By Ebuka Ukoh

She was bright and beautiful. Courage and conviction defined her. At 29, Somotochukwu Christelle Maduagwu, also fondly known as ‘Sommie’, was an attorney, rising broadcaster, and advocate for women, children, and her nation. She could have remained in Britain, where she held citizenship, but she chose to return to Nigeria to help make it work.

But Nigeria failed Sommie!

All her passion could not shield her from the ballets of villains—right inside her own home in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory. Reports say the police were alerted during the robbery incident, yet there was no prompt response. She gave her heart to a nation that could not protect her in return.

Tributes have poured in from the high and mighty. The FCT Commissioner of Police offered condolences. But Nigerians must ask: Are the police a commiseration body, or a constitutional institution to protect life and property? Nigerians do not need sympathy; they need safety.

Nigeria failed her again. When rushed to a hospital, she was reportedly denied treatment for lack of identification; precious time was lost. Do we blame the hospital? Partly. But hospitals here have been punished for acting without paperwork. Like the robbery and the police inaction, this reflects a broken state that normalises death.

Her story joins a tragic chorus: Deborah Samuel lynched in Sokoto, Ammaye beaten to death in Niger, Ojo Peter, the journalist, slain by robbers, and Barnabas, the guard, who died resisting Christelle’s attackers. These are not accidents; they are symptoms of a failing state.

Condolences Without Consequence

Every tragedy is met with promises: “We will investigate,” “We will bring perpetrators to justice.” Yet justice rarely comes. Deborah’s killers posed for selfies and remained free till date. Eunice Olawale’s killers were never prosecuted. Will Christelle’s case be any different?

The message is chilling: if a mob or a gunman kills you in Nigeria, your death may trend for a day, but justice will not follow. When life can be taken without consequence, law itself becomes optional.

Learning From Our African Sisters

Nigeria is not the only country facing violence or weak systems. But others on the continent show us what leadership can do:

These reforms are not perfect, but they prove something vital: African nations can, with will and vision, place value on human life. Why can’t Nigeria?

Way Forward: From Eulogies to Reform

Nigeria’s security crisis is not inevitable; it is a product of choices. To change course, we need:

A Trumpet, Not a Whisper

Somtochukwu’s life was a light. Her death is a wound. Let it also be a trumpet—calling us not just to mourn, but to demand, move, organise and act.

No Nigerian deserves to die the way she did. Not the lawyer in Abuja. Not the farmer in Zamfara. Not the student in Sokoto. None.

We must not settle for a country where “Nigeria happened” is the shorthand for tragedy. We must build one where “Nigeria happened” means resilience, justice, and life preserved.

History will not forgive endless condolences. It will only remember whether we turned grief into governance.

• Mr Ukoh, an alumnus of the American University of Nigeria, Yola, and PhD student at Columbia University, writes from New York.

By Ebuka Ukoh

I woke up to the news of a five-day flood notice across 19 states in Nigeria. Now, we have just a few days left. I could not shake off the urgency in my spirit.

This isn’t just another weather update. It is a warning—one that must be heeded. As someone whose research intersects climate change, extreme weather events, and their impact on intimate partner violence and gender roles, particularly the burden on men in vulnerable communities, I know how quickly things can spiral when we do not prepare. When we know better, we must do better.

I can see myself in every skeptical or overwhelmed Nigerian. Before now, I too could have dismissed such warnings as distant or irrelevant. But the evidence is mounting, and ignorance is no longer an excuse. I have seen the aftermath of devastating floods, not just in the abstract data of research, but in real communities—Bayelsa, Lagos, Benue, Anambra, Jigawa, and many more. Entire neighborhoods submerged. Homes destroyed. Human lives lost. Livelihoods gone. What we often forget when we read these statistics are the grief, the hunger, the trauma, and the helplessness that lie beneath the numbers.

My longtime mentor who lives and works in the Modire area of Yola, the Adamawa State capital, recently shared his harrowing experience:

“By divine grace, I escaped drowning by the skin of my teeth two Sundays ago.

“In the wee hours, neighbours woke me up as they were running out with their children. I peeped through my window and saw them wading through water.

“Quickly, I put on my boxers, took a walking stick, and opened the door to follow. As they opened the main gate, more water rushed through. Then I remembered my phone and laptop and risked my life through the floods back to my apartment. There, I dived straight to where the two working tools lay on the floor. I fished them out and hurried out, leaving the door open because the rush of water wouldn’t let me close it.

“When we returned home by 8 a.m., the water had reduced to ankle level. Everything in the house was submerged or floating. We bailed out water for days. The floors are still damp because the house was built in a waterlogged area. My phone’s functionalities have been restored—not the PC’s yet.

