Terrorism exacts a deadly toll on Nigerians every single day. A new study by the Observatory for Religious Freedom (ORFA) in Africa indicates that 79,323 people were killed in terrorism-related circumstances between 2020 and 2025 alone. Another 43,773 were abducted. Over the same period, internally displaced persons’ camps swelled with more than one million anguished souls, according to data from the UNHCR and the IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix.
These are not mere statistics. They represent families shattered, communities emptied, livelihoods destroyed and a country steadily bleeding.
That is the horrific price Nigerians continue to pay for living alongside terrorists and bandits.
Such catastrophic figures should dominate the national conversation and provoke urgent, decisive action. Instead, official responses remain trapped in pretence, denial, deflection and rhetoric that bears little resemblance to the grim reality millions of Nigerians endure every day.
The ORFA estimates that Nigeria suffers an average of seven terrorist attacks and 36 deaths daily. By every measure, this is a national catastrophe.
Even more disturbing is what the report reveals about the pattern of victimisation. More than half of those killed were Christians.
Understanding this reality is indispensable to defeating terrorism. Yet many officials insist there is no religious dimension to the violence. They claim terrorists are blind to faith. The evidence suggests otherwise.
The ORFA study found that Muslim captives generally faced lower ransom demands and less violence. By contrast, Christian captives were subjected to higher ransom demands, faced a greater likelihood of execution and, in the case of women, a significantly higher risk of sexual violence.
These disparities demand careful, objective investigation rather than outright dismissal. Ignoring patterns that emerge from credible evidence does not strengthen national unity; it weakens efforts to understand and ultimately defeat those perpetrating the violence.
Sadly, many terrorist groups appear to remain faithful to the ideological foundations laid by Boko Haram, whose very name reflects hostility towards Western education and whose bloody campaign has consistently targeted communities associated with it.
Ideology is undoubtedly one of the engines driving insecurity. The authorities must not lose sight of that reality.
Terrorist organisations are motivated as much by ideology as by profit. Any counter-terrorism strategy that refuses to examine every motive behind their actions risks fighting only half the battle.
The cruelty of captivity was laid bare in recent footage of worshippers abducted from a church in Ekiti State more than two months earlier. Upon their release, they were little more than skeletal shadows of themselves—emaciated, traumatised and barely able to walk.
Some were so weak they required assistance to move. One young woman could only crawl on all fours. A gaunt toddler had no clothes.
Those haunting images offer only a glimpse into the unspeakable ordeal still being endured by scores of captives across the country, including more than 40 schoolchildren in Oyo State who have remained in captivity for over a month.
Meanwhile, the terrorist threat continues to evolve rather than recede.
The emergence of another armed group, Sai Mallam, in Kebbi State adds yet another name to an already frightening catalogue of violent organisations terrorising different parts of Nigeria.
Boko Haram, ISWAP, Ansaru, Lakurawa, Mamuda and numerous armed bandit networks continue to expand their reach across the country.
Their proliferation helps explain why Nigeria remains the fourth most terrorism-afflicted country in the world, according to the Global Terrorism Index.
Nigeria is living with a monster that will not disappear simply because the government refuses to confront its full nature.
Countries that eventually defeated entrenched insurgencies, such as Colombia and Sri Lanka, did so through sustained political will, superior intelligence, capable security institutions and unwavering national resolve. They first recognised the true character of the threat before designing effective responses.
Nigeria must summon the courage to confront terrorism honestly, comprehensively and without illusion. That means acknowledging every significant factor driving the violence, including any religious or ideological dimensions supported by credible evidence.
It also requires strengthening intelligence gathering, improving military effectiveness, protecting vulnerable communities, disrupting terrorist financing, securing rural areas and ensuring that those responsible are relentlessly pursued and brought to justice.
Political correctness must never become a substitute for national security. Nor should fear of offending particular constituencies prevent an honest assessment of Nigeria’s security crisis.
Recognising ideological motivations where they exist is not an indictment of any religion or community. It is an acknowledgement that extremist groups exploit religious narratives to justify their crimes, recruit followers and sustain their campaigns of terror.
Attempts to rehabilitate captured or surrendered terrorists remain, at best, delusional and deeply insulting to their victims.
Defeating these groups requires understanding how they think and how they fight. Bullets alone cannot destroy an ideology or extinguish fanaticism.
Nigeria has lived with terrorism for far too long. The monster that was underestimated, rationalised and insufficiently confronted has grown into a hydra-headed menace threatening the country’s unity, prosperity and future.
The 79,323 dead deserve more than platitudes. They deserve a government prepared to confront reality without denial, euphemism or political calculation.
Nigeria cannot wish terrorism away. It cannot defeat it through convenient narratives, official spin or hollow optimism.
It can prevail only by facing the full truth about the threat and mobilising the national resolve, institutional capacity and political courage required to defeat it once and for all.
