When public intellectuals blur the line between grievance and crime
Demagoguery has become an all-too-familiar sport among segments of Nigeria’s elite, many of whom readily weaponise ethnicity and religion to advance narrow personal ambitions. Rather than offer thoughtful solutions, they trade in fear, grievance, and identity politics, mobilising followers while corroding reasoned debate and public trust in institutions. By reducing complex social and security challenges to crude us-versus-them narratives, these actors inflame ethnic, religious, and political tensions, normalise intolerance, and create fertile ground for violence—leaving the nation more divided and fragile in the process.
One of the most dangerous demagogues in recent years, whose public statements constitute a threat to national security, is none other than Prof. Usman Yusuf, who is gradually upstaging Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi as the foremost defender of Fulani bandits and criminal elements ravaging northern Nigeria and the middle belt and gradually threatening the peace of the southern part of the country.
Yusuf is mainly known for two broad areas of controversy. He was the executive secretary at the National Health Insurance Scheme, whose less-than-impressive tenure was characterised by allegations of administrative misconduct, procurement irregularities, and internal power struggles. He was suspended and reinstated more than once by different authorities, leading to a prolonged institutional crisis at the agency. The latest controversy surrounding the man stems less from his academic work and more from his tiresome defence of Fulani bandits and other violent criminal networks.
His emergence as a public commentator and social critic began in 2023, when the government of President Muhammadu Buhari came to an end, and Bola Tinubu assumed power. He never openly opposed any of the mistakes made by the Buhari administration in eight years. The emergence of a Southerner appears to irk him to no end, triggering bile and negativity against the man who succeeded his former principal and creating the impression of a man who has no patience for anyone else in the presidential seat whose origin is not Fulani. I may not belong to the same political party as Tinubu, but I do not think that he has performed worse than his predecessor in all ramifications. And that is not to praise the Tinubu administration to high heavens or to claim that mistakes have not been made.
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For a country threatened by insecurity, Yusuf’s comments echo a pattern that involves downplaying crimes linked to armed Fulani groups while emphasising grievances faced by Fulani communities. While addressing historical marginalisation or socioeconomic drivers of conflict is legitimate, such narratives, when not accompanied by firm condemnation of violence, risk blurring the moral and legal boundaries between peaceful pastoralist struggles and organised criminal terror. Complaint of marginalisation cannot justify killings of tens of thousands of people, continuous abduction of innocent people, and displacement of millions of Nigerians.
Yusuf’s outbursts reflect a growing frustration with elite commentary perceived as detached from the lived realities of victims. Communities ravaged by attacks, farmers displaced from ancestral lands, and families of abducted schoolchildren expect public intellectuals to speak with empathy, balance, and responsibility.
Nigeria’s ongoing security crisis demands moral clarity, sensitivity to victims, and an unequivocal rejection of banditry and terrorism, regardless of ethnic identity. Yusuf owes the public a clear clarification of his views and an unambiguous condemnation of all forms of violent criminality. In moments of national trauma, ambiguity, or rhetoric perceived as tribal, only deepens mistrust and complicates efforts to restore peace and security.
Prof. Abiodun Raufu, former Editor of Nigerian Tribune and ex-Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of National Mirror Newspapers, is an associate professor of Criminal Justice at Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the United States of America
