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Opinion

The Nigeria US Story on Genocide- Ismail Auwal

Published

5 months ago

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By Ismail Auwal

When a country is placed on Americas Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) list, it never remains a technical diplomatic category. It becomes a permanent shadow that trails the nation into investment discussions, military cooperation and the private rooms where powerful actors decide who to trust. Nigeria now carries that shadow, and for a country already overwhelmed by multiple security emergencies, the weight of this designation is neither abstract nor symbolic. It is political, economic and potentially destabilising.
The most worrying aspect is that the designation rests on a narrative that fractures upon contact with reality: the claim that Nigeria is enabling a Christian genocide. It is a narrative that sounds coherent in Washingtons hearing rooms, where testimonies are polished and emotions are guided. Yet once you step away from those rooms and into the communities where violence shapes the rhythm of daily life, the story changes completely.

A Narrative Travelling Faster Than Truth
The genocide narrative spreads quickly because it offers a clean explanation for a crisis that is anything but clean. It moves through congressional hearings, diaspora networks, lobbying circles and social-media echo chambers that seldom include those who bury their loved ones at dawn. In those distant spaces, the narrative feels straightforward and morally comfortable, but on Nigerian soil, it dissolves into a far more complex and painful reality.
In Zamfara, over four hundred villages, mostly Muslim, have been emptied by bandits who kill for profit and control, not in the name of faith. In Katsina and Sokoto, entire communities have disappeared from maps, destroyed by criminal groups with no ideological agenda.
In Plateau, twenty-five Muslim travellers were dragged from their vehicles and murdered in broad daylight by mobs from nearby Christian communities. In Anambra, Harira Jibril, pregnant and exhausted, was killed alongside her four children simply because gunmen identified them as Muslims.
These stories do not erase the suffering of Christian families who face similar horrors. Instead, they reveal what the genocide narrative refuses to confront: the violence in Nigeria does not travel in one direction. It shifts according to geography, vulnerability, and an almost two-decade-long crack in the state’s security architecture. Just as Muslims do not assign collective guilt to Christians, Christians cannot assign collective blame to all Muslims for the crimes of extremists who misuse faith.

Where the Evidence Falls Apart
Genocide is not a rhetorical weapon; it is a legal term defined by intent. It requires a deliberate plan to exterminate a group of people because of who they are. Nigerias conflict landscape does not support that claim. In the North East, Boko Haram targets Christians and Muslims alike, killing clerics who oppose extremism, villagers who refuse allegiance and children caught in crossfire. More than two million peopleof mixed faithslive in displacement camps, united not by creed but by vulnerability.
In the North West, the violence is driven by banditry, ransom economies and territorial capture. Armed groups raid for money, power and fear, not ideology, and their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim. In the Middle Belt, a different logic governs the conflict: old land disputes, generational grievances and cycles of retaliation. More than ten thousand people have been killed across Plateau, Benue, Katsina and Kebbi in just two years, yet none of these killings reflect a coordinated national extermination plan.
Across the country, the devastation is staggering: thousands of villages razed, millions displaced and livelihoods erased. Still, no pattern points to state-sponsored religious cleansing. Nigerias crisis is a knot of collapsing borders, unregulated weapons, drug-fuelled gangs, under-resourced security forces and abandoned communities struggling to survive without the protection of their own government.

