The National Assembly’s renewed push to publicly identify and prosecute terrorism financiers reflects growing political frustration with Nigeria’s worsening security crisis, but the big question remains: will the Executive match this rhetoric with real action?
Development Diaries reports that both the Senate and House of Representatives recently called for the public naming and prosecution of terrorism financiers in Nigeria as a way of addressing the security crisis facing the country.
This is as the federal government explores measures to address the growing insecurity across the country.
Citizens are now asking, beyond tough-talking, will the executive move to take decisive action?
For years, the Nigerian government has repeatedly promised to expose those funding terror networks, yet no meaningful list has ever reached the public domain.
In 2022 the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) reportedly ‘uncovered 96 financiers of terrorism, 424 associates/supporters, about 123 companies and 33 bureaux de change linked with terrorism’.
Unfortunately, the names of those financiers, companies, and associated bureaux de change were not published.
A follow-up report by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) more than 300 days after that 2022 disclosure noted that ‘neither the names of the terrorism sponsors nor the companies linked with terrorism’ had been made public.
Evidently, there is a gap that needs to be closed.
The Senate’s attempt to classify kidnapping and related offences as terrorism and impose the death penalty signals the seriousness of lawmakers who feel compelled to respond to escalating abductions across the country.
However, tough laws cannot substitute for a weak enforcement environment.
Nigeria already has a comprehensive anti-terrorism framework; what it lacks is a consistent willingness to deploy it against the powerful interests that sustain these criminal networks.
The Senate and House can debate, amend, and threaten, but without airtight investigations and bold prosecutions by the Department of State Services (DSS), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Nigeria Police Force, terrorists and their financiers will continue exploiting systemic loopholes.
Moreover, the persistent refusal to name and shame terrorism sponsors feeds public distrust.
Nigerians have not forgotten the long list of unnamed financiers revealed during past administrations, lists that mysteriously vanished into political archives.
The current security climate, marked by mass abductions in schools, churches, highways, and rural communities, makes secrecy even more dangerous.
Shielding financiers, whether they are politicians, traditional leaders, bankers, or business elites, only strengthens the architecture of insecurity.
Unless President Bola Tinubu, the National Security Advisor, Nuhu Ribadu, and the Attorney-General of the Federation move from pronouncements to practical enforcement, these latest declarations risk becoming another round of familiar but empty outrage.
Nigeria is at a point where tough talk is no longer impressive. Citizens need the Senate, House of Representatives, DSS, EFCC, and police to stop treating terrorism sponsors like invisible VIPs and start dragging them into courtrooms with financial trails, transaction histories, and hard evidence.
If the government truly wants to dismantle the kidnapping economy, the first targets must be those who bankroll it.
