By Shola Abayomi.
According to the Nigeria Security Tracker, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations (a nonprofit think tank specialising in United States foreign policy and international affairs), at least 25,794 Nigerians have lost their lives in violent crises during President Muhammadu Buhari’s first four years in office.
The figure comprises those killed by Boko Haram and other insurgent groups in the northern part of the country, herdsmen, and extrajudicial activities of the Nigerian military.
A breakdown of the report shows that:
Between June 2015 and May 2019, Borno State recorded the highest death toll with 9,303 deaths, followed by Zamfara (1,963), Adamawa (1,529), Kaduna (1,488), Plateau (771), Taraba (649), Benue (1,642), Niger (252), Rivers (730), Cross River (467), Ogun (301), among others.
The report also revealed that the highest casualty figures were recorded in July 2015 (1,299) and January 2019 (1,077).
Further analysis revealed that within the four year window, Boko Haram had killed 5,598 people, while sectarian violence, including the herdsmen-farmers crisis was responsible for 4,917 deaths.
The military and other state actors were discovered to have killed 4,068 people.
The Council on Foreign Relations, further stated in its report that, “The Nigeria Security Tracker tracks violence that is both causal and symptomatic of Nigeria’s political instability and citizen alienation. The data are based on weekly surveys of Nigerian and international media.
“Relying on press reports of violence presents methodological limitations. There is a dearth of accurate reporting across certain regions, death tolls are imprecise, and accounts of incidents vary. There is the potential for political manipulation of media. Given these limitations, the NST makes every effort to collect information from multiple sources. Nevertheless, NST statistics should be viewed as indicative rather than definitive.”
However, the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan from June 2011 to May 2015, recorded a total of 34,884 people that were reportedly killed across the country.