DEFIANTS IN DEFENCE OF DEFIANCE: “In Lie the Truth”. By M K ILYASU

DEFIANTS IN DEFENCE OF DEFIANCE: “In Lie the Truth”.

By M K ILYASU

Let me start by saying that for more than a decade, Nigeria has been caught up in this “Great Debate” over profound issues on National Security. The range of debate has varied, perhaps even unique in several respects. It has been sustained for a longer period over the unrelenting killings, kidnappings and other criminalities bringing a wider segment of the public engaged than with earlier controversies in the polity.

Little wonder therefore that the current administration in Katsina State just like elsewhere in Northern Nigeria sought negotiating with Bandits because the power to seriously engage the bandits does not lie with the states as some would wont to believe, rather, the kind of power that should reside with the government is being exercised by enemies of the communities.

Nigeria’s crime landscape, banditry, kidnapping, insurgency, armed robbery, cybercrime has often been addressed with force-driven, short-term responses. Yet behind the visible symptoms lie deeper structural truths that must be confronted to achieve sustainable security. The principle “In lie the truth” highlights the need to look beyond surface explanations and uncover the hidden drivers of insecurity.

Insight

Many widely accepted narratives about crime in Nigeria are incomplete or misleading (“the lie”), and real solutions require acknowledging underlying realities (“the truth”).

In Lie the truth, in the context of Nigeria’s security challenges is to present a version of reality that remains deliberately misleading, even when it contains fragments of truth, in order to serve a political, ethnic, or economic agenda.

There is some truth to the saying that people with social conscience tend to lie more than people with anti social tendencies. They lie because the truth can sometimes be unbearable they claim.

Unhappily, in a society whose politicians and intellectuals tend to sectionalize/tribalize/polarize the country as in North versus South on security and other important national matters, our people must choose between uncritical support for the ruling class and controversies directed against security institutions in the fight against insecurities in general.

I agree that security structural efficiency through reform is a better rallying point for the future in the fight against insecurity.

Is crime only about bad actors?

In truth, Criminality grows where state presence, economic opportunity, and justice systems are weak. Ungoverned spaces, youth unemployment, and corruption fuel recruitment into criminal networks.

But this is being tackled with TVET and IDEAS initiatives presently at play in the country. Citizens ages between 15 and 45 are being mentored and trained on various skills free of charge, granted monthly stipends as well as start-up kits at the end of the program. This is an excellent initiative which is currently under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Education, the NBTE and
World Bank assistance loan.

Military Deployment

Military deployments suppress violence temporarily but do not dismantle criminal economies. Effective prevention requires intelligence-led policing, accountable justice institutions, and community trust.

To defend the defiant, then, is to defend the belief that no society should fear its own citizens and no citizen should fear speaking truth to power. Banditry is not akin TO SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER. It is an alliance led by a traitor that only serves to fan the flames of division

Identified local collaborators, informants, and corrupt officials often support criminal networks. Addressing these internal collusions is as important as confronting external threats.

Government should stop downplaying terrorist attacks, banditry, or communal clashes to portray its effectiveness, because by inflating certain incidents it fuels ethnic or religious polarisation.

Crime follows identifiable patterns like porous borders, forest corridors, poverty belts, and political interference. Data-driven policing can reduce incidents and improve response times.

Proven local successes exist with telecoms-assisted tracking of kidnappers, the Borno CJTF model, Lagos security coordination, and community policing pilots. Scaling these is achievable doable.

Government must also stop blaming insecurity solely on “external forces” or “foreign fighters” like ISWAP, AL-QAIDA, ISIS while ignoring local governance failures, poverty, unemployment, and corruption. Attributing all violence to one cause (e.g., religion, tribal or porous borders) to avoid accountability must stop.

Presenting conflicts in the Middle Belt as purely “farmer-herder clashes” (an ecological narrative) while ignoring organized criminality, land grabbing, and political instigation is totally uncharitable.

Describing Boko Haram/ISWAP, LAKURAWA as “remnants” or “almost defeated” despite persistent control of territories and adaptive threats is not honorable in character or purpose.

Government must discourage publishing manipulated data on casualty numbers, kidnapping statistics, or economic losses to shape domestic and international perception.

Also govt must discourage using terms like “unknown gunmen” for likely identifiable actors, or treating politically motivated violence as ordinary crime.

The consequence of “lying the truth” is that it prevents genuine public understanding, erodes trust in institutions, hinders effective policymaking, and prolongs suffering because the real roots of insecurity are not addressed.

How to go about addressing the issues raised?

Progress is not made of lies and propaganda. We blind ourselves by them. Progress is made by Truth.

In Shakespearean Sonnet which summarises often poignant human arrangement, where two persons deceive one another, each knowing of the deceit, each preferring to have it continue rather than to confront what it masks. Families rely on some such reciprocity to sustain illusions, suppress some memories too painful to confront, and give support where it is needed. Sometimes these bonds are willingly maintained, most often they are painfully upheld with little or no choices to begin afresh.

Order promises stability, predictability, and harmony.

The recent video of Gov Radda making rounds, accusing some people of betraying their communities placed us to question whether the battle on banditry is one between upholders of “faith” and the forces of “deception” and “guile”.

Conclusion

“In Lie The Truth” is a call to Nigeria to look beyond surface-level narratives and embrace a more honest, evidence-based security strategy. Sustainable crime control requires confronting the structural Truths behind insecurity, Strengthening institutions, Restoring Trust, and Addressing the Social and Economic Ecosystems that allow crime to flourish.

Mallam Mohammed Kabir Ilyasu a public affairs commentator writes from Kaduna Nigeria

04/12/2025