"Terrorists survive because communities give them oxygen” — Defence Minister Musa

By Victor Idajili

Defence Minister Christopher Musa says local collaborators and financiers are the reason terrorist, bandit and insurgent groups keep bouncing back in Nigeria. He warned that security forces can’t win the fight without citizens actively backing them.

Speaking at The Platform Nigeria 2026, a national discourse held for Democracy Day, Musa said criminal groups stay alive because people in affected communities supply them with food, water, intelligence, logistics and other support.

“The enemy often operates from within the same society we’re trying to protect,” he said. “Everything revolves around the people. If the people are ready and willing to make changes, changes will occur. If the people are not willing, nothing will happen.”

He explained why banditry, insurgency and terrorism have been hard to defeat: “Perhaps we have people who are also encouraging and supporting these things because the terrorists and bandits survive among the people.”

 
Musa said troops have repeatedly found cases where locals provide food, water and information to criminals.  
“There are several stories of how people have aided them by giving them food, water and information, and these are the things that keep them going. We call this the oxygen. Who are those funding them? Who are those giving them information? Who are those providing the logistics that keep them going? It is still the people,” he stated.

He contrasted modern threats with conventional war.  
“Conventional warfare in the past used to be state to state, country to country, so you know who your enemy is. The most dangerous aspect of battles is when the enemy is within. That individual whom you are protecting may be the number one enemy trying to take you out the moment he gets the chance.”

 
The minister stressed that military operations alone won’t end insecurity. Citizens must cooperate, share information and expose those helping criminal networks.  
“It is important for us to always remember that the armed forces and security agencies, no matter what they do, if the people are not ready to support them, it makes the task extremely difficult,” he added.

He also urged Nigerians to stay united and resist attempts by criminal groups to exploit ethnic, religious and political divisions.  
“We must continue to work in unity because it is these gaps that exist between us that these individuals see and try to widen in order to separate and divide us, and we must not let that happen,” Musa said.

Also speaking at the forum, former Senate President Bukola Saraki said an independent legislature is key to protecting democracy and ensuring accountability.

“A legislature that cannot say no is not a legislature at all. A legislature that simply receives executive proposals, approves them without scrutiny and goes home has not fulfilled its constitutional mandate. It has merely performed a ceremonial function,” he said.

Saraki argued that legislative independence isn’t rebellion. Robust oversight, he said, builds legitimacy and public trust.  
“If the National Assembly is independent, it is the very thing that makes the government legitimate because a mandate that is never tested is a mandate that no one can trust.”