For years, ordinary Nigerians have been burying loved ones, while powerful voices in Abuja and the northern states have been busy massaging the egos of killers and sympathizing with them.
Let me refresh your memories.
In 2013, Muhammadu Buhari said that “the military offensive against Boko Haram is anti-North,” attacking Jonathan’s state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. Many families who lost loved ones in the North have never forgotten those words. The terrorists even went on to elect him as their spokesman. This same man went on to become a president of Nigeria.
In Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai openly admitted that his government traced violent Fulani herdsmen outside Nigeria and paid them to stop killing people in Southern Kaduna, saying as a Fulani governor he had “no problem paying compensations” to them. This was a governor proudly saying that there was nothing wrong in paying bandits compensations.
In an old sermon, Isa Pantami, who later became Minister of Communications, described Boko Haram fighters as “our Muslim brothers” and complained that they were being killed “like pigs” instead of being pampered like Niger Delta militants. For saying this and openly sympathizing with these terrorists, he was placed in charge of a strategic position as the minister of communication.
Most of you don’t know how powerful the ministry of communications, Innovation, and digital economy is. Let me try to summarize its power in either aiding or impeding the fight against terrorism.
This ministry oversees the entire digital backbone of and structure of the country.
That includes:
-NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission)
-NITDA
-Galaxy Backbone
-National Identity database (NIN)
-Cybersecurity policy and digital surveillance systems
-Telecom regulation through MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9mobile
-Internet monitoring, interception frameworks, SIM registration systems
All of these tools matter directly to national security.
You cannot fight terrorism without:
-Tracking phone calls
-Intercepting communications
-Tracing ransom calls
-Mapping bandit networks
-Identifying sleeper cells
This entire power sits under the Ministry’s regulatory supervision.
If the ministry is strong, coordinated and loyal to national security, terrorists lose their anonymity.
If the ministry is weak, compromised, or misaligned, terrorists operate freely.
This is why countries treat digital and communication ministries as security ministries, not just “internet ministries.”
The ministry leads Nigeria’s entire cybersecurity ecosystem, including:
-National Cybersecurity Policy
-Inter-agency cyber response teams
-Protection of critical digital infrastructure
-Collaboration with security agencies on intelligence
Of course, we know that terrorists now use:
-Encrypted platforms
-Digital fundraising
-Social media networks
-Online propaganda
-Cross-border WhatsApp coordination
The ministry is crucial in shutting these down or letting terrorists do as they please.
To avoid making this post too long, I won’t be able to tell you other importance of this ministry, but you can Subscribe to KaaTruths You/Tube channel and watch a documentary when I discussed this.
Now, let us continue.
In 2021, Lai Mohammed went on live TV and said that if granting amnesty to a warlord would make others surrender, he would “take that decision” and threw his weight behind governors who offered amnesty instead of confrontation to bandits. Lai Mohammed was the minister of Information under President Buhari.
Former Zamfara governor Ahmad Sani Yerima went to see President Tinubu in 2023 and came out publicly urging him to consider amnesty for bandits, arguing that they “deserve amnesty and not death” and should be negotiated with like Niger Delta militants. For him, these terrorists and bandits should not be killed.
Zamfara’s then governor, Bello Matawalle, even told Nigerians that “not all bandits are criminals”, insisting that some picked up guns because vigilantes wronged them, while his government pushed amnesty and cash deals with these same gangs. 
Former Katsina governor Aminu Masari launched an amnesty programme and promoted dialogue with bandits in Buhari’s home state, before later admitting the whole arrangement failed and that he regretted trusting them at all. 
And here’s the big one. Our current Vice President, Kashim Shettima, once said in 2011 that “the Boko Haram people are human beings who deserve fair hearing” and called them “our brothers”, calling for dialogue instead of a hard crackdown. Please, read that again gently. And how many of you still remembered whose house Kabiru Sokoto the Boko Haram prominent leader who bombed Nyanya was caught after escaping from police custody?
Ali Modu Sheriff, on the other hand, is surrounded by thick smoke andd reports linking his time as Borno governor to the rise of Boko Haram, yet he loudly denies everything but said something that most people have really not paid attention to. He said, “it’s not me, it’s Shettima who created Boko Haram.”
Dave Umahi who’s now a minister. At an event in Abakaliki in May 2021, where he presented vehicles to security agencies during his time as governor said:
“Bandits are our children, we should empower them.”
I hope you are still following.
Outside formal politics, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi built a full ministry of sympathy around bandits, insisting they are “not criminals”, demanding amnesty and rehabilitation, and scolding the media for calling them what they are. 
While thousands of villagers, farmers, churchgoers and travellers were being slaughtered, kidnapped and raped, you had powerful men debating the “feelings” of bandits and proposing salaries and amnesty for them.
Let this sink in: there are more powerful voices fighting to launder the image of bandits than there are voices fighting for the widows and orphans they left behind.
One day, Nigeria will have to ask herself: who really created this monster and who kept feeding it with soft words, cash settlements and political protection?
And the most chilling question would probably be: “Can we confidently separate our government from those we are asking the government to protect us from?”
-KAA
Host of KaaTruths Podcast
#EndInsecurity
#kaa_truthshn
