Northern Nigeria faces a silent but dangerous shift. While headlines focus on political arguments between security elites like Nuhu Ribadu and Nasir El-Rufai, communities across Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, and Sokoto are entering into local peace deals with bandits. These agreements — involving ransom payments, ceasefires, and even “protection levies” — raise urgent questions about Nigeria’s sovereignty, governance, and future stability.
In this episode of The Other Side, Rimamnde Shawulu investigates the implications of these community-brokered pacts with terrorists and kidnappers, drawing comparisons to Afghanistan, Syria, and Congo, where such deals eventually led to stronger insurgencies and weakened central governments.
What You’ll Learn
• Northern Nigeria’s new reality: why villages in Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, and Sokoto are signing peace accords with bandits.
• The risks of “non-kinetic” strategies: how negotiation without military pressure strengthens outlaws.
• Global parallels: Afghanistan’s Taliban, Syria’s militias, and Congo’s rebel taxation models. • Communities paying tribute: how “levies” risk legitimizing bandits as alternative governments.
• The loyalty problem: why citizens may shift allegiance from Nigeria’s government to armed groups.
• International danger: connections between Nigerian bandits and Sahel terrorist networks seeking access to West Africa’s coastal states.
Why This Matters Globally Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and largest economy. If its northwestern states collapse into bandit-governed enclaves, the ripple effects could destabilize the Sahel, West Africa, and global security.
The same lessons seen in Afghanistan and Syria are repeating themselves — but this time in Africa’s heart.
Watch to understand:
• Why “peace talks” with bandits may be a sign of state weakness.
• How communities under siege risk becoming conquered territories.
• What the world must learn from Nigeria’s unfolding security experiment.
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