Former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.), has cautioned that some politicians are exploiting and, in some cases, fuelling insecurity in order to gain political advantage. He stressed, however, that Nigeria’s security challenges are too complex to be attributed to a single cause.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television on Monday, Irabor examined the various layers of criminality that drive violence across different regions of the country. His remarks come less than a day after presidential aide Daniel Bwala disclosed that the Federal Government is preparing to publicly identify individuals financing terrorism.
Addressing the nature of Nigeria’s security threats, Irabor warned against simplistic explanations that attempt to categorise all violent incidents under one umbrella. According to him, the country faces multiple, overlapping forms of insecurity—ideological, political, criminal, and economic—each driven by different motivations.
“You can’t hold people for their views, but the reality is that our issues in terms of security challenges are multifaceted,” he said. “Just as we have terrorists who have an ideology, we also have those targeting Christians, as well as those who target communities in order to displace them and assert control.”
He noted that terrorists, bandits, community displacers, and economic criminals all operate with distinct objectives, making it inaccurate to analyse the crisis as a single phenomenon. “If you lump the entire thing into one, the analysis would be wrong,” he stated.
When asked whether insecurity is purely politically motivated, the former defence chief acknowledged that political agendas do play a role, but they do not explain every incident. “Those who say it is political would also be lumping all the issues together and ignoring other factors—that is also not correct,” he said.
Irabor, however, confirmed that certain political actors have taken advantage of security challenges to promote their own interests. “That does not mean some politicians have not taken advantage of the insecurity to gain some form of leverage, to give the impression that they can do better,” he explained.
He added that some may also instigate crises to create the appearance of poor governance or to score political points. Despite this, he maintained that Nigeria’s security landscape is shaped by a wide range of complex and interrelated drivers, all of which must be addressed comprehensively.