{"id":19097,"date":"2025-12-15T08:19:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T08:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/?p=19097"},"modified":"2025-12-15T08:22:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T08:22:23","slug":"dr-dakuku-peterside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/2025\/12\/15\/dr-dakuku-peterside\/","title":{"rendered":"Bandits, States, And The Dynamics Of Illicit Economies"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Dakuku Peterside<\/em><\/b><\/p>\n

Some national tragedies do not happen all at once. They ar\u00adrive quietly, until people start living in fear. Travelling be\u00adcomes a risk. Farming feels uncer\u00adtain. Going to school turns into an act of hope. This is now the reality in Nigeria\u2019s North-West. It stands out not because other regions are safe. The violence here is so intense and persistent that it weighs on the nation\u2019s conscience, especially for leaders from this area.<\/p>\n

In the North-West, banditry now shows a much larger breakdown. Ongoing farmer\u2013herder conflicts, cattle theft, kidnappings for ran\u00adsom, gender-based violence, and high youth unemployment all feed this crisis. States like Zamfara, Kat\u00adsina, and Sokoto are mentioned so often that people risk tuning out. However, the data shows this is not random chaos; instead, it is a grow\u00ading system. By 2024, thousands have died, and over a million have been displaced, with violence increasing since 2018. Furthermore, some re\u00adports say deaths in the first half of 2025 already exceed those in all of 2024. Such rapid escalation is rare\u00adly just about anger; it is often about money.<\/p>\n

Understanding why the North- West\u2019s banditry persists requires seeing it as more than a security crisis; it is a political economy. Here, the gun becomes a tool of taxation, the forest turns into a marketplace, and the victims are valued as reve\u00adnue streams. This shift in perspec\u00adtive is essential to grasp the distinct dynamics of the crisis.<\/p>\n

In many places, insecurity is seen as a failure of policing or military capacity. However, in the North-West, that explanation is too small. Here, the crisis is deeply tied to illicit economies. Illegal mining, ransom markets, rustled livestock, and \u201cprotection\u201d rackets now regu\u00adlate movement, farming, trade, and even community life. Notably, these illicit streams are not isolated; they interlock. For example, a successful kidnapping funds weapon. Those weapons expand criminal control, enabling illegal extraction. That extraction, in turn, buys political protection. Political protection weak\u00adens accountability. As accountability weakens, more room emerges for fur\u00adther kidnapping. The circle tightens, and the state keeps arriving late.<\/p>\n

At the centre of this ecosystem sits a truth many Nigerians sense but few institutions take serious\u00adly. The absence of effective grass\u00adroots governance is not just back\u00adground\u2014it is a catalyst. When local government is reduced to a payroll centre, rural policing is inconsis\u00adtent, justice is slow or absent, and conflict resolution is improvised, a vacuum opens. As communities lose faith in formal systems, the vacuum grows. In that space, armed actors do not merely terrorise; they begin to govern. They decide which roads are passable, which markets operate, which farms can be culti\u00advated, and which villages must pay to avoid attack. They build a parallel authority\u2014crude, violent, and cor\u00adrupt, but present.<\/p>\n

When such authority takes root, a new transition occurs: the prob\u00adlem evolves from being a simple crime to an organised industry. This evolution is critical to understand\u00ading the crisis\u2019s enduring nature.<\/p>\n

This is especially clear in small-scale gold mining. Instead of pros\u00adperity, gold brings conflict. In a healthy economy, such mining is regulated, taxed, and made safer, creating jobs and revenue. In the North-West, however, gold has be\u00adcome an untraceable asset: it can be easily moved, traded, and turned into cash or weapons. Where the government is weak, reports and field accounts describe illegal min\u00ading sites beyond regulation, guard\u00aded by armed power and linked to smuggling networks. A chain of actors keeps them running, not ending with the gunman. In such places, bandits do more than raid: they tax, control access, demand tribute, seize output, and punish dis\u00adobedience. What appears as chaos is often an organised system. Gold becomes the silent sponsor of vio\u00adlence\u2014portable, valuable, obscure, and convenient enough to keep the machine running.<\/p>\n

Kidnapping for ransom is now a key part of this system. It has become a business with its own rules. Targets are chosen. Routes are watched. Others handle nego\u00adtiations. Payments are organised, and releases are planned. Families pay because they do not trust the state to help. Communities collect money because refusal is too costly. Employers pay to avoid panic and business problems. Each payment makes the criminals stronger, bet\u00adter equipped, and more certain that violence works.<\/p>\n

