Formula-100: Solution to the growing banditry and insurgency in the North FILE PHOTO Tue Dec 15 2020 About 200 years ago, in 1826, the North was described by the Scottish explorer, Hugh Clapperton, in his memoirs, thus: “a woman can walk alone on foot from Kano to Sokoto without fear of molestation”. This shows the level of peace, tranquility and social justice established under the Sokoto Caliphate. What a turn of events! Today, the same North has become so insecure that even army Generals do not dare to travel by road, and opt for the rail, sometimes in uniform. The state of insecurity currently devastating the country was bad enough five years ago, when half of Borno State was under the full control of the Boko Haram insurgents (who have since been banished to the Sambisa Forest, Mandara Hills and the Shores of Lake Chad); but it has now become so much worse, and has spread even to those parts of the larger North which had formerly enjoyed comparative peace and safety, with the worst cases in the rural areas.