Nigeria’s Counter-Terrorism Strategies

Abstract

The Nigerian government has a history of adopting ad-hoc approaches to resolve violent conflict. The country had no policy framework or strategy to respond to armed insurrection. This seems contradictory due to the country’s participation in peacemaking and peacekeeping in other African countries that experienced insurgency. Liberia and Sierra Leone are some of the examples. Nigeria led ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) to enforce peace in the two countries. Aside, Nigeria was also very active in UN peacekeeping missions. Umar (2013) observed that the government’s response to terrorism has been defined by reacting to its symptoms rather than its root causes. The initial government response to terrorist acts was based on Section 11 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (Pate 2014) that provides that the National Assembly shall promulgate laws for public safety and the public order of the federation (FGN 1999). The government has relied on constitutional provisions against criminality, violent protest or dissent instead of formulating security measures to deal with Boko Haram’s terrorism.