ABUJA, Nigeria — African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has pledged to end Nigeria’s persistent security crisis within one year if elected president in 2027, promising additional security personnel, better equipment and increased investment in jobs for young people. The former vice president made the commitment in an interview with BBC Hausa published Friday as insecurity emerges as a major issue in the approaching presidential election. “I will not take more than one year to end it,” Atiku said.
Atiku said his administration would recruit more personnel for Nigeria’s security services, provide adequate equipment and increase funding while addressing unemployment, which he described as one factor pushing some young people toward crime. He said government support would help young Nigerians establish businesses and create legitimate sources of income. The pledge comes as Nigeria faces several overlapping threats, including Boko Haram and Islamic State-linked militants in the northeast, heavily armed criminal gangs known locally as bandits in the northwest, widespread kidnapping in north-central states and periodic separatist-linked violence in the southeast.
The scale of the challenge makes Atiku’s one-year timetable ambitious. Lagos-based SBM Intelligence reported that 7,825 people were kidnapped in Nigeria between July 2025 and June 2026, a 66% increase from the previous year, while confirmed ransom payments reached about 7.78 billion naira, or S5.8 million. At least 1,142 people were killed in kidnapping-related incidents during the period, according to the research group. A recent mass abduction in Niger state, where residents said hundreds of people were taken during attacks on rural communities, has intensified public scrutiny of the government’s ability to protect civilians.
Atiku also proposed strengthening regional military cooperation through the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, and said he would seek to revive cooperation modeled on ECOMOG, the regional military force first deployed during Liberia’s civil war in 1990 and later used in Sierra Leone. He also said he would work to restore closer relations with Niger and seek the return of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to ECOWAS after the three military-led Sahel states withdrew from the bloc. Nigeria shares long and difficult-to-police borders with several countries, making regional intelligence and military cooperation important in combating arms trafficking, militant movements and cross-border criminal networks.
President Bola Tinubu’s government has also taken steps to strengthen the armed forces as it faces criticism over continuing violence. Tinubu this month approved military pay increases of as much as 80% for lower-ranking personnel and pledged further investment in weapons and technology. His administration has pointed to recent rescue operations, including the freeing of more than 300 abducted people in northern Nigeria in August, as evidence of improving intelligence cooperation among security agencies. Atiku, who served as Nigeria’s vice president from 1999 to 2007, is challenging Tinubu in what he has said will be his final attempt to win the presidency.
Nigeria’s security trajectory has implications well beyond its borders. With more than 230 million people, the country is Africa’s most populous nation and a major economic and diplomatic power in West Africa, where instability in the Sahel has allowed extremist organizations and trafficking networks to expand across national boundaries. Persistent violence has disrupted farming, education, transportation and investment inside Nigeria while forcing security cooperation with neighboring countries and international partners, including the United States. Whether Atiku can persuade voters that such deeply rooted problems can be substantially resolved within 12 months is likely to become a central question as the 2027 campaign intensifies
