From north central states of; Kogi, Nassarawa, Benue and Plateau to north eastern states of; Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe and to ‘Nigeria Corridor of Hell’ north western states of; Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara, ‘blood flows’ freely in an endless streams leaving behind in its trails; wails, deaths, sorrows’, anger, annihilation and extermination.
The hot bed of Nigeria’s corridor of hell’, the north west has continued to be Nigeria’s nightmare. In Katsina State the bandits controlled eight local government areas, namely; Jibia, Safana, Batsari, Danmusa, Sabuwa, Dandume, Kankara and Faskari. The bandits controlled 9 local government areas in Zamfara State namely; Anka, Bukkuyum, Maradun, Maru, Birnin Magaji, Tsafe, Shinkafi, and Zurmi. And lately in Kaura Namoda Local Government Area.
They are the most populated regions in Nigeria, namely; North East [Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba & Yobe States] with an estimated population of 26,263,866 million & North West [Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto & Zamfara States] with an estimated population of 35.78 million. These two regions accounted for the highest voting figures in Nigeria and they remained the most dreaded, and crisis ridden regions in Nigeria, hence they are referred to as ‘Nigeria’s Corridors of Hell’!
The North East which has remained in the strangled hold of ‘Boko Haram Terrorists’ [BHT] groups; Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi faction, Islamic State of West Africa Province [ISWAP] & Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau’s faction. The group has decimated an estimated 33,000 people, with over 2.5 million people displaced and fled Nigeria into neighboring countries; Chad, Niger & Cameroon. These dreaded ‘terror’ groups control over 30,000 kilometers of territory in; Nigeria, Niger & Chad.
The North West which witnessed a surge in banditry in early 2011 has metamorphosed into a dreaded monster that has remained ‘untamed’. Turning the region into; killings, cattle rustling and ransom fields! There is nexus between ‘gold mining’ in Zamfara State and ‘kidnapping, killings, cattle rustling and ransom’.
The hydra-dreaded monster has snow ball to neighbouring states in the region, namely, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa & Sokoto States. The Zamfara State bloodletting spree has cost the state; over 5,000 lives, 600 houses destroyed, several cars burnt and thousands of cattle’s, goats and cows rustled. In Zamfara and Katsina States, the rampaging bandits has pocketed a combined 16 local government areas in both states.
These two highly populated, highly under-developed, the highest number of illiterates in Nigeria, highest number of unemployed youths [Kano State has an estimated 4 million unemployed youths], highest number of ‘out-of-school’ children and ‘foot soldiers’ called ‘Almajiri’ regions has become Nigeria’s ‘Corridors of Hell’!
These two regions have become a-no-go area to tourists, businesses, development as they are now a nightmare ‘regions’ to residents and ‘corridors of hell’! The unending crisis and destruction’s that have plaque these regions have continued unabated!
“It was an uneasy truth everyone knew. But coming from an illustrious son, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, African richest man and among the most diversified investors in the Nigerian local economy, it came with added vim: Nigeria’s northern region must do something – and fast – about its developmental challenges.”
“The underdevelopment stats, coming from Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s mouth, is simply bone-chilling:” In the North Western and North Eastern parts of Nigeria, more than 60 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty,” he told a session of the 4th Kaduna Investment Summit [Kadivest 4.0]. “It is instructive to know that the 19 northern states, which account for over 54 per cent of Nigeria’s population and 70 per cent of its landmass, collectively generated only 21 per cent of the total sub-national Internally Generated Revenue in the year 2017″.
“Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s North could beat this rap too, with better investment in education; and with the attraction of investments, as Alhaji Aliko Dangote himself suggested, to create jobs and stem poverty. Yet, on the education front, the North faces a twin-challenge: a traditional feudal system and a modern system of elite education.”
“Now, there is nothing irremediable about a feudal culture. Most – if not all of Europe – was feudal, with the so-called divine rights of kings to do whatever they wished with their subjects. Yet, Europe has been able to navigate modernity and development, even with England still retaining some fealty to its traditional feudal system, in a ceremonial monarchy.”
I don’t see why the North could not travel a similar path, to give its people a better deal and end the endless seasons of bloodletting and taming the North West ‘corridors of hell’ by making it safe.