Their Exit Unpacks Dispute over Security as Violence Leaves Healthcare Unattainable in Rural Towns
By Mary Kiara
ZAMFARA, Nigeria – Eight Zamfara State lawmakers resigned from Nigeria’s ruling party on October 4, citing the government’s failure to stop terrorist attacks that have collapsed healthcare and killed civilians.
The coordinated defections shatter official federal claims that security forces have successfully curbed rural terror in Nigeria.
Amongst the deteriorating security situation, the lawmakers also cited injustice within the ruling party – the All Progressives Congress (APC) – and 32 months without salaries or allowances.
“Because of the lack of security and lack of concern for the people of Zamfara, we raised the issue in the House, which did not go down well with the governor,” Hon. Aliyu Kagara, one of the lawmakers, said, referencing an earlier dispute with Governor Dauda Lawal over handling of security concerns.
Kagara said the situation had “even gotten worse now compared to previous times.”
The legislative revolt exposes a deep fracture within the ruling party as elected officials confront an escalating security disaster that Abuja’s official communications routinely sanitize under the ambiguous term “insecurity”.
To international observers unfamiliar with local administrative euphemisms, the term “insecurity” often implies a vague sense of vulnerability rather than the brutal reality on the ground: coordinated, military-grade insurgent campaigns, mass village burnings, and mass abductions carried out by heavily armed jihadist factions and Fulani ethnic militias.
The Bloody Toll of Rural Abandonment
The political rupture follows a devastating escalation in violence across the state. In one of the deadliest recent incidents, heavily armed terrorists launched a dawn ambush Wednesday, October 18, on a trade convoy traveling under multi-agency military escort in Bukkuyum County.
The attack slaughtered 20 people, including four soldiers, three police officers, an operative of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and 12 civilians, while leaving nearly 20 others severely wounded.
Data compiled by the Mass Atrocities Tracker reveals that from 2021 to 2025, Zamfara recorded 5,447 abductions.
Security researchers emphasize that the Northwest Conflict has metastasized into a sophisticated conflict economy driven by illicit mineral extraction.
“Over the past decade, the discovery and expansion of gold mining transformed what began as largely localised communal conflicts into a complex conflict economy in which armed groups, informal miners, political actors, traditional authorities, and transnational networks compete and collaborate for control of mineral wealth,” Malik Samuel, a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa-Nigeria, wrote in a report.
Health Infrastructure Collapse
The relentless wave of terrorist raids has simultaneously crippled basic public administration and primary healthcare networks.
Persistent violence has forced the closure or abandonment of more than 500 Primary Healthcare Centres in Zamfara, leaving a fragile network of barely 200 operational facilities to serve a rural population under constant siege.
This systemic collapse of health surveillance has left displaced communities dangerously exposed to preventable epidemics.
UNICEF tracking data recorded 1,619 suspected cholera cases and 31 deaths across 12 counties in Zamfara, with children and young people accounting for 62 percent of recorded cases.
“When insecurity makes communities difficult to reach, children can be missed by immunisation programmes, cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis can escape surveillance, and cases of acute watery diarrhoea can similarly go undetected or reach treatment late,” Shakir Balogun, an epidemiologist and Resident Advisor at the African Field Epidemiology Network, said in an interview.
Muhammadu Sadawa, a community leader in Bukkuyum, described the collapse of basic services.
“Most of our people left the community because of terrorism. Where we are now living is too congested and very dirty. That congestion helped the Cholera disease spread among us,” he told reporters.
“We have a health facility, but it is not in existence. There are no staff, no drugs. The building is dilapidated and almost collapsing,” Sadawa said.
Regional Divergence and Military Strategy
As crisis grips the Northwest, regional governors have openly clashed with federal security leadership over operational failures.
Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal pointed to poor rural road infrastructure along terror corridors controlled by notorious warlord Ado Alero as a primary bottleneck for military response times.
“The road from Tsafe to Yankuzo is a troublesome area. Whenever there’s any attack, it is very, very difficult for the security to be there within a time frame, and we feel that that road should be constructed,” Lawal said.
In the Northeast, Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum publicly challenged the military high command, arguing that the armed forces have failed to execute comprehensive clearance operations.
“The recent attacks on communities in the North are a result of the presence of insurgents along the shores of Lake Chad,” Governor Zulum stated at the Government House in Maiduguri.
“We cannot witness lasting peace without undertaking major military operations in these areas. There was never a time in the last 10 to 15 years that a thorough military operation was conducted along the shores of Lake Chad.”
The security contagion continues to bleed into neighboring regions, including the Middle Belt.
As lawmakers resign, children die of cholera, and the governor’s trade blame, the Nigerian government’s claim that security forces are making progress rings hollow.
The evidence is in the resignation letters, in the abandoned clinics, and in the graves of civilians killed in their homes.
Mary Kiara reports on Terrorism and Religious Freedom Policy for TruthNigeria.
