The Federal Government of Nigeria and leading security practitioners have identified the adoption of responsible communication as a fundamental requirement for ending ethnic profiling and addressing the nation’s multifaceted security challenges. During a high-level two-day strategic engagement in Abuja, officials warned that the use of imprecise or biased terminology in security discourse poses a direct threat to national cohesion and regional stability across West Africa.
The National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) served as the primary platform for the call to action, emphasizing that the framing of security narratives can either facilitate peacebuilding or exacerbate existing societal divisions. Officials noted that when criminal activities are inaccurately attributed to specific ethnic or religious groups, it weakens the social contract and undermines the effectiveness of counter-insurgency operations.
In his keynote address, Major General Adamu Garba Laka, the National Coordinator of the NCTC, urged a critical reassessment of how security outcomes are influenced by language. Representing the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, Laka argued that achieving long-term stability requires a shift in focus from purely kinetic military actions to preventative measures rooted in trust and strategic communication.
“The way security issues are communicated plays a pivotal role in community relations,” Laka stated. He further explained that stereotyping and ethnic profiling create significant barriers to intelligence gathering, as marginalized communities are less likely to cooperate with security agencies when they feel unfairly targeted or misrepresented.
Supporting this position, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, highlighted the dual responsibility of security institutions and the media in shaping public perception. Represented by Dili Ezughah, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Press Council, the Minister cautioned that inaccurate descriptions in official reports or media headlines can reinforce dangerous stereotypes.
The Minister emphasized the necessity of maintaining a clear distinction between individual criminal acts and collective group identities. He noted that damaging trust between citizens and state institutions often begins with the institutionalization of biased language, which can take years to rectify.
Expert contributors at the event, including Kabir Adamu, Managing Director of Beacon Security and Intelligence, and Brigadier-General Saleh Bala (retd.), corroborated the government’s concerns. They observed that identity-focused language often fuels hate narratives, which criminal elements and insurgents frequently exploit for recruitment and radicalization purposes.
The consensus among stakeholders is that the “language of security” must evolve to be more descriptive of the crime rather than the suspected perpetrator’s background. This shift is seen as essential for fostering an environment where all Nigerian citizens feel protected by, rather than suspicious of, the state’s security apparatus.
As Nigeria continues to battle various forms of insecurity—including banditry, secessionist agitations, and terrorism—the NCTC has indicated that new communication guidelines may be developed for security personnel and information officers. The expected development following this summit is the integration of “conflict-sensitive communication” modules into the training curriculum for Nigerian security agencies to ensure that future operations are conducted with a focus on inclusivity and the prevention of ethnic stigmatization.
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