The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has said insecurity in the country is not worsening, insisting that the Federal Government is making efforts to contain the situation.
Bwala stated this on Head to Head, a programme on Al Jazeera hosted by journalist, Mehdi Hasan, at Conway Hall in London, which was released on Friday via the programme’s social media pages.
Addressing concerns about security challenges in the country, Bwala said the Nigerian government is actively working to manage the security situation and noted that the country experienced relative calm in the early years of the current administration.
“I acknowledge the fact that we have insecurity in Nigeria, and until the hoax narrative of the ‘Christians genocide,’ we began to see back-to-back attacks in the country. For the first two years of the present administration, we experienced substantial peace in Nigeria,” Bwala said.
The presidential aide added that no country is completely free from security threats.
“There is no country in the world today that is completely free from insecurity. There are parts of London where you cannot go in the evening,” he said.
Responding to questions about renewed terrorist attacks in parts of the country, Bwala said Nigeria is collaborating with other countries to tackle insecurity.
“That is one of the reasons the President travelled to Turkey, where we reached a bilateral agreement to deal with insecurity. That is also why we are cooperating with the United States of America and other countries of the world. The reason is that, since 9/11, terrorism has been a global phenomenon, and every country is involved in it,” he said.
Bwala maintained that the situation was not deteriorating, saying, “I can’t say it is getting worse. As a government, we are working day and night to deal with the situation.”
“I don’t agree to the fact that it (insecurity) is getting worse,” he insisted.
Bwala also accused Western media of portraying Nigeria and Africa negatively.
Using a glass of water to illustrate his point, Bwala said Western media might see the glass as half empty while Nigerians would see it as half full.
“Before the President took office, we knew the situation in Nigeria. When he decided to take bold steps to place the country on a better trajectory, we were well aware of the fact that it was going to incense lots of people,” he said.
Highlighting government actions against terrorism, Bwala said several terrorist leaders had been arrested or eliminated before comments made by Donald Trump regarding insecurity in Nigeria.
“Six months before that, we arrested leaders of Boko Haram and Lakurawa, and prior to that, we eliminated a number of terrorists. The US State Department commended Nigeria for that. The US Embassy recognised these efforts even before Trump’s statement.
“We declared national emergency on insecurity six months before Donald Trump’s statement. That was around April or May 2025,” he said.
While responding to questions about the rise in kidnappings, Bwala acknowledged the scale of the challenge, describing it as a form of criminal economy.
“I acknowledge that insecurity related to kidnappings has become a crisis economy, but much more than that, I know of our government’s efforts in dealing with that insecurity,” he said.
“If one understands Nigeria’s geography and the nature of insecurity, one will understand that we are confronting a complex, hydra-headed problem.”
On the abduction of schoolchildren, he said the government had taken steps to protect students through the Safe Schools Initiative.
“Regarding the kidnapping of children, the government has implemented the Safe Schools Initiative, relocating students from remote, insecure areas to state capitals so they can access the education they need safely,” he added.
Nigeria has in recent times witnessed renewed terrorist activities in parts of the country, including attacks on communities and kidnappings in several states.
On Wednesday, suspected terrorists reportedly abducted more than 100 women and children in an attack on Ngoshe community in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State.
The attackers were also reported to have killed the town’s chief imam, some community elders and soldiers during the assault, which occurred shortly after Muslims broke their fast on the day of the incident.
Leave a comment