Inside November’s Security Landscape: How Nigeria’s Intelligence and Anti-Corruption Agencies Fought on All Fronts
By Haroon Aremu
November emerged as one of Nigeria’s most turbulent months in recent years — a collision of insecurity, diplomatic shocks, anti-corruption offensives and heightened public tension that forced the country’s key security institutions into overdrive.
The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Department of State Services (DSS), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) spent the month navigating intense pressure at home and abroad, with each agency confronting a mix of threats, reforms and rapidly shifting political narratives.
The storm broke with a diplomatic jolt. Former U.S. President Donald Trump designated Nigeria “a nation of global concern” and threatened military action on allegations of “genocide against Christians.” The claim struck at the heart of Nigeria’s fragile international image, triggering alarm among citizens and scrutiny from foreign observers.
Many analysts dismissed Trump’s assertion as a textbook geopolitical tactic — one that powerful countries often deploy to justify strategic interests in resource-rich regions — but the statement carried enough weight to force an emergency security reassessment.
Recognising the danger of global fallout, newly appointed service chiefs met urgently with National Security Adviser Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. It was here that the tone for November was set: relentless coordination, rapid communication and a delicate balancing act between diplomacy and domestic insecurity. General Olufemi Oloye, the new Chief of Defence Staff, publicly countered Trump’s claims, insisting, “There is no ongoing genocide against Christians in Nigeria.” Yet reassurance was difficult to sustain as banditry and terrorism escalated across several states, exposing the tension between Nigeria’s official narrative and the lived reality of communities under siege.
This insecurity soon intensified. By mid-month, coordinated attacks swept through Kwara, where bandits abducted residents in multiple raids. The kidnapping of schoolgirls in Kebbi ignited national outrage, while armed groups staged recurrent assaults in Kogi, targeting homes and highways with unnerving freedom.
Katsina and Niger were similarly battered by terror cells mounting sustained offensives. Despite these grim developments, security forces achieved pockets of success: the Army repelled attacks in Kogi and rescued multiple victims across affected states. Nonetheless, the scale and frequency of violence overshadowed these operational wins, reinforcing the perception that armed groups were growing bolder and more organised.
Amid these crises, November quickly became one of NSA Nuhu Ribadu’s most demanding months since assuming office. He not only coordinated military responses and intelligence sharing but also spearheaded Nigeria’s diplomatic counteroffensive. As part of a presidential delegation, Ribadu engaged foreign allies to counter Trump’s narrative and reframe Nigeria’s position on terrorism. By month’s end, Washington had softened its tone, pledging enhanced defence cooperation, expedited arms support and expanded intelligence sharing.
The signing of the Nigeria–U.S. Cooperation Framework marked a rare diplomatic win during a month of turmoil. Ribadu closed the month by launching Nigeria’s most comprehensive counterterrorism blueprint in years — an ambitious plan to standardise intelligence, streamline interagency cooperation and strengthen global partnerships.
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While ONSA fought on the diplomatic and security fronts, the National Intelligence Agency operated largely out of public view, as is customary, but received an important institutional reminder. Former Senate President Ahmed Lawan urged the agency to deepen multi-source intelligence collection — a recommendation made even more urgent as misinformation, foreign rhetoric and extremist propaganda heightened domestic tensions. His call underscored NIA’s central role in shaping narratives that safeguard national stability.
For the Department of State Services, November was one of its busiest months yet. The agency balanced operations with welfare initiatives, court-mandated actions and internal reforms. DSS empowered 7,774 vulnerable households through a widely applauded outreach programme, an unusual but strategic soft-power intervention. It handled the court-ordered transfer of Nnamdi Kanu to Sokoto Prisons, dismissed 115 officers over corruption and impersonation, and responded to President Tinubu’s directive for mass recruitment into the DSS and the Army to address mounting security demands. The agency also arrested notorious bandits and arms dealers in Bauchi, recovering millions in cash — a significant blow against illegal weapons trafficking and rural terror networks.
If security agencies battled insurgency, anti-corruption bodies battled impunity. The EFCC in particular moved with remarkable speed and scale, engaging Nigerians abroad during a diplomatic mission to Canada where Chairman Olanipekun Olukoyede urged diaspora cooperation in curbing illicit financial flows.
The Commission secured an ₦8.56bn fraud conviction, arrested a suspect for ₦1.02bn forex fraud, busted a Kaduna oil firm for a ₦1.2bn scam, recovered ₦42.5m for a 70-year-old widow, and returned ₦1.04bn to the Niger State Government. It arrested three individuals for vote-buying in Anambra, declared Senator Timipre Sylva wanted, and summoned former Attorney-General Abubakar Malami. In an especially dramatic case, EFCC apprehended a man accused of burying his mother alive for ritual money. A sweeping series of coordinated raids netted 792 fraudsters in just six hours, bringing the Commission’s total convictions for the year to 4,111.
The ICPC also delivered a string of legal actions, arraigning a woman involved in a fake marriage certificate syndicate, convicting a retired civil servant for certificate falsification, and charging an NNCDC officer with the embezzlement of ₦1.7m. It secured the jailing of a law lecturer for sexual assault and convicted two National Assembly staff members over a job-racketeering scam. Together, the EFCC and ICPC exposed both the scale of corruption plaguing Nigerian institutions and the ferocity of the response required to combat it.
Yet even with these victories, November remained a paradox. Security agencies rescued victims, disrupted terror cells, recovered billions, dismantled syndicates and expanded global partnerships.
Nonetheless, these accomplishments existed under a dark cloud of rising banditry, international controversy, misinformation, worsening rural terror and intensifying public frustration. The month revealed both the capacity and limitations of Nigeria’s security and anti-corruption institutions: they are becoming more responsive, more assertive and more coordinated, but the threats facing the country continue to evolve at a pace that tests even the strongest reforms.
As Nigeria enters December, the central question remains: can these agencies transform November’s pressure and momentum into long-term national stability — or will insecurity, propaganda and corruption continue to outpace reform? How that balance shifts will determine the nation’s security trajectory in 2026 and beyond.
Haroon Aremu Abiodun is a security affairs analyst and an Associate Member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. He writes via [email protected]
