A region in crisis demands more than promises
The joint meeting of the Northern States Governors’ Forum and the Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council in Kaduna last week offered a familiar mix of solemn declarations and wide-ranging commitments. The gathering, bringing together political authority and traditional influence, rightly drew attention to the worsening insecurity ravaging the region. The resolutions reached were significant. But once […]
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The joint meeting of the Northern States Governors’ Forum and the Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council in Kaduna last week offered a familiar mix of solemn declarations and wide-ranging commitments. The gathering, bringing together political authority and traditional influence, rightly drew attention to the worsening insecurity ravaging the region.
The resolutions reached were significant. But once again, the time has come to insist that actions, not rhetoric, will make the difference.
Among the key proposals was the call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to order a six-month suspension of all mining activities across the North. The leaders identified illegal mining as a “major contributory factor” to the persistent violence in many states. They also reaffirmed their “wholehearted support” for the establishment of state police, urging federal and state lawmakers to expedite the legislative work required to actualise it.
Perhaps the most consequential decision from the meeting is the creation of a regional Security Trust Fund. Under the proposal, each northern state and its local governments would contribute N1 billion monthly, deducted at source, to support joint security operations, intelligence-driven interventions, and coordinated responses to emerging threats.
These commitments, taken together, underscore recognition that the region’s insecurity has reached an intolerable level. The meeting, therefore, marks a welcome step.
The proposal to clean up the mining sector, in particular, should open the door to a complete restructuring of an industry long left to unregulated, illicit actors. Daily Trust supports the formalisation and re-registration of all miners as part of efforts to remove criminal networks that feed off illegal sites.
That notwithstanding, we believe that the resolutions fall short of the sweeping solutions the region urgently needs. Mining, though a factor in the crisis, is far from the root cause of the turmoil. At best, it is a secondary driver. The deeper, more corrosive issues—those that have created the fertile ground for both illegal mining and banditry—remain unaddressed.
For decades, northern Nigeria’s social development crisis has been allowed to fester. The region still has the highest number of out-of-school children, a reality that feeds recruitment into criminal enterprises of all kinds. The long-running farmer-herder conflict continues to escalate, destroying livelihoods and deepening distrust. Agrarian communities can no longer safely farm; pastoralists live in fear of raids; and governments remain unable to reconcile these competing pressures with a durable policy response.
The new Security Trust Fund, while ambitious, raises several crucial questions. How exactly will the N1 billion monthly contributions from each of the 19 states be deployed? Will the region simply pour vast sums into the endless sinkhole of security spending while neglecting the social crisis at the heart of today’s violence? Who will manage these funds, and how will transparency be guaranteed? What role will regional development commissions (the North-East Development Commission, the North-West Development Commission, and the North-Central Development Commission) play in shaping these interventions? Most importantly, what mechanisms will ensure collaboration across state lines so that the fund does not become another bureaucratic instrument with little impact on the ground?
The silence on peace deals with bandits is equally troubling. Across the North, some states, or even specific local governments, have quietly cut deals to appease criminal groups. While non-kinetic approaches are valid tools in asymmetric warfare, such policies cannot be pursued in secrecy or contradiction. Where one state negotiates, neighbouring states often suffer the consequences. If the governors discussed this issue in Kaduna, it is alarming that it did not appear in their resolutions. What the region needs is an honest, collective decision: either a unified framework for non-kinetic engagement or a complete rejection of such deals. The current patchwork approach is worsening insecurity.
This latest meeting is not the first high-profile gathering of northern leaders in recent years. The failure of previous resolutions to produce meaningful change raises understandable scepticism. This is why the commitments announced in Kaduna must not follow the familiar pattern of grand promises without implementation.
As one northern elder recently observed, leaders of the region can no longer live like oil sheikhs amid widespread poverty, nor can they continue to rely on ethnic and religious manipulation to retain influence. The North is at a breaking point. Its leaders must recognise that their legitimacy now depends on the courage to act decisively and transparently.
The Kaduna resolutions provide an opportunity. But opportunity alone is insufficient. The real test lies in execution—measurable, accountable, and responsive to the structural failures that have trapped millions in insecurity. The people of the North have endured far too much for too long. Northern leaders must now prove they are ready to lead with integrity, urgency, and genuine commitment to change.