Nigeria’s Strategy against Boko Haram

“The Nigerian Armed Forces and security agencies are capable of handling the security situation in Nigeria. All we need is the understanding, the support of well-meaning people all over the world, and those who want to be partners should be partners indeed… We are a sovereign nation… Indeed we are concerned for our sovereignty as a state and that we will defend at all costs.”

—Rtd. Major General Chris Olukolade

With state fragility mounting as a result of extremist violence, African countries have employed varied and sometimes unexpected means in an attempt to protect their people and their borders. While countries such as Mali and Somalia have requested for the presence of combat troops from external allies in their fight against domestic jihadist militant groups, Nigeria continues to eschew such foreign military assistance, believing itself to be wholly capable of countering terrorist attacks within its territory.

The Buhari administration, like its predecessor, continues to pursue and employ a hard-line counter military action strategy against the state’s ongoing domestic terrorist threat. Counter military action, also referred to as a hard-line counterterrorist policy classification, particularly allows policymakers to use the force of arms against terrorists and their supporters, where typical resources are military assets, paramilitary assets, and covert operatives. By encouraging state security forces to pursue and destroy Boko Haram terrorists within the bound rules of engagement, this strategy addresses Boko Haram as a one-dimensional terrorist movement, isolated from any political environment or circumstance that may have fostered the rise of the group. Although the Nigerian military has been able to recapture territory formerly occupied by the terrorist group, this strategy has also proven to be ineffective in containing the group’s increasing lethality.