There’s a story that I can tell to accompany this, and it’s from the same Birnin Gwari.

We arrived at the Town Hall from Kaduna at around noon. For those who know the area, the Town Hall is not far from the Emir’s Palace. On the outskirts of town, there is a forest that is on a kind of elevated ground. A lookout there can observe all the comings and goings.

Before leaving Kaduna three hours earlier, we were warned not to spend more than 90 minutes in Birnin Gwari.

“Those boys are in the forest, and they can gather very quickly from there.”

Thus it was that upon arrival for the FGD, we noticed one young man leave, then return. Over the course of an hour, more and more boys, who had no business being there, kept arriving. An hour after our arrival, the security detail insisted that we cut the programme short and leave. So we left.

This was in mid-2017…