Conclusion: Making Credible Governance the Epicentre of Counter-Banditry

The emergence of armed banditry in Nigeria is rooted in governance failure. Armed banditry remains an evolving phenomenon in Nigeria’s north-west region. The causal and enabling factors centre on multiple dynamic factors intersecting and reinforcing one another. These are deep-seated governance challenges escalated by interconnected variables that revolve around poor natural resource management, climate change events, fragile local security, poor ethno-religious relations, economic inequalities, poverty, marginalisation, illegal gold mining, a flawed legal system, weak institutional capacity, and poor border management. The convergence of these elements has transformed and redefined armed banditry from local conflict to a contagious insurgency that has spread across Nigeria’s north-west region and beyond.