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When Foreign Narratives Replace Local Truth
The danger begins when a single narrative becomes the only lens through which a country is understood. Sympathy for Christian victims is legitimate, but when that sympathy becomes exclusive, Muslim victims vanish entirely from the story. Their widows do not appear in Washington. Their mass graves do not trend. Their displacement does not register in global reports. A national tragedy becomes a one-directional script, and in that script, the failures of governance disappear behind the simplified idea of religious persecution.
Once this misdiagnosed story takes root in Washington, policies begin to bend around it. Sanctions are proposed as moral pressure. Restrictions on arms sales are framed as accountability. Intervention is whispered as a last resort. These policies do not ask whether the next life at risk belongs to a Christian grandmother in Zangon Kataf or a Muslim farmer in Zurmi. They strike everyone equally, often worsening insecurity for those already living at the edge of danger.
The Grief That Defines the Crisis
In Kaduna, three years ago, I sat with a widow who lost her husband in a night attack. She did not know the attackers or their motives. All she knew was that when gunshots shattered the silence, no one came to helpnot the nearby police post, not the patrol team she had been assured would protect them, not the state she believed would stand between her family and danger. Her grief was neither Christian nor Muslim. It was the grief of a Nigerian who discovered, in one devastating moment, that she was on her own.
Her story echoes across northern Nigeria. In Katsina, a man from Dansadau recounted how bandits demanded a “tax” of ₦200,000 in exchange for peace. When villagers failed to pay, the killings began, farms were abandoned, and hunger forced families across the border. Over eighty thousand Nigerians now live as refugees in Niger’s Maradi region, while nearly four hundred thousand are displaced across Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara. Many do not appear in the data of Washington because they are Muslims?
They sleep in classrooms, abandoned buildings, unfinished shops and borrowed compounds. Their lives are held together by resilience and charity, not by state protection. From Plateau to Benue to Zamfara, the scenes repeat themselves: midnight escapes, separated families, villages negotiating with bandits and people surviving despite the government, not because of it.

A Crisis Rooted in State Fragility
Nigerias emergency is not a religious war; it is a terrifying manifestation of state fragility. Borders allow weapons to flow freely. Security forces operate with broken vehicles and empty fuel tanks. Criminal groups evolve faster than government responses. In many villages, the most powerful authority is the local bandit leader, not the state. Communities negotiate peace at gunpoint, surrender parts of their harvest as taxes and accept rules imposed by criminals because the state is too weak to govern.
This is not the blueprint of genocide. It is the anatomy of state failure. And it is state failurenot a government-backed religious missionthat is killing Nigerians of all identities.
Reclaiming Nigerias Story
Nigeria cannot allow outsiders to dictate the meaning of its suffering. Foreign partners may care, but they must care responsibly. A misdiagnosed story in Washington becomes a policy, a policy becomes a precedent, and a precedent becomes a long-term obstacle to Nigerias security and development. Sanctions, arms restrictions and diplomatic isolation hit the vulnerable hardest, not the architects of state weakness.
This is why Nigeria must insist on telling its whole truth. A truth that honours Christian and Muslim victims equally. A truth that identifies governance collapsenot religious persecutionas the central driver of violence. A truth that demands stronger institutions, better security responses and international partnerships rooted in accuracy, not ideology. If Nigeria does not reclaim its story, others will continue telling it badly, and when the wrong story becomes the worlds truth, the decisions that follow may be ones Nigeria, in its fragile state, cannot survive.

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Opinion

The Ink Dried Up: An Open Letter to Matthew Hassan Kukah-Prince Daniel Aboki

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14 hours ago

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April 28, 2026

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Dear Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah

I write you with the utmost sense of respect.

Permit me to begin by congratulating you. Not in the usual way, but in a manner that reflects a keen observation of recent developments in our country. Since the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President, and coincidentally since your assumption of office as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Federal University of Applied Sciences Kachia, there appears to have been a remarkable shift in the narrative of insecurity across Nigeria.

From Zamfara State to Sokoto State, Katsina State, Benue State, Plateau State, Kwara State, and indeed across several troubled parts of our nation, one might be tempted to conclude that the k!llings have suddenly come to an end. The silence is striking. The headlines have softened. The urgency has waned.

It is this very contrast that compels this letter.

You will recall, Bishop, your powerful and courageous interventions during the administration of Muhammadu Buhari. Your voice rang loud through a series of open letters that captured national attention and stirred both conscience and controversy.

