Nigeria at 66: Independent, Yet Millions Still Live in Fear

ABUJA, NIGERIA - President Bola Tinubu used Nigeria’s 66th Independence Day address to argue that, after 66 years of a difficult and often turbulent journey, the country is now firmly on the right track.

But one subject was conspicuously absent from the nearly 2,000 word address: Nigeria’s continuing security crisis.

Unlike his 2023, 2024 and 2025 Independence Day speeches, which devoted substantial attention to insecurity, identified specific threats and outlined security measures, Tinubu’s 2026 address contained no detailed discussion of terrorism, mass displacement, attacks on rural communities or the seizure and abandonment of ancestral lands.

His principal reference to security came in a brief retrospective passage:

“We have endured war, military rule, economic crises, insecurity and political upheaval. Yet through it all, Nigeria… has endured.”

For millions of Nigerians who have lost relatives, homes, farms and communities to violence, however, insecurity is not a chapter in the past.

It is the present.

And for them, the omission was difficult to overlook.

Globalvoice will publish a fuller examination of President Tinubu’s Independence Day address separately.

Nigeria’s Other Voices

“I want to return home, but I have become destitute. Nigeria has made me one.”

Those are the words of Tesu Kwaghtser, a widowed mother of three, when asked what Nigeria’s 66th year of independence means to her.

Eight years ago, armed militants invaded her village in Guma County, Benue State, according to her account. Her husband was killed and her home was burned.

For Kwaghtser, Independence Day is not about parades, patriotic speeches or ceremonial celebrations.

It is about one question:

Will she ever be able to return home?

“Every single day of our lives, we live in fear. Is that how to live life?”

Her experience reflects a wider pattern reported across parts of Nigeria’s Middle Belt and northern regions, where armed attacks have emptied villages, disrupted agriculture and forced families to depend on internally displaced persons camps or host communities.

“I Was Made a Beggar in My Own Country”

“I was made a beggar in my own country. If we are to ever see a reason to celebrate the country’s independence, then the government has to wipe out all the terrorists out of our villages and give us back our ancestral lands.”

For Kwaghtser, national freedom is measured in profoundly ordinary terms.

“If me and my people can return home and live in peace with our tribe members, then any celebration will be worth it. Not sleeping with one eye open.”

Her demand is not for another Independence Day speech.

It is for security sufficient to allow displaced Nigerians to return to their farms, homes and communities without fearing another attack.

The Scale of Displacement and Violence

The humanitarian crisis extends far beyond individual communities.

UNHCR Nigeria data puts the number of internally displaced people in Nigeria at more than 3.7 million. Separately, a 2026 SBM Intelligence report recorded 7,825 people abducted in 1,713 kidnapping and related incidents between July 2025 and June 2026. The report also recorded at least 1,142 deaths during those incidents.

Behind those statistics are families who have lost parents, children, homes, livelihoods and years of their lives.

When a Father’s Death Becomes a National Statistic

Twenty year old Christiana Joseph knows another side of the same violence.

Her father, Joseph, a Christian farmer in Benue State, was killed in January after armed men identified by the family as Fulani militants entered his farmland.

For Joseph, the Independence Day celebrations feel disconnected from the reality experienced by families affected by violence.

“The independence anniversary celebrations are mere formalities. I’m sure those in authority know that the country isn’t safe, and they have done a terrible job of securing the country,”

Joseph told Globalvoice.

She questioned how a country can celebrate independence while families continue to lose loved ones to attacks.

“A human life that is sacred is lost, or better still taken, and rather than rent his clothes and go into mourning, instead Nigeria is ‘blessed’ with a president that goes on vacation after a massive attack leaves scores dead.”

Her criticism reflects a broader frustration among Nigerians who say the government's response to insecurity has failed to provide sufficient protection or accountability.

John Bakeni, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Borno State, expressed a similar concern about Nigeria's trajectory since independence.

“If you look at the trajectory of Nigeria’s growth and development from independence, ordinarily one will say it should be from bad to good, better, and best. But then if you look at Nigeria’s trajectory, it seems the country is moving from bad to worse,”

Bakeni told Globalvoice.

The Numbers Behind the Fear

A report by the U.S.-based aid organization Equipping the Persecuted says it documented 4,216 Christian deaths in Nigeria between January 1 and September 8, with much of the documented violence occurring in the Middle Belt.

The organization attributed more of the deaths it recorded to Fulani-linked militant networks than to Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province combined.

The findings have become part of a broader debate over how Nigeria’s violence should be characterized.

Equipping the Persecuted argued that communal disputes alone do not adequately explain incidents involving the destruction of churches, attacks on worshippers and prolonged displacement.

Those claims, however, remain part of a contested debate over the complex causes of violence in Nigeria, where religious, ethnic, economic, environmental and criminal factors frequently overlap.

“Nigeria Is for the People Who Love Nigeria”

Globalvoice founder Judd Saul argues that Nigerian independence should ultimately be measured by whether ordinary citizens can live with security and dignity.

“Nigeria is for the people who love Nigeria those who are willing to serve its people, protect their neighbors, and build something that will last beyond their own lifetime. That love must be greater than ethnic divisions, political loyalties, or the pursuit of personal gain.”

Saul, an American marking the 250th anniversary of the United States this year, said freedom carries responsibilities for citizens and leaders alike.

“No country is perfect, including my own. But justice, peace, and the opportunity to build a better life should be shared by all people. They should never be privileges reserved for the powerful, the wealthy, or the well connected.”

Abuja Says the State Is Fighting Back

The Nigerian government rejects the characterization that the state is losing control of the security situation.

Ahead of the anniversary, Secretary to the Government of the Federation George Akume said Nigeria's armed forces and security agencies were intensifying operations against terrorism, banditry and kidnapping.

Information Minister Mohammed Idris has also pointed to the creation of four new Army divisions and the prosecution of high-profile insurgent commanders as evidence of an intensified security response.

But security analyst Chima Chukwunyere argues that the response remains inadequate.

“Nigeria once commanded respect among the comity of nations. Today, security operatives trek into forests in search of criminals. Such operations could be carried out far more efficiently with drones or helicopters,”

Chukwunyere told Globalvoice.

He also questioned why perpetrators of attacks are frequently identified but, in his view, are not consistently brought to justice.

“Although killings occur daily, perpetrators are often known but not brought to justice.”

Legal advocate Boma Lilian Braide posed an even broader question:

“How can a country with an Army, Navy, Air Force, and trillions of Naira budgeted for defence fail to protect its own children?”

She added:

“A man who cannot sleep with both eyes closed in his own country is not independent. He is a prisoner in his fatherland.”

What Does Independence Mean Without Security?

For Umar Sunoma, a youth advocate, the contradiction is straightforward.

“Independence to Nigeria is a word that describes freedom from slavery and anything that has to do with capturing people, but we see the exact opposite in Nigeria.”

For Kwaghtser, the answer is even simpler.

Home.

Not another speech.

Not another promise.

Not another Independence Day celebration.

Home.

For millions of Nigerians displaced by violence, independence will have a different meaning when they can return to their ancestral communities, sleep without fear, farm their land, educate their children and believe that the state will protect them.

Until then, Nigeria’s 66th Independence Day presents two very different realities: a government declaring that the country is on the right track, and citizens asking whether they are safe enough to return home.