MAYOR of Blanco, Texas and founder of Africa Arise International, Mike Arnold has claimed that the latest Global Terrorism Index (GTI) report showed that Nigeria recorded unprecedented progress in addressing insecurity in the country.
Mike made this claim in an article published in Premium Times titled “Reason for hope amid Gwoza bombing” where he spoke on the recent suicide bombing at a wedding in a Gwoza community of Borno State, in northeastern Nigeria.
He wrote, “The latest Global Terror Index shows Nigeria has made unprecedented progress in addressing insecurity. Let us help democracy by not rewarding Boko Haram with doom-and-gloom media coverage of this latest episode. Rather, balance coverage of this tragedy by reporting the truth of how the tide has turned and the terrorists are on their last legs. Nigerians have legitimate reason to hope. That’s the real story here.”
It will be recalled that over 30 persons died following recent suicide bombings carried out by female bombers in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno state on Saturday.
CLAIM
Global Terrorism Index shows Nigeria recorded ‘unprecedented’ progress in addressing insecurity, writes Mike Arnold.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
The Global Terrorism Index by the Institute for Economics & Peace provides a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism since 2011. The report ranks 163 countries (99.7 per cent of the world’s population) according to the impact of terrorism. The indicators include the number of terrorist incidents, fatalities, injuries and hostages.
It summarises trends in terrorism over time and analyses its changing patterns in terms of geographic activity, methods of attack, organisations involved and the national economic and political context. The index has also been compared to a range of socio-economic indicators to determine the key factors most strongly associated with terrorism.
Nigeria’s rank on the latest Global Terrorism Index.
Checks by The FactCheckHub show that the latest version of the report was the 2024 edition released in February which documented key global trends and patterns in terrorism since 2012.
According to the report, Nigeria is still among the top 10 countries most impacted by terrorism in the world.
President Tinubu became Nigeria’s president on May 29, 2023, and vowed to address security problems in the country. However, the report indicated that Nigeria maintained 8th position it was in 2022 before Tinubu assumed office until the end of 2023.
According to the report, Nigeria recorded its first increase in terrorism in three years in 2023, with total deaths rising by 34 per cent to 524 marking its highest death toll since 2020. This is due to the conflict between Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram.
“Civilians were the most targeted group for the second consecutive year in 2023, followed by military personnel. Civilians were targeted in over a quarter of all attacks, followed by military personnel at 21 per cent and law enforcement also at 21 per cent,” the report noted.
The report showed that ISWAP accounted for 53 per cent of the nation’s terrorism-related fatalities and 37 per cent of terrorist incidents in 2023 while Boko Haram recorded its deadliest year since 2020, with 29 attacks leading to 151 deaths, a significant rise from the nine attacks and 72 deaths recorded in the previous year.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Nigeria has made unprecedented progress in addressing insecurity as claimed by Mike Arnold is FALSE; Nigeria has maintained its position as the 8th most impacted country by terrorism in 2022 and 2023 when President Tinubu became president, according to 2024 GTI.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
