From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
Once again, the Nigerian Senate is reaching for an all-too-familiar playbook in the face of a deteriorating national crisis: the security summit. As with previous occasions, it is in response to the latest wave of killings, kidnappings, and terrorist activities that have left many communities under siege, security agencies overwhelmed, and citizens increasingly hopeless.
Daily Sun recalls that only last month, bandits wiped out innocent Nigerians in Plateau, Benue and Zamfara states, while President Bola Tinubu was on vacation in France. In other parts of the country, reports abound of criminal attacks on lives and properties of law-abiding citizens. But for many observers—inside and outside the Senate—this renewed call for a national security summit, though commendable, does not instil confidence as it sounds more like a tired echo from the past.
The Senate’s latest resolution to convene a two-day National Security Summit in Abuja, involving all levels of government, traditional rulers, civil society, and the security sector, followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (Ondo South) and co-sponsored by three of his colleagues on Tuesday. The lawmakers noted that growing insecurity is driven not only by domestic factors—banditry, terrorism, and kidnappings—but also by global geopolitical shifts, including the Russia-Ukraine war and U.S.-China tensions, which they argue are deepening instability within Nigeria.
In theory, this summit is supposed to produce actionable, research-driven solutions. In practice however, many are asking: what will be done differently to ensure that this summit achieves what previous ones have not?
History Repeats Itself
The 10th Senate is not the first to summon a conference in the face of national security failure. In fact, almost every Assembly in the last two decades has resorted to this approach under different names. The 9th Assembly, under the leadership of then Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, held a high-profile security summit in 2021 amid widespread outrage over escalating violence across Nigeria. That summit gathered military chiefs, governors, and security experts who offered detailed recommendations on reforming Nigeria’s security architecture.
Yet, almost four years later, most of the proposals from that summit are collecting dust in government shelves. No white paper was issued. No significant legislative follow-through occurred. Typical of many legislative interventions including probes and motions, the summit ended as many feared it would—with fanfare, media coverage, and commendations, but no measurable impact. Many have argued that while it is true that the legislature does not have the power to implement as that is the job of the executive arm of government, there should be more efforts from the National Assembly to create impact from its activities. Without a clear plan on how proposals from the summit are going to be implemented, pundits say, the resources, time and energy spent on organising such high profile events go to waste.
Senators react
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who has served through several assemblies, captured the collective frustration of many Nigerians during debate on the motion in plenary when he said “Each session, there is a security session,” he said. “No one of us does not know what is going on in his area. Do we want to be true, fair and say the truth about what is happening in this country? If we don’t want to be true to ourselves, then we can go ahead with a summit.”
Abaribe’s remarks were echoed by Senator Abdul Ningi, who questioned the logic of repeating what has already failed. “If we continue to keep on doing things without results and keep on doing them, we are not only deceiving ourselves, we are deceiving the people that sent us here to represent them,” he said. “I am not sure the solutions have to do with creating a summit.”
While some senators like Abaribe and Ningi are clearly sceptical, others believe the Senate cannot afford to be quiet just because past efforts did not yield desired outcomes. Minority Leader, Abba Moro, a former Minister of Interior, urged his colleagues to continue to consider all options until a solution is found to the insecurity problem.
Hear him: “That we have provided solutions in the past and they have not worked does not stop us from proffering solutions,” Moro argued. “Now that we are confronted with hydra-headed insecurity, there is nothing that stops us from exploring all means of bringing insecurity to a halt,” he stated.
His point is not without merit. Nigeria’s security challenges are complex and multifaceted. Banditry in the North-West, herdsmen clashes in the Middle-Belt, Boko Haram in the North-East, secessionist violence in the South-East, and oil theft in the South-South all require region-specific approaches. But Senator Adamu Aliero pointed out that summits are not substitutes for operational intelligence and real-time response. “I don’t believe that having a security summit is the answer,” Aliero warned. “We are seeing a new terrorist group in parts of Kwara and Niger. We should be demanding briefings from the security chiefs on what strategy they are adopting, not holding a conference.”
A Pattern of Motion Without Movement
Daily Sun recalls that from the 6th to the 9th Assemblies, a pattern has emerged: outrage over security lapses, a motion in plenary, minutes of silence in honour of the victims, the constitution of a committee or summit, and eventually, silence. As far back as the 7th Senate under David Mark, a National Conference was convened on Security and Peace in 2012 after a string of Boko Haram attacks in the North-East. Security experts and academics presented papers on counterterrorism strategies, community policing, and military-civil relations. The conference ended with the usual communique, rich in recommendations but poor in follow-up. The 8th Senate, under Bukola Saraki, followed a similar path in 2016, setting up a special security summit after the resurgence of herdsmen-farmer clashes. Although it succeeded in drawing national attention to the issue, the summit’s recommendations were not pursued aggressively. By the end of the tenure, the same security crises remained—only now, more widespread.
According to a 2023 report by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), only 15 percent of policy recommendations from legislative-led security conferences since 2011 have been implemented. The rest have either been ignored, rendered redundant by poor coordination with the executive arm, or overtaken by events.
Summit Fatigue and Citizen Cynicism
Daily Sun investigation reveals that there is a growing sense among citizens that these summits are not about solving insecurity but about the lawmakers creating an impression that they care about their ordeal. The lack of implementation and transparency of resolutions from such parleys, dash hopes, erode public trust, and make lawmakers appear to be increasingly out of touch with the daily trauma Nigerians face.
But the Senate’s decision to decentralise this latest summit by having senators convene versions of it in their respective districts is likely an attempt to make the process more participatory and effective. It is left to be seen how this idea will improve security around local communities where citizens bury their dead victims on a daily basis and count losses accruing from terrorist attacks.
Not Lip Service This Time
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, however, has assured that this summit will not be business as usual. He positioned the summit as a necessary reset button—a way to unify all stakeholders around a national response to insecurity. Akpabio said the summit would include not just government and security officials, but also traditional rulers, student unions, and representatives of affected communities because “security is everybody’s business.” While this inclusive approach is commendable, the question remains: will it lead to tangible change, or is it another performance of concern?
The challenge for the Senate is not lack of ideas. From the National Security Strategy of 2019 to countless research papers by local think tanks, Nigeria’s security problems have been diagnosed repeatedly. What is lacking is continuity, coordination and accountability.
Moreover, the Senate itself has legislative powers, but it is often reluctant to use. It can mandate oversight of defence spending, push for reform of policing laws, and insist on timelines for the implementation of recommendations. Instead, lawmakers often defer to the executive, then resort to summits when nothing changes. Some of the lawmakers raised this point during the debate on the summit when they called for more regular briefings of relevant Senate committees by security chiefs in order to monitor real time progress.
A Moment of Decision
The stakes appear high. With the 2027 general elections approaching and violence increasing in several regions, Nigeria stands at another dangerous crossroads. The Senate has a choice to continue the cycle of summitry and speeches, or break with tradition and enforce implementation. One thing the lawmakers must keep in mind in all of these, is the fact that Nigerians’ lives depend on actions to improve their security and not just raising another topic for public discussion. What Nigerians need is sustained and enforced action against criminality in the society.
Unless the 10th Senate is ready to do something fundamentally different, this latest summit will be remembered not for what it solved, but for what it symbolised: another missed opportunity to make the country habitable for citizens to live and flourish.