Nigeria’s war against terrorism and banditry has reached a point where military firepower alone cannot deliver victory. What began with the Boko Haram insurgency in 2009 has metastasised into a sprawling ecosystem of armed groups operating from forests, mountains and remote settlements, kidnapping for ransom, attacking communities, displacing populations, seizing land, rustling cattle, extorting farmers and, in some places, pursuing jihadist objectives.

The precise number of such groups is difficult to establish, but their reach and proliferation are nationwide. The most disturbing aspect is the apparent inability of the Armed Forces, police and other security agencies to consistently protect Nigeria’s territorial integrity and its citizens from these violent vermin. Soldiers, policemen and other security personnel have demonstrated courage and made enormous sacrifices, but the persistence of attacks shows that the national security architecture has not yet been able to translate those sacrifices into decisive victory.

One reason is that the terrorists and bandits are not operating in complete isolation. They increasingly depend on a network of collaborators who provide information about military movements, supply arms and ammunition, procure food, fuel, motorcycles and other necessities, facilitate communications, broker ransom payments and sometimes provide safe passage. Without such human and material support, it would be extraordinarily difficult for armed groups to sustain themselves indefinitely in remote wildernesses.

This is why the reported interception of terrorists’ canoes in Zamfara should be seen as more than an isolated operational success. It reflects a welcome shift towards attacking the logistics that make terrorism possible. Every weapon intercepted, motorcycle seized, fuel consignment stopped, financier exposed, ransom broker arrested and supplier identified represents a blow against the terrorists’ capacity to wage war. The Armed Forces deserve commendation for increasingly recognising that defeating these groups requires choking their supply chains. But the objective must go beyond seizure. Security agencies must painstakingly identify the networks behind every intercepted consignment and pursue the suppliers, financiers, informants and intermediaries to their ultimate connections. Intelligence-led operations, financial investigations and prosecutions must complement kinetic action.

The Federal Government must also invest far more aggressively in technology. Terrorists’ communication networks, financial transactions and movements must be monitored, using modern intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Better coordination among the military, police, intelligence agencies, financial investigators and border authorities is indispensable. President Bola Tinubu must provide the political will, resources and institutional backing required to sustain this strategy. 

The Armed Forces should be encouraged to take the battle to the terrorists while simultaneously dismantling the invisible infrastructure that keeps them supplied. Nigeria cannot permanently defend communities by merely responding after attacks occur. The war must be taken to the source of the violence: its money, weapons, information, food, fuel, mobility and human collaborators. Once those lifelines are comprehensively severed, the terrorists will be increasingly isolated, weakened and exposed.