voice be part of the movement to reclaim Nigeria from fear.

*Join the fight:* Be part of the Nation Builders WhatsApp group here 👉

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09/08/2025

* : The Nigerian Law School kidnappings*

By Faruk Ahmed | |

On 26 July 2025, six Nigerian Law School students left Onitsha, Anambra State, heading for the Yola campus in Adamawa. Their journey should have been a straight road to learning. Instead, it ended in the dark belly of a forest.

Bandits struck along the Zaki Biam–Wukari Expressway in Benue State. They were not strangers to the land. According to survivor David Obiora, they were Tiv-speaking locals — men whose faces might have been familiar in the marketplace.

The ransom demand: ₦10 million each. The threat: “Pay or we kill them.”

In captivity, the students ate once a day. Their drinking water was muddy, scooped from the forest. The food — cooked by the wives of the bandits — was served under the gaze of toddlers barely three years old, playing with guns as if they were toys.

Their leader, a man called Mathew, was said to be either a dismissed soldier or a deserter. The nearby community knew who they were. Yet no one intervened. Whether out of fear or complicity, silence was their choice.

When the ransom was finally paid, the captives were not freed at once. They were marched for hours through the forest until they crossed into Taraba State — finally tasting air that wasn’t thick with danger.

This is not just their story. It’s Nigeria’s story — a story where neighbours can be captors, where silence shields criminals, and where young people chasing their dreams are forced to stare into the eyes of death.

Have you or someone close to you faced the nightmare of insecurity? How do you think we, the people, can fight back? Share your story with * * and send a copy to 08035354008 (WhatsApp) or [email protected].

Let’s use our voices to turn the tide.

08/08/2025

* : How soldiers taxed our ransom payment*

By Faruk Ahmed | |

About four years ago, a client told me how some of his family members were abducted in Birnin Gwari, Kaduna State.

After weeks of anguish, the family scraped together the ransom: ₦20 million in cash and a brand-new Bajaj motorcycle.

But at the entrance of the forest where the captives were held, soldiers stopped them.
_"Which camp are you taking the ransom to?"_ the soldiers asked. When told, they demanded ₦200,000 before allowing them through.

Inside the forest, the family passed several bandit camps before reaching the one holding their relatives.

The bandits noticed the shortfall. When told the soldiers had taken it, the bandits said, _"No problem. The money is complete."_

The family was freed—but the lesson was bitter: in a land where even those in uniform eat from the table of blood money, who will save us?

📢 Your turn: Has insecurity touched your life? Do you have ideas to fight it? Share your story with the hashtag * * and send a copy to *08035354008* or *[email protected]*. Together, we will turn grief into action.

15/08/2024

*How to organise a protest that yields positive results*

By Faruk Ahmed

I run a private school in Kano. Alhaji Sani Hamma (not his real name for privacy), one of the parents of our pupils, sells live chickens in one of the state's markets for a living. Usually, once schools resume for a new term, Alhaji Hamma is among those who make full payment in the first week of resumption. But recently, he couldn’t pay until the fourth week, and this was even after one of his kids had been sent home. Even when he paid, it was a part-payment which he balanced after about two weeks.

However, Hamma’s situation is on the bright side of things in Nigeria today because, in the same school, some parents didn’t pay until the last week of the term. Some moved their children to schools that charged less, while others pulled their kids out completely to remain at home.

Recently, I have been contemplating shutting down the school to find something else to do. This is because the finances have been strained, and the school has found it difficult to meet its obligations. But with the persuasion of staff and some parents, a truce was called wherein all hands will be on deck to salvage the school, with compromises from the owners, teachers, and parents.

*Dire situations*
If you ask yourself, “Why are parents finding it difficult to pay the school fees of their wards?”, you will find that the answer isn’t far-fetched. Nowadays, from the lengths and breadths of Nigeria, most citizens have been turned into beggars. Everyone you meet is either coming from where they went to seek food but couldn’t get it and hence moving on to the next destination whose positive outcome is not certain.

If the Nigerian state had left us with just unending hunger, the misery could have been a little bit bearable. Instead, insecurities spiral everywhere in the country in the forms of banditry, kidnappings, herder-farmer clashes, rituals for money, economic sabotage, cybercrime, and more. Nowhere is safe in the country. But you cannot pinpoint anything the government of the day is doing to nip the problem in the bud.

Today, while travelling on any major road in the country and a roadblock is sighted, Nigerians now fervently pray to God that the attackers are armed robbers. This is because they know any other alternative is dire.

And while the winds of hunger blow through the nation, the last refuge of the citizens would have been the farm. But today, farmers dread going there. Those who dare are either fined or have their hands cut off by the parallel government of the bush.

*Sorry state*
A friend narrated to Nigerian Track Magazine how after painstakingly harvesting the produce of his farm, which numbered about 40 bags of grains, a farmer in Katsina was accosted by the ‘real government’. They told him if he valued his life, he should leave the grains behind and go. Quickly, the man left without looking back.

Far away from the bush, the farmer stooped and eagerly looked on to see who the bandits would sell the fruits of his labour to. Suddenly, he saw a plume of smoke rising from the direction of his farm. Even though he wanted to rush to the farm, he held himself back. So, he waited till the next morning and crept in. What he saw made him fall down, paralysing one part of his body.

“So, what happened next?” I restlessly prodded my friend after a long silence. He replied, “All the grains in the farm were burned down by the bandits.”

*Money for hand…*
In another related story, Aisha, the mother of five children, was arrested for allegedly being one of the informants to bandits in Sayaya, a village in Katsina State. While being interrogated, she confessed that she was paid just N20,000 to leak information on a kidnapping operation that fetched over N7 million for the captors.

