Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the *Inclusive Citizens Advancement Network (Inc-CAN)* and *Concerned Professionals Congress (CPC)* have given a thumps-up to President Bola Tinubu for leading Nigeria excellently well at the just-ended AQABA Process Heads of State high-level counter terrorism meeting in Rome, Italy.
The CSOs in a review of the event particularly praised the delegation comprising some of the major drivers of the national security architecture, i. e, the minister of defence, Badaru Abubakar and the National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu, who was accompanied by the national coordinator, National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC), Major General Adamu Garuba Laka, and the director general, National Intelligence Agency (NIA),
Ambassador Mohammed Mohammed.
Also in the team were the minister of state for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, and other senior government officials.
U.S President Donald Trump’s senior envoy, Massad Boulos’ dismissal of claims of Christian genocide in Nigeria which was another major positive fallout of the trip came in reaction to Republican Senator Tom Cruz’s ‘’Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Bill of 2025, a move to designate Nigeria as a ‘’Country of Particular Concern’’ (CPC) and impose sanctions on Nigerian officials which has already raised eyebrows among sections of the Nigerian polity.
The swift dismissal of the contentious claims by Massad Boulos has introduced a sharp twist to the development thereby dousing the tension raised on the issue in the country.
The concerned CSOs, in a joint statement in Abuja by Inc-CAN’s convener, Mr. Emeka Nwankpa and the Northern Regional Rapporteur of Concerned Professionals Congress (CPC), Baba Kasim Baba, hailed President Tinubu’s presentation at the event, describing it as ‘’brilliantly watertight’’ on Nigeria’s current highly impactful counter-terrorism initiatives.
According to the CSOs, the swift dismissal by Pres.Trump’s senior advisor on Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulous, of alleged state-sponsored Christian genocide in Nigeria threw the civil society community into a spontaneous frenzy, especially his valid assertion that terrorist attacks in Nigeria affected both Christians and Muslims equally if not more for the Muslims.
Mr. Massad Boulous’ comments during his visit to President Tinubu on the sidelines of the Aqaba conference came amid growing calls by some U.S lawmakers urging the American government to designate Nigeria as a ‘’Country of Particular Concern’’ (CPC) over unproved genocidal claims. But the White House has yet to respond officially.
Speaking to journalists after meeting with President Tinubu, Senior Envoy Massad Boulous maintained that terrorist attacks in Nigeria cut across ethnic and religious lines.
‘’Those who know the terrain well know that terrorism has no colour, no religion, no tribe. People of all religions and all trbes are dying as a result of terrorist attacks. Boko Haram and ISIS have actually killed more Muslims than Christians.
‘’People are suffering from all backgrounds. This is not specifically targeted at one group or the other. It’s not something that can be said to target any particular group’’, he said.
He said that under President Tinubu, Nigeria had recorded tremendous progress in security across its diverse ethnic and religious groups that had coexisted for several decades.
Mr. Emeka Nwankpa, in the statement by the CSOs endorsed the senior U.S presidential envoy’s assertion, describing it as a “frank and straightforward” commentary on Nigeria’s complex terrorism conundrum, noting that his assessment perfectly reflected the current reality in the country.
‘’The Senior U.S presidential advisor could not have put it any better. The truth is that purveyors of the genocide claims are either ignorant or dishonest or both. Nigeria’s complex security dynamics is far below the acceted United Nations definition of a genocide. There’s no correlation whatsoever.
‘’The mass killings being cited are not targeted against any specific religious group. Therefore drumming up claims of genocide is dumb and divisive. Besides, coming from external forces at this time that our defense forces are winning the war on terror is suspect. These are people that don’t want Nigeria’s unity. Our fellow patriotic Nigerians should be wary of them.
‘’They portray extreme ignorance of Nigeria’s internal dynamics where multifaceted conflicts, and not religion, are driven by criminality, ethnic rivalries, land disputes, etc.
‘’Since 2009, the sectarian Boko Haram has waged a relentless senseless war against the Nigerian state, not against any religion but mostly Muslims as its victims. Claims of one-sided persecution are just a simplistic narrative which the foreign commentators must understand before jumping into conclusion.
