By Aderonke Adegbite
The emergency meeting between Northern Governors and the region’s traditional rulers marks a decisive moment for a region long strained by insecurity. For the first time in years, northern leaders have spoken with a unified voice, acknowledging that scattered responses and isolated state actions can no longer confront the scale of the crisis. Their unity is commendable, their urgency justified, and their recognition that recovery must be regional rather than fragmented is long overdue.
The governors’ joint communiqué signals more than political alignment; it signals a coordinated agenda capable of shifting the North’s trajectory. Development at this level demands coherence. A region divided in strategy cannot defeat challenges as entrenched as terrorism, banditry, or illegal mining.
Among the resolutions, the six-month suspension of mining stands out. Illegal mining has ravaged communities, polluted land, empowered criminal networks, and forced countless families into displacement. Many locals have long argued that mining sites double as operational hubs for bandits.
By halting mining and revalidating licences, northern leaders, at least on paper, appear to prioritise human security over economic gain. This is not merely a law-and-order directive; it is a community protection strategy that could disrupt the financial lifeline of criminal groups while giving affected communities a chance to recover.
Equally significant is the decision to re-engage traditional rulers in security coordination. These institutions remain the custodians of local knowledge, conflict histories, and cultural legitimacy. Northern Nigeria has repeatedly seen policies collapse when chiefs, emirs, and traditional councils are sidelined. Bringing them back to the table roots security planning in community realities and reinforces social cohesion.
Still, the resolutions raise difficult questions. The proposal for a N1 billion monthly regional security fund introduces a major dilemma. Many northern states struggle with overcrowded schools, failing health systems, poor infrastructure, and widespread poverty. Redirecting a billion naira every month towards security risks deepening these deficits.
More importantly, Nigeria has learned, expensively, that increasing security spending does not automatically translate into lasting peace. Without transparency and public oversight, this fund could easily become yet another opaque security vote: heavy on expenditure, light on results.
There is also the constitutional dimension. Defence remains a federal responsibility. If states and local governments are now financing what the federal government is mandated to handle, what does that imply about national capacity? And what are the long-term consequences for national cohesion if regions begin building parallel security structures? These questions matter, especially for a country already navigating multiple fault lines.
The renewed push for state police must also be approached with caution. Properly implemented, state policing can improve responsiveness and cultural sensitivity. Poorly implemented, it risks becoming a tool for political intimidation or ethnic dominance. To avoid these pitfalls, the region must insist on strong legal frameworks, civilian oversight, community monitoring, and safeguards for vulnerable groups.
Even with these concerns, the northern leaders’ resolutions represent one of their boldest collective steps in decades. Their unity is politically significant. Their willingness to confront the mining–insecurity nexus is overdue. Their inclusion of traditional rulers is strategically sound. But development is meaningful only when it reaches the doorstep of ordinary people. The real test begins now: ensuring children return to school, restoring livelihoods, rebuilding displaced communities, and amplifying grassroots voices.
To move from rhetoric to results, northern leaders must match their unity with transparency in security spending, targeted engagement with mining communities, economic reintegration programmes for those affected by the mining suspension, and stronger civilian–military coordination.
Regional harmony has opened the door. Converting that harmony into community transformation is the harder task. If northern leaders pair political resolve with accountability, inclusion, and community-centred planning, this moment could become the turning point the region has long awaited, a shift from insecurity to recovery, from fear to resilience, and from fragmentation to renewal.
The North has acted. Now it must deliver.
Dr Adegbite is an expert in law, inclusion and community development.
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