On Christmas Day, December 25, 2018, you wrote with piercing clarity about a nation drifting, warning of a “nation at w@r with itself.”

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Again, on December 25, 2019, your message, “A Nation in Search of Vindication,” questioned the moral and political direction of leadership, calling attention to bloodshed and division.

On December 25, 2020, in “A Nation in Search of Peace,” you spoke even more bluntly, addressing the worsening insecurity and the growing despair among Nigerians.

And on December 25, 2022, your letter once again raised concerns about governance, justice, and the value of human life in Nigeria.

These interventions were not just letters. They were moral signposts. They reminded leadership of its duty and the nation of its conscience.

It is against this backdrop that your current silence, or perhaps restraint, becomes more noticeable.

Has the situation improved so dramatically that the urgency of those words is no longer required?

Have the forests suddenly emptied?
Have the highways become safe?
Have the cries of victims ceased?

Or is it that the burden of national admonition must shift depending on who occupies the seat of power?

Lord Bishop, sir, your voice has always carried weight not because it was loud, but because it was consistent. Not because it was critical, but because it was principled.

Nigeria still needs that voice.

Not selectively. Not occasionally. But steadfastly.

If indeed peace has returned to the troubled lands of Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Benue, Plateau, Kwara, and beyond, then you deserve commendation for witnessing such a transformation. But if, as many still believe, the reality on the ground has not changed as dramatically as the silence suggests, then your voice is needed now as much as it was then. Unless there is something we are not seeing that you would want us to see, could it be a case of “Tinubu I love, Buhari I hate”? Or should we begin to wonder whether conviction has given way to convenience?

Bishop, sir, would you recommend that we keep silent when we benefit and speak up only when we do not?

Over time, we have seen that history is kinder to those who remain constant in truth than to those who are convenient in silence.

I write not in condemnation, but in expectation.

Prince Daniel a Concerned Citizen and Head of cool Wazobia And Arewa Radio on Kano

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Opinion

Tarauni Breathes As Ja’o’ji Advances

Published

3 days ago

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April 25, 2026

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By Abba Anwar

Confidence, focus and straightforwardness are some of the major reasons why 2027 political contest in Tarauni is increasingly becoming more interesting and more dicey. Race for the House of Representatives seat especially.

When the former Senior Special Assistant to the President, on Citizenship and Leadership, Hon Nasir Bala Ja’oji, declared his intention to contest for the House of Representatives seat, against the current member, many keen political observers believe that, there are two major contenders now.

Ja’oji, according to many observers, is fast becoming one of the most fearless politicians within Kano metropolis. In the public eye, he was the first appointee to resign from his position, at the federal government level. The gut was seen as an asset, that cannot be purchase by every Tom, Dick and Harry.

Political pundits accept that, with all his unmatched connection, at the top of the ladder, Ja’oji, believes that, searching for political soul mates, on top of his “save our souls” empowerment and interventions are necessary tools for political victory. So he is changing tactics now, and for better.

The thousands of supporters he was able to gather, yesterday Friday, for the declaration of his intention to contest, surprised many as being unprecedented and overwhelming. Though anticipated.

He started from Gadar Lado, on Zaria road, took to the street with procession, to the All Progressives Congress (APC) Tarauni local government Secretariat, back to Zaria road to his base Ja’oji quarters. As dozens horse riders, thousands of supporters trekking and bike riders were chanting party slogan.

At the Secretariat he told the party leaders that his ambition “… is not borne out of mere ambition, but from deep sense of responsibility, commitment and consistent engagement with the people and the ideals of our great party.”

Ja’o’ji is someone with outright and unscathing love for APC’s strength and victory for all elections. He stresses this notion, when he said, “Over the past few years, I have remained steadfast in my loyalty and contributions to the growth, unity and electoral successes of our party at various levels.”

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For the simple reason that, this rare gem, has so many advantages over his challengers, in the race, he typifies that, his experience serving as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Citizenship and Leadership, has further shaped his understanding of governance, nation building and inclusive leadership.

