Middle Belt Violence: Nextier urges FG to establish rapid response protocols

By Chesa Chesa

Public policy think-tank – Nextier – has called on the Federal Government to establish clear protocols for responding to security alerts, warning that delays in verifying threats, assigning responsibilities and deploying security personnel are widening Nigeria’s conflict response gap in the Middle Belt.

The policy research organisation also urged federal and state governments to strengthen information-sharing between communities and security agencies, improve accountability for security alerts and provide sustainable funding for early warning and response systems.

The recommendations are contained in a policy article titled “Closing Nigeria’s Conflict Response Gap in the Middle Belt,” authored by Bernard Basason, an Associate Programme Manager at Nextier, and development practitioner Jamilu Musa.

Bernard Basason is an international expert in peace, security and development, and an Associate Programme Manager at Nextier; while Jamilu Musa is a development practitioner and research professional at Nextier.

The authors argued that Nigeria’s persistent security challenges were not primarily caused by a lack of information about impending attacks but by the failure to translate credible warnings into timely, coordinated preventive action.

They called on the Office of the National Security Adviser, in collaboration with relevant federal and state institutions and security agencies, to establish standard procedures defining who receives and verifies alerts, who authorises responses and the timelines within which action must be taken.

“Every credible alert should have a traceable record identifying who received it, who verified it, who authorised the response and how quickly action followed,” the authors said.

They maintained that the effectiveness of an Early Warning and Early Response (EWER) system should be measured by its ability to prevent violence rather than the number of alerts generated.

The authors cited data from Nextier’s Nigeria Violent Conflicts Database, which recorded 1,274 violent incidents, 4,654 casualties and 3,141 kidnapping victims nationwide in 2025.

Between January and September 2026, the database recorded 1,860 violent incidents and 6,777 casualties across the country.

The North-West accounted for the highest number of incidents, with 680, followed by the North-Central with 656, according to the report.

Benue and Plateau states were identified as major flashpoints, with at least 930 people reportedly killed in farmer-herder violence in Benue since 2021 and more than 1,100 killed in Plateau over the same period.

Despite the presence of community reporting networks, peace committees, security structures and digital monitoring platforms, the authors said attacks continued in areas where the warning signs had long been evident.

They attributed the problem to fragmented institutional arrangements, weak community confidence in response mechanisms, and inadequate funding and operational capacity.

The authors further recommended stronger coordination among community-based warning networks, civil society organisations, peacebuilding institutions, government agencies and security services to reduce duplication and delays in responding to emerging threats.

They called for functional state-level coordination platforms involving government institutions, security agencies, traditional rulers, community leaders and civil society organisations.

According to them, such platforms should review emerging threats, prioritise risks, assign response responsibilities and monitor whether agreed actions were implemented.

The authors also stressed the need to strengthen feedback mechanisms so communities could know, where safe and appropriate, whether their reports had been received, verified and acted upon.

They warned that when security alerts produced no visible response, affected communities could lose confidence in reporting systems, weakening the flow of information needed to identify and prevent attacks.

On funding, Basason and Musa urged federal and state governments to move early warning and response initiatives away from short-term projects towards sustainable systems supported by regular government budgets.

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