Arms in wrong hands
The Nigerian Army arrested 18 soldiers, 15 police, eight civilians, and a traditional ruler for arms racketeering under Operation Snowball. Defence Chief General Musa advocates fencing borders to curb
The Nigerian Army has arrested 18 soldiers and 15 police officers for allegedly selling arms to terrorists, alongside eight civilians and a traditional ruler. These arrests, part of Operation Snowball, launched in August 2024, spanned 11 states and aimed to combat ammunition racketeering. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Defence Chief, General Christopher Musa, has called for the country’s borders with its four neighbours to be fully fenced to curb the influx of armed groups, citing similar efforts by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. This marks the first public endorsement of border fencing by a top Nigerian official amid worsening national insecurity.
Nigeria's security services have grappled with disciplinary issues since the early 1960s, a problem so severe that its mismanagement within the army contributed to the nation's first coup. While successive leaderships have publicly vowed zero tolerance for unprofessional conduct, with occasional arrests and dismissals, the issue remains deeply institutionalised. For instance, as recently as February 2025, the Nigerian Army convened a General Court Martial to try five officers and 20 soldiers from the 82 Division in Enugu for serious offences, including murder, defilement, manslaughter, extortion, and assault on civilians.
The Nigerian Police Force particularly struggles with a broken command and control structure, evidenced by its officers frequently disobeying orders regarding roadblocks and permits. A stark example of this internal breakdown was the August 2019 incident, where officers from the Inspector General’s Intelligence Response Team were tragically killed by rogue army personnel led by a captain. The gravity of the racketeering crisis was further underscored by the Auditor General's damning 2021 revelation that 80,000 police firearms are unaccounted for. The army's launch of Operation Snowball is a positive step, acknowledging that this pervasive issue has long undermined its capacity to combat terrorism.
While the suggestion of ringfencing Nigeria's borders to stem the tide of terror may seem appealing on paper, Nigeria's complex realities tell a different story. The Nigerian state often lacks precise knowledge of its own territorial boundaries, still entangled in low-level border disputes with Benin (in the Yewa area) and Cameroon. These disputes stem from a failure to properly demarcate boundaries and restore lost border pillars, allowing neighbouring countries to encroach on Nigerian territory gradually.
One significant reason for this neglect is the deep ethno-linguistic ties shared across Nigeria’s borders, especially in the North and West. Proper delimitation would likely restrict free movement in these regions, a politically unpopular move that any government would be reluctant to undertake. The widespread backlash to Nigeria’s 2024 border closure with Niger vividly illustrates this point.
Furthermore, Nigeria shares an extensive 4,047 kilometres of land borders with its neighbors: 773 km with Benin, 1,497 km with Niger, 87 km with Chad, and 1,690 km with Cameroon. The sheer financial burden of effectively securing and marking such vast borders is one that the Nigerian government can scarcely afford to bear.
Ultimately, the turn towards seemingly outdated, even medieval, approaches like border fencing, without due regard for Nigeria’s intricate realities, may reflect a quiet admission by the military that its current strategies are failing to address the nation's profound security challenges.