Nigeria: Outspoken Middlebelt Advocate Dr Obadiah Mailafia Passes Away In Abuja Hospital

CSW is saddened to learn of the death of Dr Obadiah Mailafia, the former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, in a hospital in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on 19 September. Dr Mailafia died after reportedly being treated “shabbily” in successive hospitals, with doctors in the final hospital refusing to perform chest compressions that might have assisted him.

Dr Mailafia was among the first prominent Nigerians to raise the alarm about the current violence in southern Kaduna, the infiltration of extremists of Fulani ethnicity across the country, including in southern Nigeria, and their links with terrorist factions.

During a 55-minute interview on Lagos-based media house Nigeria Info’s programme Morning Crossfire on 11 August 2020, he spoke, amongst other things, of the evolution of the ongoing violence in southern Kaduna . He asserted that the Nigerian authorities were both unable and unwilling to protect the people there, and concurred with a May 2018 statement from retired General TY Danjuma which claimed that elements in the security forces were colluding with the perpetrators of attacks on farming communities.