National Security Adviser (NSA) Mallam Nuhu Ribadu has called for deeper international collaboration, real-time intelligence exchange, and strategic technology adoption to counter the evolving threat of terrorism across Africa.
Speaking in Abuja at the opening of the High-Level African Lessons Learned Forum on Counter-Terrorism Cooperation, Intelligence Sharing, and Emerging Technologies, Ribadu asserted that African countries must take the lead in formulating and executing solutions to the continent’s security predicaments.
The NSA noted that insurgent and extremist groups are rapidly modernizing their tactical approaches by exploiting porous regional borders, local economic grievances, illicit financial pipelines, digital channels, and online radicalization networks.
”Counter-terrorism today requires partnerships among states, regional bodies, international organizations, security agencies, financial intelligence units, communities, civil society, academia, the private sector, and technology actors,” Ribadu emphasized. He added that effective security collaboration demands genuine trust, consistency, and practical enforcement rather than superficial formal declarations.
Drawing from Nigeria’s anti-insurgency campaigns over the past fifteen years, the security chief highlighted that kinetic military interventions alone cannot yield permanent stability. Consequently, Nigeria continues to institutionalize a whole-of-government and whole-of-society methodology that integrates community engagement, deradicalization, and strategic communication alongside conventional operations.
The high-level gathering brought together defense chiefs, intelligence directors, policy experts, and international partners to review operational setbacks, evaluate technological tools, and refine regional counter-terrorism frameworks across West Africa and the Sahel.
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