“I work with this tab now.

“Friends and hirelings have been coming since that incident to help with cleaning and sanitising my home.”

This is not just his story—it could be anyone’s. A father. A neighbour. A student. A businesswoman. You.

To every Nigerian trying to survive in an already difficult economy, I understand. You are not indifferent—you are exhausted. And yes, many of us have learned to spiritualise our crises. We default to “God will help us.” And indeed, He will. But faith is not a substitute for preparation. Pray if you must—but, please, plan as well.

Let’s be clear on one thing: Climate change is not a Western hoax. It refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, primarily caused by human activities such as burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial pollution. These changes lead to extreme weather events like flooding, drought, and heatwaves—events that are already shaping our everyday lives in Nigeria.

This message is for everyone: Rural and urban dwellers, policymakers, business owners, faith communities, and especially those who still think climate change is an elite or foreign concern. It is not. When rivers overflow in Lokoja, when homes are swallowed in Makurdi, when roads collapse in Calabar, it is not just an international headline. It is our people’s reality.

The Federal Government has allocated ₦6 billion in the 2025 budget specifically for erosion and flood control projects under the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP). In addition, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has received ₦10 billion to enhance its preparedness and response for the 2025 flood season. This funding is intended to support nationwide flood mitigation efforts. Please, if anybody knows where these monies are, let them speak up so we can all be enlightened.

More importantly, we must shift from crisis response to crisis prevention. That starts with education. What if governments and foundations invested in early warning systems, flood simulations in schools, local language sensitisation campaigns, and community-led climate workshops? What if we committed resources to prevention with the same urgency we show during disaster relief?

Leaders—religious, traditional, and political—must lead climate literacy campaigns. If they can mobilise people for elections and revivals, they can mobilise them to save lives. One sermon. One WhatsApp broadcast. One community meeting at a time.

And you, dear reader, have a role to play:

This is how nations are built—by collective action, not collective apathy.

Nigeria’s floods are not just the result of heavy rain. They are the product of weak planning, outdated infrastructure, urban sprawl, deforestation, a systemic lack of environmental responsibility—and maybe nonchalance. But mostly, they are the outcome of a mindset that waits until the damage is done.

Let us stop waiting.

To foundations and philanthropists: Fund education and preparedness. It is cheaper than reconstruction. To local governments: Prioritise flood mapping and drainage. And to our faith communities: Teach that Noah built the ark before it rained.

Only the living can tell the tale of what will come. Let us be among them, please.

Let us prepare, protect, and proclaim the gospel of climate responsibility—not just because it is wise, but because it is necessary. For in this struggle, as with all others, the people are not the problem. They are the solution.

And the time to act is now.

• Mr Ukoh, an alumnus of American University of Nigeria, Yola, and PhD student at Columbia University, writes from New York.

By Samson Ezea

It is of note that since assuming office in 2023, Enugu State Governor, Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah has raised the standards and bar of leadership and governance in all sectors of the state economy. In the area of security which his administration placed a high premium on, Gov. Mbah adopted unprecedented technological approach to it by establishing the State Command and Control Centre in the Government House, establishing Security Trust Fund Committee, mounting AI cameras on the streets, purchasing and distribution of over 100 technologically equipped operational vehicles to security agents and other numerous measures and incentives.

Despite all these and expectedly, just like even in the developed countries of the world, the daredevil criminals would once in a while attempt to challenge the state security architecture. Such security hitches, which sometimes result in havoc that include loss of human lives and properties, are not peculiar to Enugu State and even Nigeria as a country.
That there were some security hitches in some parts of Enugu State namely Uzo-Uwani and Isi Uzo council areas occasioned by nefarious activities of the marauding herdsmen is not enough reason for one to be totally dismissive or critical of Governor Mbah’s giant strides in the area of security since assuming office. No, it is not. After all, there is no society, no matter how developed, technologically equipped, or secured, is immune or insulated from security hitches once in a while.There is none, not even in the developed countries of the world.

It is of no doubt that the menace of marauding and killer herdsmen, bandits and terrorists in Nigeria has becoming a recurring decimal that appeared to have dified permanent solution by successive governments in the country since the return of democracy in 1999.

Being proactive and mindful of the enormous security challenge the criminal activities of the marauding herdsmen posed to the people, especially in some agrarian communities and rural areas in Uzo-Uwani and Isi Uzo council areas and others, Gov. Mbah’s administration proposed the establishment of a modern ranch pilot scheme in Uzo-Uwani LGA and other riverine areas and rural communities of the state.

