6 June, 2026
Website Disclaimer: This is a work of political commentary and opinion. The author does not advocate for violence, vigilantism, or any illegal action. References to historical events are for analysis and education, not as a call to arms. Readers are encouraged to pursue lawful civic engagement.
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In 1966 a group of young officers stood up and defended the North. In 2026 we cannot even defend a child.
The names of those officers are not buried in some forgotten archive. They are Murtala Muhammed, Joseph Akahan, Theophilus Danjuma, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha. These were young men, officers in their twenties and thirties, who in July 1966 looked upon the murder of their leaders—the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, and Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa—and refused to accept it. They rose. They planned. They executed what became known as the counter-coup or the July Rematch. They did not hide behind smartphones. They did not form a committee. They did not issue a press release demanding that someone else save them. They acted. And because they acted, the North did not collapse.
Let me repeat that because it demands to be shouted: because those young men stood up, the North as we know it survived. If it were this generation of passive, comfortable, disconnected northern youth who occupied those barracks in 1966, we would not inherit the North today. There would be nothing to inherit. We would be a footnote in someone else's history book, a cautionary tale about a people who watched themselves be destroyed and did nothing but complain on Facebook.
But how do we repay those gallant heroes today? We insult them. We abuse them from behind keyboards. We call them military dictators, we mock their legacies, we celebrate their flaws while crawling on our bellies, exposed and shameless, typing furious comments that change nothing and protect no one. We have turned the art of inaction into a competitive sport.
Look at the North today. While we scroll through TikTok and argue about a Kannywood actor's new haircut, murderous barbarians are burning worshippers alive in mosques. While we watch pornography and sing praises to leaders who have abandoned us, bandits are raiding schools and kidnapping hundreds of children at a time. Amnesty International reported that in just three months of 2026, over 1,100 people were abducted in northern Nigeria. One thousand one hundred human beings. Not statistics. Not numbers on a screen. Fathers, mothers, children. In one attack, 166 worshippers were snatched from churches. In another, villagers watched helplessly as 176 of their people including a two-year-old girl were marched into the forest. And what did we do? We ran behind our smartphones. We updated our statuses. We posted crying emojis. Then we went back to arguing about which musician has better lyrics.
This is not merely shameful. This is pathological. The brightest minds among us compete not to solve problems but to secure appointments from the very government that refuses to protect us. Our scholars debate poetry while our sisters are raped. Our musicians sing about nudity and politicians while our mothers are ransomed. Even our women, who once led armies and inspired warriors, now lead us only to ShopRite, to Mr Goods, to Cash and Carry. What happened to the daughters of the North? When did we trade courage for consumerism, honour for hashtags?
The philosopher Edmund Burke said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." We have done nothing for so long that we have forgotten we were ever capable of doing anything at all. The psychologist Rollo May wrote that the opposite of courage is not cowardice but conformity, the mindless surrender to what everyone else is doing. And what is everyone else doing? Nothing. We are all doing nothing together. We conform to inaction. We have normalized helplessness.
The North is under attack by heartless barbarians who kill, pillage, rape, and set schools ablaze with children inside. They collect billions in ransom. They move freely through forests and villages like lords of the land. And we sit here, afraid to stand up, afraid to organize, afraid to defend ourselves. We have become docile. Fearful. Shameless. And yes, cowards.
Let me speak plainly because euphemism is the language of the weak. If we refuse to unite and face the monster, the monster will reach each of us one by one. It will kidnap you. It will rape your wife and your daughters. It will bankrupt your family through ransom demands that grow larger each time. And after you have paid everything you own, after you have sold your land and borrowed from everyone you know, it will kill you anyway. That is what they do. That is the business they are in.
Or perhaps you will not be kidnapped. Perhaps you will run south, fleeing to the southern part of the country where you imagine safety awaits. But the South has its own justice now. You remember the 16 hunters from Kano who travelled to Port Harcourt and were lynched on their way home by vigilantes in Uromi, Edo State. They were accused of being kidnappers. They were killed. They were set ablaze. Their families are still waiting for the compensation promised by governors who have since forgotten their names. One widow, Hauwau Isa, told reporters she was losing hope, that each passing day makes those promises look like political statements rather than commitments. Another survivor, Ibrahim Isa, said he can barely feed himself because he spent his last money on medical treatment that was supposed to be free. This is what awaits you in the South: not safety but suspicion, not refuge but the mob.
Or perhaps you will not be mobbed. Perhaps you will simply encounter a trigger-happy policeman who mistakes you for a bandit because you happen to be northern and male and present. Either way, death is inevitable. Either way, the outcome is the same. The only choice left to us is how we die. Do we die with dignity, standing up and fighting for what remains of our homeland? Or do we die shamefully, disgraced, crawling on our bellies while our children watch and learn that northerners are born to be prey?
The psychologist Viktor Frankl, who survived the Holocaust, wrote that when we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. But here is the truth we refuse to accept: we can change this situation. We are not prisoners. We are not helpless. We have simply chosen helplessness because it is easier than courage. Courage requires sacrifice. Courage requires organization. Courage requires looking your neighbour in the eye and saying, "Enough." And we have not been willing to do that.
Look at what passes for activism in the North today. A youth forum issues a 30-day ultimatum to the government. The government ignores it. The youth forum issues another statement. Nothing changes. We write communiqués that no one reads. We form associations that exist only on letterheads. We demand that others save us while we save nothing but our own comfort. This is not leadership. This is theatre.
Let me be clear about what I am saying. I am not calling for violence. I am not calling for anarchy. I am calling for the one thing we have lost: the will to act. In 1966, young officers did not wait for permission from Abuja. They did not form a committee to study the problem. They recognized that the North was under existential threat, and they responded. Today, the threat is even greater. In 1966, the enemy wore uniforms and could be identified. Today, the enemy hides in forests, blends into communities, and strikes without warning. The challenge is harder. But that does not excuse our failure. If anything, it demands more of us, not less.
I blame myself as much as I blame anyone. I have written words instead of building structures. I have posted opinions instead of organizing neighbours. I have sat in air-conditioned rooms and condemned the cowardice of others while practicing the same cowardice in my own life. But acknowledging our shared failure is not the same as accepting it. Acknowledgment must be the first step toward something else, toward action, toward the recovery of something we have lost.
The North cannot afford another generation of young men and women who mistake outrage for action, who believe that tweeting is the same as fighting, who think that because they have condemned evil they have somehow confronted it. Evil does not care about your condemnation. Evil cares only about your resistance.
We stand at a crossroads. One path leads to more of the same: more kidnappings, more funerals, more ransoms paid to barbarians who laugh at us. The other path leads to something unknown, something difficult, something that will require sacrifice and blood and tears. But at least on that path, we walk with our heads held high. At least on that path, our children will not be ashamed to call us ancestors.
The choice is ours. But let no one say they did not know what was coming. Let no one say they were not warned. The monster will reach us all, one by one, unless we reach for each other first. That is the only truth that matters now.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached at [email protected]
Abuja Network News
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Opinion