In a bold escalation of Nigeria’s long-running battle against insecurity, the Federal Government has officially classified kidnappers, bandits, and other violent armed groups as terrorists — a move that strips away years of euphemistic language and promises a more aggressive, no-holds-barred response.
The announcement came during the end-of-year press conference in Abuja on Monday, where Minister of Information and National Orientation Mohammed Idris delivered the administration’s position with unmistakable clarity. “Let me be clear about what this means: That henceforth, any armed group that kidnaps our children, attacks our farmers, or terrorizes our communities is officially classified and will be dealt with as a terrorist organization. The era of ambiguous nomenclature is over!”
The declaration builds on earlier statements by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during his presentation of the 2026 budget to the National Assembly on December 19, where he outlined a sweeping new national counterterrorism doctrine. That framework, established in 2025, rests on **four critical pillars**: unified command, intelligence, community stability, and counterinsurgency.
Under this restructured approach, the government is no longer treating mass abductions, rural raids, and forest-based criminal syndicates as isolated law-and-order issues. Instead, bandits, militias, armed gangs, violent cult groups, forest hideout operators, and even foreign-linked mercenaries — along with their financiers, informants, and political enablers — will face the full weight of counterterrorism operations.
The shift carries significant operational implications. It expands the legal and tactical toolkit available to security forces, potentially allowing for broader intelligence-sharing, faster prosecutions under anti-terror laws, and deployment of specialized units like the newly announced forest guards to flush out hideouts in remote areas.
Idris emphasized that the policy is already showing results: coordinated efforts in 2025 led to the capture of two internationally wanted criminals, including a high-profile ISWAP leader residing in Nigeria — a figure with a substantial U.S. bounty — who is now facing trial.
The timing of the announcement, just days before Christmas and amid ongoing releases of abducted schoolchildren (including a recent group from Niger State), underscores the administration’s determination to project resolve during a period of heightened public anxiety over insecurity. It also aligns with massive security allocations in the proposed 2026 budget — N5.41 trillion earmarked for defence and security — signaling that resources will match the rhetoric.
Yet the move raises inevitable questions about implementation. Previous designations of groups as terrorists have not always translated into decisive victories on the ground, and critics may argue that re-labeling alone does not address root causes such as poverty, weak governance in rural areas, or the proliferation of small arms.
For now, however, the message from the Tinubu administration is unequivocal: the days of treating kidnappers and bandits with kid gloves are over. As Idris put it, if you terrorize Nigerian communities, you are a terrorist — no exceptions, no more ambiguity.
Whether this doctrinal reset delivers the promised safer Nigeria in 2026 will be the true measure of its success. In the meantime, the forest guards are mobilizing, intelligence networks are sharpening, and criminal elements have been put on notice: the era of operating under softer labels has ended.
