Media practitioner and public affairs analyst, Mojeed Dahiru, has called on the Federal Government to confront what he described as the deeper social and ideological drivers of Nigeria’s insecurity, arguing that military responses alone cannot resolve the country’s security crisis.
Dahiru made the remarks on Tuesday, July 28, while speaking at the first Daily Annual Lecture in Abuja, where he reflected on the scale of violence in the country and the need for a more comprehensive national security strategy.
Citing casualty figures from years of conflict, Dahiru said available data suggested that more than 100,000 people had been killed over a 16-year period, averaging about 6,000 deaths annually.
“That is literally wartime numbers, and it’s totally unacceptable,” he said, questioning whether Nigeria was responding to the crisis with the urgency it deserved.
He acknowledged that successive governments had made efforts to address insecurity but argued that official responses had not sufficiently focused on the underlying factors fuelling violence.
“I would say it’s a mixed bag of reactions. While successive governments have tried to be seen to be doing something, they have failed to pay attention to what are the drivers of this ugly reality in Nigeria,” Dahiru said.
According to him, Nigeria’s security challenges extend beyond ordinary crime and criminality, with poverty and other structural issues contributing to the country’s instability.
“We need to interrogate the causative factors and for government to be able to address those issues fundamentally. There seems to be a lack of political will to do so,” he added.
Speaking on insurgency and banditry, Dahiru argued that security operations should be complemented by efforts to address the ideological foundations of violent extremism.
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He described Boko Haram as “a violent manifestation of Islamism” and maintained that confronting extremist ideology was essential to defeating the insurgency.
He also distinguished his remarks from Islam as a religion, stressing that he was speaking “from the point of view as a Muslim.”
“If the government is not strong enough to address some of the ideological building blocks that have boiled over into this insurgency, no matter the military deployment you have, it will not work,” he said.
Dahiru also referred to recent public exchanges involving Niger State Governor Mohammed Umar Bago and Islamic scholar Sheikh Ahmad Gumi over comments on Fulani banditry, saying such debates reflected the need for broader national conversations on insecurity.
He further urged Nigerians to build a national consensus on confronting the country’s security challenges while respecting constitutional rights and religious freedoms.
Referring to legal protections for religious practices, Dahiru noted that the rights of Muslims are safeguarded under Nigeria’s Constitution, citing judicial decisions permitting the use of the hijab by Muslim women.
He argued that the country’s diversity requires mutual respect among citizens of different faiths and called for policies that address insecurity without undermining constitutional freedoms.