President urged to expose terror sponsors, capacitate troops
Security experts have warned that Nigeria’s escalating insecurity is being fueled by foreign interests working with local collaborators.
They urged President Bola Tinubu to confront the external dimensions of the crisis and expose sponsors of terrorism.
Security expert and former Dean, Faculty of Multidisciplinary Studies at the University of Ibadan, Prof. Isaac Albert, and a former Director with the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, stated this separately while sharing their views on prevailing insecurity.
Prof. Albert during a side interview at the 2025 Capacity Building Retreat for Department of Conflict & Dispute Resolution of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), in Lagos, yesterday, said there were foreign powers behind instability in Nigeria because they were afraid of the country’s potentials if allowed to thrive.
He said these foreign backing to criminal elements better explains the sophistry of terorrists in terms of weapons, noting that Nigeria’s insecurity problems started after her military interventions in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
“Yes, I strongly believe some people do not want a stable Nigeria. Certain external actors fear that a stable Nigeria would become strong enough to mobilise black people globally and challenge world powers. Our security problems grew significantly after our interventions in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
“The Western world was uncomfortable with the idea that a black nation could successfully intervene in regional conflicts.
“Their strategy, therefore, is not to allow us to break because if we break, we might reorganise ourselves effectively. Instead, they prefer to keep Nigeria in a perpetual state of internal discord.
“By weakening our military and encouraging internal mistrust, they ensure we remain unable to manage ourselves. They are not interested in a strong Nigerian state,” he added.
According to him, there was need for political will, stronger intelligence cooperation, tighter border management and diplomatic engagements to defeat the multifaceted insecurity.
“The use of force alone will not work if the political leadership does not demonstrate the will to solve the problem,” he said, urging the government to combine military pressure with governance reforms, community engagement and economic interventions that reduce susceptibility to external manipulation.
In a chat with The Nation, Amachree also warned that Nigeria was “under siege” from well-funded armed groups receiving support from outside the country.
He said the scale and pattern of killings, affecting both Christians and Muslims, showed the country faced an existential threat requiring honest national reflection, not political defensiveness.
According to him, the persistent attacks on churches, particularly in the Middle Belt, “provide compelling circumstantial evidence that Christians are being specifically targeted by certain groups,” even as extremist fighters increasingly attack security forces.
“These foreign-backed extremist fighters are not solely focused on civilians. They represent a direct, formidable threat to the state itself, as evidenced by the tragic killing of our military personnel,” he said.
Amachree urged President Tinubu to acknowledge the seriousness of the crisis and act decisively. “This is no longer a localized security challenge; it is a coordinated effort to destabilize and ultimately overrun the Nigerian state,” he warned.
He said defeating insecurity would require confronting not only the armed groups but also those funding them.
“It is not enough to fight the foot soldiers. The administration must commit to a thorough investigation to arrest and prosecute the financiers of these terrorists,” he said.
Amachree urged the President to take the unprecedented step of publishing the names of terror sponsors, regardless of status, saying this would help dismantle what he described as “the architecture of terror holding Nigeria hostage.”
