Combating Terrorism

[Jibrin Ibrahim]

Sustaining Successes Against bandits and terrorists in Nigeria

 

Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, 22^nd August 2025

On August 16, Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, announced that security services had captured two terrorist leaders who have been on the wanted list for a long time. They are Mahmud Muhammad Usman, a leader of the al-Qaida-linked faction Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi Biladis Sudan, popularly known as Ansaru and his colleague Mahmud al-Nigeri. The leader, Malam Mamuda, was described by the NSA as someone who had been trained in Libya between 2013 and 2015 under foreign jihadist instructors from Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, specializing in weapons handling and Improvised Explosive Device (IED) fabrication.

 

The NSA said the arrest was “the most decisive blow against Ansaru” since its inception and would open doors to more arrests given the intelligence obtained. The two men have jointly spearheaded multiple attacks on civilians, security forces and critical national infrastructure. I join numerous Nigerians and the international community in congratulating our security forces for this victory.

 

It would be recalled that Ansaru emerged in 2012 as a breakaway splinter group from Boko Haram. The two sides had developed differences and disagreements over the targeting of civilians and the approach of the then leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau in using mass-casualty violence against civilians and Muslims. Ansaru opted for a tactic of targeting Western and high-profile Nigerian objectives and on hostage-taking for leverage. They also developed close ties with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which shaped their doctrine and operational tactics. 

 

The capture of leading members of terrorist groups is always an important event but its success in degrading the ability of the group to continue its terrorist activities is always a function of the ability of the security agencies to follow up with more attacks that can prevent the group recuperating and re-organising after the blow. Way back in 2016, security forces had arrested another leader of the group, Khalid al-Barnawi in Lokoja, Kogi State. It appeared at that time that the group had been decapitated and their activities ceased for some time but they were allowed to rebuild and reorganise. This has happened so many times.

 

The core impediment against the successful suppression of terrorism and banditry has been insufficiencies in the capacity and capability of our armed and security forces to sustain a barrage of attacks that would finish the combatants. The first problem is that of numbers. Over the last two decades, the numbers of insurgents, terrorists and armed bandits in Nigeria have been growing astronomically while the size of our security operatives has been growing rather modestly. The numbers simply do not march. This insufficiency has to be addressed with the urgency that is required.

 

Maybe the greatest concern for all of us should be the concordant reports about the degraded arms, equipment and supplies of our troops. If the insurgents have been scoring more points than our armed forces for such a long time, it must be because they have developed a relative advantage vis-à-vis our troops and that problem too needs to be addressed. How many times have we seen reports about our troops being poorly armed in relation to the sophisticated weaponry regularly displayed by the enemy. In addition, it is often reported that our troops are often poorly fed and their allowances not fully paid, a situation that is bound to negatively affect their morale. Successive governments have failed to adequately address this problem.

The problems we face go beyond the kinetic level. I am aware that winning the war is no easy matter. Asymmetrical warfare is very difficult to win because the terrorists are mobile and can hide and strike almost at will. Winning the war is virtually impossible if we are unable to address the conditions that led to the insurgency in the first place. Today, Nigeria finds itself in the frightening position of having the largest number of out of school children in the world. At the same time, we also have the largest number of poor people in the world, the greatest number residing in the northern part of the country which is the most affected. One key finding by poor Nigerians is that engaging in the war is a profitable venture. The outcome of this discovery has led to more fronts emerging from year to year. What was initially an insurgency in parts of the North East has now spread to most parts of Northern Nigeria and beyond.

During the first phase of the Boko Haram insurgency, a serious effort aimed at developing and popularising counter-radicalising narratives could have stemmed the growth of the movement but that did not occur. The mass communication of Boko Haram ideology was not stopped and they grew in strength. When Boko Haram started, many ulema criticised their religious ideology articulating robust theological refutations of their doctrine. If the State had provided significant support for such initiatives, their growth might have stemmed a long time ago.

Maybe the most serious generator of violent extremism and bandit terrorism in Nigeria is the perception Nigerians have developed of the governing class. They are accurately seen as being extremely corrupt, self-serving and completely disinterested in the progress of the Nation. Many within the younger generation have come to see themselves as inheritors of the governing class and are copying their behaviour. They are adopting their culture of using violence to steal the people’s resources, rape and assault women and engage in the primitive accumulation of capital for their self-aggrandisement. This explains the trajectory taken of procuring arms and using them to impoverish community and society for their selfish interests. If leaders will not work for the people and will continue to exploit and oppress them, they ignite the same behaviour in the young generation. The way forward is to have a national leadership that has integrity and works for the interest of the ordinary people, they can then breed a new leadership in their image. Don’t ask me how. 

 

 

 

Professor Jibrin Ibrahim

Senior Fellow

Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja

Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Fine analysis.

The politicking of the elite particularly in the Muslim North also plays a role in feeding terrorism

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Why is there terrorism in Nigeria? Are there discernible root causes? The effects are clear: the destabilisation of Nigeria 

Who is backing the terrorists? How is terrorism in Nigeria being financed ? What do they want ? What are their goals? 

