Popular Nigerian social critic Martins Vincent Otse, widely known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), has proposed what he terms the “only solution” to Nigeria’s pervasive security challenges, particularly terrorism: mass education in the northern part of the country.
In a video posted on his official Instagram page, VDM blamed the worsening crisis primarily on the lack of education in the North, asserting that education is the key to steering young men away from criminal activities.
VDM argued that uneducated northern youth are easily exploited and used as tools by educated individuals, stressing that forcing education upon the region would solve the issue within a few years.
He stated:
“The only solution to terrorism is to educate the Northerners. Any Nigerian leader that will take four years out of his eight years to educate the North, force education on them have solved terrorism problems.”
He claimed that the uneducated population is easily recruited for violence:
“Let them have the knowledge because knowledge is power. Until then, Nigeria may suffer more in years to come. They don’t go to school in the North, rather they study religion. That is why the fewer people that are educated keep using the uneducated as their weapons.”
VDM concluded by illustrating how easy it is to recruit uneducated youth:
“If I want to start terrorism today, I will go to Madugri, Zamfara or somewhere. If you go to the North, you see a lot of young people in the streets begging. You can easily pack ten thousand of them and bring them to Abuja.”
