By Hassan Abdullahi
Former Director (Army), Ministry of Defence, Nigeria writes from Abuja
For decades, Nigeria has responded to insecurity largely through military deployments, special operations and increased firepower. Yet despite billions of naira spent on defence, numerous counter-insurgency campaigns and the sacrifice of thousands of security personnel, the country continues to grapple with terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, separatist violence, oil theft and organised crime.
Against this backdrop, the lecture delivered by former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai (Rtd.), at the 2026 Armed Forces Celebration and Remembrance Day (AFCRD) National Symposium deserves serious national attention. More than a ceremonial address, Buratai’s presentation offered a doctrine-level blueprint for reshaping Nigeria’s security architecture, arguing that the country has reached a critical crossroads where traditional military responses alone can no longer guarantee peace and stability.
At the heart of Buratai’s argument is a simple but profound proposition: Nigeria must stop fighting only those carrying guns and begin dismantling the entire ecosystem that enables violence.
Looking Beyond the Gun
Perhaps the most significant contribution of Buratai’s lecture is his insistence that insurgents, kidnappers and bandits should not merely be viewed as isolated criminals but as products of a sophisticated system sustained by financiers, logistics networks, illegal mining, arms trafficking, recruitment channels, ideological propaganda and governance failures.
According to him, the real enemy is not merely the gunman in the forest but the financial and institutional structures that make violence profitable.
He argues that eliminating hundreds of bandits on the battlefield may produce temporary success, but unless authorities simultaneously disrupt the financial pipelines, supply chains and recruitment networks behind them, criminal groups will simply regenerate.
In his words, Nigeria has largely been “mowing the grass while leaving the roots untouched.”
That observation fundamentally reframes the national security conversation.
Instead of measuring success only by the number of terrorists neutralised or camps destroyed, Buratai argues that attention must shift towards dismantling the criminal economy sustaining insecurity.
