After some media houses leaked the identities of 15 entities, comprising nine individuals and six Bureau de Change firms that have been sanctioned over alleged terrorism financing, the Bola Tinubu administration continues to toe the old path of the previous eras. Initially, media reports mentioned only one alleged financier on Tuesday. The bold and logical step is to name, prosecute and punish the offenders.

Already, the release is mired in controversy as the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit is not forthcoming on the details of the suspected financiers. According to The PUNCH, top on the list of individuals is a Kaduna-based publisher, Tukur Mamu. Mamu is currently being tried by the Federal Government for allegedly aiding the terrorists who hijacked the Abuja-Kaduna train in March 2022.

Mamu allegedly “participated in the financing of terrorism by receiving and delivering ransom payments over the sum of $200,000 US in support of ISWAP terrorists for the release of hostages of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack.”

Apart from Mamu, the release concealed the names of the other alleged financiers. This is a bland approach to dealing with terrorism. It is not enough for the government to simply name one of the individuals; it should provide detailed information on all the individuals and the firms for the public to be cautious in its dealings with them. The same for financial institutions.

In the past 15 years, Nigerians have continued to suffer from the brutal activities of Islamic terrorists, herdsmen, and bandits. The activities of these criminals have led to an increase in food insecurity, and destruction of lives and properties, and the downturn in foreign direct investment. Nigeria has also diverted scarce resources to its annual defence budgets to cope with the upsurge in violence in the North-East, North-West, and North-Central regions of the country.

The Vice-President, Kashim Shettima, who was a two-term governor of Borno State, calculated that the insurgency has claimed 120,000 lives. The Federal Government estimates the number of internally displaced persons at six million due to terrorism. In April 2014, Boko Haram abducted 276 schoolgirls at Chibok secondary school in Borno State. Many of the girls are still in the den of the terrorists. In the past two weeks, the insurgents have kidnapped over 200 internally displaced persons near three IDP camps in the Gamboru-Ngala Local Government Area of Borno.

The security of lives and property is the primal duty of the state. This entails the concept of ‘crime and punishment’ that undergirds a society.

Nigeria’s governments however are weak in enforcement, and given to selective application of the law, and the politicisation of insecurity.

Under the past administration, the names of terrorism financiers were hidden from the public although the United Arab Emirates, in 2021, released their names of six Nigerians to the government.

There is no need for the current controversy. Once suspects are identified, prosecution should be swift. This is standard law enforcement practice. But bitter experience tells Nigerians that their government has never been keen to prosecute terrorists and their financiers. Instead, it proffers lame excuses.

In the 15 years that Islamic terrorists have tormented Nigeria, the government has not prosecuted any major financier.

Elsewhere, a Swedish court jailed a Kurdish man in July for attempting to finance terrorism; all 16 Saudi-based terrorism financiers uncovered by Saudi Arabia in 2007 were named and put on trial. Mirsad Kandic, 41, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a New York court in July for funding and provisioning terrorists in Iraq.

Nigeria should swiftly prosecute terror financiers and suspects and disrupt the funding sources of terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers.

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