From left, Dean, Social Science, Professor Lanre Olutayo, NDC boss, Rear Admiral Samuel Alade, GOC 2DIC Laz Ilo, and HOD, Pol Science

The army chief pointed out that in Nigeria, insurgency in the oil-rich Niger Delta and Boko Haram terrorism in the northeast have posed a major threat to national security and corporate existence of the Nigerian State adding that insurgency in the Niger Delta region assumed a worrisome dimension beginning from 2006, when militants embarked on multiple bombings of critical oil installations and kidnapping of expatriates. “The incessant attacks resulted in several loss of lives and property and the reduction of Nigeria’s oil production and revenue generation capacity. The implementation of Amnesty programme in 2009 brought relative peace in the region. However, Nigeria continues to battle with the Boko Haram insurgency that started in July 2009. In its quest to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, the Boko Haram had embarked on series of gun attacks, raiding of communities and bombing of places in a spate of terrorist attacks unprecedented in the history of this nation. The mobilization of security forces by Federal Government against this group has relatively curtailed their activities”, he said.

Alade, who made a conceptual clarification between terrorism and insurgency which are too similar in nature and activities, gave a chronicle account of emergence of terrorism and insurgency in Nigeria. According to him, since the 1980s, terrorism has become a key feature of the Nigerian society following the eruption of the Maitatsine uprising in December 1980 that lasted ten days, which official reports claimed that it claimed over 4,177 lives.

“Another significant terrorist-related incident was the mystery letter bomb that killed Lagos based journalist, Dele Giwa in 1986. Subsequently, series of bomb explosions occurred in the country. These include the bombing of Ilorin stadium on 30 May 1995, the 1996 bombing of Aminu Kano Airport, and the spate of bombings in Lagos and attempts to bomb Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) Kaduna, and fuel depots in the country. Furthermore, a Nigerian Airways airplane A310 was hijacked during the June 12 struggle in October 1993 by the Movement for the Advancement of Democracy ( MAD ) to Niger Republic’s capital city Niamey. The MAD group demanded an end to military rule and the enthronement of democracy. These developments were major pointers that individuals or groups In Nigeria could plan and execute acts of violence designed to intimidate a large audience in pursuit of their religious, political and ideological objectives”, he said.

Continuing, “With the return to democratic rule on May 29 1999, the security landscape of the nation took a down turn for the worst. Not only did various militant groups (ethnic, religious and political) emerge, they also waged campaign of violence in pursuit of their objectives. Groups such as the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer (NDPVF), Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafara (MASSOB), Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), and Youth Democratic Movement (YDM), among others displayed the tendency to employ terrorist tactics to resolve conflict in place of dialogue and negotiation. Niger Delta militant groups employed terrorism-associated tactics such as hostage-taking, kidnapping, oil pipeline vandalism, and armed assault on oil workers and security personnel, with serious consequences. For instance, Nigeria lost at least $23.7billion to oil theft, sabotage and production shut-in, while about 1,000 people were killed, and over 300 taken as hostages between January and September 2008. The attack on the Royal Dutch Shell’s Bonga field in June 2008 by MEND militants resulted in the shut-in of about 200,000 bpd”.

Alade revealed that the decline in insurgency in the Niger Delta from 2009 due to the government intervention programme of AMNESTY, but the nation recorded an upsurge in terrorism in the Northeast adding that the escalation of violent attacks by groups such as the Jama’atuuAhlissunnahlidda’awatiwal Jihad (aka Boko Haram) and the Jama’atuAnsaruMusilimina Fi Biladis Sudanv (aka Ansaru), epitomizes the most audacious expression of terrorism in Nigeria.