Nigeria’s worsening insecurity and waking those pretending to be asleep — An Ikengaonline Editorial
Many had hoped that President Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ would chart a decisive course on national security. After all, no nation can flourish amidst chaos. But thus far, the results have been underwhelming.”
In the early hours of a January morning, an ominous silence was shattered in Malam-Fatori, a remote town in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno State bordering Niger. In a brazen assault that lasted over three relentless hours, insurgents aligned with the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) descended upon the Nigerian Army’s 149th Battalion, arriving in armoured gun trucks. At least, twenty soldiers, including a commanding officer, lost their lives. The ferocity of the attack underscored the increasingly emboldened posture of non-state actors operating within the region. A local vigilante assisting the military recounted to Reuters how gunfire engulfed the area as insurgents set buildings ablaze, sending terrified residents fleeing into the night.
Only weeks later, on March 24, militants affiliated with Boko Haram launched near-simultaneous offensives against military installations in Wajirko (Damboa LGA) and Wulgo (Gamboru Ngala LGA), reinforcing the chilling reality that Nigeria’s war on terror remains far from over.
Although ISWAP splintered from Boko Haram in 2016 to establish itself as the predominant jihadist faction in the region, both groups, working independently, have intensified their onslaughts in Borno this year, claiming scores of civilian lives, especially among rural farmers and fishermen. Yet, even as these tragedies unfold with alarming regularity, discord festers at the highest levels of governance.
Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, a man not known to cry wolf, recently contradicted the Federal Government’s narrative of progress. While he lamented the growing foothold of terrorists and the resurgence of killings and abductions, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, maintained that security agencies were diligently restoring stability.
Reacting to this divergence, retired Brigadier General Peter Aro sounded an urgent note of caution. Zulum’s revelations, he contended, reflect the lived experiences of communities ravaged by terror, realities the Federal Government can ill afford to dismiss. To continue proclaiming victories while civilians perish and soldiers fall is to dance on the precipice of delusion.
But the crisis is not confined to the North-East. In the southern state of Edo, the House of Representatives recently issued a clarion call for federal intervention as insecurity escalates. Citing a motion of urgent public concern, Hon. Marcus Onobun, representing Esan West, Esan Central, and Igueben Federal Constituency, noted that at least 28 lives were lost in a violent clash between cocoa farmers and armed militants in Ovia South West LGA. Elsewhere, a local vigilante leader was assassinated in Owan West, and a child was tragically killed in Esan Central. The cumulative weight of these tragedies, Onobun warned, has overwhelmed the capacity of state authorities to respond effectively.
In Enugu State, the community of Eha-Amufu in the Enugu East senatorial district has borne the brunt of an onslaught by heavily armed herdsmen. Their modus operandi involves razing farmlands and those who fight back are gruesomely murdered, leaving many residents in a state of panic. A viral video from the area featured anguished pleas to both state and federal authorities, an SOS echoing from a people abandoned by their protectors.
Across the federation, the alphabet soup of insecurity—ISWAP, Boko Haram, killer herdsmen, kidnappers, cultists—spreads unchecked. Each faction, in its own way, exploits the vacuum left by ineffective governance. And all too often, the Federal Government responds with hollow statements or deafening silence. Meanwhile, some state governments expend valuable resources on media handlers tasked with spinning the narrative, rather than confronting the crisis head-on.
To be fair, the roots of this insecurity predate the current administration. Past governments have wrestled, often ineffectually, with insurgencies and communal violence. Terms like “technically defeated,” “decimated,” and “neutralized” have been deployed liberally to manufacture the illusion of success. Yet today, insecurity festers with greater intensity.
Many had hoped that President Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ would chart a decisive course on national security. After all, no nation can flourish amidst chaos. But thus far, the results have been underwhelming.
The military’s response has been marred by allegations of graft and institutional rot. Funds earmarked for counter-insurgency operations have reportedly been misappropriated to acquire luxury real estate in Dubai, London, and Washington, while rank-and-file soldiers remain underpaid, under-equipped, and demoralized. Even more damning are persistent rumours of high-ranking officers colluding with insurgent groups, allegations grave enough to necessitate an independent, transparent investigation.
Nigeria stands today at a crossroads. The spectre of state failure looms ever larger, not merely due to the audacity of its enemies, but due to the lethargy and complacency of those charged with its defence. It is no longer sufficient to issue platitudes or recycle empty threats. This is a moment that demands clarity, courage, and action.
Only recently, a retired Nigerian Army General was abducted from the comfort of his home by armed assailants and taken deep into the forests of Katsina State. He remained in captivity for an astonishing 56 days, during which the nation’s security architecture—despite its vast resources—proved incapable of rescuing one of its own.
Faced with this dire reality, the General’s family and associates mobilized into action, forming an online group to coordinate the collection of a staggering N400 million in ransom funds demanded by his kidnappers. Negotiations with the captors ensued, and with the support of both retired and serving military colleagues, the necessary sum was eventually raised and delivered. His release was secured only after the substantial ransom was paid.
Strangely, rather than condemning the failure of the state or lamenting the gravity of the situation, some of his peers congratulated him, praising his survival as proof of military resilience, claiming that only a man with combat training could endure 56 days in captivity, whatever that means.
But if a high-ranking general, one trained and armed using millions of naira from public coffers, is now compelled to negotiate with terrorists and pay for his freedom, what becomes of the ordinary Nigerian. This is our unfortunate reality today as a nation.
Ikengaonline calls on all security stakeholders at the federal, state, and local government levels to urgently review existing policies and strategies in order to address the country’s deepening security crisis and restore the sanctity of human life. To continue feigning sleep in the face of national calamity is not just negligence; it is complicity.
