By 
By Hon. Chima Nnadi-Oforgu
For decades, Nigeria has wrestled with the temptation to frame every national crisis through the lens of religion. Analysts, politicians, and commentators often reach for religious explanations because they appear familiar, emotive, and ready-made. But reducing Nigeria’s escalating insecurity to a “religious war” is not only misleading, it obscures the far deeper, more dangerous forces driving the violence.
Behind the smoke of extremist rhetoric and the sensationalism of blasphemy mobs lies a cold, calculated, and highly profitable ecosystem of mineral extraction, political protection, criminal syndicates, and elite complicity. Nigeria’s insecurity is not fundamentally about religion. It is mostly about money, minerals, corruption in the military and the deliberate manufacturing of chaos to protect illicit economic interests.
This is the argument Nigeria has refused to confront.
The Hidden Engine of Insecurity: Mining Cartels and Political Licence Owners
Across Nigeria’s northern belt, from Zamfara through Kaduna to Niger State, sits one of the richest concentrations of untapped minerals in West Africa: gold, lithium, columbite, tantalite, tin, lead, zinc, and a growing list of strategic rare earth metals critical to global technology and defence industries.
Yet these territories remain some of the least governed, most violent spaces in the country. This is not accidental.
Behind the chaos is a network of private mineral licence owners, local political actors, senior government officials, retired security chiefs, and foreign intermediaries. These are the individuals who hold licences to extract minerals worth billions of dollars, minerals hidden beneath lands deliberately kept insecure.
Insecurity is the business model
In short:
Insecurity is the business model.
The less secure the area, the less regulatory oversight.
The more violent the terrain, the fewer eyes watching.
The more “dangerous” the zone, the easier it is to extract minerals without federal interference.
Bandits and extremists are not the owners of mining pits. They are merely the camouflage.
How Chaos Protects a Criminal Economy
Where the Nigerian state should have a presence, mining inspectors, law enforcement, intelligence units, and regulatory agencies, there is instead “ungoverned territory.” But ungoverned does not mean uncontrolled.
The chaos is structured.
Banditry, kidnappings, and violent raids create an illusion of disorder so convincing that government agencies stay away, humanitarian workers avoid the region, and journalists rarely investigate.
Meanwhile, mining continues uninterrupted.
Time and again, after military operations “clear” an area of terrorists, mining trucks, often escorted, resume work within days. Arms move through the same corridors as minerals. Helicopters land in outlaw zones under the cover of darkness. Whistleblowers within the military have testified that units were instructed not to engage certain groups or to vacate mineral-rich terrain entirely.
Such patterns are not driven by religion. They are driven by profit.
Religion as a Mask, Not a Motive
This is not to deny that extremist ideology exists or that jihadist language plays a role in northern Nigeria’s violence. It does. Boko Haram, ISWAP, and their splinter groups use theology as rallying tools, recruitment narratives, and fear mechanisms.
But theology alone cannot explain why violence aligns with mineral belts, trafficking corridors, and smuggling routes.
If this were purely a religious war, the violence would map onto religious fault lines.
It does not.
Instead, it maps perfectly onto:
gold-rich communities,
lithium corridors,
forest belts used for smuggling,
border routes, and
mineral extraction hubs.
Religion provides the soundtrack; economics provide the script
Furthermore, the majority of victims of northern violence are themselves Muslim, villagers, herders, traders, and mining labourers caught in the crossfire of criminal economies disguised as ideological crusades.
Religion may be shouted; minerals are the prize.
A Cartel Shielded by Political Power
The most unsettling dimension of Nigeria’s insecurity is the class of people who benefit from it. These are not unknown, invisible actors. They sit at the top of the political and social hierarchy:
- current and former governors,
- well-connected businessmen,
- owners of mining licences,
- ex-military generals,
- local political financiers,
- and their foreign partners.
These individuals wield enormous influence, enough to suppress investigations, redirect military operations, and frustrate policy reforms.
Their interest is simple:
A secure Nigeria is bad for business.
If peace returns:
- mining sites will be audited,
- licences will be scrutinised,
- illegal exports will collapse,
- and mineral wealth will shift from private pockets to the Nigerian state.
The cartels cannot afford this. So they invest, directly and indirectly, in instability.
The International Dimension: Nigeria in the Crosshairs
Nigeria’s minerals are not valuable only to Nigerians. They feed global supply chains. Gold is laundered through Middle Eastern markets. Lithium is absorbed into Asian tech manufacturing. Rare earth elements disappear into shadowy European and North African channels.
Foreign actors prefer dealing with Nigerian minerals unregulated, unmonitored, and cheap. Their local partners prefer it too.
This global economic value is precisely why international intelligence agencies have ranked Nigeria as one of the most significant illicit mineral extraction hotspots in Africa.
Where the world sees conflict, some see opportunity.
The Real Danger: Misdiagnosis
Mislabeling Nigeria’s insecurity as a “religious war” is a dangerous intellectual shortcut, one that blinds policymakers, fuels sectarian suspicion, and gives cover to the true architects of the crisis.
The root drivers of Nigeria’s insecurity are:
- state collapse,
- military corruption,
- elite mineral profiteering,
- porous borders,
- unregulated extraction,
- foreign smuggling networks, and
- the deliberate manufacture of chaos.
Religion amplifies the violence, but it does not drive it
Until Nigeria confronts the political and economic interests weaponising insecurity, the crisis will persist, regardless of which administration is in power or which ideology dominates the headlines.
Conclusion: Look Beyond the Smoke
Nigeria stands at a crossroads. We can continue chasing the shadows of religious extremism, or we can shine light on the economic machinery benefiting from instability.
The tragedy unfolding in northern Nigeria is not a clash of faiths. It is the byproduct of a ruthless underground economy protected by violence, fueled by politics, and sustained by silence.
Until Nigeria is ready to dismantle the mineral cartels hiding behind insecurity, real peace will remain elusive.
- The war is not religious.
- The war is economic.
- And the battlefield is the Nigerian state itself.
Hon. Chima Nnadi-Oforgu
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