‘’To push these conflicts as evidence of Christian genocide as U.S Republican Senator Cruz and his cohorts in the American Congress are doing clearly distorts the reality and advertises their collective chicanery’’, Nwankpa said.
‘’In our view, a major danger is the often uninformed and sometimes mischievous media which present Boko Haram as fighters of Islam whereas they are a ragtag group alongside ISWAP and their bandit groups which are despised by both Muslims and Christians alike.
‘’Whoever opposes them, regardless of faith, is marked as enemy hence their offer mindless, violent and indiscriminate bombings of mosques, churches and killing of Muslims and Christians alike. To call this ugly spectacle as anti-Christian is pure propaganda.
‘’It is necessary to contextualize the issue. President Tinubu in May 2023 inherited a nation blighted by this brutal Islamist insurgency led by Boko Haram and its offshoot-Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP).
‘’The president’s crack team of capable military and security chiefs working with ex-EFCC chairman, NSA Nuhu Ribadu, and the NCTC national coordinator has designed and executed layers of new counter terrorism measures, and simultaneously prioritizing fights against Boko Haram in the northwest, farmer-herder conflicts nationwide, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and oil robbers in the south-south.
‘’Our gallant troops have sustained operational successes securing every inch of the Nigerian space through improved counter-terrorism, anti-banditry, anti-kidnapping, maritime security, and joint internal operations on the battlefield.
‘’The NCTC’s Multi-Agency Anti-Kidnapping Fusion Cell (MAAKFC) which was built in partnership with U.K’s National Crime Agency has made a difference as several kidnap victims are being rescued incrementally to the satisfaction of many affected Nigerian families.
‘’In real terms, the coordination by the NCTC-ONSA under Maj Gen Adamu Laka, in synergy with Defence Headquarters (DHQ) under Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa leading the military chiefs, have since changed the narrative.
‘’We may not yet be where we want, but we are definitely not where we were. The new measures have continued to change the narrative in just a little over two years of President Tinubu in the saddle.
‘’There’s no perfect security anywhere, but the good news is that the country is getting safer notably the once-dreaded Abuja-Kaduna highway and the Birnin Gwari axis. Today, U.K has lifted its travel advisory to her citizens plying that axis as a result of highly improved security.
‘’Also, free movement of citizens, goods and services are being increasingly recorded in parts of the country where insecurity had hitherto imposed zero movement.
‘’This year’s AQABA meeting in Rome is viewed against Nigeria’s internal security outlook showing gradual rise, according to a recent Channels Television’s Nigeria Security Perception Index for September 2025 which indicated 50 percent respondents in Northern Nigeria and 57 percent in Southern Nigeria saying security was improving.
‘’Across the six geopolitical zones, the perception index rose between February and September. The North East improved from 52 to 56 percent, the South South climbed from 55 to 57 percent, while the North Central moved from 39 to 47 percent.
‘’The South West maintained a steady perception of 61 percent. Analysts attribute the progress to intensified coordination of operations by the nation’s security and military forces bouyed by precision intelligence-led strikes, and reductions in large-scale oil theft and mass kidnappings recorded in recent months.
‘’However, security forecasts for the last quarter of 2025 point to potential challenges. The Nigeria Security Outlook for Q4 2025 projects that insurgent attacks may persist in the Lake Chad Basin, while opportunistic assaults on schools, highways and religious institutions could occur.
‘’There are also concerns that bandit networks in the Northwest were adapting to recent military offensives. Spiked kidnap risks are envisaged in December due to anticipated increased travel and citizens’ migratory movements, with ransom kidnapping posing a key risk factor. But overall, analysts believe there’s hope in the horizon for a safer, more secure and stable polity.
‘’For example, the forces have neutralised over 1,600 terrorists, over 124, 000 fighters and their families surrendered, over 11,000 weapons and 252, 000 ammunitions confiscated in the northeast.
