The Maiduguri bombing

NIGERIA doesn’t have a problem fighting terrorists; it has a problem outthinking them. As the military squeezes the insurgents, it keeps falling into the same trap: reacting to the smoke instead of stopping the fire. The country is stuck in a loop where fear, not strategy, is running the show.

The bombs that tore through Maiduguri recently weren’t random accidents: they were surgical strikes on everyday life. The gates of a teaching hospital. The Monday Market. The Post Office. These are the places where Nigerians try to heal, trade, and survive. Twenty-three people didn’t just “perish”: they were murdered. A hundred more are still bleeding. And like clockwork, government officials visited the ruins, promised “enhanced security,” and then we all went back to holding our breath, waiting for the next one.

This is the bitter rhythm of the last decade. When the army pushes hard, Boko Haram terrorists don’t stand and fight like soldiers: they melt away. The terrorists hunt for the “soft” spots: the bus stations, the markets, the schools. Their goal isn’t to win a war on a map; it’s to win the war in our heads. They want Nigerians to feel that nowhere is safe and that the State is powerless. When you’re scared to go to the market, the terrorists are winning, even if they’re losing ground.

The “Maiduguri Surge” worked, but it’s not enough. Having the service chiefs actually move to Maiduguri changed the energy. When commanders are breathing the same dust as their troops, they see the gear that is missing and the intelligence gaps that Abuja briefings can’t show them. The recent bombings aren’t proof that the military is failing: they are the desperate gasps of a cornered animal. Boko Haram is hitting civilians because it is losing its fighters.

But the country can’t mistake a good month for a won war. It needs to have a blunt conversation about its “partners’, particularly the United States. If the US training mission is actually working, why is the body count still rising? Nigeria doesn’t need more “capacity-building” power-points or hand-me-down gear. It needs the one thing that the Americans have in spades: real-time intelligence. It needs to know where the bombs are being built, not just where they went off. If that expertise isn’t stopping the next market blast, then what is this partnership actually for?

Follow the money, and follow the fear. We know that the “ransom economy” is what keeps these groups fed and armed. We know that some external players have a history of stirring the pot across Africa. We can’t treat these as “background noise”: they are the fuel.  Even worse is the social rot. When a criminal returns to a village he once burnt and faces zero consequences, the State loses its soul. If a mother sees a known terrorist sympathizer walking free, she learns that survival means staying quiet. That is not loyalty to the extremists; it is a failure of the government to prove it is the stronger horse. The bottomline: the North-East doesn’t just need more bullets; it needs presence. Nigeria needs a National Guard: a force that lives in these communities and doesn’t vanish the moment the operation is over. It needs a government that fights the “theological war” with the same grit it uses on the battlefield.

ALSO READ: 2027: Atiku hosts Kwankwaso amid defection speculations

Generals shouldn’t need a memo from the President to get on a plane to the frontlines. Being there is the job. The Nigerians bleeding at hospital gates have run out of patience for condolence letters and “strongly worded” statements. They need a government that stops mourning reactively and starts governing proactively. The country has had one strike too many. The only acceptable answer now is to make sure there is never a next one.