An open letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, by Stephanie Shaakaa

Gboko, 24 September 2026
Mr. President,
I am writing to you from Gboko, where government is not experienced through communiqués or presidential briefings. People meet government when they go to the market, when they travel to the farm, when they pay school fees, when transport fares rise and when they have to decide which household expense can wait until next month.

But that is not the whole story of what it means to live here.
I am also writing from a place where fear is not an abstract word. In Benue, news of another attack is no longer something people encounter only in newspaper reports. Communities have been attacked, families have lost relatives and farmers have been force...