A security and intelligence expert, Dr. Kabir Adamu, has warned that Nigeria's border security architecture will continue to fail unless the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) is fully repositioned. He made this statement at the 2026 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the National Association of Retired Immigration Officers (NARIO) in Abuja. The lecture, titled "Repositioning the Nigeria Immigration Service for Border Security: Navigating Contemporary Threats through Technology, Synergy, and Policy," provided a damning assessment of Nigeria's 4,454km land borders and 853km coastline.
Dr. Adamu, Chief Executive of Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited (BSIL), traced the evolution of the NIS from a small colonial unit under the Nigeria Police Force in 1958 to a paramilitary service in 1992 and a digitally-driven institution after the Immigration Act of 2015. He acknowledged major reforms under the current Comptroller-General, Kemi Nanna Nandap, including the e-passport, e-Visa, contactless biometric processing, and the Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS) linked to INTERPOL I-24/7.
Despite these reforms, Dr. Adamu stated that technology alone has not closed operational gaps. Nigeria's strategic threat outlook for 2025/2026 ranks terrorism and insurgency, banditry and mass kidnapping, and porous borders and transnational crime as Critical and High risks. These risks are compounded by under-governed spaces like Sambisa Forest, Kainji Lake National Park, Gongola Forest, and the Lake Chad Basin, which have become safe havens and launchpads for groups like ISWAP and Lakurawa.
Dr. Adamu identified six compounding failures: militarisation without intelligence, over-centralisation of decision-making in Abuja, kinetic-heavy reactive operations, weak civilian trust due to past abuses, poor inter-agency coordination, and the absence of a local intelligence fusion mechanism. He emphasized that border communities possess first-mile intelligence that the formal system ignores, including knowledge of bush paths used by armed groups and markets handling smuggled goods.
On maritime security, Dr. Adamu disclosed that piracy and crew kidnapping in the Gulf of Guinea cost Nigeria an estimated $25.5 billion annually, crude oil theft $2 billion, and Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing $70 million. He recommended integration with NIMASA's Deep Blue Project, the Nigerian Navy's Falcon Eye surveillance system, and the regional Yaounde Architecture, alongside expansion of the Border Management Information System (BMIS).
Dr. Adamu proposed a phased roadmap for NIS reforms, including short-term implementation of the validated National Migration Policy 2025, mandate digital landing/exit cards, and deploy body-cams. He also suggested mid-term and long-term plans, such as securing ECOWAS and Alliance of Sahel States (AES) identity-sharing pacts, centralizing NIMC/INTERPOL lookups, and creating a dedicated Border Infrastructure Fund.
Dr. Adamu urged NARIO veterans to offer institutional memory, advocacy, and mentorship to transform Nigeria's borders "from lines of vulnerability into resilient frontiers of security and prosperity." He emphasized the need for a comprehensive approach to address the country's border security challenges.
Key points
- Dr. Kabir Adamu warns that Nigeria's border security will fail unless NIS is repositioned as a frontline intelligence and national security institution.
- Nigeria's strategic threat outlook for 2025/2026 ranks terrorism and insurgency, banditry and mass kidnapping, and porous borders and transnational crime as Critical and High risks.
- Piracy and crew kidnapping in the Gulf of Guinea cost Nigeria an estimated $25.5 billion annually.
