A former Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof Usman Yusuf, has accused President Bola Tinubu of dangerously polarising this country along its ethno-religious fault lines to achieve his personal ambition of holding on to power and running a state-capturing government. According to him, the president is nonchalant to the insecurity that bedevils the Northern region.

Yusuf, a Professor of Haematology-Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, told VINCENT KALU in an interview that, all the security problems are local and their solutions must be found locally. He warned that there is not going to be a military solution to the war on banditry, noting that the war can never be won on the battlefield.

How would you describe the state of the nation today?

Nigeria is at a crossroads where the citizenry is facing hunger, the worst cost of living crisis, insecurity and loss of trust of its leaders who seem disconnected from their daily realities. The bottom line is that all is not well and the ship of state is adrift.

Nigeria, especially, the northern region has been experiencing serious security challenges. How can this scourge be arrested?

Insecurity is pervasive all across the land particularly in the north, where our land is drenched in blood and we are burying hundreds of our dead every day from the twin scourges of bandits and Boko Haram.

Banditry is what I know because I have invested six years of my life to understand it by going into the forests of nine frontline states with Sheikh Ahmad Gumi and his team to meet with the leaders of these bandits, many of whom have now been killed by the military.

What I have learnt is that all the problems are local and their solutions must be found locally. It is the failure or refusal of the security agencies, the state and federal governments to understand these local issues and involve local stakeholders in finding lasting solutions that are largely responsible for where we are today.

The honest truth is that although there is a definite role for the military, there is not going to be a military solution to the war on banditry and this war can never be won on the battlefield. It is now time to do things differently after 12 years of kinetic approach at a very high cost to lives and the economy of the region. The Armed Forces of Nigeria is overstretched and fatigued. It is time to do something different, which is dialogue for a lasting peace. Most importantly, there is a direct relationship between insecurity and social issues that drive it; poverty, hunger, out of school children, illiteracy, youths unemployment, corruption and bad governance. Addressing these issues as a national priority is essential in securing peace in any nation.

You have always stated that it is only by dialoguing with the bandits, Boko Haram and other insurgent groups that communities would have peace. However, sometime in June this year, there was a peace dialogue between a bandit leader, Ado Alero and Danmusa community in Katsina State, but the killings persist. Why?

Not true, the dialogue that Danmusa community had with Ado Alero has brought peace not seen in the community for a very long time. Local communities all across the region are making peace between themselves that allow people to go back home, farm their lands and sleep at night. The road to a lasting peace is long and treacherous, it requires rebuilding trust and the bond of kinship that has been broken by years of senseless violence and bloodshed.

There’s a trending video of malnourished children and children suffering from kwashiorkor in the North. As a medic, what could be responsible for that? Why should that be in this 21st century in a country that is said to be the giant of Africa?

I have been screaming to the top of my lungs that there is hunger all across the land from Abia to Zamfara. It is only more pronounced in the north because of the insecurity. I would recommend that all Nigerians visit the paediatric ward of any hospital closest to them to see malnourished children in this our land of plenty.

We are witnessing this level of hunger in a country that is not officially at war or facing drought because of the deliberate and cruel economic policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government which is so far in denial of the existence of hunger in the land.

I raised the alarm that if nothing is done urgently, Nigeria is likely to witness the magnitude of hunger seen in the Ethiopian drought and famine of 1983-1985 that resulted in the deaths of over a million people with millions more displaced and impoverished.

International agencies, news organisations and governments like Medecine San Frontier-Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the United Nations, The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the American Embassy in Abuja and most recently, the Vatican have all lent their voices to the urgency of this disaster. The BBC and Aljazeerah also did documentaries on the scourge of malnutrition in northern Nigeria.

As insecurity escalates, a Katsina lawmaker, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed has empowered his constituents with guns to defend their communities. What are the implications if other lawmakers in other states should emulate him?

This goes to signify a clear failure of President Tinubu’s government whose primary purpose as enshrined in Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended is the security and welfare of the people.

Nigeria is already awash with light and small arms and people resorting to arming themselves is a bad omen for anarchy in the not distant future.

The federal government is planning the establishment of Forest Guards. What’s your take on that?

President Tinubu’s government is well known for making policy pronouncements that never see the light of day. On May 24, 2025, the government announced that the president has approved the establishment of armed forest guards to secure Nigeria’s 1,129 forests from terrorists and criminal gangs. The initiative meant to provide employment to thousands of Nigerian youths is said to be overseen by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the Ministry of Environment. It has now been four months since the announcement but all has been quiet since then.

My concern is that the government is creating another armed outfit instead of strengthening the ones we currently have, especially the Nigerian Police Force which has been turned into an orphaned force that is under-staffed, poorly equipped with very low morale of its personnel.

With the cries of some northern leaders of President Tinubu’s sidelining the region, what exactly is he supposed to do that he isn’t doing?

It is suicidal for any politician to alienate his electoral base, but this is exactly what President Tinubu has done throughout the first half of his four -year term.

He has picked an unnecessary and unwinnable fight with the North and its people, a region that accounted for 62 per cent of his total votes. Below are some examples to support this assertions: Tinubu’s blatant and unapologetic Yorubacentric appointments to his government and federal agencies are a direct violation of sections 14(3) and (4) of Nigeria’s 1999 constitution, as amended. Section 14 (3) mandates that the composition of the Federal Government and its agencies’ conduct of their affairs should reflect the Federal Character of Nigeria. This promotes national unity, ensures loyalty, and prevents dominance by any particular region or ethnic group. Section 14 (4) extends this principle to state and local government levels, emphasising the need to recognise diversity and promote a sense of belonging. Section 153(1) establishes the Federal Character Commission as a body to give effect to the Federal Character principle, as outlined in Section 14. The commission is tasked with ensuring the equitable distribution of public posts and socio-economic infrastructure across the different federating units of Nigeria

President Tinubu’s Yoruba ethnic group controls all the levers of Nigeria’s economy, including the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank (CBN), the Accountant General of the Federation, the state oil company NNPCL, the Tax Agency, FIRS; the Customs Service, the Blue Economy (NPA, NIMASA and Shippers Council), the Maritime Bank, the Bank of Industry (BOI), PENCOM, and many others. It is an existential threat to Nigeria’s national security and cohesion as a nation that only one out of the over 300 ethnic groups in the country controls the economy.