When further pressed on what she does apart from being an informant, she replied, “Sai dai in ba da gabana a bani kudi!” meaning that she fornicates just to be paid to feed herself and her children. Women like Aisha are those whose husbands have been driven away or killed by bandits and thus had to resort to prostitution or other vices.

Talking about prostitution, in one of the viral videos made by Teaser Pranks, a YouTube channel, a graduate was videoed prostituting in Casablanca, Port Harcourt. When queried why she ventured into the ‘bottom business’, she replied that after her business failed, she had nothing else to resort to. She further narrated that she had younger ones and a mother whom she supports.

A group of policemen who were arrested in Delta State were said to be the kidnappers that terrorise the region. Another police officer was arrested in Katsina for killing his colleagues and selling their rifles to bandits. And the list of criminal activities goes on.

Essentially, Nigerians are turning to criminality just to survive.

*The fat cows*
While Nigerians are wallowing in abject poverty and bearing the brunt of the unending insecurities, the nation’s lawmakers live in luxury at the expense of her citizens. Just recently, the 469 members bought for themselves what they call “operational vehicles” at an exorbitant cost. This is when the Nigerian government was saying it couldn’t pay more than N50,000 as minimum wage.

_To be concluded…_
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25/03/2024

*How to pull Nigeria out of the abyss*

By Faruk Ahmed

Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, once said to his followers, “I swear by Allah, it is not poverty that I fear for you, but rather I fear you will be given the wealth of the world, just as it was given to those before you. You will compete for it just as they competed, and it will ruin you just as it ruined them.”

Nigeria is not grappling with poverty to the extent of Niger Republic. Insecurity, though a concern, has not halted progress as it has in Somalia. Despite inflation wreaking havoc on the country, it hasn’t reached the catastrophic levels witnessed in Germany during the 1930s. Moreover, while in 1980, the dollar exchanged for 0.66 naira; today, as of the time of going to press, it goes for as high as N2,000.

To compound the challenges, the anti-development syndromes, identified by Aderibigbe S. Olomola, a professor of agricultural economics, as impediments to national progress, are rampant in Nigeria. These include poor leadership, widespread corruption, political cultism, dominant external influence, high cost of governance, and security challenges.

While poverty, insecurity, hyperinflation, and fluctuating forex rates may not obliterate Nigerians, the affluence and avarice of their leaders have thrust them into a great gully that is challenging to overcome. Only the correctness of foresight, the dint and stint of a great leader, the steely resolves of its populace, and the will of the Almighty can pull the country out of the doldrum.

Questions arise: What went wrong? Where did we take the wrong turn? Can the damages be fixed? If so, how do we retrace our steps? How do we create a Nigeria of our dreams that will rub shoulders with the developed worlds? This piece will endeavour to unravel these questions.

*How did we get here?*

Pre-independence and immediately afterward, Nigeria operated a parliamentary system of government. Governance wasn’t centralized but rather dispersed to regional governments, sparking healthy competition among these regions. Each region had to don its creative cap to generate revenues, keeping 50 percent for itself. Out of the remaining, 20 percent was sent to the central government, while the other regions shared the remaining 30 percent.

Despite occasional grudges, this didn’t hinder the nation from flourishing, as each region worked hard to generate resources.
The southwest produced rubber, cocoa, kola nuts, and cashew nuts; the southeast produced coal, while the north produced hides and skins, cotton, and groundnuts.

From the middle-belt, Nigerians also cultivated rubber, palm kernels, and timbers, while tin was mined in commercial quantities from Jos. Although some of these products were used internally, the large scale of cultivation led to processing and exporting. Post-independence, agriculture significantly contributed to the nation's economic growth, accounting for about 65 percent of the GDP and 70 percent of total exports, providing much-needed foreign exchange.

From the proceeds of agricultural endeavors, Nigeria built energy projects such as the Kainji dam and the Ughelli thermal plants, an oil refinery, a development bank, and a mint and security company. Most importantly, the country fed itself, and commodity and marketing boards ensured farmers were insured, making products readily available and affordable nationwide.

*The decline*

Three tragedies befell Nigeria immediately after its independence, bringing it to its knees. Firstly, there was the coup and counter-coup of 1966, followed by the civil war of 1967-1970. However, the greatest misfortune of all was striking the oil jackpot in 1973.

While the coups of 1966 disrupted the first republic based on a parliamentary system of governance, the civil war devastated pools of talent and infrastructure in the country. Although the truncation of the first republic impeded the nation's development, the most significant setback came with the discovery of oil. The nation, flush with unprecedented wealth from oil sales, faced a dearth of experienced and patriotic leaders due to the civil war. The young leaders ruling the country failed to dream, act, and conquer new economic fronts, choosing instead to squander the new wealth from oil sales.

Starting from 1974, the nation became a net importer of food. The share of agriculture to the GDP in 1971, which stood at 48.3 percent, shrunk to 21 percent in 1977 (same as 2023). The share of agricultural exports as a percentage of total exports in 1971 was 20.7 percent. It went down to 5.71 percent, and in 2023, it was 4.31 percent.

Today, the nation cannot feed itself. With inflation gripping it, exacerbated by incessant insecurity, the greed of its leaders, dilapidated infrastructure, collapsed and expensive education, unbridled corruption, and a teeming population of undercooked and unemployable youth preferring quick-rich fixes, the nation has finally earned the epitaph of a banana republic...

_To be concluded!_
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