By Lemmy Ughegbe, Ph.D.
When Nigerians think about national security, they think about soldiers. They think about troops advancing through difficult terrain, fighter jets pounding enemy positions, and dramatic gun battles. What they rarely think about is intelligence.
Yet intelligence is where victory usually begins. Before the arrest comes surveillance. Before the rescue comes information. Before a terrorist commander is eliminated, somebody must first know who he is, where he hides, how he moves, and who sustains him.
That is the work of intelligence. And if recent events are anything to go by, Nigeria’s intelligence community deserves far more recognition than it currently receives.
On May 16, 2026, United States and Nigerian forces carried out what President Donald Trump described as a “meticulously planned and very complex mission” that eliminated Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the second-in-command of ISIS globally.
Perhaps the most revealing testimony came from General Dagvin Anderson, Commander of the United States Africa Command, who stated that Nigerian authorities were instrumental in developing the target and providing the intelligence that made the operation possible.
Think about that for a moment.
Nigeria’s intelligence agencies helped the world’s most powerful military hunt down and eliminate the number two figure in ISIS. That should have dominated headlines. Instead, it passed almost unnoticed.
And that was not all.
Only recently, the Department of State Services arrested five suspects, including two foreign nationals, linked to the logistics network behind the attack on St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State. Fifteen AK-47 rifles and more than 1,400 rounds of ammunition were recovered from the suspects.
Earlier, painstaking investigations and years of intelligence work culminated in the conviction and death sentences handed to terrorists involved in the horrific Owo Catholic Church massacre. These are not ordinary achievements. They are major victories against terrorism.
Yet we are not celebrating enough.
Part of the problem lies in how we consume security news. There is an unhealthy tendency, particularly on social media, to amplify every attack while paying scant attention to breakthroughs. Some individuals even recycle images from conflicts elsewhere in Africa and falsely present them as recent incidents in Nigeria.
That is not journalism. It is propaganda. And it serves the interests of terrorists. Terrorist organisations thrive on fear. Their objective is not merely to kill but to demoralise societies and create the impression that governments are powerless. When citizens endlessly circulate images of destruction while ignoring victories, they unwittingly become amplifiers of the enemy’s message.
Other countries understand this. After the September 11 attacks, Americans rallied against Al-Qaeda. Following the October 2023 Hamas attacks, Israelis united in confronting Hamas. This does not mean governments should be shielded from criticism. Democracies thrive on accountability.
But before politics comes survival. Before the 2027 elections, there must first be a country. The war against insecurity should never become another casualty of partisan passions. This is why community policing and intelligence sharing deserve serious attention.
No government can deploy enough security personnel to effectively police over 220 million Nigerians. Intelligence must flow from communities, and communities must trust the institutions established to protect them. Trust grows when citizens see results. And when results come, they should be acknowledged.
There is another angle that deserves serious consideration. The DSS is presently prosecuting suspects linked to some of Nigeria’s most devastating terrorist attacks, including the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja, the attack on the Deeper Life Bible Church in Okene, and the Owo Catholic Church massacre.
It is therefore worth asking whether some recent attacks may represent retaliation by foot soldiers seeking revenge for the arrest and prosecution of their leaders. If that is the case, the answer cannot be retreat. The answer is more intelligence. The answer is faster trials. The answer is more convictions.
Since assuming office in 2024, DSS Director-General Oluwatosin Ajayi appears to have placed greater emphasis on intelligence-driven prevention. Terrorist cells have been penetrated. Kidnapping syndicates have been disrupted. Arms trafficking networks have increasingly come under pressure. That is a story worth telling.
But beyond the headlines and the arrests are sacrifices that seldom receive public attention. An increasing number of operatives of the Department of State Services have paid the ultimate price in the line of duty. Others have sustained life-changing injuries. Their names rarely trend. Their funerals seldom make front pages. Their families bear losses that the nation scarcely notices.
Yet these men and women willingly place themselves between danger and the rest of us. They are among the quiet guardians of the Republic.
Certainly, Nigeria’s security challenges remain enormous and no institution should be immune from scrutiny. But accountability and appreciation are not opposites. A democracy that notices its security agencies only when they fail, while refusing to acknowledge them when they succeed, risks creating a culture that rewards cynicism and forgetfulness.
The men and women of our intelligence services work in the shadows. They seldom appear on television. They rarely grant interviews. Many will never receive medals or public acclaim. Some have paid the ultimate price so that others may live. Yet every terrorist attack prevented, every bomb intercepted, every kidnap victim rescued, and every peaceful morning that millions of Nigerians wake up to owes something to their patient, invisible, and dangerous work.
Perhaps the greatest victories are not always the ones we see. Sometimes, the most important victories are the tragedies that never happened because someone, somewhere, working quietly in the shadows, stopped them before they began. Those men and women are the heroes we ignore. They deserve our gratitude. They deserve our remembrance. And yes, they deserve our celebration.