Obinna Chima
Nigeria’s deepening insecurity crisis has once again been thrust into the global spotlight with recent abductions of school children in Oyo, Borno and Zamfara States.
These unfortunate incidents have reignited painful memories of Chibok, Dapchi, Kankara and numerous other attacks on educational institutions across the country.
Whether driven by extremist ideologies, political agendas, or deeply rooted grievances, these acts aim to spread fear, disrupt daily life, and weaken our national unity.
Beyond the immediate anguish of the affected families is the increasing fear across the country, where parents send their children to school with apprehension, communities live under the shadow of violent criminals, and confidence in the state’s ability to guarantee security continues to erode.
Terrorism and mass abductions in all their forms and tactics target the very foundations of our society and directly challenge our shared values of peace, justice, and human dignity. They aim to dismantle human rights, fundamental freedoms, and democracy. They also threaten the territorial integrity and security of nations and seeks to destabilise legitimate governments.
To address acts of domestic terror effectively, understanding the societal, political, and psychological factors driving radicalisation is essential. While it requires interventions to protect the people, assets and property, prevention of violent extremism needs to look beyond strict security concerns to development-related causes and solutions.
There is a crucial role to be played by government at all levels, civil society, academics, religious leaders, and media outlets, in combating this menace.
While security agencies play a critical role in rescuing victims and pursuing perpetrators, lasting solutions must focus on addressing the underlying conditions that make communities vulnerable to recruitment by criminal groups, bandits, terrorists and other criminal networks.
Widespread poverty, youth unemployment, lack of educational opportunities, and social exclusion continue to create fertile ground for criminal elements to exploit frustrations and lure young people into violence.
Development-related counter-terrorism efforts that emphasise improving living conditions, strengthening institutions, and promoting good governance as part of a comprehensive security strategy must be embraced. This clearly means investing in quality education, creating jobs, expanding social welfare programmes, and ensuring that government services reach underserved communities, particularly in conflict-prone regions.
In addition, there is a need to adopt a unified approach, leveraging intelligence, community partnerships, and unwavering support for law enforcement and security professionals. Intelligence-led policing, a collaborative system based on improved intelligence operations and community-oriented policing and problem-solving should be encouraged.
Our capacity to stop these senseless attacks and save lives is greatly reduced in the absence of fast, reliable, and useful intelligence. Intelligence must therefore be integrated into the planning process.
Equally, recent developments have renewed scrutiny of Nigeria’s Safe Schools Initiative, raising questions about the effectiveness of measures put in place to protect students more than a decade after the programme was launched. It also raises accountability concerns and the extent to which funds and security interventions earmarked for school protection have translated into safer learning environments, particularly in vulnerable communities.
The Safe Schools Initiative was introduced in 2014 following the abduction of more than 270 schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State. It was unveiled by the then United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, in partnership with the Nigerian Global Business Coalition for Education and private sector leaders during the World Economic Forum on Africa.
Under the administration of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, the federal government initially committed $10 million to the Safe Schools Fund, an amount matched by private sector partners.
Also, Nigeria’s present security situation underscores the need to expedite the constitutional, legal and operational framework surrounding the establishment of state police. The general expectation is that state police would bring law enforcement closer to the people, enabling officers who understand local languages, terrain and community dynamics to respond more effectively to emerging threats.
More than ever, Nigeria needs stronger collaboration with its neighbours in the sub-region, across the continent, and around the world to break the cycle of insecurity and violence.
Similarly, Nigeria’s 1959 Firearms Act is outdated and insufficient to address contemporary realities. Some of its flaws are its outdated provisions for a modern security landscape; weak penalties that do not deter criminals; poor regulation of arms dealers and licensing; a lack of clear provisions on modern and military-grade weapons; weak monitoring and tracing mechanisms; an outdated enforcement framework; no clear provisions on community vigilante groups or non-state actors, as well as failure to address smuggling and porous borders. Therefore, reforming the existing firearms law to accommodate responsible personal ownership would send a clear message that Nigeria will no longer monopolise vulnerability while criminals monopolise force.
Clearly, the targeting of schoolchildren is a direct assault on public safety, education, and national stability and the President and his men must wake up and see the situation as a national emergency demanding urgent, decisive and sustained actions.
All in all, by leveraging intelligence, supporting law enforcement, building partnerships, and fostering a culture of awareness, we can stand united against terrorism and crime. Through unity, vigilance, and proactive engagement, we ensure our families, communities, and nation remain resilient and secure.
