Arewa is a Hausa word that literally means north. Arewa was an autonomous division within Nigeria, distinctly different from the southern part of the country, with independent customs, foreign relations and security structures. With all aforementioned structures, Arewa suffered a lot trauma of terrorism from one hand to another, such as the notorious Aware, Maitatsine, Boko Haram, kidnappers, banditry and political thuggery, among others.
But the unanswered question that is, where does the problem lie? The current mess bedevilling the region is the action of Boko Haram at North-eastern Nigeria, kidnappers at North-west, and bandits at North-central. Since 2008, the group of Islamic extremists under the leadership of Muhammad Yusuf, who are claiming to be part of the Salafi ideology, retreated themselves from the actual teaching of school, and established another sect with the name “Ahlus-sunnah lidda’awati wal”; this is the root of the problem.
Tijjani Hassan
