By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
How the once peaceful Zamfara State suddenly became a safe haven for bandits has confounded not a few.
Until the rise of banditry in the state, there have been no incidences of violent clashes, whether religious or tribal as was prevalent in other states of the North despite being the first state to adopt the Sharia legal code.
And unlike what obtains in most parts of the North where churches are far removed from the main city centre, Zamfara harbours no such discrimination. In fact, the biggest Catholic Church in Gusau, the state capital, shares the same fence with the Central Mosque.
In Kano, churches are only found in the Sabon Gari, while in Jigawa, they are only at the GRA in Dutse.
Zamfara also has an enormous dose of harmony among the various ethnicitic groups in the state.
One observer once said the diverse ethnic groupings that live in the state have so blended that you could only identify an Igbo or Yoruba person by their name, not accent because they all speak the Hausa language fluently.
So, the chaos in Zamfara has nothing to do with the people, but an army of invaders.
For five years, the government has not been able to prevail against these outlaws who are running amok in the state.
The problem in Zamfara has been complicated by the discovery of gold. This God-given precious stone has suddenly become a curse to the people. The reason being that the gold mines are controlled by bandits, Boko Haram terrorists and rogue security agents. In fact, residents say once one has an army of militia, plus cache of arms, one could assert control in the large swathe of gold fields of Dansadau, Maru, Anka, Malele, and other remote areas.
Curiously, despite the richness of the land where these precious stones are lodged, it is poor in infrastructure with no access roads. A report recently shows that helicopters have been making drop-offs in the forest. So, how can a village with no access to road network, have landing platforms for helicopters? This is a tale reminiscent of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
In terms of natural resources, the DRC is widely considered to be the richest country in the world. Its untapped deposits of raw minerals are estimated to be worth in excess of $24 trillion, enough to transform the country to a First World.
But in terms of human development, measured in education, health, calories intake, infrastructure and so on, the DRC is among the poorest countries in the world.
Poverty in the DRC is not the lack of mineral resources. It has all the resources to make South Africa a joke. It is the presence of these resources such as Cobalt Ore, Copper and Diamond.
Zamfara appears to be on this level. The state, created in 1996, was among the few peaceful states in the North with no record of religious or political bloodbaths until gold mining became the big deal.
Until the gold rush, agriculture was the main occupation of the people of the state and the central source of income.
In 2009, gold mining became a greater source of income in Zamfara State as worldwide gold prices rose dramatically.
The first tragedy that came with this new gold economy was the high concentration of lead in the ore from which gold was being extracted.
The lead poison led to at least 163 people dying between March and June 2010.
The gold economy also came with increased crime rate which started off like petty stealing of cows before metamorphosing into organised raiding of communities and then kidnapping for ransom.
In Zamfara, different gangs of warlords became the quasi government authorities, exercising territorial control over a large swathe of forest.
In March 2018, Nigeria celebrated the killing of one of the dreaded warlords who had a large army of bandits. His name was Buharin Daji (The Buhari in the forest).
The Buharin Daji was a psychopath and a sadist who loved terrorising the Zamfara communities.
His thugs were involved in everything illegal, including collecting levies from miners, cattle rustling, kidnapping, armed robberies and assassinations.
But the death of Buharin Daji has stopped nothing in terms of the chaos that has become the security situation in Zamfara State.
A news website with specialty in reporting security matters in Nigeria, HumAngle, identified five major armed gangs in Zamfara State whose sphere of influence also include neighbouring Katsina State.
The website had in May this year, said the leaders of the five gangs of bandits, rose from a meeting and resolved to unite against the people of Zamfara State and by extension, Katsina.
What is the crime of the Zamfara people? How do these bandits get the kind of weapons which they use in terrorising them, and even engaging the better trained Nigerian Army in battle? These questions have been begging for answer.
But the governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, offers a response on the source of weapons of the bandits.
“Zamfara State is blessed with many mineral resources and some people outside the country come in to buy gold and other precious stones and sometimes, instead of paying people, they pay with arms,” he said.
The governor also offers a solution. “The state government will be buying some of these minerals so that we can block that chain.
“The state government is engaging the miners. We will be buying some of this gold from them with the limited resources we have,” the governor said.
Experts say the Zamfara governor may be right that arms are exchanged for gold, and that is why we have a proliferation of those arms. But the solution can’t just lie in buying off the gold from the miners. It is also about arresting and prosecuting the arm couriers, at least to show that the state has some order and not simply chaos.