Nigeria, Dec. 2 -- The Council Chamber of the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House was unusually tense on Monday. Gathered around its long mahogany table were the 19 Northern state governors, the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa'ad Abubakar III, and the nation's top security chiefs-an assembly that has seen its share of crises, but rarely one that felt this existential.

The communique they issued at the end of their two-day summit was blunt: the North is facing a security collapse that could "undermine the very existence" of the region. Their twin demands-immediate establishment of State Police and a six-month ban on mining-struck headlines nationwide.

But beneath the formal language lies a deeper ideological struggle. The North is now trapped between two fund...