Summary
It is apposite to accord credit where it is genuinely merited. Therefore, on the specific issue of confronting and seeking to defeat terrorism – which is objectively defined in this essay as deploying horrendously vicious techniques to achieve stated or unstated politicaland/or religious objectives–due credit must be accorded gallant Nigerian troops and service personnel; risking life and limb daily to safeguard lives amidst the hydra-headed jihadist onslaught, traversing the country.

Conversely, opprobrium must be heaped upon the spivs, turncoats, and saboteurs, facilitating terrorism which has upended normalcy and sanity in the country. Most importantly, effective criminal prosecution must be robustly pursued against terrorists and all their sponsors, and convictions, where secured, enforced. Afterall, it is entirely pointless claiming to fight terrorism absent consistency, courage, determination, leadership and political will.

In addition to that kinetic model, is the necessity for socio-economic development to engage disillusioned youths who are not educated, employed, nor in skilled, and therefore, a ready magnet for recruitment by terrorists.

Discourse
Nothing in the foregoing is rocket science. Because the first duty of any responsible government anywhere in the world is the security, safety and welfare of its citizens. Precisely, encapsulated in section 14 (1), (2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) viz: “Nigeria shall be a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice…the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.”

However, the Nigerian government, despite heroic endeavours, cannot be said to have defeated terrorism by any logical assessment whatsoever.

Practically nowhere is safe because of terrorism and the fear thereof. How, and for what duration, can any society function in the recurrent hellish dystopia? How are Nigerian farmers, children, pensioners, men, women, who are being attacked and maimed daily, and forced to flee their homes and ancestral farmlands meant to earn a livelihood?

The excusatory and lame contention by some that the terrorists are non-Nigerians is, in itself, an admission of negligence that Nigeria’s immigration security apparatus is so porous as to doubly facilitate the entry of illegal immigrants on one count. And even worse, on the other count, that these persons have the audacity to remain on Nigerian soil, killing and maiming Nigerians at will, in active concert with local terrorists and jihadists, is an extremely serious indictment onthe nation’s security apparatus. It plainly defies reason!

Too many gory examples reinforce the point. According to Truth Nigeria.com, Nigeria’s military is struggling to contain resurgent terrorism by a combination of Fulani terrorists, Boko Haram, Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), Lakurawa et al. It reported that Fulani terrorists attacked several communities in Kajuru County, Kaduna State, on January 1, 2025, displacing thousands of Christians and killing many others; in addition to the abduction of no less than 46 persons including women and children by Fulani terrorists, in Gana town, Zamfara State on January 5, 2025.

The publication, quoting security sources, affirmed that the objective of these terrorists is to intimidate Nigeria’s Federal Government, and to compel local people to submit to terrorists’ diktat and control!

Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters on January 8, 2025, confirmed that six gallant troops lost their lives in a ferocious skirmish, which resulted in the deaths of more than 34 terrorists in Sabon Gari village, Damboa, Borno State on January 4, 2025.

The International centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) on April 20, 2025, confirmed that 56 persons were killed in terrorist attacks in Ukum and Logo, local government areas of Benue State through April 17/18, 2025; quoting the State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, who described the carnage thus “there is no room for anyone to sleep with their two eyes closed. This is real war. We know our enemies. This is the only state that we have. I mourn with you at this very pathetic and sad moment in your lives.”

Solomon Jatau was a Christian, from Northern Nigeria. He held a doctorate degree in Marine Services from the Nigerian Defence Academy as well as a foundational degree in Biochemistry, and was a Deputy Director, at the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology, Zaria. Jatau attended Federal Government College Warri.

Sometime around September 2023, he was kidnapped in Kaduna, within his home precinct, by armed terrorists. Solomon was brutally assaulted and tortured by these terrorists who later demanded a ransom running to tens of millions of naira. The figure was negotiated downwards, and with the support of his family, friends and school mates, the agreed amount was paid. Jatau was released several weeks later. However, owing to the horrific experience he suffered in the hands of the terrorists, Solomon died, in early November 2023 or thereabout.

On Pentecost Sunday, June 5, 2022, St. Francis Xavier’s Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria, was attacked by terrorists. The ghastly attack left over 50 persons, including young children, dead and several more with varying degrees of injury! Also in 2022, ISWAP attacked the Kuje Prison in the Federal Capital Territory in which an unknown number of prisoners escaped; as well as asserting responsibility for attacks on police in Niger State, barely 30 kilometres from the Federal Capital Territory.

In June 2019, Mrs Funke Olakunri, a Nigerian Barrister, and Mr Matthew Ogunbiyi were murdered along Benin-Ore-Sagamu Highway; by suspected Fulani terrorist herdsmen, according to The Vanguard of July 13, 2019. Muhammed Usman, Mazaje Lawal, and Adamu Adamu were arrested, prosecuted, founding guilty of murder, kidnapping and sentenced to death by hanging!

These heinous crimes, and the manifestly obvious inability of the established security services, catalysed the establishment of the South Western Nigerian security force, “Amotekun”; under the instigation of the immediate past Governor of Ondo State, late Arakunrin Olurotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, and other progressive governors; paradoxically, against vehement opposition of the Buhari-led Administration, notwithstanding the fact that the dramatis personae were members of the incumbent political party, All Progressives Congress (APC)!

The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence established that: on June 16, 2022, a Boko Haram (BH) attack on the Police Headquarters, Abuja claimed six lives in what’s believed to have been Nigeria’s first suicide bombing; on November 5, 2011, BH coordinated multiple attacks in Damaturu and environs claiming over 150 lives; on January 20, 2012, BH attacks killed over 185 persons in Kano; on May 7, 2014, BH attacks killed over 150 villagers in Gamboru, Ngala Village.

Hitherto, through April 14/15, 2014, 276 most Christian female students and also Muslim students aged between 16 and 18 were kidnapped by BH from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state. Whilst some of the girls were released following extensive negotiations in exchange for ransom payments and the release of BH terrorists, others have been forcibly married to militants, many presumed dead, nevertheless, as of April 2024, more than 80 of the girls are still missing.

To be continued next week.

Ojumu is the Principal Partner at Balliol Myers LP, a firm of legal practitioners and strategy consultants in Lagos, Nigeria, author of The Dynamic Intersections of Economics, Foreign Relations, Jurisprudence and National Development (2023).