As President Bola Ahmed Tinubu proceeds to the United Kingdom on a state visit, it is important that the Nigerian delegation remains clear-eyed about the central issue confronting our nation today: security.
Courtesy meetings, investment forums, and ceremonial engagements have their place, but they must not obscure the overriding reality that Nigeria is bleeding.
Across vast stretches of the country, communities are living under the shadow of senseless violence. Villages are attacked, farmers are displaced, and innocent men, women, and children often the poorest and most vulnerable are murdered in ways that defy logic.
Over the years Nigeria has deployed enormous kinetic force to contain this menace, yet the cycle of violence persists with disturbing resilience. That persistence alone should tell us something: the problem is not merely the gunmen in the forests. It is the invisible network that funds them, arms them, moves them, and sustains their operations.
This is where the visit to the United Kingdom must carry real purpose.
The modern Nigerian state did not emerge in a vacuum. The 1914 amalgamation engineered by Frederick Lugard under the authority of the United Kingdom fused diverse peoples into one political entity. History therefore imposes a moral obligation on Britain not to remain a distant observer while that entity struggles under waves of destabilizing violence.
Nigeria today remains the crown jewel of the Commonwealth of Nations in terms of population, influence, and strategic importance. If such a country is allowed to hemorrhage indefinitely, the consequences will reverberate far beyond its borders.
The United Kingdom, with its vast intelligence capabilities, financial monitoring systems, and global diplomatic reach, cannot pretend that it lacks the capacity to contribute meaningfully to dismantling the networks that sustain terror and banditry in Nigeria.
What Nigeria requires is not vague expressions of concern but concrete collaboration:
• Intelligence cooperation aimed at identifying financiers of violence.
• Financial tracking mechanisms to expose illicit funding streams moving through global systems.
• Assistance in disrupting arms procurement and logistics networks.
• Strategic support in strengthening investigative capacity to unmask those who profit from chaos.
Investment, trade agreements, and economic partnerships however attractive cannot substitute for the basic condition of national life: safety. No investment climate can flourish where farmers cannot farm, traders cannot travel, and rural communities live under constant threat of massacre.
Nigeria cannot truly appreciate any economic partnership, no matter how lucrative it appears on paper, if its citizens continue to be slaughtered in their homes and fields.
The message, therefore, should be simple and unequivocal: security must come first.
This visit offers President Bola Ahmed Tinubu an opportunity to insist that Britain move beyond diplomatic niceties and confront the moral dimension of history. The United Kingdom must demonstrate that it is not an indifferent spectator but a responsible partner willing to help degrade the capacity of those who terrorize one of the most consequential nations in the Commonwealth.
Anything less would be a grave abdication of responsibility at a moment when Nigeria urgently needs every ally it can find.
Otunba Segun Showunmi
The Alternative.
16/03/2026
