Like Nigeria, India is a former British colony with a large population. It has also seen economic growth with increased unemployment and inequality. One of the results of this is an increase in insecurity. As in Nigeria, the authorities have labeled those involved as ‘terrorists’.

The media and authorities in India conflated all dissent with Maoist terrorism to justify repression by the security forces. Use of the term terrorism by the left in Nigeria carries the same dangers. In 2005, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, make his now famous statement about the Maoists being the ‘biggest internal security challenge’ to India.

They were subsequently militarily defeated as their coalition with the peasants broke down. Arundhati Roy, a well-known Indian writer, provides a sympathetic view following a visit to the Maoists camps 15 years ago. Operation Green Hunt was the military campaign in the jungles of central India where the Maoists were shot on sight. Behind this was the wish of the mining companies to undertake their extractive work without worrying about the local people.

The Maoists have a very different ideology to that of Socialist Labour. At the time of Arundhati’s visit their armed guerrilla struggle appeared to be relatively successful, but they have since failed. Some of the rebels in Nigeria also claim to want societal change, but it is not based on socialism or Marxism.

This essay provides us with an opportunity to question the dominant views on insecurity in Nigeria. We need to understand its varied origins based on poverty, unemployment, out-of-school children and social injustice. These all need to be addressed if we are to be able to reverse the rise in insecurity we have all suffered in recent years.

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