Stop 2027 election obsession, tackle insecurity first- WAANSA tells northern governors

The West Africa Action Network Against Small Arms Proliferation, WAANSA, has enjoined northern governors to suspend their growing fixation on the 2027 general elections and focus on tackling the escalating insecurity and poverty ravaging the region.

Regional First Vice President of WAANSA, Martin Igwe, made the call during a courtesy visit to the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Kaduna State Council, on Wednesday, warning that the North is bleeding from unchecked violence, arms inflow, and leadership neglect.

Igwe, who represents Nigeria in the regional body’s executive board, lamented that while farmers and rural dwellers live in constant fear of bandits, kidnappers, and cross-border criminals, politicians are already consumed by the race for 2027.

He explained, “Election is about the living, not the dead. Our people are dying daily, yet leaders appear more interested in political permutations than in saving lives or rebuilding devastated communities.”

He listed states like Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kwara as hotbeds of insecurity due to their porous borders, warning that arms smuggling and bandit infiltration from neighbouring countries had turned them into theatres of violence.

Igwe said WAANSA, which operates across all 15 ECOWAS member states, was deeply concerned about the regional dimension of Nigeria’s security crisis, stressing the need for stronger cross-border collaboration under the ECOWAS framework.

He appealed to the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin, who also serves as the second deputy speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, to rally his counterparts across the sub-region to adopt a joint security strategy to combat arms proliferation and transnational crimes.

According to him, “Nigerians are almost speaking in a war situation,” Igwe warned. “Those of us in towns may not feel it, but people in local communities are suffering unimaginable hardship. This is the time for ECOWAS to rise and protect its citizens.”

He also decried the worsening food insecurity in the North, attributing it to farmers’ inability to access their farmlands due to incessant attacks. “When people cannot farm, hunger follows, and when hunger strikes, criminality grows,” he said.

The WAANSA vice president alleged that drug use remains a major enabler of banditry and violent crimes, and accused some political actors of indirectly funding the drug trade that fuels insecurity. “It’s a network that thrives because it serves political interests,” he said, calling for media collaboration to expose such syndicates.

Responding, Chairman of the NUJ Kaduna Council, Alhaji AbdulGafar Alabelewe, commended WAANSA for its advocacy and pledged the union’s readiness to partner with the group in driving peace-oriented public discourse across Nigeria.

He said the visit offered renewed hope that patriotic citizens were still committed to peace and nation-building, noting that journalists would continue to spotlight issues affecting community security and development.

Alabelewe also urged state governments to adopt Kaduna’s non-kinetic approach to conflict management, which he said had helped to reduce violence, while calling for stronger ECOWAS cooperation to secure the region’s borders and stabilize the sub-region.

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