FOR the eight years former President Muhammadu Buhari ruled, terrorists held sway in the entire Northern regions of Nigeria, spreading their activities to the Southern zones of the country. While the Boko Haram and ISWAP insurgents held the North-East by the jugular, bandits and ISIS terrorists pinned the North-West to the dust with deadly aggression. In the North-Central or Middle Belt as the citizens prefer to be addressed; dangerously armed herdsmen invaded farming communities, triggering violent clashes, grazing cattle on farms, and violating women.
The herdsmen boldly advanced their aggressive adventures to Southern states, devastating crop farms in the South-East, South-South and South- West in unprecedented fashion in the nation’s history. In all of these, Miyetti Allah, the cattle breeders association, justified the invasion of farmlands by the terrorist herders, claiming they were in search of grazing land for their cattle. The violent eruptions spiked by the invasions led to destruction of lives and property.
Sadly, the bandits and herdsmen expanded their activities to include robbery and kidnapping for ransom, so huge that failure to pay led to merciless execution of victims. Sadistically, some victims got killed even after ransom had been paid. Proceeds from kidnapping were sources of personal enrichment and funding of their operations; it had become a juicy part of terrorism.
Of course, in parts of the South-East separatist agitators grew, inspiring a wave of terrorist attacks against fellow citizens and security agents. Unprecedented killings and abductions became rampant. Kidnapping also became a tool for financial gains for the perpetrators.
An unforgettable attack was the one against the convoy of the wife a state governor during which a seven-footer police officer who had previously served in Delta State was gunned down, dead.
While these acts of criminality intensified, the military, police and other security organs seemed helpless. They could not bring the situation under control. However, they were allegations of internal sabotage of the operations of the statutory defence and security operatives. Often, they were ambushed on their way to missions or back from successful operations. They were suspected moles within their ranks.
In all of the above, the Buhari regime gave the impression the gallant soldiers and policemen had considerably degraded the terrorist groups in the Sambisa forest (North-East) and other terrorist enclaves. Yet the figure of failed military and police operations was mounting, and casualties ever rising. It was an era of aggressive rhetoric matched with ineffective action. At a time, the administration was being accused of being complicit in the monumental failures of the security architecture to end the scourge of terror.
This was seemingly the security situation when President Bola Tinubu took over the mantle of leadership in 2023. It was very sad indeed, disrupting legitimate social and economic activities in the North and most parts of the South. Things even got worse when a serving Minister of Defence of Northern extraction under President Tinubu claimed the terrorists could not be hit because of vegetation limitations. Yet these are terrorists that are known to have well-built camps from which they operate. Moments later, he resigned.
His replacement, General Christopher Musa, former Chief of Defence Staff, few weeks ago said the capacity of the terrorists had been considerably degraded. Days before his claim, terrorists had captured and executed a Brigadier-General who was returning from an operations; abducted 300 students and 12 teachers from a private school in Niger State; kidnapped 26 female students from a government girls school in Kebbi State, killing the vice principal. There have been other terror incidents since these occurred. Was the Defence Minister’s claim accurate? Well, perhaps.
Nevertheless, our position is that General Musa (rtd) should not join the band of fruitless rhetoric on the degrading of terrorist groups in the country for now because clear evidence indicate they are still looming large in their operational zones. Perhaps this was one of the reasons the American President, Mr. Donald Trump, labeled Nigeria a country of particular concern. He had referenced the allegations of genocide among Northern Christians by terrorist, vowing to intervene.
Not a few Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief over Trump’s promise. However, so-called defenders and sympathizers of the terrorist agenda including Sheik Gumi protested, arguing that such a move amounted to invasion of Nigeria’s sovereignty, but forgetting that Nigeria had played similar roles across the world and in Africa including her recent intervention in the Republic of Benin to stop a coup.
So precisely on Christmas day, December 25, 2025, Mr. Trump kept his promise; an American fighter jet flew over Nigeria to unleash a deadly strike on a terrorist camp in Sokoto State said to be their North-West operational headquarters. Terrorists in the region are reportedly on the run; and those in other zones are wary perhaps waiting for their turn. Their sight is set on the North-East.
To us, this is matching rhetoric with corresponding action. This is what we expect from our Minister of Defence, and his boss, Mr. President. Nigerians are weary of mere words without action. In this New Year, 2026, we advocate, terrorists must be decimated and flushed out of the country.
