Insecurity in Katsina: what would you have done differently?

Before the 2023 elections, writes MS Ingawa, over 80% of Katsina was under threat, with 19 frontline LGAs facing banditry and kidnapping. Governor Radda pivoted most of the state's resources and political energy toward security.

The non-kinetic response created the Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs, a State Security Council Advisory Committee, the Community Security Watch Corps by law, 918 personnel on LGA security committees and 9,747 ward-level support groups, and a North-West security summit with UNDP.

The kinetic response trained and deployed over 2,000 Corps members across the 19 high-risk LGAs, with 1,500 vigilantes and 200 civilian hunters, backed by armoured carriers, patrol vehicles, motorcycles, drones and protective gear.

Many LGAs once deemed ungovernable have been reclaimed and farming has resumed in some abandoned villages, the article says, though attacks have not ended. It closes by inviting readers to say what they would have done differently.