EDITORIAL: Defence minister, terrorists not yet defeated

Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa’s recent claim that terrorists have been defeated sounds like a fairy tale. If that had been the case, President Bola Tinubu would not have been holding periodic meetings with service chiefs, given the embarrassing security breaches that keep unfolding, one after the other. Therefore, this official sense of triumphalism is premature and derisory.

Paradoxically, as the minister was making this offensive assertion, mass abductions occurred during the attack on mosques and villages in Borgu, Niger State, which is notorious for harbouring terrorist cells. About 500 people were kidnapped on 21 August, forcing the president to order the military and other security personnel to move to the area to rescue the victims.

Five communities – Yagba, Mayanga, Dekara, Kapubara and Gbagbazhi – were razed during the attack. A resident lamented, “They burnt all the houses there. They didn’t leave anything for us.” Due to the heavy presence of the marauding criminals in the affected areas, security operatives had earlier warned the people to relocate elsewhere.

Even a few days after the minister’s declaration, Boko Haram fighters raided an Adamawa village and killed 11 people. Many communities in Adamawa State have for much of this year been under attack by insurgents. But a more audacious terrorist onslaught occurred in early September, with the attempt to seize a military base of Operation Hadin Kai, in Pulka, Gwarzo Local Government Area of Borno State.

Earlier in March, dead bodies littered Ngoshe during a four-day sustained terrorist attack, with disturbing casualties among soldiers. Sani Uba, the spokesman of the Joint Task Force in the area, in a statement, explained that military positions in Marte, Kouduga, Mainok and Jakana were targeted. “Regrettably, several brave soldiers paid the supreme price in the line of duty, including a gallant officer, who fought courageously while leading his troops against the attackers,” it read in part.

These gory narratives put a lie to Mr Musa’s claim that, “We don’t have those brazen attacks that used to be. Before now, Boko Haram would go to places, attack areas (and) go. We don’t have that anymore.”

It cannot be easily forgotten that the May Oriire school kidnapping of 46 students and teachers in Oyo State was carried out by terrorists who crossed over to the South-west from the contiguous Kogi State. Two of the school teachers abducted were killed, including the beheaded Mathematics teacher, Matthew Oyedokun.

That Nigeria is not out of this cul-de-sac is evident in the May 2026 Global Terrorism Index (GTI), which ranked it 4th out of 153 countries. Getting out of this quagmire will not be achieved through wishful thinking. Mr Musa’s posturing is similar to that of the Muhammadu Buhari regime. The sing-song then was that terrorists had been technically degraded. Yet, the weakened insurgents ambushed the president’s convoy in Niger State, thinking he was present. There were casualties. Still, it was amusing that purportedly degraded terrorists, in August 2023, brought down a military helicopter on a casualty evacuation mission in Chukuba village, Shiro, in the same state. Some military officers had been killed there.

As the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Musa had repeatedly drummed it into the ears of the government that the kinetic approach alone would not defeat terrorism in Nigeria. He stressed that it required a 30 to 70 per cent ratio of firepower and good governance, for the scourge to be contained more effectively. It is only 11 months since Mr Musa left office as the CDS. Has there been any sea change in terms of the 70 per cent good governance he talked about since then, for terrorism to have become a footnote in our history? Good governance provides socio-economic support to the people in job creation, healthcare delivery, access to potable water, electricity, basic education, good road networks, and a productive economy that lifts millions out of poverty.

These are huge deprivations that compound Nigeria’s insecurity challenge. A former Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, referred to them in 2021, while being screened in the Senate as Buhari’s envoy, and declared that it would take about 20 years for insurgency in the North-east to be defeated. Large swathes of ‘ungoverned’ territories and our porous land borders with Chad, Niger and instability in the Sahel remain clear and present dangers!

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Mr Musa should have known better. Under Nigeria’s counter-terrorism framework, kidnapping is regarded as an act of terror. When the terrorists mass-abduct, they collect billions of naira in ransom, which is used to stockpile arms and ammunition for their campaigns.

The routine mass killings, which have turned Plateau and Benue states into graveyards of sorts, and the complete burning of many communities are the imprints of terrorists. At least 500,000 victims of armed attacks are presently in Internally Displaced Peoples camps in Benue State, drawn from places like Agatu, Kwande, Guma, Gwer West, among others.

The August mass murder in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State, in which about 20 people were victims, negates Mr Musa’s assertion. So callous was that incident that the military had to relocate its tactical headquarters from Jos to the local government area. What could be more brazen than these attacks? We dare ask the minister.

However, it can be conceded to an extent that the military has ramped up the fight against insurgents, resulting in more of them being killed than hitherto. But this recent gain should not be mistaken for a total defeat of terrorism. To do so would be disingenuous and it offends public sensibilities.