Political strategist and CEO of Global Investment and Trade Company, Baba Yusuf, has raised alarm over worsening insecurity, warning that bandits could soon find their way into Nigeria’s legislative system.
Speaking on Arise News, Yusuf said the growing influence of bandits in parts of Northern Nigeria has reached a dangerous level, with some communities now relying on them for protection and mediation.
He stressed that while citizens continue to suffer deadly attacks, political actors are failing to treat the crisis with the urgency it deserves.
“We are there already. And why did I say so? First of all, I mentioned that performance is not measured by events, but by impacts and outcomes.
“If we look at the progression of insecurity in Nigeria in the past three and a half years, places that we never thought they would go to, they are in Niger, they are in Kwara progressing downwards into Nigeria.
“You see what they are doing. They come at will in Benue, in Plateau. Mr. President promised the widows, I mean the victims, in Plateau two weeks ago, ‘it will never happen again,’ these people had the audacity to make it happen again the next day.
“They are daring the state. They are taunting us. When they kill our soldiers, they wear the uniform of our military and armed forces and go to what is called a mediation arrangement with the government.
“This bandit wore the uniform of the Assistant Commissioner and came with his gun and went home without consequences. They are on social media. We know their handles. They don’t even care to cover their faces.
“They send notices, and they come on the day of the notice, and they execute. Now they are overrunning brigades, not brigades in urban areas, brigades in the theater of war, and they overrun the brigade. They kill our generals, like every other day, our colonels.
“The ruling party makes it look as if it’s no issue, and then the opposition uses it to posture while people are dying every day. This is an existential issue that we should take seriously across party lines. And we should deal with this otherwise, like I said earlier, it will still come down, you see, I said it in another sister station very soon, bandits will be in the Senate and the House of Reps, because Nigerians are paying them tax in the north.
“People are beginning to have confidence in them. They go to them for mediation. They go to them for protection. And we are saying we are making progress, and we are saying we should not talk about it.”