Opinion
By Steve Nwabuko
IT has become compellingly important to ask the question:
*When did insecurity start in Nigeria and when is it anticipated to be obliterated?*
There are two clues in providing answers to the above question.
The first clue was given by General Burutai, former Chief of Army staff who while responding to a question on channels television after his retirement in 2022 said and I quote inter alia:
*”Even though the Nigerian Armed forces have tried to degrade Bokoharam, it will take more than twenty years for Bokoharam to be completely eradicated from Nigeria.”*
To this end, General Bururai’s projection of ending Bokoharam insurgency is expected to be prolonged to as far as 2042 having diagnosed the pattern in 2022.
This postulation is derived from the military doctrine or perspective of Nigeria’s fight against insecurity.
The second clue as regards ending insecurity in Nigeria was propounded by the Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Distinguished Senator Godswil Akpabio, who while speaking to members of the Senate said inter alia: *”This insecurity is targeted at distracting the efforts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu towards winning his second term reelection bid in 2027 and once the election is over, insecurity will stop.”* This position is derived from the political perspective of Nigeria’s fight against insecurity.
Therefore, insecurity in Nigeria has both military and political interpretation in situating its tenurisation or existence in Nigeria.
Whereas the military interpretation requires huge budget provisions to fund combat or kinetic efforts at ending insecurity with it’s attendant bloodletting credentials, the political interpretation which bothers on leadership at the center, requires dialogues, compromises, concessions, consensus, negotiations and subterfuges.
*From both perspectives: military and political, it is crystal clear that Nigeria’s insecurity is home grown, home initiated, home sponsored, home driven, home funded, home activated and home executed.*
The two perspectives of insecurity in Nigeria shows that insecurity has both economic and social costs behind it’s life and pretentions.
The economic costs of insecurity in Nigeria includes:
Billions spent in reequipping the Nigerian army to push back terrorism.
Billions spent in kidnappings for ransom in an effort to rescue innocent citizens from kidnapping gangs.
The collapse of Nigeria’s agricultural sector due to terrorists takeover of farmlands.
The collapse of Nigeria’s Transport system which exposes travellers to kidnappers set traps.
The social costs of insecurity in Nigeria includes:
Nepotism in governance and institutions of state in defence of tribe and position.
Manipulation of, and hijack of the election umpire (INEC) to dictate, device, design, define and execute leadership selection process that is guided by the approbations of incumbent power holders while sniffing life out from opposition contenders for power.
Hate, rumour mongering, arson, political defections, divisions, and civil disobedience have produced distrust between the government and the governed.
Poverty, thuggery, non state actors and unknown gun men have become part of society’s insecurity apparatuses.
*How was insecurity procured for Nigeria?*
There are two sources of insecurity in Nigeria namely:
*The military source.*
*The political source.*
*The military source of insecurity in Nigeria was introduced in 1986 when General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida as Military President singlehandedly took Nigeria to join the Organisation of Islamic Countries against the secular status of Nigeria.*
This singular move, accentuated religion as national ethos and the consequences of that ill adviced move is the covert Islamisation agenda being pursued by a section of the country to lord it over the rest of the country.
*The Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) has become the military trap in Nigeria’s leadership conundrum.*
The same military that took Nigeria into OIC is now being called upon to come and quench the fire they lit up for Nigeria in 1986 and they are looking pitiable, ignoble, horrible, and regrettable in saving Nigeria from the precipice and brink of disintegration.
Reports are awash with the Nigerian Army reabsorbing deradicalised and “repentant” Bokoharam terrorists to come fight “unrepentant” Bokoharam insurgents in what has become a saboteurs exercise.
*The political source of insecurity in Nigeria was introduced in 1999 when General Abdulsalami Abubakar singlehandedly drafted the 1999 constitution of his military regime and without input from the Nigerian people imposed the constitution on the fourth Republic democratic Nigeria with overwhelming sharia Islamic provisions that has birthed:*
Superiority of one religion over the others.
Superiority of the national government over the subnational governments.
Superiority of individuals over institutions of governance.
Superiority of government over the governed.
Superiority of the forces of coercion over cooperation.
Superiority of animals over humans in bloodletting.
Superiority of gun weilders over innocent citizens.
The 1999 imposed military constitution has not gained traction in developing Nigeria but has offered distractions towards building a peaceful, egalitarian, prosperous and united Nigeria.
No wonder the 1999 constitution has failed unified amendments from the first to the tenth National Assembly and Nigeria’s Legislature is obfuscated in finding sanity out of insanity built into a constitution that was meant to serve the general interest but ratger has specific sectional interest couched in veiled copious piece of writing called the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
If Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar prepared the grounds for today’s intractable insecurity in Nigeria, through OIC membership and the 1999 lopsided constitution, late President Mohammadu Buhari activated the relevant sharia provisions in the 1999 constitution by issuing Executive Order offering visa on arrival in Nigeria to Fulani fighters from the Sahel region (Mali, Sudan, Libya, Niger Republic, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Senegal) that have constituted themselves into, ISIS, ISWAP, and Bokoharam who are riding roughshod over the shores of Nigeria.
Agreeing with the dictum that: *”Whatever has a being, must have an end,”* gives hope to finding ways and means of obliterating insecurity in Nigeria.
Insecurity in Nigeria can be solved by the same two sources: Military and Political underpinnings through which it was birthed.
*The military solution of insecurity in Nigeria involves:*
Re-professionalise Nigeria’s security apparatuses of Army, Navy, Airforce, Police by flushing out unqualified officers and men in it’s rank and file.
Reinvent the Nigerian security architecture with Elite intentions and technology driven facilities.
Adopt serious kinetic approach in tackling terrorism in Nigeria.
Develop Nigeria’s Airforce capabilities to become proactive rather than reactive.
Purge the Nigerian security architecture of religion, nepotism, tribalism and Ethnicity.
*The Political solution of insecurity in Nigeria involves:*
Abrogate the 1999 military constitution and set up a pan Nigeria Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution for Nigeria based on it’s founding secular status.
Restructure Nigeria in line with it’s 1963 Republican constitutional design.
Adopt a Confederal status for Nigeria rather than this deceitful unitary federalism in which most powers are concentrated in the center.
What General Ibrahim Babangida did in taking Nigeria to OIC and General Abdulsalami Abubakar did in imposing a military 1999 constitution is akin to what Lord Frederick Lugard did in amalgamating Northern Nigeria with Southern Nigeria in 1914 and ended up making the South subservient to the North in unscrutinised leadership improvisation.
Nigeria is terribly hurting it’s own as we see senior military officers being killed by terrorists and ragtag non state actors in hot pursuit to gain attention and enforce change.
Nigerians need to sit and dialogue for peace and unity to return to a once beloved country.
God bless Nigeria.
A.I
April 16, 2026
Tags: Steve Nwabuko