President Bola Ahmed Tinubu says a sweeping reset of Nigeria’s national security architecture has now classified all armed groups operating outside state authority as terrorists, including bandits, militias, armed gangs, and their political or community enablers.
Tinubu vowed that his administration would show no mercy to terrorists, bandits, kidnappers, and their sponsors.
He unveiled the retagging and new determination during the presentation of the 2026 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly.
The President earmarked N5.41tn for Defence and Security, the single largest allocation in the proposed budget.
Saying that the defence budget reflected his government’s resolve to make security the foundation of national development, Tinubu said: “We will show no mercy. We will usher in a new era of criminal justice. We will act firmly against those who commit or support acts of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping for ransom, and other violent crimes.”
Apart from armed actors, the President said the classification extended to those supporting or enabling violent groups, including financiers and political intermediaries.
The President said: “Our administration is resetting the national security architecture and establishing a new national counterterrorism doctrine; a holistic redesign anchored on unified command, intelligence, community stability, and counter-insurgency.
“This new doctrine will fundamentally change how we confront terrorism and other violent crimes that have become existential threats to our corporate survival and have heightened anxiety among our people.”
Under the new framework, Tinubu said the government will no longer draw distinctions between different categories of violent non-state actors, declaring that any armed group acting outside the authority of the state would henceforth be treated as terrorists.
“Henceforth, and under this new architecture, any armed group or gun-wielding non-state actors operating outside state authority will be regarded as terrorists,” he said.
He listed those affected to include “bandits, militias, armed gangs, criminal networks with weapons, armed robbers, violent cult groups, forest-based armed collectives, and foreign-linked mercenaries,” adding that groups or individuals carrying out violence for “political, ethnic, financial, or sectarian objectives” would also fall under the terrorist classification.
“Members of any group extorting communities, kidnapping civilians, occupying or seeking to occupy territory within Nigeria will be classified as terrorists,” he said. “The denominator is that if you wield lethal weapons and act outside the state’s authority, you are a terrorist.
“Any individual or entity that enables the listed groups as financiers, money handlers, harbourers, informants, ransom facilitators, and negotiators will also be classified as terrorists,” Tinubu said.
“Political protectors and intermediaries, transporters, arms suppliers, and safe-house owners will be declared as terrorists,” while warning that even influential figures would not be exempt.
“Politicians, traditional rulers, community leaders, and religious leaders who facilitate and encourage violent actions and terror within Nigeria and against our citizens are also terrorists.”