Under President Tinubu, the management of the economy has been very opaque. Nigerians were told that removal of fuel subsidy will free up funds for social services and reduce Nigeria’s need for borrowing. But the reverse has been the case so far. This government borrowed more in two years than Buhari’s government did in eight years, with nothing to show.

There is no accounting for the savings from fuel subsidy removal or accruals into the FIRS, Customs, NNPCL, or the Blue Economy, which are all controlled by the President’s Yoruba kinsmen.

With the passive submission and acceptance of the state governors, members of the National Assembly, some clerics and the silence of the elites, President Tinubu has inflicted a sudden and very cruel hunger and hardship onto a region that is already very fragile and vulnerable with the sinister goal of using hunger as a tool to conquer and subjugate its people.

Infrastructure development has been unacceptably lopsided, favouring the President’s South-West geopolitical origin and the Yoruba ethnic group. The recently passed tax bills were essentially designed to favour the president’s home state of Lagos and exclude the rest of the country.

The North perceives Tinubu as the first Commander-in-Chief that is hands-off and nonchalant to the insecurity that bedevils the region. The persistent and irritating propaganda spewed by his security handlers on the false narrative that security in the region is improving while the contrary is the case, is seen as insensitive and adding to the growing unpopularity of the president and resentment among the people in the region.

President Tinubu’s selective empathy and response to states and citizens affected by insecurity and natural disasters are obvious. After the massacre in Yelwata, Benue State, the President visited with all his security chiefs and the Secretary to the Federal Government, where he addressed a town hall cum political rally. The first Lady also visited Benue and Plateau states, where she donated N1 billion to the victims of banditry in each state.

Hundreds of people killed daily in other northern states by bandits and Boko Haram, or those killed and displaced by floods in Mokwa, Niger State, and Maiduguri, were not worthy of her charity.

This false “love” for the people of Benue and Plateau states is because President Tinubu and the First Lady are now feverishly courting northern Christians for their votes in 2027 after ignoring them in his 2023 presidential bid. The visit of the president’s son to the North during the Holy month of Ramadan, received with full protocol by state governors, his disrespectful visit to clerics and traditional rulers and his dancing and handing out of cooked take away rice to youths like refugees or conquered people, was seen in the region as an insult to Islam, its leaders and people.

Engineering and allowing the Kano Emirate tussle to fester and the balkanisation of Lamido of Adamawa’s power is seen as a direct assault on traditional institutions in the north. The unashamed and dangerous race to a one-party state and the calculated sowing of discord in all opposition parties, including the new kid on the block, ADC are creating resentment of the federal government.

Irritating ‘Omo-ologo’ celebrations by the governors and the president in the northern states he visited, while people are hungry and angry, are seen as insulting and insensitive.

In order to please the North, Tinubu’s recent appointments are largely from the region. Can it be said that he is buying back the hearts of the North? Is the North pleased with this new development?

This is too little too late. It is not unexpected that he would throw crumbs at people from the other five geopolitical zones that he has ignored just to say he has been fair to all. I have said it again and again that President Tinubu has by the way he has been running his government, been the most reckless president since the return of democratic rule in Nigeria.

He has dangerously polarised this country along its ethno-religious fault lines to achieve his personal ambition of holding onto power and running a state-capturing government.

While some northern elders say the president hasn’t been fair to the region, some northern governors and others argue that Tinubu has been very fair to the region. What’s your position on this?

What do you expect, sycophancy is what butters their bread at the expense of their people. They are all deceiving the president by telling him that all is well, they are in control and that he is popular in the region. Power belongs to God and the people will make their decision in 2027.

You were very critical of the late former President Buhari and you are also doing the same to President Tinubu. How would you compare the two?

Criticising any government is the constitutional right of every citizen. In the words of Mark Twain, “Loyalty to country always, loyalty to the government when it deserves it”. So, when I criticise this government, I am doing it because I love this country that has given me more than I can ever give back. I call on all men and women of conscience to speak up against the wrong path that this government is taking our motherland to.

Do you see the coalition or any other party upstaging APC in 2027?

This APC government will be much easier to defeat in 2027 than PDP in 2015. With a record of inflicting deliberate hunger, hardship, excruciating poverty, worsening insecurity, tribalism and insensitivity to the sufferings of citizens, this president is definitely a one-term president. Nigerians will vigorously challenge a repeat in 2027 general elections of the charade that happened at the recently concluded by elections and local government elections.

Former Finance Minister and the DG of WTO, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, recently gave Tinubu’s reforms pass mark. What’s your opinion on it?

I am sure she didn’t mean what she said.

What will determine the way 2027 elections will go?

In 2027, Nigerians will interrogate President Tinubu’s abysmal stewardship of the country they entrusted onto him and make the right decision.

You are always talking about insecurity, poverty, hunger in the land. What are your fears for this country?

I have been on record for speaking up for what is right when many remain silent. I am very worried about the state of the nation because all is not well. The very worrying thing is that our leadership are either in denial or don’t care or both. But, things cannot and must not be allowed to continue this way. (Saturday Sun)