Nigeria’s Uncommon Geography: Presidency Discovers Bomb Resistant Forests

BY GBOGBOWA GBOWA

As the politics of insecurity intensifies, the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday, November 26, 2025 in an uncommon geographic report said its top officials privy to new scientific experiments have discovered bomb resistant forests, particularly those used as fortress of refuge by Fulani bandits and insurgents.

According to Nigeria’s Defence Minister, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, combat assets and weapons such as bombs cannot penetrate the said forests.

This is coming amid perceived public impression of a growing inability of the Presidency to take decisive actions against insurgents and terrorists believed to be having the support of certain top political leaders in the government.

Minister Abubakar’s declaration that bandits and terrorists are entrenched in forests “where bombs cannot penetrate”,  gave valve to the widespread belief that this government, like its immediate predecessor is complicity in the nation’s protracted state of insecurity.

His remarks, made in an interview with BBC Hausa Service, came at a time of renewed mass kidnappings and growing public anger over the government’s handling of insecurity has reached its intolerable limit.

Badaru framed the crisis as guerrilla warfare, describing the attacks as sporadic strikes meant to instill fear. He insisted the Armed Forces are “close to ending banditry,” but acknowledged that the abduction of school children has exposed serious lapses.

The minister’s explanation  that forests shield bandits from aerial bombardment has been met with huge public skepticism. Nigeria’s military has long claimed to possess advanced surveillance and strike capabilities, yet the government now portrays geography as an insurmountable obstacle. Analysts say this narrative risks emboldening criminal groups while deepening public distrust.

The development is even more disturbing as it re-echoes the allegations of long standing double standards in military actions.

Critics point to the government’s selective caution. In northern forests, officials now cite the risk of civilian casualties to justify restraint. Yet in the South East and Niger Delta, entire communities have been subjected to heavy bombardments in operations against insurgents and intra communal hostilities. The contrast has fuelled accusations of regional bias and political calculation.

This has also brought into sharp focus the politics of insecurity and the reluctance of this government to go full throttle in cleansing the Augean stable.

With the 2027 elections looming, Abuja politicians appear reluctant to escalate operations in the North-West and North-Central, where electoral stakes are high. The minister’s remarks are seen by many as part of a broader pattern: insecurity is managed not to resolve the crisis, but to avoid alienating key constituencies.

For ordinary Nigerians, the statement underscores what they view as government dishonesty and lackadaisical leadership. Citizens lament that excuses — whether about civilian safety or technical incapacity — have become routine, while kidnappings and banditry continue unchecked.

The Defence Minister’s claim that bombs cannot penetrate forests has crystallized a wider perception: Nigeria’s government is more invested in political survival than in confronting insecurity. What was presented as a technical limitation is now rightly or wrongly interpreted as another excuse in a long line of evasions.

For many Nigerians, the real battle is not against bandits in the forests, but against a state that appears unwilling or unable to act decisively.