ACF Declares Nigeria in ‘State of War’ Over Insecurity, Demands Emergency Action

The Arewa Consultative Forum has declared that Nigeria has descended into a “state of war,” calling on the Federal Government to treat insecurity as the overriding national emergency and adopt war-time measures to address it.

The communiqué, issued after the ACF’s 38th Board of Trustees meeting in Abuja chaired by Bashir Dalhatu, was attended by a heavyweight gathering of northern figures: former Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Abubakar, former Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai, former President of the UN General Assembly Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, and Mahmud Ahmed.

What the ACF said

The language was unambiguous. “Nigeria’s security crisis has moved far beyond a routine governance challenge,” the forum stated. “It has since evolved from insurgency in the North-East, banditry and mass kidnappings across the North-West and North-Central, persistent inter-communal clashes, violent conflict between herders and farmers, to a state of all-out war that now threatens the continued existence of Nigeria as we know it.”

The ACF called for a fundamental shift: “The time has come for the government of Nigeria to treat this crisis not as one issue among many, but as the overriding national emergency.”

The toll

“Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have been killed or displaced in Borno, Plateau, Niger, Kwara and many other places,” the communiqué stated. The ACF also noted that members of the armed forces, including senior officers, were among the casualties — a pointed reference to Brigadier General Braimah’s killing at Benisheikh and the soldiers buried with full military honours in Maiduguri just a day earlier.

“This is not even counting the large number of our armed forces personnel, including very senior military officers. Families have been shattered, livelihoods destroyed, and entire generations traumatised.”

The forum also addressed the economic fallout: “Insecurity is now directly undermining Nigeria’s economy. Agriculture — especially in the North — is under severe threat. Supply chains are disrupted, inflation is worsened, and rural economies are collapsing. The longer the crisis persists, the more expensive it becomes to fix.”

War-time measures

The ACF’s recommendation was blunt. “War-time approach is required. Extraordinary threats require extraordinary measures. Nigeria needs to temporarily suspend or scale down budgeting on non-essential projects and focus national energy, funding, and leadership attention on bringing the security crisis to an end without further delay.”

The forum was careful to add: “This does not mean abandoning development — but sequencing it correctly: secure the nation first, then build it.”

The ACF is the North’s most influential socio-political pressure group. Its declarations carry weight in Abuja. Whether this one translates into different policy is another matter — the government’s security budget is already enormous, and the results have been uneven at best. But the reframe matters: the national conversation is shifting from “we have security challenges” to “we are at war.”

Sources: Channels TV, Daily Trust, NaijaNews, Punch, BusinessDay