One Year in Office: Nigeria Faces Rising Insecurity and Mass Atrocities

As President Bola Ahmed Tinubu completes his first year in office, many Nigerians continue to have serious concerns about security.

The data that is now available indicates that mass massacres, kidnappings, bandit assaults, and incursions by Boko Haram continue to occur.

According to statistics gathered by multiple tracking institutes, there has been a rise in mass killings and other criminal activities during President Bola Tinubu’s first year in office.

As a result, non-state actors that commit widespread acts of violence terrorise Nigerians of all ages, socioeconomic classes, and levels of wealth.

The declining financial fortunes of many people who are unable to maintain their own security have made the issue much worse.

According to security agency confirmations and verified media reports, over to 500 people have been abducted in a wave of mass kidnappings in the Northern region thus far in 2024.

Read Also: Mass Protests Ignite in Gaya Following Dissolution of Kano Emirates

Two hundred women and children were kidnapped in February from an IDP camp in Gamboru Ngala, Borno State.

287 pupils were kidnapped by bandits in Chikun, Kaduna, in March during another kidnapping.

Fifteen children were removed from a Tsangaya school in Sokoto State in the same month. A few days following the events in Sokoto, armed bandits abducted 61 people in Kajuru, Kaduna, during their second attack.

November saw the kidnapping of 150 people from four communities in Zamfara State as a result of organised attacks by armed groups.

At least 190 people were murdered and nearly 300 injured in attacks that occurred between December 23 and December 25 on at least 20 communities in isolated areas of Plateau State, according to reports.

According to Armed Conflict Location & Events Data, ACLED, a data source on conflict-related issues, the North West alone registered 662 kidnapping-related occurrences between 2019 and 2023.

According to ACLED, there were 533 insecurity-related occurrences in the Southeast in 2023, with over 224 fatalities from attacks involving unidentified gunmen between January and May of that year. Meanwhile, media sources from the Southwest indicated 166 deaths from ritual and cult-related homicides.