| dc.description.abstract | Borno State remains the epicentre of Nigeria’s protracted insurgency led by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, with over 40,000 deaths and more than 2 million displaced since 2009. Recent attacks, including the April 2026 killing of a senior army general, reveal a resurgence in insurgent sophistication and expose persistent weaknesses in intelligence coordination and rapid response. Despite ongoing efforts such as Operation Hadin Kai, Nigeria’s response remains largely reactive and heavily kinetic, with limited progress in long-term stabilization and civilian protection.
At the governance level, weak oversight by the National Assembly has contributed to gaps in accountability and policy coherence. To address these challenges, this brief recommends:
• Strengthen statutory oversight mechanisms over counterterrorism operations: Mandate quarterly briefings by security agencies to relevant National Assembly committees, with non-compliance triggering legislative sanctions.
• Enact legislation to improve inter-agency intelligence coordination: Provide a clear statutory framework that mandates organized intelligence-sharing, joint operational coordination, and standardized communication protocols among security agencies like the military, DSS, NIA, and Police operatives, while respecting existing command structures under the executive arm.
• Institutionalize a legislative monitoring and evaluation framework for security operations: Establish a parliamentary-backed mechanism to assess counterterrorism outcomes through periodic policy reviews, data-driven performance audits, and compliance tracking to ensure coherence, effectiveness, and policy responsiveness. | en_US |
