By Maiwada Dammallam
The anguish expressed in “Katsina Is Bleeding While Its Leaders Feast” is deeply felt—and rightly so. Katsina, like too many parts of Northern Nigeria, continues to face brutal acts of banditry and terrorism. The suffering of innocent citizens is a wound on our collective conscience. Their grief is sacred. Their anger is legitimate.
But we must not confuse the moral clarity of their pain with the political convenience of a false narrative. To weaponize tragedy into a tool of blanket condemnation—absent context, absent facts—is to mislead the public, discourage our security personnel, and demoralize the very communities we seek to defend and uplift.
⸻
1. Mourning Is Not Mutually Exclusive with Statecraft
The claim that a ceremonial dinner held during President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s official visit to Katsina symbolized indifference is profoundly unfair. The President’s presence was neither a vacation nor a celebration—it was a deliberate act of federal solidarity and strategic engagement with the state’s ongoing security and development agenda.
That dinner was part of a diplomatic itinerary intended to reinforce intergovernmental cooperation. Behind closed doors, two separate security briefings involving the National Security Adviser, heads of military formations, and local intelligence assets were convened. Also presented are advanced proposals to integrate Katsina into the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP)—a strategy designed to address the roots of farmer-herder conflict.
Governance in crisis does not require leaders to disappear from public view. It requires them to lead visibly, responsibly, and with deliberate resolve.
⸻
2. Security Gains Cannot Be Erased by Outrage
Katsina is not standing still. Since assuming office in May 2023, the administration of Governor Radda has pursued a comprehensive, multi-tiered security strategy anchored on state-community cooperation, technology, and kinetic capacity.
Here is what has been achieved in less than two years:
• Established the Katsina Community Watch Corps (KCWC) with 1,500 fully trained, kitted, and deployed personnel across all 34 LGAs. These are sons of the soil—vetted, licensed, and operating in coordination with the Nigerian Police and Armed Forces.
• Over 270 bandit informants, collaborators, and logistics couriers have been arrested in joint intelligence raids conducted in Batsari, Sabuwa, and Dandume LGAs.
• Procured and deployed 100 Hilux security patrol vehicles and 700 motorcycles to state security agencies—prioritizing hard-to-reach rural flashpoints.
• Introduced the Katsina Command and Control Centre equipped with drone surveillance, community alert systems, and early response protocols.
• De-escalated major conflict zones in Danmusa, Jibia, and Kankara through
coordinated civilian-military engagement and localized disarmament programs.
• Rehabilitated four divisional police headquarters and strengthened logistics support for the 8 Division of the Nigerian Army, headquartered in Sokoto but covering parts of the North West.
These interventions have yielded results. According to the Katsina State Security Reports (Q1 2024), reported incidents of kidnapping and rural attacks dropped by 28% between Q3 2023 and Q1 2024 in frontline LGAs.
Yes, the fight is far from over. But it is dishonest to pretend that nothing is being done.
⸻
3. Development Is Security: Building Hope Alongside Defence
True security cannot be imposed by rifles alone. It must be sustained through economic empowerment, education, and access to opportunity. In this regard, Katsina State has also made strides:
• Launched the “Building Your Future” Youth Empowerment Programme, providing 20,000 young people with vocational training, starter kits, and access to ₦2 billion in micro-grants and tools.
• Rehabilitated and reopened 62 schools previously shut due to insecurity—under the Safe Schools Initiative, now expanded to 13 LGAs.
• Constructed and equipped 18 new Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in IDP-hosting communities, and upgraded another 52 with solar-powered boreholes and drugs.
• Distributed over 700,000 bags of rice, millet, and maize under the Katsina State Food Support Scheme, targeting the most vulnerable rural households.
• Invested ₦12.5 billion in infrastructure renewal, including road rehabilitation across Funtua–Bakori–Danja axis, and feeder roads in Safana, Kurfi, and Malumfashi.
Governor Radda is linking peace with productivity while connecting recovery to resilience.
⸻
4. Our Traditional Institutions Are Allies in Peace—Not Betrayers
The accusation that our Emirs “sat among merrymakers” is a rhetorical overreach that does injustice to the sacrifices of our traditional institutions. These leaders have risked their lives to mediate local truces, protect abducted citizens, and mobilize cultural legitimacy in support of peacebuilding.
The Emirs of Katsina and Daura have hosted inter-faith prayer sessions, convened rural security dialogues, and helped isolate collaborators of criminal networks. To malign them without cause is to weaken the very social capital we need to rebuild trust.
⸻
5. Katsina’s Pain Is Not Less Because It Is Northern
To claim that “this horror would never be allowed in a Southern state” is both inaccurate and unhelpful. Our nation has grieved in Owo, Jos, Zamfara, and Benue. Violence is not sectional; it is national. And unity in grief must not be twisted into grievance-driven narratives.
Let us confront insecurity as Nigerians—not as antagonists in a regional blame game.
⸻
A Final Word: We Mourn, But We Move Forward
To the people of Katsina: Be assured Governor Radda is seeing your tears and listening to your cries. And he’s uncompromisingly committed towards changing the sad and complex narratives that we will never turn his back on you.
But to truly heal, we must resist the politics of despair. We must build on what is working. We must speak not just of what is broken, but of how the Radda administration is fixing it—imperfectly, urgently, relentlessly.
Katsina is bleeding—but it is also fighting, rising, and rebuilding.
History is watching. And so are the people being served.
Maiwada Dammallam is the Director General Media to the Governor of Katsina State.
