MARK LIPDO

The current high level of insecurity in Nigeria began as a persecution of Christians in the northern part of the country: an extremist Islamic ideology instigated a jihad (religious war) targeting Christians in the country. This soon turned ethnic, with high levels of ethnic-cleansing activities and provided grounds for lethal Islamic terrorism. The jihad unleashed violence on individuals, villages and communities, displacing millions of Nigerians from their homes and now not even moderate Muslims are spared. However, the Government takes advantage of it to play its political games.

Over the past two decades, Stefanos Foundation, under four successive federal government rules, has recorded incidences of violence ranging from Islamic rioting to Boko Haram terrorism, and then fully operational militant Fulani herdsmen who have continued to ravage communities, killing, maiming, kidnapping and displacing thousands while occupying some communities. This terrorist activity has encouraged a high level of crime with impunity and has given room for political exploitations that are now affecting the rule of law and good governance in Nigeria.

Stefanos has been working to intervene in the agony, pain and suffering, providing physical care, trauma care and advocating over the disruption that this violence has caused millions of people.

The bias, intolerance, marginalisation and sectional scheming have further deepened the fault lines. This increases the concern over the mass abductions of school students, mass displacement of people, kidnapping for ransom, destruction of farms and a list of emerging Fulani settlements on ethnic farmlands. So far, there are no signs of these ills abating any time soon.