Popular Nigerian social critic Martins Vincent Otse, widely known as VeryDarkman (VDM), has sparked fresh debate after declaring that education—particularly in Northern Nigeria—is the only lasting solution to the country’s worsening security challenges.

In a video shared on his official Instagram page on Monday, VDM argued that the root of terrorism in Nigeria lies in the lack of formal education among young people in the North. According to him, ignorance creates easy recruits for extremist groups and fuels the cycle of violence.

VDM 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, has solved terrorism problems.”

He argues that knowledge empowers young minds, pulling them away from manipulation and criminal networks:

“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 further claimed that terrorists often recruit from northern states like Borno and Zamfara because of the high population of idle, vulnerable youths:

“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.”

Opinion: VDM Raises Hard Truths—But Nigeria Needs More Than One Solution

VDM’s outburst is controversial—but it forces an uncomfortable conversation the country has avoided for too long. Education undeniably plays a huge role in national security. A society with millions of uneducated, unemployed youths is fertile ground for crime, manipulation, extremism, and violence.

He is right about one thing: ignorance is cheap fuel for terrorism.

However, to say education alone will solve terrorism may oversimplify a deeply complex problem. Nigeria’s security crisis is rooted not only in illiteracy but also in:

poverty and unemployment
corruption and failed governance
weak security architecture
porous borders
ethnic and religious tensions
political manipulation

Education is powerful, but years of insurgency have shown that without economic opportunities, good governance, and strong security reforms, knowledge alone cannot dismantle criminal networks.

Still, VDM’s comments touch on a painful reality: Nigeria cannot keep producing a generation of children with no access to schooling and expect peace. Any serious government must prioritise mass education in the North—not as charity, but as national survival.

If Nigeria truly wants lasting peace, education must be the foundation, but not the only tool. It takes political will, economic reforms, and a united national effort to rebuild the future VDM is calling for.