Former Senate Leader Ali Ndume wants the Nigerian government to widen its budding military teamwork with the United States and stamp out insurgent camps in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa. He says the success of Friday’s US airstrikes on ISIS-linked cells in Sokoto shows what the two militaries can do together and argues the same model should be used against Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram strongholds in the Sambisa Forest, Lake Chad basin, and Mandara Mountains.
The plea came after American warplanes hit targets in Tangaza Local Government Area, Sokoto State. President Donald Trump announced the raid on Truth Social, and Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar confirmed that Nigeria okayed the mission and supplied the intelligence. Reconnaissance flights by US aircraft had been criss-crossing Nigerian skies since late November to prepare the ground.
Ndume, a onetime chairman of the Senate Army Committee, praised the cooperation but said air raids alone won’t finish the job. He wants joint training for infantry units, real-time intelligence swaps, logistics help, and helicopters ferrying troops to remote forward bases.
He also urged transparency over defence spending. President Bola Tinubu’s draft 2026 budget boosts military funding; Ndume said every naira must be tracked and accounted for.
Speaking after a suicide bomber killed five worshippers at a mosque in Gamboru, near Maiduguri, Ndume rejected claims that terrorists are waging a religious war. “They struck on Christmas Eve and the victims were Muslims,” he noted. “Terrorists do not care who dies—they just want to spread fear.”
