When State fails, communities must defend themselves

By Okechukwu Nwanguma

As communities across Nigeria are continually ravaged by marauding herdsmen and violent non-state actors, the painful reality is becoming impossible to ignore: the Nigerian state has not only failed to protect its citizens but has become complicit—either through deliberate inaction or tacit encouragement.

In rural areas from Benue to Southern Kaduna, Plateau to parts of the Southeast, reports of coordinated attacks on farming communities have become a grim routine. These are not random clashes or isolated conflicts.

They are well-orchestrated acts of violence—ethnic cleansing in slow motion—masquerading under the official narrative of “herder-farmer conflict.” Yet, the communities under siege know better.

Faced with this existential threat and the utter failure of the Nigerian security architecture to provide protection, local communities must now organize their self-defense structures—not as vigilante mobs, but as well-trained, community-based security outfits rooted in the rule of law and accountable to the people. When the state abdicates its responsibility, the people are morally and legally justified to protect themselves.

State Police: A Cure Worse Than the Disease?

But let us be clear: the answer does not lie in creating state police under the current political arrangement. Giving governors control over police is tantamount to handing tyrants a bigger stick. We have seen what many state governors have done with their so-called local security outfits—using them not to protect citizens but to settle political scores, suppress dissent, and hound opposition figures.

These are governors who already have enormous influence over their state legislatures and judiciaries. Adding a police force to their arsenal would dangerously tilt the balance of power. How do we expect them to fund and manage additional manpower when many cannot even pay salaries or pensions?

Those advocating for state police under the guise of addressing insecurity must be reminded that insecurity is not just a function of insufficient boots on the ground, but of a political culture that rewards impunity and criminality—especially when it serves entrenched interests.

The Federal Government Has Failed—and Politicised Security

The Federal Government, constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of ensuring security, has repeatedly failed. Worse, it has weaponized security agencies to suppress civil liberties and dissent rather than to confront the real threats—bandits, terrorists, and marauding herdsmen.

Instead of recognizing and condemning these atrocities for what they are—mass murder and displacement—the government often couches them in language that dilutes the horror. They speak of “clashes” when villages are razed, and entire families slaughtered. They talk of “reprisals” when no prior provocation exists.

Communities are often told to “dialogue” with their attackers—people who have made clear their intention to seize ancestral lands and wipe out entire cultures. This false equivalence emboldens the aggressors and traumatizes victims.

President Bola Tinubu’s recent comment in Benue that “a cow’s life cannot be equated with a human’s” rings hollow in the face of continued mass killings, displacements, and the lack of justice for victims. What people need is not sympathy but justice, accountability, and proactive protection. Lip service won’t stop bullets or rebuild shattered communities.

Time for a Paradigm Shift

We must abandon the dangerous narrative that explains away attacks as “age-old conflicts” or “clashes.” These are not cultural misunderstandings. These are crimes. Those who carry out these heinous acts must be treated as criminals, not appeased as aggrieved stakeholders. They must be apprehended, prosecuted, and punished.

Moreover, victims must not be forgotten. They must be rehabilitated, resettled, and compensated. Communities that have been destroyed must be rebuilt. Survivors must be empowered. Justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done.

The Right to Life is Non-Negotiable

No political ambition or alliance should be worth more than the life and dignity of any Nigerian citizen. The rights to life, safety, and human dignity are non-negotiable and must not be sacrificed on the altar of expediency, ethnic patronage, or political cowardice.

If the state cannot—or will not—act, the people must. But let it be done within the bounds of law, human rights, and collective accountability. Because a government that cannot protect its citizens has lost its legitimacy.

And people who fail to protect themselves in the face of systemic betrayal may lose not only their lives—but their history, their land, and their future.

Nwanguma, Executive Director, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre – RULAAC