Counter-Insurgency in North-East Nigeria: State and Policy Efforts

Counter-insurgency is one of the most lingering issues across the world due to the prevalence of conflicts in almost all continents. It has different strategies that often attract debates among writers and development actors. As insurgent groups spring to life, so too do counter-insurgency efforts aimed at ending them. Violent insurgencies, such as Boko Haram, that use terrorist tactics have been causing deaths, displacements and destructions of people and properties. In countering the Boko Haram insurgency, the Nigerian government has endorsed a number of counter-insurgency regulations, engaged in dialogues and ordered physical combat with the terror group by armed forces. It is against this background that this chapter conceptually examines these government efforts through different means including global actions, legislations and executive orders at federal and state levels. The study is a documentary analysis that utilises secondary data to unveil that governments in the region have certainly developed initiatives that are seemingly effective in counter-insurgency efforts but failed to end the killings, destructions and displacements caused by the attacks of Boko Haram insurgency. The study, therefore, concludes that the existing counter-insurgency efforts in North-East Nigeria have to be reviewed and reformed for peace to be reinstated in the region.