Nigeria’s insecurity did not begin with insurgents.
It began with abandonment.
Insurgency survives where people stop caring about one another. When communities are ignored, when injustice is normalized, and when suffering is treated as a regional problem instead of a national one, violence finds space to grow.
This is why the question “Am I my brother’s keeper?” still matters. Not as philosophy. As policy, attitude, and daily conduct.
What “being your brother’s keeper” actually means
It does not mean pretending Nigeria has no differences.
It means refusing to allow those differences to justify violence, neglect, or silence.
Being your brother’s keeper means:
Caring about killings in the North as much as kidnappings in the South.
Condemning insurgency whether the victims share your religion or not.
Rejecting narratives that excuse violence because of tribe, faith, or politics.
Insurgency thrives when Nigerians say, “It doesn’t concern me.”
How insecurity truly spreads
No armed group grows in isolation. They grow where:
Communities feel forgotten by the state.
Victims receive sympathy but no justice.
Poverty, fear, and resentment are left unresolved.
When one region burns and others look away, the fire spreads. Not emotionally, structurally. Displacement creates crime. Trauma creates anger. Neglect creates recruits.
This is not theory. It is cause and effect.
Leadership failure is real, but not our only problem
Yes, government failure is central. Poor security architecture, weak intelligence, corruption, and selective enforcement have worsened the crisis.
But leadership failure alone does not explain why Nigerians mock victims, justify violence, or reduce human lives to political arguments.
A nation collapses faster when its people lose empathy than when its leaders lose competence.
Brotherhood is a security strategy
Unity is not emotional poetry. It is practical security.
A society where citizens care across lines:
Shares intelligence faster
Resists radicalization
Protects vulnerable communities
Denies insurgents local sympathy and silence
When people protect each other, extremists lose oxygen.
THE SIMPLE TRUTH
You cannot defeat insurgency with weapons alone.
You defeat it when Nigerians stop seeing themselves as strangers.
A child killed in Borno is not a “Northern issue.”
A farmer displaced in Benue is not “collateral damage.”
A commuter kidnapped in the South-West is not “bad luck.”
Every loss weakens the country as a whole.
CONCLUSION
“Be your brother’s keeper” is not a moral luxury.
It is a national survival principle.
Until Nigerians care about Nigeria more than identity, insurgency will continue to find excuses, sympathy, and space.
The country will not be secured by force alone.
It will be secured when Nigerians finally decide that no Nigerian is disposable.
P.L. Osakwe