In order to legalize and achieve the noble and novel project that will help to curb the menace of herdsmen attack, end friction between farmers and herders, create jobs and revolutionised livestock and agricultural practice in the state, Governor Mbah signed into law the Enugu State Ranch Management Agency Bill into law on July 3, 2024.
The proposal and signing of the Ranch Management law by Gov. Mbah’s administration was swiftly greeted and trailed with stiff opposition, condemnations, misinformation, propaganda, protests and malice by the opposition, who distorted facts about the laws, misrepresented and misinterpreted government’s genuine intention of establishing modern ranches in line with the international standards.

This development might not be unconnected with the reason Mbah’s government has held back the implementation of the proposed modern ranch scheme until now.

Even at that, Governor Mbah’s government has not rested on her oars in providing security in the agrarian communities of the the state such as Uzo-Uwani and Isi Uzo council areas that had always witnessed marauding herdsmen and farmers’ clashes. This is despite the fact that security reports had sometimes revealed the involvement and collaboration of the locals and indigenes of the areas in such heinous attacks and clashes.

Unfortunately, those who are opposed to the establishment of modern ranches in the state to be managed by our people and paved way for full implementation of Enugu State Ranch Management Agency laws have not been able to provide alternative and permanent solution to the marauding herdsmen’s menace in the agrarian and rural communities of the state, apart from always politicizing it, hurling insults and consistently criticising and apportioning blames to the Governor at any slightest security hitches in the areas, thereby mischievously forgetting that Governor Mbah, just like every other state governor has no total control of the security personnel in the state at all times.

Lest we have forgotten, is it not in this country in 2018 that the then Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, after repeated protests and complaints to President Muhammadu Buhari over the spate of banditry and terrorism in his state, despite all his government had invested in security, publicly and angrily declared that he has resigned as Chief Security Officer for not having control of security personnel in his state even in the time of crisis? This was a clear case of how helpless and frustrated state governors could be in tackling security challenges in their states despite being addressed and seen as Chief Security Officer of the state.

Meanwhile, I had thought that with the emergence of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President of the country, the menace of the marauding and killer herdsmen would have been a thing of the past by now, if President Tinubu had pushed for the establishment of state police as had been canvassed and clamoured for before now.

I had thought that President Tinubu would have been courageous and decisive enough to push for the amendment of the Nigerian Police Act for the creation of the state police the way and speed the act was amended for the tenure of the Inspector General of Police.

Even though, concerns have been raised about the abuse of state police by the state governors if established, there seems to be no other solution to the heightened insecurity across the country, especially the the marauding herdsmen menace other than the creation of the state police.

Undoubtedly, the advantages and merits of the state police outweigh the disadvantages. With state police in place, a man from Delta State has no business working as a police officer in Enugu State that he knows nothing much about its geography, people, and terrains.
So cheering and encouraging is the recent news that the Progressives Governors’ Forum had thrown its weight behind President Tinubu to address the rising insecurity, just as it is asking governors to protect their states through community policing.

Addressing journalists in Abuja after three-hour meeting held behind closed doors, Chairman of the Forum and governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma said they are equally considering the issue of state police in line with the proposal of Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State, who had during Stakeholders meeting during President Tinubu’s visit to Benue State, called for the creation of state police to address the security challenges bedeviling the country.

In the same vein,  Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa’s identification of the country’s border with the Niger Republic as the most dangerous and porous, calling for an urgent border fence to stem the tide of terrorism should equally be taken seriously and addressed by President Tinubu’s government urgently.

Musa made the remarks while discussing the country’s worsening security challenges.
According to him, terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP continue to exploit the unsecured border to infiltrate Nigeria.

“The reason is because, having gone through my analysis and looking at the Sahel, the main attraction to all these terrorists and bandits is Nigeria,” Musa said.

Musa’s assertion is not far from the truth as I could recall that during my NYSC camp orientation at the Federal College Of Education Gumel in Jigawa State in early 2000s, we usually and often trek across Nigeria/ Niger Republic border with ease and unperturbed to Niger Republic.

President Tinubu’s request to Governor Alia during his visit to Benue State to establish modern ranches in the state to curb the menace of the marauding herdsmen in the state may not yield a positive result without the establishment of the state police made up of indigenes of the state that will provide adequate security in the state, having hailed, lived and known the geography of the state for years.

Establishment of the state police appears inevitable at this point and President Tinubu should take the bull by the horn, not only by addressing the issue of rising insecurity across the country, especially the menace of marauding herdsmen by mere rhetorics and empty promises, but by implementing drastic measures and meaningful actions.

The ugly menace and situation should no longer be treated with kid gloves or political correctness, but decisive actions and permanent solutions to save the country from total collapse.