Terrorists Learn From Every Attack But FG Has Failed to Learn From Its Mistakes — Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused the Tinubu administration of failing to learn from past security failures, arguing that terrorists and bandits adapt after every attack while the government repeats the same mistakes.

“The terrorists are learning from every attack. They study their successes and failures. They refine their tactics. They identify vulnerabilities. They adapt and strike again,” Atiku said in a statement issued by his spokesman Phrank Shaibu. “The question Nigerians must ask is simple: Why isn’t the government doing the same?”

Chibok to Oyo: A Recurring Pattern

The ADC presidential candidate warned that Nigeria can no longer afford a business-as-usual approach to terrorism. He pointed to a tragic pattern: attacks followed by outrage, promises, committees — then more attacks without lessons applied.

“From Chibok to Oyo, from countless villages in the North-West to communities across the Middle Belt and beyond, the pattern has become tragically familiar,” Atiku said. “A nation that refuses to learn from its tragedies is condemned to relive them.”

What Atiku Proposes

Atiku called for a comprehensive review of Nigeria’s National Counterterrorism Policy and proposed three specific measures: a Terrorism Violence Peer Review Mechanism to document lessons from past attacks; specialised Counterterrorism Fusion Centres across the six geopolitical zones for real-time intelligence sharing; and a National Victims and Survivors Support Framework for affected communities.

He also stressed that military force alone won’t win the fight. “The battle against terrorism cannot be won solely through military deployments. Every successful counterterrorism campaign around the world has relied heavily on intelligence superiority.”

The former vice president questioned the effectiveness of trillions of naira spent on defence. “Nigerians are less secure today than they were a decade ago. This is not merely a failure of resources; it is a failure of strategy, coordination, accountability, and leadership.”

Sources: Punch, Daily Trust, The Sun