‘’The arrest of IPOB Commander, Ifeanyi Eze Okorienta, widely known as ‘’Gentle De Yahoo’’ has brought some normalcy to the southeast where the sit-at-home order are beginning to eclipse. More arrests of notorious criminals are still being made as several others are neutralised incrementally by our forces’’, said Nwankpa.
Commenting, NSA Nuhu Ribadu has continued to express his satisfaction over the successes while restating President Tinubu’s commitment to ridding the country of every trace of criminality. He further disclosed that terrorism-related deaths had tumbled down from 2, 600 a month before May 2023 to a fewer than 200 today.
In late August, he announced the rescue of 128 hostages in Zamfara State while DHQ also disclosed that security forces in 2024 killed over 3,100 terrorists, arrested 2,500 suspects, and freed more than 1,600 kidnapped victims.
The Nigeria Police Force reported the rescue of 1,581 hostages and arresting over 30,000 suspects for various offences.
Nuhu Ribadu further disclosed that between May 2023 and early 2025, more than 13,500 terrorists and armed criminals were neutralised, while over 124,000 insurgents and their families surrendered.
Also, over 11,000 were rescued, and nearly 3,843 illegal refineries – key to the funding of insurgent and criminal activities – were dismantled nationwide. Significantly, the numbers point to a strategic shift to taking the fire into the enemy camp.
Inside ONSA sources said that the new innovative MAAKFC has been a game changers in dismantling the enemy camps through the cell which collates actionable intelligence to coordinate rescue missions, track financial trails and impound same.
Since its debut in December 2024, MAAKFC which is a crack collection of highly trained personnel of the military, para-military, intelligence, police, judicial and allied agencies, has achieved an 80% success rate in combating kidnap across the multi-million naira industry in the terror financing value chain. MAAKFC has successfully dismantled the entire architecture of the sophisticated kidnap business.
Copious evidence of the gains are emergent, from settlements and communities in Southern Kaduna, long plagued by killings and abductions such as Birnin Gwari which is now in relative peace. Also in Zamfara State, a location once locked down by bandit warlords, the story has changed dramatically.
The DHQ has almost concluded plans to open a another camp in Tsafe for its Operation Safe Corridor (OPSC), ten years after establishing its pioneer camp in Mallam Sidi in Gombe State for its Deradicalization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DRR) program for surrendered ex-Boko Haram fighters.
In the Southeast, the unknown gunmen conundrum which had once paralysed daily business life with mind-boggling violence and Monday sit-at-home orders, have beaten a quick retreat in the volatile region owing to DHQ’s multi-pronged aggressive military operations in the zone.
In the Northwest where banditry has killed more than 12,000 people and displaced entire farming communities, the counter-terrorism gains are also visible.
The spectacular arrests of the Ansaru terrorist kingpins, Mahmud Muhammad Usman, the self-styled “Emir of Ansaru” his deputy Mahmud al-Nigeri (Malam Mahmuda), elimination of notorious warlords like Ali Kachalla, Halilu Sububu, and Boderi, alongside mass surrenders under the non-kinetic initiatives code-named the “Kaduna Model”, have shot down mass abductions.
Though isolated attacks against soft targets occur as last kicks of a dying horse, the frequency and scale of kidnappings have since reduced.
Senior Presidential Envoy Massad Boulous, an American-Lebanese citizen whose son is married to President Trump’s daughter commended President Bola Tinubu’s administration for increasing security efforts in volatile regions, noting that recent security improvements showed that the government’s measures were impacting positively.
“The Nigerian government has recently taken additional measures and put more resources in those areas. We’ve seen some improvements in recent weeks. We appreciate those measures, and we definitely look forward to more of those,” he said.
He praised Nigeria’s long-standing record of religious coexistence, saying that its diversity should continue to be a source of strength rather than division.
“Nigeria is a country in which all sorts of religious groups and other groups, ethnic and tribal, are living together in harmony for centuries. The population is split 50-50 between Christians and Muslims, so this has never been a serious religious issue and should not be,” he said.
He called for continued partnership between Nigeria and the United States to eliminate terrorism and sustain peace across all regions.
