FIGHT AGAINST ARMED BANDITRY IN NIGERIA’S NORTH-WEST: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL BORDERLINES BETWEEN STATES & THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA
Keywords:
Armed Banditry, Nigeria North-West, Constitutional Borderlines, Federal–State Relations, Security Governance, Intergovernmental Conflict.Abstract
Since the beginning of armed banditry, precisely in 2011, there have been unending national debates as to who is responsible for the management of the excesses of these bandit criminals. While the constitution has made the issue of security of the lives and properties of Nigerian citizens an exclusive power of the government at the center, State Governors, mostly hit by this criminality, took the boldest step of instituting measures that can bring relief to their people without mincing over the constitutional borderlines. The Governors, for instance, vividly relied on the same constitution that confers on them the powers of the Chief Security Officers of their respective states to take actions related to security matters, most of the time in isolation from the federal government. This development causes serious friction with regard to the issue of coordination, synergy, and working as a network to end banditry violence. This recent development has for instance, brought about the crisis as to which measure should to be uniformly adopted in managing banditry violence. At some points, for instance, while the federal government is applying military operations in states affected by the banditry violence, the state governors are applying peace accords as an option to the military operations, and these conflicts continue to bring confusion and negate the ability and powers of the government to be able to handle this crisis head-on. This paper aims at conducting an overview of the crisis of constitutional borderline and determining who controls what, and at what point certain steps are supposed to be taken to be able to bring an end to the armed banditry violence in Nigeria’s North-West. The paper adopted a mixed research methodology of literature review and field interviews with a view to comparing data from the field with the existing literature to arrive at some findings that can be useful in policy formulation and coordination by the government.
References
1. Anka A. S (2024), Governance and Insecurity in Nigeria Since 1999: Perspective on Armed Banditry, as edited by Patrick I. U, Ayemga Tor & Iveren B, Thaddeus, in Democracy, Governance and Development in Nigeria: A Multidisciplinary Conversation, ISSN: 978-978-8576-36-0 .
2. Anka A. S. (2025), Conventional Fight against Armed Banditry in Zamfara and Reasons for their Failure, Public Lecture Delivered at One Day Stakeholders meeting on “Peace for Life” Organized by Zamfara Saving Grace Initiative for the Internally Displaced Persons at Training Area Gusau, 22/10/2205.
3. Anka A. S. (2024), Banditry in Zamfara: A Decade Analysis, A Public Lecture delivered at a Two Days Stakeholders Interactive Session on Peace and Economy organized by the Forum of Opposition Candidates for 2027 election in Zamfara held at Maryam Hall, Gusau, 21/10/2025.
4. Anka A.S (2025), Armed Banditry in the Nigeria’s North-West and Community Peace Accord: Consequences on State Security, Public Lecture delivered at a One-Day Community Dialogue on Safe School Initiatives Organized by the Student Union of Gummi Emirate Development Association held at the Shiekh Abubakar Mahamud Model Primary School, Gummi, 2nd February 2025
5. Inuwa M. M (2022) Former Secretary to Katrina State Government in Interview Conducted at the DCL Hausa Monitored on 7/08/2025.
6. Inuwa M. (2022), Why we are disappointed with the bandit’s leaders after our Reconciliation, BBC Hausa Interview, conducted on the 13th July 2022.
7. Maradun A. A. (2024), Interview conducted with Thunder Blowers Multimedia Services monitored on the 3oth July 2024
8. Maradun A. A (2023) Social Affairs Commentator, Interview Conducted at Thunder Blowers Multimedia Service Corporate Head Office, Monitored on 07/09/2025
9. Mudi I. (2024), Interview conducted with Thunder Blowers Multimedia Services monitored on the 3oth July 2024.
10. Maryam A. Insecurity: Niger State to Employ, 1,500 Youths as Forest Guards, The Cable Newspaper, (Online Version) retrieved from
11. Salman A.(2023), Sokoto Establishes Security Outfit to Tackle Insecurity, (Online Version) Punch Newspaper retrieved from.
12. Nkem Okoro(2022), Illegality of Regional, State Security Outfits, (Online Version) Daily Post, retrieved from
