Your neighbour might be feeding the bandits and you don't know it

The Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (retd.), said something yesterday that should make every Nigerian uncomfortable. He spoke at The Platform in Lagos and basically told us that the reason banditry and terrorism persist is that the people in local communities are actively supporting these criminals. He called it the oxygen that keeps them going — the food, the water, the information that villagers give to bandits and terrorists.

Now I know some of you will say the minister is blaming victims. That people in Zamfara and Katsina and Kaduna are forced to cooperate because the military has abandoned them. I hear that argument. But let us be honest with ourselves. There is a difference between being coerced and being complicit. When a community knows who the informants are and does nothing, when they know who supplies the fuel and the food and keeps quiet, that is not coercion. That is collaboration.

The most dangerous enemy is the one within. General Musa said it himself — conventional warfare used to be state against state, but now the enemy lives among us. President Tinubu also said on Democracy Day that those financing terrorism will pay dearly. But until we as citizens decide to report suspicious activity, until we stop protecting the criminals in our midst, no amount of military force will solve this problem. Be honest. Have you ever seen something suspicious in your area and looked the other way?