Nigeria, April 25 -- In his Saturday article titled, 'The Endless Martyrdom of Youth', Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka said Nigeria is at war but her leaders are pretending.

Indeed, that is the perfect description of the current situation of Africa's most populous nation where kidnappings and killings have become the order of the day.

In the past week, at least 239 people were killed and 44 others kidnapped in separate violent incidents across the country, mostly by armed non-state actors.

The violence is not limited to any state, ethnic group or religion. It is a general problem that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is finding difficult to curb.

For several years, citizens agitated for the removal of security chiefs as th...