The fresh wave of violence in Plateau State has once again exposed a painful reality.
Nigeria is not just dealing with isolated attacks, but a deep-rooted and persistent security crisis. On Sunday, March 29, gunmen stormed the Gari Ya Waye area of Angwan Rukuba in Jos North, killing at least 20 people, with some reports placing the death toll closer to 30. Witnesses disclosed to Ayemafuge while recounting a chilling pattern: “attackers arriving on motorcycles in the evening, opening fire indiscriminately on defenceless residents. This is not an isolated incident; it is part of a recurring cycle of violence in the region.
In response, authorities imposed a 48-hour curfew, yet another predictable government reaction that has, over time, become more symbolic than effective. From Kaduna State to Zamfara State, and even parts of Borno State during the height of insurgency, curfews have been repeatedly used as a default response to insecurity. But history has shown that curfews do not solve violence; they merely interrupt it. The real question, therefore, is not whether curfew can calm a situation—but whether it can end the bloodshed. So far, the answer is a resounding no.
A curfew is designed to restrict movement, reduce immediate chaos, and give security agencies breathing space and to strategize for the moments of crisis, it may create a temporary lull and an illusion of control. But what we see repeatedly in Plateau is a troubling cycle: violence erupts, a curfew is declared, calm returns briefly, the curfew is lifted and then the violence resurfaces, often with even greater intensity. This cycle exposes a fundamental flaw in the government’s approach, an overreliance on reactive measures rather than preventive strategies.
What makes this even more concerning is that curfews are often presented as decisive action, when in reality they mask deeper institutional failures. They signal control without delivering justice, presence without protection, and response without resolution. In effect, curfews have become a routine administrative reflex—one that reveals a government struggling to get ahead of insecurity rather than one actively dismantling it.
Curfews cannot stop the killings because they come too late and achieve too little. They are imposed only after blood has already been shed, making them reactive rather than preventive. By the time movement is restricted, the attackers have already carried out their mission, disappeared and leaving communities to mourn. Worse still, those responsible for the violence are not bound by curfew.
At the same time, the burden of curfew falls heavily on innocent citizens rather than criminals. Traders, daily wage earners, and families are confined indoors, their livelihoods disrupted and their freedoms curtailed, while perpetrators remain largely untouched.
More critically, curfews ignore the underlying drivers of the crisis and the weak intelligence systems. Curfews have continued to suppress movement without stopping violence, treating symptoms while the disease spreads. Today, communities live in constant fear and the cycle of violence is sustained not just by those who carry weapons, but by a system that has repeatedly failed to stop them.
It should be done to the authorities that since curfew is not the answer, then the focus must shift from control to prevention. Security agencies must move beyond reacting to attacks and begin to prevent them through actionable intelligence, surveillance, and rapid response mechanisms. It is no longer enough to arrive after the damage has been done; the priority must be to stop the attacks before they happen. Equally important is the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators. Impunity has become one of the greatest enablers of violence in Nigeria— when killers are not held accountable, it sends a dangerous message that lives can be taken without consequence.
Curfew may bring temporary silence, but it does not bring peace. It may reduce movement, but it does not stop the movement of violence beneath the surface. What is unfolding in Plateau is not just a failure of security tactics. it is a failure of governance.
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