Nigeria’s fight against terrorism has dragged on for over a decade, yet a far deadlier phase now confronts the nation.
Beyond the insurgents hiding in forests and the gunmen terrorising villages lies another enemy: citizens, officials, and so-called leaders who collaborate with terrorists. These enablers, though often unarmed, are no less lethal than those who pull the trigger. They betray the nation and demand punishment equal to, if not greater than, that meted out to the terrorists themselves.
Recent evidence from Katsina and other northern states paints a chilling portrait of community-level treachery. The Commissioner for Internal Security in Katsina, Nasir Mu’azu, revealed that 80 per cent of attacks in the state are facilitated by informants and collaborators. These individuals alert bandits to troop movements, sell food, fuel, and drugs at exorbitant prices, and even conspire in the abduction of their own relatives.
One particularly harrowing case involved a man who colluded with bandits to abduct his diabetic father, pocketing N8 million from a ransom of N30 million. Bandits were so confident of cooperation that they stocked the victim’s medication in advance. This is not instinctive survival; it is deliberate complicity in evil.
Equally treacherous are those who leak Air Force operational schedules to terrorists, enabling them to escape before bombing runs. The blood of soldiers and innocent civilians stains the hands of these traitors.
What occurs in Katsina is mirrored across Borno, Yobe, Sokoto, Zamfara, Plateau, Benue, Niger, and Kaduna. In every conflict zone, community insiders, rogue soldiers, compromised police officers, and corrupt traditional rulers sustain terrorism.
In Benue, law school students abducted in July were held for six days in a community whose residents neither sounded the alarm nor informed authorities. In Zamfara, the notorious bandit Adamu Yankuzo, alias Ada Aleru, was turbaned by an emir in 2022 as Sarkin Fulani, despite responsibility for hundreds of deaths and abductions. Such acts of legitimisation glorify terrorists as heroes.
Government policies that fund “repentant terrorists,” house them in rehabilitation centres, or even integrate some into the army send the wrong message. They suggest that loyalty to terrorists can pay, emboldening insurgents to continue their attacks with impunity.
Nigeria has no excuse for such rot. The Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, prescribes life imprisonment or 20 to 70 years for anyone convicted of terrorism, attempted terrorism, or aiding and abetting it. Yet prosecutions remain dismally low.
The Global Terrorism Index reports that terrorism deaths in Nigeria rose from 533 in 2023 to 565 in 2024, with over 2,266 fatalities recorded in the first half of 2025 alone. These figures expose government failures in deterrence. Arrests are tokenistic, trials drag endlessly, and convictions are scarce. Meanwhile, collaborators multiply because they see no consequences.
Punishment must be swift and uncompromising, but deterrence requires more. The government must adopt a whole-of-society approach. Communities must understand that aiding terrorists constitutes national betrayal, not mere survival. Traditional rulers who glorify killers must be stripped of authority and prosecuted. Soldiers and police officers who trade weapons with insurgents must face the full force of the law.
The state must restore confidence in security forces. Many villagers cooperate with terrorists out of fear, knowing that reporting crimes often invites retribution because whistleblowers receive little protection. Until security agencies demonstrate they can safeguard informants, collaboration will persist.
Nigeria must send a clear message: anyone who collaborates with terrorists is a terrorist. There can be no excuses, no leniency, and no selective justice. Fathers sold by sons, students abandoned by villagers, soldiers betrayed by colleagues, all are casualties of treachery. Until collaborators are hunted, tried, and imprisoned for life, Nigeria’s war on terrorism will remain futile.
The nation must choose between indulging traitors and defending its sovereignty. The time for softness has passed. Collaborators must be crushed alongside terrorists. Only then can Nigeria reclaim peace and security.
