Former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.), has warned that some politicians in Nigeria are exploiting the country’s insecurity to gain political advantage, stressing that the nation’s security challenges are far too complex to be attributed to a single cause.
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Irabor made the remarks during an interview on Channels Television on Monday, where he analysed the multiple layers of criminality driving violence across different parts of the country.
His comments come barely 24 hours after presidential aide Daniel Bwala disclosed that the Federal Government was preparing to publicly name individuals financing terrorism.
Speaking on the complexity of Nigeria’s security landscape, Irabor cautioned against sweeping generalisations that categorise all violent incidents under a single label.
“You can’t hold people for their views, but the reality is that our issues in terms of security challenges are multifaceted,” he said. “Just as we have terrorists who have an ideology, we equally have those who are bent on targeting Christians, and there are also those who are targeting communities, desiring to displace communities and wanting to stay in those communities to be able to have a voice.”
Irabor explained that violent actors—including terrorists, bandits, community displacers, and economic criminals—operate with different motives, making the crisis difficult to simplify. “If you lump the entire thing into one, the analysis would be wrong,” he added.
On claims that insecurity is purely political, the former defence chief acknowledged that political motives exist but noted they do not account for all incidents. “Those who say it is political, that would also be lumping all the issues to say all other issues do not matter — that’s also not correct,” he said.
While admitting that some political figures have weaponised insecurity for personal gain, Irabor said: “That does not mean some politicians have not taken advantage of the insecurity to perhaps gain some sort of leverage; to give the impression that they can do better. Others perhaps want to score a point that there’s poor governance; they could also instigate crisis in one way or the other.”
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