TIME TO GIVE A DAMN: Inside President Tinubu’s High-Stakes War on Northern Terrorism
In the dim glow of crisis meetings at Aso Rock, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has uttered words that cut through the political noise: it’s time to give a damn.
Not just about the headlines of school abductions and church massacres, but about the insidious forces—some say politically motivated—that aim to destabilise his government through unrelenting northern terrorism.
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As 2025 draws to a bloody close, Tinubu‘s administration stands at a crossroads. The nationwide security emergency declared on November 26—the first of its kind in Nigeria’s history—was no mere rhetoric.
It unleashed a cascade of actions: massive recruitment drives pushing police numbers toward 50,000 new officers, redeployment of VIP escorts to frontline duties, and the activation of trained forest guards to scour the impenetrable thickets where bandits and jihadists plot.
Yet the threats persist, morphing from Boko Haram‘s ideological fury to hybrid banditry laced with ISWAP splinters and Lakurawa infiltrators from the Sahel.
Analysts point to a darker undercurrent: sponsors—political saboteurs, economic cartels, even disgruntled elites—who allegedly fuel the chaos to erode Tinubu‘s legitimacy ahead of 2027.
“This isn’t random violence,” one senior security source confides off-record. “It’s calibrated to make governance impossible, to paint the President as weak.”
Tinubu fights back with a multi-pronged offensive that blends domestic grit with bold international alliances, chief among them a deepening partnership with the United States under President Donald Trump.
The pinnacle came on Christmas Day 2025: precision U.S. airstrikes hammered two ISIS-linked camps in Sokoto’s Bauni forest, obliterating foreign fighters slipping south from the Sahel.
Approved personally by Tinubu after intensive intelligence sharing—Nigeria provided the coordinates, the U.S. delivered Tomahawk fury from Gulf of Guinea platforms—the operation marked a rare, sovereign-respecting collaboration.
No civilian casualties. Terror networks disrupted. Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar framed it plainly: “We called for help against a transnational threat, and partners answered.” This wasn’t isolated.
Four U.S. attack helicopters are en route, bolstering Nigeria’s airpower against elusive forest hideouts. Trump‘s administration, vocal about protecting Christian communities amid broader violence, aligned with Tinubu‘s narrative: terrorism spares no faith, but it must be crushed without mercy.
Domestically, the President has recalibrated the security apparatus. Appointing retired General Christopher Gwabin Musa—a battle-tested former Chief of Defence Staff—as Minister of Defence signalled a return to military pragmatism.
Musa‘s mandate: integrate operations, root out moles, and pursue sponsors relentlessly. “No mercy for terrorists or their backers,” Tinubu vowed in his 2026 budget address, pledging prosecutions and asset seizures.
Efforts extend beyond bullets. The new Ministry of Livestock pushes ranching to end farmer-herder clashes—a root of much rural bloodshed. State police reforms gain momentum, with Tinubu backing constitutional tweaks for localised responses. Community vigilance programs empower locals as eyes and ears.
Critics, including opposition voices like Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party leaders, decry perceived insensitivity—Tinubu‘s European holiday amid crises drew fire as “devoid of empathy.”
Students and civil groups demand more urgency, noting persistent abductions testing the emergency’s resolve. Yet results flicker: coordinated rescues in Kebbi, Kwara, and Niger; scattered terrorist attacks in Chibok; declining bandit tolls in some North-West axes.
Supporters hail Tinubu‘s “bold resolve“—deploying boots on the ground where predecessors hesitated, courting allies without ceding sovereignty. As New Year’s fireworks light Lagos skies, northern villages remain on edge.
Tinubu‘s fight is personal: preserve a legacy of renewal against forces betting on collapse. In his words, echoed in closed-door briefings: it’s time to give a damn—not for politics, but for a Nigeria that endures.
The forests may hide killers, but Tinubu‘s counterpunch—diplomatic, kinetic, structural—aims to drag them into the light. Whether 2026 dawns safer remains the nation’s anxious watch.
