Negotiating with Terror: How Nigeria dies slowly

A Nation That Bows Before Blood

By Khaleed Yazeed

What happened today in Danmusa, Katsina State, was not a peace dialogue, it was not reconciliation, it was a negotiation with terror. A surrender of the Nigerian state. A betrayal signed in silence, sealed with shame, and witnessed by soldiers.

Ado Aleru, a name that echoes through the valleys of Zamfara, Sokoto, and Katsina as a butcher, a bandit, a destroyer of villages, sat like a king. Surrounded by military personnel, community leaders, and traditional rulers, he spoke not from a place of regret, but of power. Of pride.

He told us: As long as you keep calling us terrorists, we will keep acting like terrorists. And no one objected. No one stood up.

No soldier raised a weapon. No official raised their voice. The only thing that was raised… was a terrorist’s confidence.

Ado Aleru was not arrested… He was respected… He wasn’t interrogated… He was invited… He wasn’t hidden in a cave.

He was welcomed like a guest of honor, in the very state where blood still stains the soil from the horrors he and his men unleashed.

Tell me: What kind of country negotiates with men who burn children in their sleep? What kind of army stands still while death gives a speech?

This is not just a national disgrace, it is the collapse of every moral wall holding this country together.

To the Nigerian government:

You did not just negotiate with terror. You empowered it. You legitimized it. You gave it a face. A voice. A stage. And the people watched in shock, in silence, in sorrow.

How do you explain to grieving mothers that their sons’ killers now sit in peace talks?

How do you face a country that’s bleeding from the North, cracking in the South, and say, “We are in control”?

You are not in control. You’re lier’s. Terrorists are controlling us, because, they are your political weapons.

To the Nigerian military:

Where was your honor?

Where was the courage you swore to wear in your uniforms?

You raided campuses to arrest students who tweet. You stormed villages to harass civilians who refuse to pay bribes. But a warlord sits comfortably in Katsina, and all your guns stay quiet?

Shame is too gentle a word. This is a betrayal of the Nigerian people.

And to the South:

You watched this too.

You saw a terrorist speak freely in the heart of Northern Nigeria. You saw a government clap with one hand and cover its eyes with the other. So when you say, We want to leave Nigeria, who can blame you?

When you see the North cradle its killers, who can argue with your fears?

This is how a nation dies, not by bullets, but by deals made in daylight. Not behind closed doors, but in open fields where bandits are treated like kings and justice is left gasping for breath.

This is a war for the soul of Nigeria.

And right now, we are losing.

We are losing our dignity.

We are losing our unity.

We are losing our humanity.

Because the message is clear: If you want to be heard in Nigeria, pick up a gun. If you want to be respected, spill blood.

Peaceful citizens are ignored.

Terrorists are negotiated with.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, where are you?

Your silence is louder than the gunshots we hear at night.

This happened in Katsina, a land drenched in loyalty, soaked in blood, and now humiliated by its own protectors.

If you have any shred of leadership left, act.

If not for the North, then for the fragile future of this country.

Because one day, the same terrorists you coddle today will sit at your table tomorrow, not as enemies, but as equal partners.

And Nigeria, as we know it, will no longer exist.

We will not forgive this.

We will not forget this.

And we will not be silent.