By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Nigeria Defence Headquarters has questioned the credibility of the 2025 Global Terrorism Index, which was released on March 5.
The DHQ stated that reports from the Nigerian military provide a more accurate account of counter-terrorism efforts in the country than those from external sources.
The Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Markus Kangye, stated this on Thursday while fielding questions on the latest Global Terrorism Index.
Using a family analogy, Kangye argued that information from the family head should be deemed more credible than reports from outsiders.
“Something is happening in my house. I am the head of the house. I have children, I have a wife, and then Kuma Shi (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 Kuma Shi is reporting from outside?” he asked.
He urged the media to verify and correct any misleading narratives about Nigeria’s security situation, adding, “I’m not countering what they put out there, but as observers, you should be the ones to give the correct version of what is happening in Nigeria.”
Recall that the Global Terrorism Index released on Wednesday ranked Nigeria sixth globally, with a score of 7.658, moving up from eighth place in 2023 and 2024. It also recorded 565 terrorism-related deaths in Nigeria in 2024.
With the 2025 report, Nigeria moved up from eighth which was its position in 2023 and 2024.
The latest report, released on 5 March 2025, also ranked Burkina Faso as the most impacted country with a score of 8.581, followed by Pakistan (8.374), Syria (8.006), Mali (7.907), and Niger (7.776), which placed second to fifth, respectively.
Other countries in the top 10 most affected by terrorism include Somalia (7.614), Israel (7.463), Afghanistan (7.262), Cameroon (6.944), and Myanmar (6.929). The Democratic Republic of the Congo (6.768), Iraq (6.582), India (6.410), Colombia (6.381), and Russia (6.267) ranked from 11th to 16th.
“Globally, deaths from terrorism have declined by almost a third since the peak in 2015, with Iraq and Nigeria recording the largest decreases. Deaths in Nigeria peaked at 2,101 in 2014, before dropping to 392 in 2022, the lowest level since 2011. However, fatalities increased by 34 percent in 2023 to 533, and further to 565 in 2024,” the report stated.
