Across Nigeria’s northwest and north-central, the math of survival is blunt. Police response times are measured in days, not minutes. Soldiers come after attacks, not before. So communities are doing what states once promised: they recruit, arm and fund their own defense, write ADEMU IDAKWO, EJIKE EJIKE, Abuja; ABDULLAHI OLESIN, Ilorin; OBANSA IBRAHIM, Lokoja; FRANCIS OKOYE, Maiduguri; NICHOLAS DEKERA, Gusau; KÀMAL IBRAHIM, Bauchi; MOH’D ZANGINA KURA, Dutse.
As insecurity continues to affect rural communities across parts of Nigeria, residents, community leaders, local security actors and policy observers say communities are increasingly relying on self-help security arrangements to protect lives and property.
In interviews with LEADERSHIP Sunday, Nigerians across several states said vigilante groups, community policing structures, youth groups, traditional institutions, and informal intelligence networks are playing expanding roles in local security efforts amid concerns about a limited security presence in some areas.
In Kwara State, Chairman of the Community Policing Initiative, Alhaji Yusuf Abdullahi Yusuf, said community-based security groups have become increasingly active in gathering and sharing intelligence.
According to him, the groups collect and report credible intelligence on security threats, monitor unusual and suspicious activities, and support conflict prevention initiatives.
He added that they facilitate communication between communities and security agencies and participate in public sensitisation programmes.
However, Yusuf identified inadequate funding and logistical challenges as major obstacles to their operations.
‘In Kwara, Our Challenges Are Finance And Logistics’
“Our challenges border on finance and logistics,” he said. Also speaking from Kwara, the Chairman of the Kwara South Internal Security Network, Elder Olaitan Oyin-Zubair, said local participation was necessary to strengthen security efforts.
“We have to complement government efforts. Security is everybody’s business,” he said.
Providing the government’s perspective, Senior Special Assistant on Security, Alhaji Muhideen Aliyu, acknowledged that government security presence could not be physically felt in every community at all times.
He said local government authorities had been directed and empowered to organise local vigilante structures to support conventional security agencies.
According to him, such arrangements operate based on the threat level in different communities and work alongside the military and other security outfits.
Aliyu added that some states were also introducing welfare measures for local vigilante personnel, including enrolment in health insurance programmes.
In Zamfara State, youth and community security stakeholders also pointed to grassroots participation as an important component of local security efforts.
Chairman of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Zamfara State chapter, Comrade Nurudeen Salisu, said security agencies alone may not have sufficient workforce to maintain a presence across all communities.
According to him, youth groups in rural communities contribute by sharing intelligence and collaborating with security agencies.
As security challenges persist across parts of Jigawa State, communities are increasingly relying on local forest volunteers and other community-based security structures to support efforts to protect lives and property, particularly in rural areas where formal security presence remains limited.
One such group is the Nigerian Security Forest Service, popularly known as the “Hunters,” a volunteer security outfit operating across the state’s 27 local government areas. The group says its members work within communities and forest areas to provide local surveillance and share intelligence with security agencies.