Cattle rustling is no longer just opportunistic theft. It is now an asset seizure that drains rural economies and funds more crime. Livestock is wealth in motion. Steal\u00ading is not only theft but economic sabotage. When herds disappear, households collapse. When house\u00adholds collapse, young men become vulnerable. Armed groups recruit from this group. The illicit economy is not separate from society; it feeds on society.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To understand why the crisis persists despite efforts to tackle it, a deeper question must be asked: who benefits? This question expos\u00ades another layer beneath the visible crimes and should haunt every se\u00adrious policy conversation.<\/p>\n

Many know that large-scale ran\u00adsom kidnappings, illegal mining, and cattle rustling need support to continue. Some provide infor\u00admation, help movement, launder money, or offer protection. Others make sure investigations go no\u00adwhere. This is where \u2018political ban\u00addits\u2019 come in\u2014politicians and asso\u00adciates who take resources meant for farmers, misuse government funds, profit from illegal mining, and use chaos for personal gain. The person in the forest is dangerous. The of\u00adficeholder protecting these activi\u00adties is even more so. He uses public power for private benefit.<\/p>\n

A society can handle occasional crime. It struggles with organised crime. It may not survive organised crime protected by politicians.<\/p>\n

This is why banditry\u2019s illegal economy continues. It is not just about poverty and unemployment; it is also about weak governance and poor enforcement. Additionally, transnational networks move gold, weapons, and money across borders with little oversight. As a result, when the state is weak, criminals grow stronger. When institutions are slow, illegal markets move fast. When justice is uncertain, violence looks logical for those who see low risk and high reward.<\/p>\n

Yet it would be dishonest to speak about this crisis without naming its social and economic roots. The de\u00adcline of vocational centres and basic education, rising costs of higher ed\u00aducation, and the lack of digital or ag\u00adricultural training are not just devel\u00adopment failures. In the North-West, these weaknesses supply recruits and become security multipliers. When a young person sees no lad\u00adder, the gun looks like a career. When communities lose skills and school\u00ading, they lose. The government can\u00adnot rely only on force. While force might reduce violence for a while, it cannot break an economy that funds itself in many ways and is part of daily life. Since banditry works like a business, it should be fought like one: cut off its money, raise its costs, strip away its protection, and create better legal options.<\/p>\n

Start where the system is stron\u00adgest: money. Follow the gold, not just the gun. Illegal mining should be a national security emergency. In this context, it is not just an economic crime; it is conflict financing. For\u00admalisation is important. But for\u00admalisation without enforcement is mere theatre. The state must regu\u00adlate access, monitor supply, prose\u00adcute smugglers, and dismantle ex\u00adtraction networks. If gold finances violence, every unpoliced mining corridor feeds the crisis.<\/p>\n

Next, treat kidnapping as an or\u00adganised business, not just random violence. Break up networks of informants, negotiators, couriers, and financiers\u2014not just the crim\u00adinals with guns. Make prosecu\u00adtions clear and consistent. Improve intelligence and response time so people believe the government can help. The ransom business depends on a perception of state weakness. Change that belief, and the market will weaken.<\/p>\n

However, these efforts will not last without restoring local gover\u00adnance. Rural security needs more than occasional raids. It needs real local presence: effective policing, trusted community intelligence, working conflict resolution, and ac\u00adcessible justice. If the government cannot protect people where they live\u2014on farms, in forests, markets, and village roads\u2014it only treats symptoms while the problem grows.<\/p>\n

Finally, rebuild opportunity with urgency. Do this not as charity but as a strategy. Revive vocational cen\u00adtres. Expand affordable paths into skills for real markets\u2014digital, agricultural processing, construc\u00adtion, repairs, logistics, and modern trades. Make education a shield, not a privilege. The illicit economy re\u00adcruits where legitimate opportunity is absent. If the government wants fewer bandits tomorrow, it must pro\u00adduce more viable livelihoods today.<\/p>\n

The North-West is not just expe\u00adriencing violence; violence is chang\u00ading how society works. When fear becomes normal, people adjust in ways that make the abnormal seem ordinary. People stop reporting crimes because nothing changes. Communities start dealing with criminals directly because the gov\u00adernment feels far away. Officials use slogans rather than face the truth. In this environment, banditry does not just continue\u2014it grows stron\u00adger.<\/p>\n

Nigeria must choose what it is really facing: isolated criminals or a parallel economy protected by armed groups and political cover. If it is the second\u2014and it seems to be\u2014then the country\u2019s response must be just as complex. Unless we address those who benefit, stop illegal funding, and rebuild local governance and opportunities, we will keep sending more soldiers into a conflict where money is the real shield.<\/p>\n

And the cost will continue: more families forced to leave, empty schools, abandoned farms, trauma\u00adtised communities, and a nation troubled by what it has come to accept.<\/p>\n

\u2014Dr Dakuku Peterside is the author of Leading in a Storm, and Beneath the Surface<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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