Avid social commentator, Mahdi Shehu, has accused Nigeria’s political class of breeding the insecurity ravaging the country, saying bandits have become “good students” of corrupt politicians.
In a strongly worded response to former Kaduna Central Senator Shehu Sani’s weekend post on X, he wrote, “Bandits are good students of their political teachers and they learn with distinction grades.”
He argued that political corruption has directly fueled banditry and terrorism by depriving Nigerians of basic services and weakening the security forces meant to protect them.
“When politicians steal money meant for healthcare, it results in thousands of deaths in the same manner bandits kill in multiple attacks. When they divert funds for arms and ammunition, our troops become vulnerable to superior firepower. When they pocket road construction funds, dilapidated highways claim more lives than the bandits themselves,” he wrote.
Shehu further claimed that while bandits openly admit to their crimes, “most politicians tell lies at every move,” accusing the political class of nurturing, shielding, and rewarding criminals of all shades.
His remarks followed Shehu Sani’s dismissal of a report by an international organization alleging that Christians were being exterminated in Nigeria. Sani described such claims as misleading, insisting that bandits and terrorists kill and abduct indiscriminately.
“Bandits and terrorists in Nigeria don’t discriminate between Muslims and Christians in their evil and murderous acts. They attack churches and kill priests, pastors, and Christian worshippers; they also attack mosques and kill imams and Muslim worshippers. Their kidnapping and rape victims cut across all faiths and ethnic groups. Most of their victims are actually Muslims, going by the states they mostly operate. The Bill Maher’s claim of ‘slaughter of Christians by Muslims in Nigeria’ is outrightly false,” Sani stated.
The Federal Government has also waded into the debate, firmly rejecting what it described as false and divisive claims. In a press statement issued on Sunday, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, condemned the allegations as “baseless and despicable.”
“The violent activities of terrorist groups are not confined to any particular religious or ethnic community. These criminals target all who reject their murderous ideology, regardless of faith. Muslims, Christians, and even those who do not identify with any religion have suffered at their hands,” Idris said.
He added that portraying Nigeria’s security challenges as religious persecution was “a gross misrepresentation of reality” and “plays into the hands of terrorists and criminals who seek to divide Nigerians along religious or ethnic lines.”
Highlighting government efforts, the minister disclosed that between May 2023 and February 2025, over 13,500 terrorists and criminals were neutralized while nearly 10,000 hostages were rescued in military operations. He also announced the capture of the top leadership of ANSARU, Nigeria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, during a counter-terrorism raid.
But speaking exclusively to DAILY POST in Kano, security expert, Bala Lawan Kofar Na’isa urged the Federal Government to go beyond denial and conduct a full investigation into what he described as a coordinated misinformation campaign.
“The Federal Government should not just issue denial and keep quiet; investigation should be conducted because I strongly believe the recent misinformation masquerading as a report is the work of internal and international agents working against the interest of the country,” Kofar Na’isa said.
He also cautioned against giving insecurity a religious or political face. “Two of the worst things that undermine the fight against insecurity are bringing politics and religion into the equation, especially in a multicultural and multi-religious country. Once you bring religion into it, you will add a new dimension to the crisis. We all know insurgency is not a religious problem, so there must be interests of foreign and domestic elements at play in this latest report,” he warned.
Bandits good students of political teachers – Mahdi Shehu, others take position on genocide allegation