FOREIGN AIRSTRIKES WILL NOT FIX NIGERIA’S INSECURITY
By Chief Malcolm Emokiniovo Omirhobo
The Federal Government’s confirmation of intelligence cooperation with the United States in relation to airstrikes against terrorists in Nigeria should alarm every Nigerian who understands the nature of our crisis.
Nigeria’s insecurity problem is not religious. It is a failure of governance.
For years, Nigerians have watched as armed groups terrorise communities, displace citizens, and undermine national cohesion. Yet, despite repeated intelligence reports, media investigations, and public allegations, the Nigerian State has failed or refused to arrest and prosecute influential Nigerians within and outside government who sponsored, financed, armed, or facilitated terrorism, particularly through cross-border movements from the Sahel.
That failure is the root cause of our insecurity.
Instead of enforcing the law against the powerful, the government has chosen a safer path: disarming ordinary citizens, restricting lawful self-defence, and leaving communities defenceless in the face of unlawful violence. A state that prevents its citizens from defending themselves while refusing to prosecute known sponsors of terror has abdicated its constitutional responsibility.
Against this background, foreign military involvement is being presented as a solution. It is not.
Nigeria does not need the United States or Israel to secure its territory. History shows that foreign military intervention rarely fixes internal governance failures. Afghanistan was “secured” and later abandoned to the Taliban. Iraq was “liberated” and left fractured. Libya was “saved” through intervention, Muammar Gaddafi was killed, and the state collapsed into chaos. Syria today is governed by actors once described as terrorists, now legitimised by foreign powers.
These are not examples of stability. They are warnings.
It is therefore misleading to suggest that foreign powers are intervening to protect Christians or to fight Islam in Nigeria. Leaders such as Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have presided over unresolved conflicts and human rights crises within their own regions. They cannot credibly posture as protectors of Nigerian lives.
More dangerously, foreign involvement risks reframing Nigeria’s crisis as a religious conflict, when it is not. Nigeria’s problem is not Christianity versus Islam. It is impunity versus justice. It is elite protection versus accountability.
If Nigeria slides into a religious framing of this crisis, the consequences will be catastrophic. Such a conflict will not be fought in forests. It will be fought in cities, towns, villages, and homes tearing the country apart beyond repair.
Nigeria does not need foreign bombs.
Nigeria needs law enforcement.
Nigeria needs arrests, prosecutions, and convictions of terror sponsors no matter how highly placed. Nigeria needs a government willing to apply the law without fear or favour.
Until that happens, no intelligence cooperation, no airstrike, and no foreign partnership will bring peace.
Security without justice is an illusion.
