When the State Kneels Before the Gun: Safana’s “Peace” as Nigeria’s Greatest Security Humiliation

By Khaleed Yazeed

There are days in history when victory feels like defeat, and there are days when the very act of survival becomes a tombstone over the grave of a nation’s pride. What happened on August 10th, 2025, in Safana Local Government, Katsina State, was not peace; it was the official obituary of the Nigerian state’s dignity.

The chairman of Safana, Hon. Abdullahi Sani Safana, flanked by traditional rulers, Yariman Katsina, Hakimin Safana, and Hakimin Zakkah, walked deep into the Gemi forest not with soldiers, not with justice, but with open palms… to negotiate with armed bandits. The same bandits who have murdered farmers, kidnapped children, burned villages, and turned farmlands into graveyards now sat at the table as partners. And the State, in full daylight, bowed to them.

The Fulani militia, represented by Kachalla Ruga and his men, promised to “allow” farmers back to their farms, to “permit” traders to go to markets, to “let” life return. And in exchange, the Nigerian state, once the so-called “Giant of Africa”, promised them freedom of movement, access to hospitals, repairs of their dams, and the comfort of legitimacy.

This is not peace. This is surrender dressed in the language of diplomacy.

Where was the Defence Headquarters? Where was the NSA’s office? Where were the Ministers of Defence, Badaru Abubakar and Bello Matawalle, whose voices are loud in press conferences but mute in the theatre of actual security? Where are the billions allocated every year for military operations in the North West? Why did we spend trillions on defence only to arrive at a point where the state must beg its own tormentors to stop tormenting?

The truth is bitter, but we must swallow it: corruption has hollowed our security agencies into empty shells. Money meant for weapons becomes new mansions in Abuja. Funds meant for intelligence gathering turn into foreign trips for politicians. Vehicles meant for the bush rot in generals’ private compounds while villagers trek into forests to plead for their lives.

This “Safana Agreement” is not a local incident, it is a national shame. It confirms what the people have long suspected: the state has lost its monopoly over violence. It admits that bandits are not hunted but negotiated with. It reveals a leadership that is more concerned with political stability than human security.

To the Nigerian political and military elite, hear this: you cannot buy lasting peace from the same hands that profit from war. You cannot fix insecurity while ignoring the roots, poverty, illiteracy, failed governance, and the unholy alliance between criminals and corrupt officials. If you truly want peace in the North, then:

Stop stealing the security vote account for every naira.

Arm and train our forces with modern tools, not outdated rifles.

Dismantle the networks of politicians and traditional rulers who secretly benefit from the chaos.

Invest in the dignity of the people, schools, clinics, jobs, so that the forest is no longer more profitable than the farm.

Until then, every handshake between a government official and an armed criminal will be another nail in the coffin of Nigeria’s sovereignty.

Safana will be remembered, not for the peace it signed, but for the state funeral it held for our national honour.

Khaleed Yazeed writes from Katsina