No to profiling
The abduction of students and teachers in Orire Local Government Area of Oyo State by terrorists should have united Nigerians in grief and resolve. It must not lead to profiling entire communities based on religion and region, something that has continued to weaken our fight against insecurity for years. Blaming people for the sin of […]
The abduction of students and teachers in Orire Local Government Area of Oyo State by terrorists should have united Nigerians in grief and resolve. It must not lead to profiling entire communities based on religion and region, something that has continued to weaken our fight against insecurity for years. Blaming people for the sin of others is not palatable. It is unfortunate, just as it is counterproductive.
But this is the ugly scenario that played out in the immediate aftermath of the Orire incident, when mischief-makers rushed to criminalise Islam and northerners, especially Fulani people, as the architects of kidnapping and banditry. This must not be allowed to continue. Anyone who commits crimes should be labelled by the crime committed and duly prosecuted according to the laws of the land. To drag religion, ethnicity, or region into it only muddies the water and lets the real criminals hide behind our divisions.
Northerners themselves are victims of terrorism, discrimination, and persecution. To now falsely criminalise them as perpetrators is to inflict double jeopardy. A Muslim farmer in Zamfara whose relatives are killed and crops are destroyed by bandits, a Fulani herder whose cattle are rustled, a northerner in Oyo who has lived peacefully for years – none of them signed up for the atrocities of a few kidnappers. Yet they wake up to slurs, suspicion at checkpoints, denial of housing, and hateful commentary online. When you associate him with kidnapping, you erode trust. That is what terrorists and bandits want exactly. They want a Nigeria where we see each other as enemies
It is also counterproductive for security. Intelligence gathering depends on community cooperation. If entire communities feel targeted and stigmatised, they will not speak up. If a community fears that reporting a strange movement will get all of them labelled as “bandits”, they will keep quiet. And the kidnappers win. Insecurity thrives in silence and suspicion.
As is generally known, the first and most important duty of government is the protection of lives and property. That duty must now be matched with urgency and fairness. Federal and state governments must “nip insecurity in the bud” and stop it from spreading further. The model cannot be only kinetic operations. Yes, bandits, kidnappers, and sponsors of terror must face the full force of the Nigerian State. No mercy for those who trade in blood, as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said in his Democracy Day address.
But alongside firepower, we need structural action. With the creation of state police still in the works, states must strengthen local policing and intelligence networks that work with communities, not against them. The federal government must ensure that security agencies are well-equipped, well-motivated, and held accountable when they overstep. Civil liberty organizations must keep watch to ensure that the fight against terror does not become a war against innocent citizens. Rights and security are partners, not enemies.
The media, sadly, has not helped matters with sloppy reporting. In the race to be first, some outlets publish unverified claims about the identity of suspects. Headlines that read “Fulani kidnappers” before investigation is concluded do more harm than the kidnapping itself. They create stereotypes that last for years and are corrected in a one-line update that no one reads.
This is not a call for censorship. It is a call for professionalism, accuracy, and fairness. Narratives capable of inflaming tensions or deepening mistrust among Nigeria’s diverse communities should be avoided. As the Nigeria Supreme Council on Islamic Affairs recently said, “Criminality should neither be given ethnic nor religious coloration, as such narratives deepen divisions and undermine collective efforts to address insecurity and achieve lasting peace.”
To fix this, Daily Trust proposes a national summit of media practitioners, editors, broadcasters, and digital publishers. The goal should be to educate them on the dangers of one-sided stories, sensational headlines, and confirmation bias. Bring in security experts, psychologists, conflict analysts, and community leaders. Let journalists see how a careless report can lead to a mob attack hundreds of kilometres away. Let editors understand that responsible reporting saves lives just as much as a police operation does. The media is powerful. But with that power there must be responsibility.
The National Orientation Agency, NOA, has a critical role. This is the moment for mass sensitization campaigns across TV, radio, social media, and town halls. The message must be simple and repeated: criminality has no tribe and no religion. A kidnapper is a kidnapper. A terrorist is a terrorist. His crime is his identity, not his ethnicity or his faith. NOA must work with traditional rulers, religious leaders, and youth groups to rebuild the trust that profiling has torn.
But before then we, as a people, must also do our part by refusing to be divided or set against one another by those who do not mean well for our collective wellbeing. When people are divided, they can easily be subdued and defeated, which is what these terrorists are counting on.
We must not give them that victory. NEVER.