Rethinking Nigeria’s Counter-Terrorism Strategy

terrorism counter-terrorism security

Nigeria currently attracts significant global attention with headline news of a complex terrorism situation that has greatly undermined the country’s national integrity and the wellbeing of its citizens. The activity of an Islamic sect popularly known as Boko Haram assumed such unprecedented dimensions that shot Nigeria’s ranking in the 2015 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) to the third most terrorized country in the world and the sect as the world’s deadliest.1 This ranking is against Nigeria’s position of fourth in 2014, seventh in 2012, eleventh in 2010, and sixteenth in 2008. The astronomical rise of the sect does stir some interests for interrogation, considering that it was a relatively quiet and small religious study group in the early 2000s.