Twenty more bodies. Another scorched village. Another "breaking news" alert that reads exactly like the one from three months ago.
The international media has a script for Nigeria, and they follow it with lazy devotion. They call these "horrific attacks" or "senseless violence." They frame it as a spontaneous eruption of evil, a tragic anomaly in an otherwise developing nation.
They are wrong.
Calling a systematic, well-funded, and predictable resource war "senseless" is a dereliction of journalistic duty. It’s not senseless to the people funding the gunmen. It’s not senseless to the political actors who benefit from the displacement of specific ethnic groups. If you want to understand why twenty people died last night, stop looking for "terrorists" and start looking at the land registry and the price of cattle.
The Myth Of The "Gunman"
We use the word "gunman" as a placeholder for "ghost." It suggests a nameless, motiveless agent of chaos. This is a convenient lie.
In the Middle Belt and the Northwest, the people pulling the triggers aren't just roaming bandits with a grudge against humanity. They are often the kinetic arm of a sophisticated economic ecosystem. I have spent years tracking the movement of illicit arms across the Sahel. I have seen how a single "night attack" can clear a fertile valley, allowing it to be reclaimed or repurposed within weeks.
The media focuses on the tragedy of the funeral. They ignore the logistics of the ammunition. You don't get twenty people killed in a coordinated strike using "primitive" means. This requires intelligence, transport, and a steady supply of $7.62 \times 39\text{mm}$ rounds that don't just fall from the sky.
When we label this as "sectarian violence," we obscure the reality. It’s a real estate acquisition strategy backed by lead.
Security As A Revenue Stream
Here is the hard truth that nobody wants to admit: There is more money to be made in "managing" insecurity than in actually solving it.
Nigeria’s security budget is a black box. Billions are allocated to "defense" every year, yet the attacks persist. Why? Because a peaceful village doesn't require a massive security intervention. A peaceful village doesn't justify the "security votes"—those opaque funds that governors and officials can spend with zero oversight.
I’ve seen how this plays out on the ground. When an attack happens, the immediate response is a call for more funding, more hardware, and more boots. But the boots arrive late, the hardware is often stuck in a warehouse, and the funding vanishes into the pockets of the elite.
The status quo isn't a failure of the system. It is the system.
The Failed Logic Of "Condemnation"
Every time a massacre occurs, the presidency issues a statement "strongly condemning" the act. This is the ultimate empty gesture.
Condemnation is the currency of the powerless. If the state cannot exercise its monopoly on violence, it ceases to be a state and becomes a mere spectator. By focusing on the "horror" of the event, the government shifts the focus away from its own complicity or incompetence.
We need to stop asking "How could this happen?" and start asking "Who was paid to let this happen?"
The Demographic Engineering Nobody Talks About
If you map these "random" attacks over a decade, a pattern emerges. These aren't scattered dots; they are a slow-motion migration.
Communities are being hollowed out. Schools are closing. Health centers are being abandoned. This isn't just about killing people; it’s about erasing their presence from the map. When the "gunmen" leave, the land doesn't stay empty for long.
This is demographic engineering by fire. By framing it as a "clash" between herders and farmers, the media suggests a level playing field. It suggests two sides equally responsible for a misunderstanding.
There is no "clash" when one side has AK-47s and the other has hoes and 2:00 AM wake-up calls from burning thatch roofs.
The Data The Media Ignores
Let’s look at the numbers. The Global Terrorism Index often ranks these groups, but it fails to account for the "displacement-to-occupancy" ratio.
- Fact: In many of these "conflict zones," the frequency of attacks correlates directly with the harvest cycle.
- Fact: The weapons used are increasingly sophisticated, indicating a supply chain that crosses national borders with official "blind spots."
- Fact: Arrests are almost non-existent. When they do happen, the "suspects" rarely make it to a public trial.
If twenty people were killed in a European capital, the world would stop. In Nigeria, it’s a Tuesday. The "horror" is baked into the brand. And that’s the most dangerous part. We have become used to Nigerian blood. We have accepted it as a cost of doing business in a "complex" region.
Stop Asking For Peace
"Peace" is a vague, useless word in this context. Peace is just the absence of noise. What these regions need is Justice and Property Rights.
You cannot have peace when the person who murdered your family is grazing his cattle on your father's grave. You cannot have peace when the local police commander is taking kickbacks from the very syndicates raiding the villages.
The solution isn't "dialogue." You don't negotiate with a man who has a gun to your head. The solution is the ruthless application of the law and the termination of the "security vote" gravy train.
We need to stop treating these attacks as "news" and start treating them as "evidence." Every bullet casing is a receipt. Every charred home is a ledger entry.
The media needs to stop interviewing the grieving mothers for five-second soundbites of them crying. It’s exploitative and changes nothing. Start interviewing the arms dealers. Start tracking the bank accounts of the "community leaders" who seem to always be out of town when the gunmen arrive.
The horror isn't that gunmen killed twenty people. The horror is that we all know exactly why they did it, and we're too polite to say it out loud.
Identify the buyer. Trace the bullet. Arrest the sponsor. Everything else is just theatre for a world that has already tuned out.
The next time you see a headline about a "night attack," don't feel sad. Feel cheated. You are being sold a narrative of chaos to hide a reality of cold, calculated profit.
Stop mourning the "senselessness" and start counting the land.
