Dalena Reporters l December 9, 2025
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has issued a stark warning that Nigeria’s prolonged struggle against Boko Haram and other insurgent groups has become more than a security crisis — it has matured into an “industry” sustained by beneficiaries both inside and outside government. Speaking during a live-streamed session of the “Toyin Falola Interviews,” alongside panellists including Matthew Hassan Kukah and Kingsley Moghalu, Obasanjo lamented that despite 15 years of counter-terror operations, the insurgency continues to outlast even the country’s 30-month civil war.
According to Obasanjo, the root of the problem lies in flawed strategies and systemic failures including lack of specialised training, poor intelligence, outdated equipment, and failure to deploy modern technology. He said Nigeria’s military remains largely configured for “conventional war,” which he argued is inadequate in confronting a scattered, embedded terror network. He urged that, instead, the country should respond with counterinsurgency tactics honed for asymmetric conflict even suggesting Nigeria bring in foreign expertise from nations that have successfully confronted similar crises.
“The military is trained for conventional war. If the people you are dealing with are fleeing targets or living among your people, you will need different types of training,” Obasanjo asserted during the interview. He noted that beyond training, effective equipment, reliable intelligence, and advanced technology must converge to form a coherent counter-terrorism framework.
Obasanjo also warned that internal sabotage, collusion, and leakages within security structures including compromised officers — have weakened Nigeria’s capacity to fight a protracted insurgency. He called out what he described as “cases of collusion and internal sabotage within Nigeria’s security architecture.
Recounting his own earlier engagement with Boko Haram’s origins, Obasanjo recalled visiting Maiduguri in 2011 to understand the insurgents’ grievances and leadership structure — at a time when the group reportedly initially refused dialogue. According to him, there followed a negotiated 21-day ceasefire window that the government failed to leverage properly. That missed diplomatic opportunity, he argues, was among the earliest failures that helped entrench the insurgency.
Obasanjo’s declaration has ignited debate across Nigeria’s political and security circles. For him, the prolonged conflict is no longer a series of isolated incidents — it is a systemic, structural failure that benefits those who profit from the status quo. Unless the country realigns its strategy to combine training, intelligence, technology, and equipment, he warned, the “insecurity industry” may continue to thrive, and citizens will continue to pay the price.
As Nigeria marks more than a decade and a half of insurgency, displacement, and loss, Obasanjo says the time has come for honest reckoning — and a re-engineered security doctrine fit for asymmetric warfare.
Published by Dalena Reporters.