It's a sad day in Nigeria, that $346 Million is being diverted to the purchase of weapons from Uncle Sam,  ostensibly to wipe out terrorism in the country, money that would have otherwise been profitably invested in education, health services, equipping hospitals , agriculture etc 

According to Oluwatoyin . V. Adepoju, “The politicking of the elite particularly in the Muslim North also plays a role in feeding terrorism” 

How is this so? Exactly what is “The politicking of the elite particularly in the Muslim North” and how does the alleged “politicking of the elite particularly in the Muslim North also plays a role in feeding terrorism” ? 

 It is only right and proper that the elite that has been thus accused demand an explanation O !

Terry Apala : Bride Price

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9gjMWsGH8c&list=RDW9gjMWsGH8c&start_radio=1

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks Cornelius 

1. "Boko Haram are freedom fighters"-Bamanga Tukur, Chairman of the PDP, the President's own party, at the time of the 2011 Boko Haram escalation as the group portrayed themselves as Muslim warriors fighting an infidel President, GEJ, in the wake of significant Northern Muslim disaffection with GEJ's ascension and after the massacre of youth corpers in the North in anger over Buhari's defeat.

2. "Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable"- Atiku Abubakar on his failure to corner the PDP nomination for Presidency, shortly before GEJ's inauguration as PDP candidate and President and the Boko Haram resurgence shortly after.

3. "War against Boko Haram is war against the North"- Muhammadu Buhari in response to the 2013 state of emergency initiated by the GEJ govt to curb Boko Haram in some Northern Muslim states.

4.",The current Boko Haram is created by the GEJ govt - Buhari between 2013 and 2015.

5. The GEJ govt gave a directive to evacuate all schools in the outskirts of Borno, but governor Kassin Shettinma kept the Chbok school open, thereby enabling the Chbok kidnapping by Boko Haram, the last straw that destroyed the credibility of the GEJ govt, strategic to the eventual victory of APC, of Buhari becoming President, of BAT taking over from Tinubu and Shettima becoming VP to BAT.

5. "We massacred people in Agatu because they killed our cows"- Miyetti Allah Fulani Sociocultural Organization, even though there was no evidence of killed cows, a pattern of massacre in the Middle Belt by Fulani militia,openly and recurrently justified by  Miyetti Allah, that escalated in Buhari's time and continues till today though Miyetti Allah has not sustained that open support.

The Fulani militia, a well resourced army, one of the world's deadliest terrorist groups, in alignment with violent Fulani herdsmen, tried to export this internal colonization wave across Nigeria but we're countered in the SW by the formation of Amotekun and in the SE by ESN and in other places by citizen self help.

The response of the Buhari govt to the recurrent massacres by these forces and recurrent justifications by Miyetti Allah leadership was open policy, security and even legal support for this colonization drive.

In the midst of this crisis, I am not aware of any loud Fulani or Northern Muslim voice or any prominent person from those demographics who cried out, from the Miyetti Allah patrons the Sultan of  Sokoto and the former CBN governor Lamido Sanusi to the many of this demographic in govt or civil society.

The Sultan was able to make weak condemnations years after while Sanusi limited himself to making claims about anti-Fulani injustices, claims contested by the govt of the state he accused.

The most prominent response came from Fulani professor Lando, not sure of the correct spelling, who argued on social media that Benue, the centre of massacres by Miyetti Allah led Fulani militia,  belongs to the Fulani by right of conquest, a claim contested by  historians, apart from its sheer bloodthirsty nonsensicality in the context of modern Nigeria.

This sheer murderous impunity emerging on Buhari's ascension eventually metamorphosed into the emergence of other groups, understood by some as Fulani brigands, some as former Fulani herdsmen, as described by the Kaduna state governor El Rufai and the then Kastsina state governor, both Fulani themselves, and the latter of whom has tried rapprochement with these groups.

The groups initiated campaigns of terror across the nation, eventually concentrating on the Muslim North, such as Kaduna, where they even attacked military installations and Kastsina, President Buhari's own state, where they became a parallel govt, a problem Buhari could not resolve all the time he was in office.

"He who brings any infested faggots I to his bedroom will be bitten by ants, it is said.

.6. When Leah Sharibu was killed by a Northern Muslim mob for alleged blasphemy against Muhammad, the entire hierarchy of the Muslim North either explained or justified that action.

Yet, such inhuman extremism is a major problem of the region, recurrently breeding Islamic terrorist groups from Maitasini to Boko Haram, fed by a clannish mentality that excuses such evil as the attempted colonization by terror being carried out by the Fulani militia in the Middle Belt.

Yet, such inhumane brands of Islam are not the total face of Islam. Islam in the SW, Edo and in Senegal, for example, are very different.

7. Buhari made a point of using violence and intimidation against IPOB which was physically peaceful even if though it's leader was described as verbally caustic but without advocating violence,to the best of my knowledge.

The Buhari approach led to a security breakdown in the SE, with some saying the forces mobilized to fight Fulani militia and violent Fulani herdsmen incursions, in the context of the Buhari crackdown, becoming terrorists themselves.

That's my understanding.

Thanks 

Toyin 

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

This is a well grounded reply. It's devastating. However, the accused will have to speak for themselves. I have nothing to say. I am no defender of terrorism. I could disagree with you about  some of the things that Nnamdi Kanu said on video in his earlier IPOB days about acquiring weapons, but of course I don't want to be accused of" anti-Semitism"  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmJ4NCk0uCQ

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks. 

Feel free to disagree.. I've not listened to Kanu

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