For years now, some devil-possessed Nigerians, those who have enlisted in Satan’s army, have continued to waste hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, destroyed the treasures that oil the engine of civilization. They have murdered education, the very blood of civilization and what has greatly moved some regions in the Nigeria out of the calamitous brackets. Yes, the bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and other criminal elements have continued to threaten our unity in diversity. They have sullied the peaceful valleys in the country. They have sown thorns on the mountains of our hope and civilized life; poisoned the water that flows into the fields to birth food to feed ourselves– staining the manure in the soil with the blood of the innocent. They have driven farmers out of their farm lands and planted in their place fear and panic, poverty, suspicion, and distrust. Yes, savages and cannibals have taken over our safety and security; made life for school children and their teachers miserable and regretful.
Surprisingly, these less than humans have the truly monumental gall to challenge the federal, state and local governments in Nigeria to dare them. They are the ones now dictating the tone and mode of ransom payment before victims are released. @
I read a social media post that reads: FULANI BANDITS: THIS IS OUR DEMAND FROM OYO STATE GOVERNMENT:
•1 billion naira to be paid to one account in Benin republic
Criminals have systematically made our lives almost worthless and, now nearly every Nigerian and even the foreigners have fallen ill after many years of being subjected to the vile and unsparing activities of kidnappers, bandits, terrorists, and other criminal elements. And the consequences of all this are already here with us, yet we the ordinary people continue to behave in the way we have been programmed to behave. I still don’t know why it is that the majority of us occupying the geographical space called Nigeria have not realized the extent of destruction already done to us by criminals and then strongly demand for stiffer penalties. It’s absurd how the truly gullible among us still hail and defend their evil vocations just out of sickening and unconvincing considerations– political, religious, ethnic and just what have you.
Maybe I should remind us that any human that does not place premium value on human life can never be relied upon to nurture another human life to enjoy good and decent life, one dedicated to the service of God and humanity. Such a beast, bearing human features, will only ever trap the rest of mankind in ways that even the Black Disease and later Covid-19 never did the entire world when they did break out during their time in history. I’m alarmed and short of words, my brain spinning round to understand what fellow Nigerians– bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and other criminal elements– are doing to fellow Nigerians in the name of business and religion (sic).
I’m also always at pains reading government Press Statements whenever there is a serious security breach wherein Nigerians are maimed or killed or abducted. Beyond such public display of sympathy and outcry, government soon notoriously relapses into its cocoon of comfort. I don’t seem to get the import of such writing Press Releases when kidnappers would arrogantly refuse to release innocent people in their captivity, especially school children, toddlers, even after ransom is allegedly negotiated and paid to the kidnappers? A society has failed when it gets to the point where law breakers are allowed to reign unchallenged no thanks to Nigerian politicians and the bumbling ambition for relevance and power. Many people are wondering if the Nigerian government hasn’t failed woefully in the protection of its people?
Kudos to the nation’s armed forces and other security agencies for the efforts so far to keep bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and other criminal elements in check.
What’s currently happening in Nigeria reminds me of the revolution of barbarians of the 4th-5th century, when certain external tribes and non-state peoples radically disrupted or dismantled major historical empires—most notably the Roman and Chinese empires. Rome called the groups “barbari” – Goths, Vandals, Huns, Franks. These groups of raiders, instead of their usual hit-and-run, went out to negotiate land inside the empire. Visigoths got Aquitania, Vandals took North Africa. They became part of Rome, then replaced it and began flipping the whole system. Rather than just mindless destruction of everything, these tribes took advantage of the empire’s internal civil wars, bureaucratic fatigue, and economic crises, eventually establishing their own distinct “barbarian kingdoms”.
Sooner than expected, they graduated from raiders to settlers. Rome started recruiting “barbarian” generals and whole armies. The army that protected Rome ended up running it. They didn’t burn all Roman stuff. They kept Roman law, taxes, even Christianity. But they mixed it with their own kingship and tribal loyalty. That mix became medieval Europe.
Alaric who sacked Rome in 410 was a Roman general first.
In 476 AD, the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, was deposed by the barbarian Odoacer, marking the end of the Western Roman Empire.
One of the destructive factors for any country is complacency: it is the real barbarian that often ruins societies.
Romans in 400 still thought “Rome is eternal” while ignoring the rot. That mindset blinded them until Alaric was at the gates. Truth be said, Alaric didn’t want to destroy Rome because he did send envoys to Rome demanding: “Give us land, gold, and titles, we leave.” Emperor Honorius, safe in Ravenna, replied: “I’d rather lose my right hand than negotiate.” So Alaric waited and, on night of Aug 23, slaves inside Rome opened the Salarian Gate from within. Maybe the slaves were paid, maybe desperate. But by dawn the Goths were marching down the Via Salaria.
Determined and politically ambitious as he was, Alaric yet was reasonable. He gave orders: Churches of St. Peter and St. Paul are off limits. Kill only if you meet resistance. Take gold, not lives. That restraint is why historians debate if this was even a “sack” vs a forced negotiation with looting.
With a total of 30,000 soldiers, the Visigoths were not a chaotic horde. Alaric ran a disciplined army. Veterans who’d spent 15 years fighting for Rome, now camped in olive groves they once defended. They built siege ramps, blocked the Tiber, cut the aqueducts. No drinking water, no grain ships. So, Rome started dying in weeks.
The real weapon of the barbarians wasn’t swords. It was 800 years of myth cracking. Romans watching from rooftops saw their world end without fire consuming the whole city.
