Maiduguri bomb blast
•Time for our gallant soldiers to be more proactive than reactive to terror attacks By Our Reporters At about 7.05pm on March 16, obviously coordinated bomb attacks occurred in three
•Time for our gallant soldiers to be more proactive than reactive to terror attacks
By Our Reporters
At about 7.05pm on March 16, obviously coordinated bomb attacks occurred in three areas of Maiduguri, the Monday Market, a post office vicinity, and the security post entrance to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. This marked a disruption to the calm that had been restored to an area long regarded as the epicenter of the insurgency that had rocked the country’s Northeast region for over two decades now.
At least 25 persons were killed and over 100 injured in an assault evidently deliberately designed to cause maximum havoc. This incident sustains an increase in the tempo of Boko Haram violence in urban areas of the state after the attacks of the group had, for a long period now, been restricted to sporadic bloodshed in remote, rural locations, thus giving the impression that the offensive capacity of Boko Haram had been significantly degraded.
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The latest incidents demonstrate once again that the insecurity in Nigeria is complex and multidimensional rather than a systematic genocidal onslaught against any religion.
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A week before this latest suicide bomb strike, there had been a reported similar attack on a military site in Mallam Fatori during which the Nigerian military, in repelling the aggressors, claimed to have killed 60 terrorists. According to a conflict monitor group based in the US, at least 401 armed confrontations with insurgents, 104 bombings and 141 attacks on civilians were recorded in 2025.
The immediate relocation of the Service Chiefs to Maiduguri after the March 16 incident, on the directives of President Bola Tinubu, is an assuring indication of the recognition by the authorities of the severity of the deteriorating security situation in Borno to the gruesome levels once witnessed some years ago.
Speaking on the tragic incident in Maiduguri, the Chief of General Staff (CGS), General Olufemi Oluyede, stressed the need for the people, among whom the terrorists live, to provide necessary information to the military authorities. In his words, “So, for us to bring this to an end, all hands must be on deck. Our people must resolve that this needs to come to an end, and must”.
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This is no doubt a pertinent point, but no less imperative is the need for the military to go beyond reacting to these terrorist attacks when they occur, they should take proactive measures to prevent the tragedies.
Of course, this will necessitate timely and adequate intelligence, both from the communities in which the insurgents are embedded, and based on the expertise of the military itself. One reason why the military has not been able to respond with the required level of efficacy to the now almost two decades old insurgency is that the troops are spread too thin on the ground. Once they dislodge the terrorists from a given area and reestablish control, they have to move on to contain threats and attacks in other sectors. This creates a vacuum that enables the terrorists to reorganise and regain control over formerly liberated terrain.
This is why renewed efforts in recent weeks to actualise the establishment of State Police must be sustained to free the military from its current engagement in maintaining internal security all over the country. The military will thus be able to focus, with better results, on its constitutional responsibility of protecting the country’s territorial integrity from external intrusion.
No less alarming is the resort by the terrorists to use the latest sophisticated weapons in their operations. For their attack on the military facility at Mallam Fatori, for instance, they reportedly made use of armed drones. This suggests their access to improved training, funding and hardware through close links with international terror networks.
Nigeria must thus sustain and enhance ongoing security cooperation with advanced countries like the US, United Kingdom and France who have the requisite expertise, technology and experience in the conduct of asymmetric warfare. It is also important that substantial increases in defence and security funding in recent years must be made to count in terms of enhanced welfare, updated, sophisticated training and quality of weaponry.
It is not impossible that the increased aggressiveness of the United States under President Donald Trump against what it perceives as support for extremist terrorism in countries like Iran may spur efforts to upscale their offensive by jihadist groups against targets like Nigeria that they see as weaker and more vulnerable. Our military must take such geo-strategic calculations into account in their planning and strategising against insurgency.
The recent resurgence in the tempo of insurgent violence in the Northeast and other parts of the North may also be attributed to a desire to escalate the scale of violence as the critical 2027 elections approach and destabilise democratic governance in Nigeria.
This is the more reason why the country’s political and military authorities must summon the necessary will and sense of purpose to stamp out the protracted menace of insurgency, terrorism, banditry and other threats to national stability and cohesion well before the full onset of electoral activities.
