Under a post showing terrorists moving freely through a northern community, one user casually replied, “That’s family business jor… Banditry is Northern Nigeria oil money.” And honestly, comments like this are part of the problem.
Reducing an entire region’s suffering to a joke or a stereotype doesn’t just trivialize the fear and trauma people are living with — it deepens division. Banditry has destroyed families, displaced communities, and taken thousands of innocent lives. To shrug it off as “their oil money” is cruel, detached, and dangerously dismissive.
This isn’t a “family business.” It’s a national security crisis. When we normalize this kind of talk, we indirectly normalize the violence itself. Pain in one region is not entertainment for another. And if Nigerians don’t learn to see each other beyond tribal lines, insecurity will keep winning — no matter who it targets next.
— The Red Flags
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