“Revolution of the Barbarians”, often referred to as the Migration Period or Barbarian Invasions, was a transformative era spanning the 3rd to 6th centuries CE. The period witnessed the mass migration and uprising of non-Roman tribes, leading to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and reshaping of the map of Europe. The most famous “barbarian” revolution is the migration and invasion of Germanic and steppe peoples that ultimately brought down the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century CE. The major actors were the Visigoths, Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Huns tribes.
Why was it a revolution?
For 800 years, “barbarians” besieging Rome was unthinkable. Rome was “aeterna” – eternal. When news hit, people across the empire had the same reaction: “If Rome can fall, anything can.” St. Jerome wrote “The brightest light of all lands is extinguished.” History noted that the Goths weren’t trying to destroy Rome though. Alaric wanted land and a Roman title. He died before getting it. His brother-in-law Ataulf married a Roman princess and said: “I wanted to erase Rome and make a Gothic empire, but now I see Rome can’t live without Goths, and Goths can’t live without Rome.”
Another profound example is the toppling of established dynasties by non-Han tribal groups during early Chinese history.
What lessons?
The most dangerous moment for any empire or country is when the people, particularly the leaders believe it is too big to fail. But Rome didn’t actually “fall” in 410. The real damage was psychological and political. It proved Rome could be humiliated.
I’ve had the opportunity of consistently writing to my precious Nigerian people from all walks of life about the sociocultural and political ills in Nigeria, over the last three decades. As a professional journalist and researcher, I’ve had the privilege of meeting and interacting with quite a good number of people from all the regions in Nigeria and beyond–the low and mighty, and, their versions of the contemporary issues, and the challenges in the country of which insecurity and hunger are topmost.
For the millions whom I haven’t had the opportunity to meet in person, their daily groanings and lamentations as well as Save-Our-Souls (SOS) messages to the authorities spread across newspapers and the electronic media tell their own versions of the stories about the Nigeria of 2026. In my summation, the various narratives embody stories of insecurity, abandonment, systemic collapse and misgovernance by those elected or appointed to lead and guide the country and its people.
Yes the cacophony of voices of imprisoned humans in the country called Nigeria are loaded with fear of the unknown, anxiety and depression following the huge yawning gap created between the secured and the unsecured by the lukewarm attitude of the Nigerian authorities in the fight against insecurity. Nobody should remind me of the huge money government has so far spent or is spending to purchase crime-fighting equipment and in arming security agents; national security is a non negotiable venture for all reasonable focused governments across the world.
Yes the voices one hears moaning on daily basis across markets, barber’s shops and in offices and homes in Nigeria tell the stories of total collapse of our national security architecture. And now commerce and industry, education and agriculture cannot thrive. Does it not worry you, too, what Nigerians and the rest of the world are daily fed by the Nigerian government in terms of its internal crime fighting efforts over the years? Have you cared to ask yourself the nature and strength of our national intelligence gathering and its effectiveness? What proactive measures have government put in place to checkmate any possible occurrence of crime in our schools, private and public? Given today’s realities regarding the activities of kidnappers, bandits, terrorists and other criminals, I don’t understand how government can successfully win the anti-crime fight, particularly when allegations are rife about the involvement of some unnamed top government officials in the sponsorship of criminal elements across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Such allegations and rumours do not just fly without some slice of truth.
Writing in the Daily Trust of Wednesday 3 June 2026, Usman Sarki, in his article titled: LIVING IN AN UNREGULATED ENVIRONMENT: NIGERIANA AND THEIR STATE said, ” One of the most troubling features of Nigerian life today is not merely poverty, insecurity, corruption, or institutional weakness, grave as these are. It is the deeper fact that millions of Nigerians increasingly live in an environment where the state appears present only in name, absent in function, and indifferent in consequence. The Nigerian state exists everywhere as authority, but too often nowhere as protection.”
Like Usman Sarki and the rest of the Nigerian people, I’m also deeply concerned about the worsening insecurity across Nigeria: who can predict the real intent and purpose of the masterminds of the current insurgency and banditry and kidnapping for ransom that are now ravaging almost the entire Nigeria? And, will those Satan’s foot soldiers and their commanders and sponsors ever be called to account for the unspeakable waste of human life, the destruction of Nigeria and the annihilation of the formidable educational structures we have built over the decades to guarantee a great future for our children and nation?
It does not appear so to me.
But for how long shall we continue this way? My greatest disappointment in our Nigeria today, therefore, is that, day in and day out, the truth about the seriousness of banditry and kidnapping as well as boko haram activities are buried under the cocoyam leaves — lies and deceits and religious and ethnic colorations are added to the narrative and sadly, majority of us wickedly continue to deceive ourselves and the rest of the world, we continue to clap our hands, applauding moral corruption, legalizing illegality, energizing bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and other criminal elements to thrive while denying God His due role in human affairs. Boko Haram terrorists have reportedly been attacking military bases across Nigeria, killing Nigerian soldiers, beheading some of the victims and seizing weapons. How many more lives must be lost before government and citizens take decisive action? Nigerians are only now bound by severe apprehension of insecurity, trapped by all kinds of disorders, and gripped by constant fear. Sadly, they’ve applied every self defense measure they can think of, but are still desperately clawing to be freed from the current emotional and physical prisons.
My appeal: Military solutions, that’s direct warfare, hardly solve the kind of war we are now fighting against bandits, terrorists, and kidnappers. The Romans adopted the”Kill them or hire them” tactics with Generals like Stilicho crushing the Goths at Pollentia in 402 and Verona in 403. Big wins, but didn’t end the problem. Kill 10k Goths, 20k more cross the Danube next year.
Maybe as some Nigerians are suggesting, a State of Emergency should be declared on security in Nigeria.
(To be continued)
••Clement Afemikhe, is a veteran journalist, media consultant, author and the Assistant Director, Ukhomunyio Institute for Cultural Studies, Edo State