By Bagudu Mohammed
For me, Nigeria’s collaboration with the United States to fight banditry and terrorism is one of the most encouraging developments in recent times. It has inspired renewed hope, faith, and optimism about the possibility of progress.
The key words here are hope, faith, and high expectations, driven by a new synergy and collaboration aimed at resolving long-standing security challenges.
The way banditry has flourished and Boko Haram attacks have gained momentum, especially as 2027 approaches, raises serious concern.
If decisive and genuine action is not taken, the future stability of the country could be at risk.
The apparent shift in the focus of strikes from the usual hotspots of Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Borno, Benue, Plateau, Niger, and Kebbi to Sokoto has further strengthened my confidence that the operations are guided by credible intelligence and improved insight.
This is particularly reassuring given that traditional approaches have yielded limited results.
Whether this renewed hope and faith will ultimately be justified remains to be seen; time will tell.
However, fairness and practicality demand that we give this initiative the benefit of the doubt.
It is difficult to understand why individuals such as Sheikh Gumi continue to show overwhelming sympathy for bandits, even though the communities and values they claim to protect are among the greatest victims of the violence.
Trying new initiatives and engaging new partners to confront this growing nightmare is a welcome development.
Prayers alone, death sentences, or simply declaring bandits as terrorists when they are rarely apprehended do not solve the problem.
At the same time, it is unrealistic to expect zero casualties in any intervention, whether military action or public-health surveillance.
What matters is that the benefits clearly outweigh the losses.
No operation is entirely free from error; even those conducted solely by the Nigerian Army are not exempt. Our hope and prayers should therefore be that any mistakes remain minimal, that precision is upheld, and that civilian casualties are kept to the barest minimum.
