In a decisive move to reclaim national stability, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has formally designated all unsanctioned armed organizations including Fulani militias, bandits, and violent cults as terrorist entities. This policy shift targets any “gun-wielding non-state actors operating outside state authority,” signaling a zero-tolerance approach to the proliferation of illegal arms.
The President unveiled this rigorous security pivot during his Friday, 19th of December, address to a joint session of the National Assembly, where he laid out the N58.46 trillion 2026 Appropriation Bill.
This administrative shift represents a fundamental change in how Nigeria engages with internal threats.
By classifying bandits, militias, and armed gangs as terrorists, the government is also expanding its reach to prosecute “their political or community enablers.” President Tinubu described this strategic pivot as a “holistic redesign” of Nigeria’s security framework, which is now fundamentally anchored on unified command, intelligence coordination, community stability and counter-insurgency operations.
The President noted that such a drastic measure is necessary to halt threats to the country’s corporate survival and address the heightened anxiety currently felt across the federation.
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The President left no room for ambiguity regarding who falls under this new legal hammer. He stated clearly that “henceforth, and under this new architecture, any armed group or gun-wielding non-state actors operating outside state authority will be regarded as terrorists.”
This broad classification specifically encompasses “bandits, militias, armed gangs, criminal networks with weapons, armed robbers, violent cult groups, forest-based armed collectives, and foreign-linked mercenaries.” Furthermore, the President asserted that any group or individual employing violence to pursue “political, ethnic, financial, or sectarian objectives” will be treated with the same severity as international terrorists.
To back this doctrine with resources, the N58.46 trillion 2026 budget allocates N5.41 trillion to the defense and security sectors, the highest portion of the fiscal plan. Despite this massive investment, the administration remains under intense scrutiny from a public exhausted by insecurity. The urgency of the situation was recently underscored by the Nigeria Union of Teachers, who threatened a total withdrawal of services if the government cannot guarantee safety following a surge in kidnappings.