The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has dismissed recent reports suggesting that Nigeria climbed to sixth place in the 2025 Global Terrorism Index (GTI), expressing concerns over the accuracy of the ranking. The DHQ argued that the Nigerian military’s records on counter-terrorism efforts present a more credible and detailed account of the security situation than external reports.
The Director of Defence Media Operations, Major-General Markus Kangye, addressed the issue during the bi-weekly briefing with defence correspondents in Abuja, covering military operations from February 27 to March 6, 2025. Kangye used a family analogy to stress the reliability of internal sources, asserting that information from the head of a household is more credible than that from outsiders.
Despite the report’s findings, the DHQ maintained that the Nigerian military’s intensified counter-terrorism operations have significantly degraded terrorist groups’ capabilities and reduced their operational footprint in recent months.
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“Something is happening in my house. I am the head of the house. I have children, I have a wife, and then (someone else) is reporting what is happening in my house to me. Which one would be more correct? The one I tell you as the head of the house or the one someone else is reporting from outside?” he asked.
Kangye urged the media to critically assess external reports and verify information before disseminating it, warning against misleading narratives about Nigeria’s security landscape. He clarified that the DHQ was not disputing the GTI report but emphasized the importance of balanced reporting.
“I’m not countering what they put out there, but as observers, I think you should be the better person that will give the correct version of what is happening in Nigeria,” Kangye stated.
The 2025 GTI report, released on Wednesday, ranked Nigeria sixth with a score of 7.658, citing 565 terrorism-related deaths in 2024, a 6% rise from 533 in 2023. The report attributed part of the violence to IS-Sahel, a terror group active in the Liptako-Gourma region, which spans Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.