According to Tinubu, the new framework will end the practice of treating banditry, militancy and related crimes as isolated criminal activities.
President Bola Tinubu has formally designated bandits and other armed non-state actors as terrorists, declaring that his administration will treat all groups operating outside the authority of the Nigerian state as threats to national security.
The President made the declaration on Friday while presenting the 2026 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly, where he outlined a sweeping overhaul of Nigeria’s security architecture aimed at confronting violent crimes more aggressively.
According to Tinubu, the new framework will end the practice of treating banditry, militancy and related crimes as isolated criminal activities.
Instead, such acts will now fall squarely within the scope of terrorism, with harsher responses from the state.
Under the new security architecture, the President said bandits, violent cults, militias, armed gangs, forest-based criminal groups and foreign-linked mercenaries would no longer be viewed as standalone criminal elements but as terrorist threats to national stability.
“We will usher in a new era of criminal justice. We will show no mercy to those who commit or support acts of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping for ransom and other violent crimes,” Tinubu said.
He explained that his administration was restructuring the nation’s security system around a new counterterrorism doctrine designed to improve coordination and effectiveness across security agencies.
“Our administration is resetting the national security architecture and establishing a new national counterterrorism doctrine — a holistic redesign anchored on unified command, intelligence gathering, community stability, and counter-insurgency. This new doctrine will fundamentally change how we confront terrorism and other violent crimes.”
Tinubu stated clearly that the designation would apply broadly to all armed groups operating without state approval.
“Under this new architecture, any armed group or gun-wielding non-state actors operating outside state authority will be regarded as terrorists,” he said.
“Bandits, militias, armed gangs, armed robbers, violent cults, forest-based armed groups and foreign-linked mercenaries will all be targeted.
“We will go after all those who perpetrate violence for political or sectarian ends, along with those who finance and facilitate their evil schemes.”
The President also stressed that increased security spending under the 2026 budget would be tied to measurable outcomes, insisting that funding must translate into improved safety for Nigerians.
“We will invest in security with clear accountability for outcomes — because security spending must deliver results,” he added.
“To secure our country, our priority will remain on increasing the fighting capability of our armed forces and other security agencies and boosting the effectiveness of our fighting forces with cutting-edge equipment and other hardware.”
Tinubu’s declaration marks one of the strongest policy positions yet by his administration against banditry and other forms of armed violence, signaling a tougher and more coordinated national response in the coming year.
On November 26, SaharaReporters reported that Nigerian Senate adopted sweeping security resolutions, officially designating kidnapping and banditry as acts of terrorism and approving the maximum death penalty for all kidnapping-related offences.
The resolutions followed an intense debate during plenary, presided over by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, after a motion of urgent national importance raised by Senator Ashiru Oyelola Yisa (Kwara South) and further amended by Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele.
In one of its strongest security positions in recent years, the Senate ruled that henceforth, "all laws relating to kidnapping should be classified as terrorism and should have a maximum death penalty, and no judge should overturn or reduce the sentence without any option of fine."
To implement the decision, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele was directed to introduce a formal amendment bill "in the shortest possible time."
Beyond the legal reclassification, lawmakers approved the creation of a new Joint Task Force (JTF) to strengthen security across the Kwara–Kogi corridor, with Forward Operating Bases to be established in Eruku, Babanla, Oke-Ero, Isanlu and Wasagu in Kebbi State.
The Senate further urged the Federal Government to reinforce local vigilante groups and review Nigeria’s firearm laws to reflect practices in "over 175 countries where responsible citizens are permitted to own guns."
A major highlight of the resolutions was the directive for a full investigation into the withdrawal of troops from a school in Kebbi State hours before a bandit attack. All Senate security committees were mandated to investigate the withdrawal of military personnel from the Kebbi school prior to the attack, probe the circular relating to the killing of Brigadier Uba in Maiduguri and report back to the chamber within two weeks.
The resolutions underscore the Senate’s escalating alarm over the surge in kidnappings, school raids and bandit attacks across the country.