Adding that, “In that capacity, I contributed initiatives aimed at promoting civic responsibility, youth engagement, and leadership development across the country.”

During the declaration event youth and women constituted the larger part of the participants, who made the event more colorful and intimidating. Many of those who attended the event, were of the opinion that, it is now their turn to support Ja’o’ji realize his political dream victoriously.

Ja’oji is indeed second to none, as Tarauni electorate believe that, his long standing initiatives in empowering his people, are indelible in the face of Tarauni political reality. Hundreds of women and youth benefited from his grant schemes, where some hundreds beneficiaries collected One Million Naira (N1m) each to aid their economic engagement in the society. For the overall development of the state, as a whole.

Many hundreds benefited from his scholarship scheme at periodic intervals. Where he sponsored their higher education across tertiary institutions in the state. Apart from yearly assistance rendered to secondary school students for writing their Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations. And their second school leaving examinations, NECON and SSCE. Among many other programmes.

His intervention cuts across all segments of people in Tarauni and beyond. Sometimes not minding their political affiliation. That is why people are of the opinion that, Ja’oji could be marketable and sellable easily. As his pedigree informs this reality, for the past few years. Even before he started nurturing a political ambition. Which shows that, Ja’oji has been an ardent supporter for human progress and development. A sole action that endears him to the people. Particularly those at the grassroot. Genuine electorate at all levels.

With all his shortcomings, as a human being, as no human beings, apart from Prophets and Messengers of Allah, are infallible, meaning infallibility of human beings is assured and reassured in this life, Ja’oji has age over other would be contestants. As some political pundits observed.

His long presence in the life of his people, supercedes other contestants, especially those that are new into the system. As speculation suggests that, there are some people who are drafted and some are about to be drafted into the battleground. But electorate promised that their weight is already behind Ja’oji.

As Ja’oji advances with full force with his declaration of interest and as there are reports that, within the circle of those would be contestants’ structures, some misunderstandings started emanating from within, Tarauni is about to breath well with Ja’o’ji as the rallying point.

Anwar writes from Kano
Saturday, 25th April, 2026

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Opinion

THE UNIFIER ALIGNS WITH THE NOMINATION OF MURTALA SULE GARO AS DEPUTY GOVERNOR OF KANO STATE

Published

4 days ago

on

April 25, 2026

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The Unifier Project expresses strong alignment with the nomination of Hon. Murtala Sule Garo as Deputy Governor of Kano State, as the development is really strategic and a well thought decision that would certainly support in the ongoing consolidation of governance under the leadership of His Excellency, Abba Kabir Yusuf.

The nomination reflects a deliberate effort to strengthen political cohesion, deepen administrative excellence, and reinforce trust within the structure of political governance in Kano State.

Hon. Murtala Sule Garo represents a symbol of political depth, administrative skills, and grassroots connection, as well as qualities that are essential in supporting effective governance and sustaining public confidence in any political leadership.

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We are strongly of the opinion that, the decision aligns with the broader vision of unity and inclusiveness, which the Unifier Project has always continued to advocate across the state. The nomination is surely one that transcends routine political considerations, positioning itself as a step towards enhancing stability and improved service delivery.

The Unifier Project views this development as a reinforcement of democratic values and a reflection of responsive and inclusive leadership that takes into account experience, loyalty, and the need for broad-based acceptance in governance.

A political decision of this nature contributes significantly to strengthening institutional trust and encouraging wider participation in governance processes, especially at the grassroots level.

The Unifier Project therefore expresses its full alignment with the nomination and reaffirms its commitment to promoting unity, political stability, and constructive engagement across all levels of society in Kano State.

The organization therefore calls for a continued support for leadership decision that prioritizes collective progress, institutional balance, and the overall development of the state.

Signed:
Mohd Babagana
Kano State Coordinator,
24th April, 2026

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