ABUJA, Nigeria — August 20, 2026 — President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the preparation of a comprehensive National Threat Assessment and a rolling five-year Strategic Defence Operations Plan, as Nigeria moves to strengthen coordination across its defence, intelligence and security institutions.
Under the directive, the President’s Special Adviser on Homeland Security will coordinate the process through an inter-agency committee, bringing together relevant institutions to develop a more unified approach to the country’s security challenges.
The National Threat Assessment is expected to provide a broader picture of the security risks confronting Nigeria, while the five-year defence operations plan will provide a longer-term framework for responding to those threats.
Nigeria continues to confront several overlapping security challenges, including terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, organized crime and other forms of violent criminal activity. These threats often cross state boundaries and require cooperation among multiple security and intelligence agencies.
A coordinated national assessment could help the government identify priorities, reduce duplication among agencies and improve the sharing of intelligence and resources.
The introduction of a rolling five-year strategy could also represent an important shift away from relying primarily on short-term responses to individual security incidents. Instead, security institutions would have a multi-year framework that can be regularly reviewed and adjusted as threats evolve.
The initiative could have implications beyond Nigeria. As Africa’s most populous country and a major member of ECOWAS and the African Union, Nigeria’s security situation is closely connected to stability across West Africa, particularly in efforts to combat terrorism and transnational organized crime.
For ordinary Nigerians, however, the effectiveness of the new strategy will ultimately be measured by results: whether communities become safer, kidnappings and violent attacks decline, intelligence improves and security agencies respond more effectively to emerging threats.
The next major step will be the work of the inter-agency committee in translating the President’s directive into a coordinated national security strategy for the coming five years.