Nigeria’s Insecurity Is Not Beyond Us. We Have Normalised Failure.
I have followed Nigeria’s insecurity more closely than many Nigerians. I come from a state devastated by insurgency. I have built much of my career reporting conflict, accessing non-state actors and places where state authority barely exists, interacting with successive security leaders, and mediating crises, many of which will remain untold.
My conclusion after all these years is uncomfortable: many of the solutions are already at the doorstep of our security leaders.
We are better equipped, better educated, better resourced and possess far greater intelligence capabilities than every terrorist, insurgent, bandit, kidnapper or separatist organisation confronting the Nigerian state. Yet men in the underground repeatedly stay ahead of us.
They organise. They observe us. They listen. They learn. They adapt. Then they strike where and when we least expect them.
Our institutions too often fail to do the same.
Part of the problem is consequence. When mass abductions happen, communities are massacred or intelligence failures cost lives, who answers for failure? Too often, commanders change, governments condemn the attack, committees are constituted, and the country moves on. We have gradually normalised what should be intolerable.
There is also a deeper societal problem. We have conditioned ourselves to believe that only God solves our problems, that somehow we do not have to work hard enough at solving them, we only need to pray harder. I am a person of faith. I believe profoundly in prayer. But faith cannot become an alibi for human failure. God has given us intellect, knowledge, agency and responsibility. Prayer should strengthen our resolve to act, not relieve us of the obligation to act.
Nigeria needs to institutionalise security away from personalities and informal relationships. We must discard transactional security management, preserve institutional memory, reward competence and impose consequences for failure, especially when human lives are lost.
And our leaders must become adaptive. Terrorism in Borno is not armed violence in Zamfara. Kidnapping in the North-Central is not separatist violence in the South-East or organised predation in our cities. Different threats require different intelligence, policing, political and socio-economic responses.
Nigeria does not lack brave people, intelligence or solutions. We have failed to organise, observe, listen, trust and invest in ourselves sufficiently to stay ahead of those trying to destroy us.
That is a failure within our power to correct.
According to a statement released by his wife, @Bichia_maisango (IBM) was invited by the DSS Headquarters in Abuja on June 2 and has remained in custody ever since.
She says she was only granted access to him after two weeks and expressed concern about his health condition, describing it as worrying. She also revealed that the family received no official communication during the period of his detention.
In a message conveyed through his wife, IBM thanked supporters for keeping the struggle alive and urged them to remain steadfast.
“Saura kiris mu shaki iskar yanci. Nagode.”
The situation has raised concerns among his supporters, who continue to call for transparency regarding his detention.
Amnesty International strongly condemns the killing of at least 15 people as a result of gunmen’s attack on Tashan Maje, Saduro, and Runtuwa villages of Borgu local government area of Niger state. The gunmen invaded the villages yesterday 28 February 2026 on dozens of motorcycles shooting in all directions. They also ransacked shops. This horrific attack is yet another indication of the escalating insecurity across Borgu. People are contantly living on the edge and feeling helpless. The authorities must do more to protect lives and ensure that suspected perpetrators are held to account through fair trials.