‘We Created Banditry and Terror, But We Blame Everyone Except Ourselves’ – Shehu Sani

By Our Correspondent

Former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, has accused Nigerians of selective outrage over insecurity, saying the country has refused to confront the origins of banditry and terrorism while shielding leaders from its own region from blame.

In a post on his Facebook page, Sani traced both crises to the North and said they later spread nationwide and into neighbouring countries.

“Banditry was triggered from the North by criminal gangs and spread to the rest of the Country. Boko terrorism started from the North and spread to the rest of the Country, and our neighbouring countries got infected,” he wrote.

“The cancer emanated from our part of the country”

Sani detailed the human cost, saying: “The Bandits and terrorists, many of whom are from our part of the country, have shed the blood of innocent people; they abducted children, raped women, extorted ransom, displaced millions and burned down the villages of our people. The orphans and widows generated by banditry and terrorism are now IDPs in our cities and refugees in our neighbouring countries.”

He added that Chad, Cameroon and Niger “are still battling the cancer that emanated from our part of the country. We blamed Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, pampered Buhari, now blame Tinubu.”

The former lawmaker criticized what he called inconsistent accountability across administrations.

“We blamed Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, skipped and pampered Buhari, and now blaming Tinubu for the infernos ours in office couldn’t automatically quench. We are asking for a miracle and magic we failed to perform,” he said.

Sani also referenced a period when all service chiefs were from the North, arguing the security situation deteriorated regardless.

“We don’t want to even hear that at a certain point in our tragic history, all the defence and security chiefs were from our part of the country; they met us with bandits and left us with more bandits,” he wrote.

“Our anger is reserved for scapegoats”

He accused Nigerians of protecting leaders from their own region while directing anger elsewhere.

“We are not angry with the Bandits and terrorists. We are not angry with our own who failed to treat the cancer. Our anger is reserved for scapegoats and anyone other than our own,” Sani stated.

He specifically mentioned the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, saying: “Fire has been raging in our communities for close to two decades, but we don’t want leaders from our section of the country blamed or excoriated for complicity. If Christopher Musa had blamed Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the killings, he would have been applauded.”

“It’s said that Musa failed as a Defence chief, but all those revered as opposition messiahs were also once in office like Musa. The evidence is on social media; We march over the graves of the victims of banditry and terrorism in the course and cause of defending the image of our leaders who failed them. We want to write our own lab reports”

Sani concluded with a metaphor on denial: “We are patients who want our diseases to be treated and cured, but we don’t want to accept and read the lab results; we want to write our own lab reports.”

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