A new report says there is ample evidence that jihadi fighters from the Sahel region have crossed into Nigeria through the Benin Republic border. The report was released on Wednesday by the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch think tank which has done extensive research in the Sahel. The leaders from the Northern part of Nigeria were bold and categorical when the issue of French military base in Nigeria came up and silent on the movement of Jihadists from Sahel into Nigeria. If the French military base has been allowed, it would have exposed those powerful northern elements that are mining gold and other solid minerals in North-West Nigeria in the name of banditry. Today solid minerals are mined in north-west in the name of bandits and the northern leaders cannot write to President Tinubu to profer solution just the same way they wrote to President Tinubu not to allow French and United States military bases in Nigeria. Which of the two will bring peace to Nigeria? Is it French military base or the Jihadists? The northern leaders that wrote letter to President Tinubu are deceiving Nigerians and they do not want to tell Nigerians the truth.

The Sahel region has seen a surge in terrorist attacks and extremism, particularly in countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger Republic. The tri-border region in these countries has been particularly affected, with terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State expanding their influence and carrying out attacks on government forces and civilians. Africa’s Sahel region has become a hot spot for violent extremism, but the joint force set up in 2014 to combat groups linked to the Islamic State, al-Qaida and others has failed to stop their inroads, and a senior U.N. official warned Tuesday that without greater international support and regional cooperation the instability will expand toward West African coastal countries. “Resolute advances in the fight against terrorism, violent extremism and organized crime in the Sahel desperately need to be made,” U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Africa Martha Pobee told a U.N. Security Council meeting. The counterterrorism force, now comprised of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger, lost Mali a year ago when its ruling junta decided to pull out. Pobee said the force hasn’t conducted any major military operations since January.

According to the report, banditry is re-emerging in zones controlled by the Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), a militant jihadist organisation, in Benin. Those bandits seem to have Nigerian connections. The report said the extremists have settled in Kainji Lake National Park in Niger and Kebbi states. “Evidence suggests this involves Sahelian extremists (likely JNIM). Another group would be Darul Salam – a group linked to Boko Haram, if not fully affiliated — with an open attitude towards bandits,” the report said. Bandits and unidentified armed groups are known to move towards Kebbi State from Sokoto. It is alleged that these include various Darul Salam fighters with links to the Sahel.” Recently some eminent leaders in the country as well as civil society organisations on Friday cautioned President Bola Tinubu against allowing the United States and the French governments to relocate their military bases from the Sahel to Nigeria. According to the letter, the American and French governments have allegedly been aggressively lobbying Nigeria, along with other Gulf of Guinea countries, to sign new defence pacts that would allow them to redeploy their troops, expelled from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Now that the Jihadists from the Sahel of Africa are moving into Nigeria, where are the Northern Leaders that wrote a letter to President Tinubu? Why are the Northern Leaders silent on the jihadists from Sahel of Africa? Is a French military base not better than jihadists in Nigeria? Is United States of America military base not better than jihadists from Sahel of Africa?

Nigerians have heard stories of banditry in North-West Nigeria where armed men are illegally mining solid minerals with security cover from bandits. Nearly two weeks after the mine in Shiroro, Niger State collapsed and swallowed over 50 miners, another mine collapsed on Thursday last week, killing three people and injuring one person.The state Ministry of Mineral Resources on Thursday last week disclosed that efforts were still going on to rescue the miners trapped in the Shiroro mine lamenting that they have not received any assistance from multinational rescue firms.The latest mine collapse occurred at Bazakwoi, Adunu Community, in the Paikoro Local Government Area where the mining pit was said to have collapsed at an illegal gold mining site, resulting in the deaths of the three miners. The Minister of Solid Mineral, Mr Dele Alake, has alleged that powerful Nigerians involved in illegal mining were responsible for other criminal activities and involved in sponsoring banditry and terrorism in the country. Alake said this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals for the 2024 budget defence in Abuja. According to him, a lot of banditry and terrorism are sponsored by illegal miners; they are not people who pick gold on the ground but powerful individuals in the country. He said the majority of the illegal miners were not foreigners but added that foreigners could be seen as symptoms.

“Nigerians are those powerful people behind them; we are identifying them with both kynetic and non-kynetic means. We have encouraged those petty illegal miners to form cooperatives.”He said the most disturbing aspect was that most of the foreigners engaged in illegal mining in the country had no proper immigration.He said for mining to generate the requisite revenue, there was a need to have a formal structure that the multinational could deal with, just like the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Ltd.