The leaders call for urgent restructuring, community policing, and reject new federal security units, insisting Nigerians may soon resort to self-defence if killings continue.
By WawaReporters – June 20, 2025
Leaders from Nigeria’s Southern and Middle Belt regions have fiercely criticized President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over what they describe as worsening insecurity and government inaction, warning that the country is teetering on the edge of becoming a failed state.
In a strongly worded communiqué released on Thursday after a strategic meeting in Akure, the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) condemned the increasing attacks by armed herdsmen and terrorists, particularly in Benue State, where dozens have been killed in recent weeks.
The communiqué was jointly signed by Oba Oladipo Olaitan (Afenifere), Dr. Bitrus Pogu (Middle Belt Forum), Senator John Azuta-Mbata (Ohanaeze Ndigbo), and Ambassador Godknows Igali (PANDEF).
“The Federal Government must stop playing politics with people’s lives. Nigerians are dying in their hundreds, and nothing concrete is being done,” the statement reads.
The leaders accused the federal authorities of failing in their constitutional duty to protect lives and properties, while lamenting what
they called the “impunity of Fulani terrorists and foreign militias” in indigenous communities.Key Demands:
Immediate creation of state-controlled police forces with community-level divisions.
All police officers below Chief Superintendent rank should serve only within their state of origin.
Full support for regional security outfits like Amotekun, armed to combat terrorism.
Rejection of the proposed National Forest Guards, describing it as another layer of ineffective federal control over state lands.
The group insisted that all non-military security agencies must fall under state control, as lands and forests are constitutionally state matters.
They also criticized the federal government’s “fire-brigade” deployment of soldiers to conflict zones, calling it wasteful and unsustainable.
“Governors are chief security officers only in name. What we have is a unitary security architecture in a federal system. That must change,” the communiqué added.
Warning that Nigeria’s continued centralization of power is fueling chaos, the leaders stated that “the alternative will be for citizens to begin arming themselves in self-defence if this carnage continues unchecked.”
They called on President Tinubu and the National Assembly to act urgently, saying failure to do so risks pushing Nigeria toward collapse.
