₦airaland Forum

Nigeria Is Becoming a No-Go Area
... Insecurity Has Turned the Nation into a Crime Economy

BY ANTHONY ADA ABRAHAM

When visitors are more afraid to come home than to stay away, a country is already at war with itself.

I was having a conversation with a friend who recently visited Nigeria, and his fear was unsettling. He said he could barely move around freely because of the persistent insecurity.

Kidnappings. Terror attacks. Daily anxiety.
According to him, the international news about Nigeria is so disturbing that many foreigners and even Nigerians abroad are now scared of returning, whether for holidays or business engagements.

Sadly, I couldn’t argue with him. He wasn’t exaggerating.

For years, some of us have been calling on the government to stop romanticising blood-soaked criminals and religious extremists masquerading as bandits.

Those cries have largely been ignored.
The reports that authorities allegedly paid over $7 million to secure the release of about 200 abducted students in Niger State only deepen public anger.

If true, that moment marked a dangerous turning point.

Because here is the hard truth: The more ransoms you pay, the more profitable kidnapping becomes.
The more profitable it becomes, the more criminals local and foreign are drawn into it.

What we are dealing with today is no longer random crime. It is an industry. A multi-billion-naira kidnapping economy.

Some reports even claim kidnappers now abduct people sent to deliver ransom. That tells you how emboldened they have become.

So how does a government that once accused past administrations of incompetence now appear silent or worse, complicit in the same cycle?

A Nigerian tech expert told me something that stuck: if the government is truly willing to locate these criminals, it won’t take much. These groups communicate, coordinate, and transact using technology. They leave digital footprints every day.

Yet here we are, watching armed bandits go live on TikTok, flaunting ransom money and weapons without fear.

This is no longer the era of armed robbers who steal phones and wallets. Today, human beings themselves are the commodities.

If the President, the National Security leadership, and defence authorities are genuinely serious about ending this nightmare, then action, not rhetoric must follow.

What must be done, urgently:

Engage incorruptible, highly skilled tech experts
Nigerian or foreign to track and dismantle these networks. This is not guesswork; it’s modern security.

Deploy advanced surveillance and drone technology to penetrate areas inaccessible to conventional forces. If expertise is lacking locally, bring in professionals who know the job.

Properly motivate the armed forces. Morale is dangerously low. With the massive security votes allocated across states, excuses are unacceptable.
Declare a state of emergency in regions overrun by terrorists. If emergency powers can be invoked in Rivers State over political disputes, then states under violent siege deserve even more urgent attention.

End the culture of pampering violent criminals and their enablers. Justice must be firm, lawful, and decisive. You cannot ask victims and bereaved families to “move on” while their tormentors are rehabilitated and rewarded.

There is much more to be said, but the message is simple:
You cannot fight to retain political power while the people you claim to govern are being buried daily.
We must continue to speak. Loudly. Relentlessly.
Because silence only strengthens a failed state.
If nothing changes, people will keep fleeing the country and those left behind will be terrorists and the politicians who enabled them.

ANTHONY ADA ABRAHAM IS A JOURNALIST AND PUBLIC COMMENTATOR WRITES IN FROM ABUJA.

Same Nigeria that people trooped into for Dettt December?

Tell us about sports please and desist from propaganda.

HacheNoire:
Same Nigeria that people trooped into for Dettt December?

Tell us about sports please and desist from propaganda.

why is your evidence? Meanwhile people are getting killed daily in Benue, Kwara, Kebbi and etc, how about the hundreds of people that were kidnapped in Kwara, have the security agencies secure their release?

The opposition are still wailing while the Nigerians are moving on with the reality on ground

Those who chose to be playing politics with the insecurity will slee on the bed they laid

SpaceX:
why is your evidence? Meanwhile people are getting killed daily in Benue, Kwara, Kebbi and etc, how about the hundreds of people that were kidnapped in Kwara, have the security agencies secure their release?

Is it only in Nigeria people get killed?

Nevertheless, His Excellency, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) is ontop of the situation in conjunction with the United States Armed Forces.

Why else do you demand from His Excellency, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) ?

HacheNoire:
Is it in Nigeria people get killed?

Nevertheless, His Excellency, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) is ontop of the situation in conjunction with the United States Armed Forces.

Why else do you demand from His Excellency, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) ?

I pray non of your family member get touched before you know what is truly happening on ground

All of you are always having conversations with "your friend"...

Advocates of doom.

If you can't afford flight or covoy of armed security to move around in Nigeria, just stay put wherever you are.
Yes, it is that bad.