- Origins, Radicalisation, and the Nature of Violence
For over a decade, organised terrorist cells and armed groups have inflicted profound suffering on Nigeria. Public discourse has often reduced this conflict to a simplistic religious confrontation between Muslims and Christians, a framing that ignores historical realities and deepens divisions among communities that coexisted peacefully for generations. Groups such as Boko Haram and organised bandit networks do not represent religious struggles alone. They are complex crises rooted in harmful dogma, governance failures, poverty, foreign interests, and prolonged instability, with ordinary Nigerians of all faiths bearing the greatest burden.
Before Boko Haram’s emergence in the early 2000s, Nigeria’s religious diversity was defined more by coexistence than by widespread warfare. Muslims and Christians lived side by side, traded together, intermarried, and participated actively in social and political life. Boko Haram initially operated as a local extremist Sunni Salafi Da’awa movement that rejected Western style education. Its early followers were largely marginalised youths affected by poverty, unemployment, and weak state institutions. Radicalisation intensified following the extrajudicial killing of its leader in 2009, transforming the movement into a violent insurgency that increasingly targeted civilians without distinction.
From 2010 onwards, attacks on markets, mosques, churches, schools, and villages caused widespread devastation, particularly in Muslim majority regions, though Christian communities were also brutally affected. Alongside Boko Haram, organised banditry has emerged as a major driver of insecurity, especially in North West and North Central Nigeria. These groups engage in mass kidnappings, village raids, cattle rustling, sexual violence, and killings without regard for religion or identity.
As a result, millions have been displaced, rural economies have collapsed, and once productive farming regions have been transformed into zones of fear. Both Boko Haram and banditry flourish in environments marked by weak governance, arms proliferation, poverty, and state failure, further entrenching national instability.
- Prolonged Conflicts, Media, and International Dynamics
Beyond Boko Haram and banditry, Nigeria has experienced persistent communal and ethno religious conflicts, notably in Plateau State, Southern Kaduna, and the South East. Cycles of violence between farming and herding communities, frequently misrepresented as religious conflicts, have led to repeated massacres and widespread displacement across faiths. Violent crackdowns, armed groups, and criminal networks have intensified insecurity and social breakdown.
Many Nigerians believe these conflicts are deliberately sustained or poorly managed in ways that deepen division, weaken national unity, and justify continued militarisation.
The internationalisation of Nigeria’s security crisis, through foreign military support, humanitarian interventions, and global media coverage, has introduced both assistance and serious complications. Recent foreign military strikes, including those reportedly carried out by United States forces, raise fundamental questions about sovereignty, accountability, and long term consequences. While the stated objective of protecting civilians from terrorist violence is widely supported, the methods, rhetoric, and strategic implications of such interventions demand careful scrutiny.
Allegations of aid diversion, particularly involving international agencies, have further fuelled mistrust and doubt regarding the effectiveness and motivations of foreign assistance. At the same time, sensationalist media reporting has often distorted realities on the ground, politicising victims and reinforcing divisive narratives. Words, no less than weapons, have the power to inflame tensions, distort timelines, and deepen social fractures. In such a fragile context, responsible journalism becomes not merely a professional duty but a moral necessity.
- Shared Humanity, Justice, and the Path to Peace
The scale of shared suffering across Nigeria is undeniable. Muslims, Christians, women, children, and the most vulnerable communities have borne the brunt of violence. Boko Haram, banditry, and communal conflict do not protect any faith or community; they destroy them all. At the heart of these crises lies a fundamental moral truth: humanity is bound by a single moral thread. People are either brothers in faith or equals in dignity, and within this truth hatred finds no refuge. Unity sustains societies, while division invites injustice.
Freedom is a sacred trust, and no soul was created to bow before oppression. Justice restores balance, offering security where it prevails and ruin where it is denied. Nigeria’s suffering cannot be reduced to religious conflict alone. Boko Haram and bandit networks exploit marginalisation, poverty, and weak governance, while external interventions have at times aggravated an already fragile situation.
True peace requires confronting the real enemies of society, including disunity, harmful dogma, sectarianism, banditry, corruption, and manipulative narratives, rather than targeting faith itself. Foreign aid organisations must prioritise transparency and accountability to ensure that assistance reaches those in need instead of deepening suspicion and division. Addressing allegations of aid diversion is essential to demonstrating genuine commitment to the shared humanity of all Nigerians affected by violence.
Recognising this shared humanity, amplifying truth over sensationalism, and addressing the structural roots of insecurity are essential for Nigeria’s survival, dignity, and hope. The blood spilled across towns and villages belongs to all of us. Telling these stories with honesty, empathy, and an unwavering commitment to justice is the least that can be done to ensure future generations inherit unity and hope rather than division and fear.
- Indigenous Solutions, External Constraints, and the Responsibility of Nigerian Security Institutions
The bulk of Nigeria’s security crises, including Boko Haram, banditry, and communal violence, stem from systemic governance breakdowns, widespread poverty, unresolved historical injustices, and deliberately perpetuated instability intensified by political manipulation and external interests. Nigerian security personnel have demonstrated measurable capability through successful peacekeeping operations in Liberia, Congo, and Sierra Leone.
These engagements affirm that domestic forces possess the capacity to secure peace when properly resourced, institutionally strengthened, and directed by accountable leadership. The question is, why is there no progress and success now? What went wrong?
Dependence on foreign air operations risks projecting institutional fragility and diminishing public trust in national defence mechanisms.
External military actions, including reported strikes in Sokoto and a bomb blast in Borno inside a mosque on Christmas Day, carry the danger of civilian harm, heighten social tensions, and rarely offer enduring solutions. The obligation to safeguard Nigerian lives rests foremost with Nigerian institutions. Sovereignty cannot be outsourced indefinitely without eroding the authority and legitimacy of the state.
Nigeria must avoid repeating the painful trajectory of nations whose stability was undermined by external military involvement. What is required instead is a long-term commitment to strengthening institutions, advancing development, entrenching accountable governance, and pursuing regional diplomatic cooperation. Foreign military engagement cannot replace Nigerian-driven security reform, justice delivery, and societal reconstruction.
Created militant groups such as Boko Haram did not materialise in isolation. Their emergence reflects a corrosive convergence of a weak system, corruption, state violence, and prolonged neglect, intensified by cross-border ideological influences and the unchecked circulation of arms following foreign conflicts.
The disintegration of Libya, the proliferation of weapons across West Africa, and decades of selective international engagement have significantly fuelled the region’s militarisation. But the question still remains: what success have the U.S. and its allies produced in Libya? Is Libya better now? And who destroyed Libya?
Counterterrorism approaches founded on false assumptions are not only intellectually flawed; they pose serious risks.
Reducing Nigeria’s security challenges to an exclusively Islamist issue while casting Western nations as rescuers conceals the influence of global power dynamics that helped shape the conditions for such groups to flourish. This narrative fosters mistrust, deepens societal divisions, and may inadvertently reinforce extremist messaging.
External involvement must not be glorified through rhetoric that diminishes the value of human life. The sustainable path forward lies in strengthening robust and accountable institutions capable of protecting every Nigerian, irrespective of faith or location. Nigerians require security, not proxy conflicts, performative military actions, or a future moulded by the same foreign interventions that have destabilised vast parts of Africa and the Middle East.
ahmadeesir214@gmail.com
Leave a comment