KEY POINTS
- ADC calls the reintegration of 744 former insurgents a “dangerous failure of judgment.”
- The party demands transparency on who was investigated, prosecuted and cleared for release.
- Military authorities insist the program is not amnesty but a structured counter-terrorism tool.
The African Democratic Congress has trained its fire on the Tinubu administration over the graduation of 744 former insurgents from a government de-radicalisation program, calling the policy a display of confusion dressed up as strategy and a signal to victims that the cost of terror can be negotiated.
In a statement by its national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC described the move as “a dangerous failure of judgment,” saying the government was prioritizing rehabilitation over accountability in ways that could expose already traumatized communities to renewed violence.
“What Nigerians are witnessing is not a coherent security strategy. It is, at best, confusion dressed up as policy; at worst, a dangerous policy of political appeasement,” Abdullahi said.
Framing insurgents as prodigal sons
The ADC took particular aim at the rhetorical choices made by government officials when discussing the former fighters, pushing back on what it called a pattern of portraying insurgents as “brothers” or “prodigal sons” in need of a second chance.
“Terrorism is not a family dispute. It is not a moral metaphor,” Abdullahi said, arguing that such framing weakens the seriousness of the threat and sends the wrong signal to both victims and potential future recruits.
The party said Nigerians had been given no meaningful transparency on who was investigated, who was prosecuted or on what basis individuals were deemed safe for return to civilian life.
“Nigerians do not know who has been investigated, who has been prosecuted, or on what basis individuals are deemed safe,” Abdullahi said. “Reintegration without justice is not reconciliation; it is injustice.”
What the government says
Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, speaking at the graduation ceremony in Gombe, maintained that the program is not an amnesty but a structured effort to reduce violence and cut off extremist recruitment pipelines.
“This is not a reward for wrongdoing. It is a deliberate strategy to ensure long-term national stability,” he said.
The coordinator of Operation Safe Corridor, Brig. Gen. Yusuf Ali, dismissed claims that former fighters were being absorbed into the military, attributing public alarm to misinformation.
Military authorities said participants completed months of psychological counseling, vocational training, religious reorientation and civic education before being cleared for reintegration.
Of the 744 graduates, 597 came from Borno State, with the remainder spread across Yobe, Adamawa, Kano, Bauchi and other states. Eight foreign nationals from Chad, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic were also among the cohort.
Victims sidelined, ADC warns
The ADC said the policy sidelines the people who suffered most. Many victims of the insurgency remain displaced, have lost family members or had their livelihoods destroyed, and the party argued that forcing communities to accept former fighters without consultation or security guarantees could deepen distrust and reopen wounds in regions still healing from years of violence.
“Terrorism is an existential threat to the Nigerian state,” the party said, insisting that any response must prioritize justice, victim rights and community safety over what it called “sentiment-driven policies.”
The ADC’s statement adds a formal political dimension to a backlash that has already drawn condemnation from retired military officers, lawyers, community leaders and ordinary Nigerians, many of whom have called the program legally dubious, morally wrong and strategically reckless given the current security climate in the Northeast.
