Amid rising concerns over the online presence of criminal networks in Nigeria — some flaunting ransom money and weapons on platforms like TikTok — the Federal Government has offered a sobering explanation for why these bandits often remain untraced. According to Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication, the problem is not necessarily lack of will — but rather deep technical, operational, and institutional challenges that hamper effective tracking.
This breakdown explores what the government is saying, how social media complicates security efforts in Nigeria, and what gaps remain in the fight against banditry online and offline.
What the Presidency Is Saying: The Official View
According to Bwala:
- Bandits and criminal networks often use stolen phones, disposable devices, or change devices frequently; they also rely on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and switch accounts — all tactics that undermine telecom- or location-tracking systems.
- They seldom post videos from their actual camps or hideouts. That means even if incriminating videos reach social media, the geo-data tied to uploads becomes meaningless or misleading.
- These technical hurdles don’t just stop traceability — they render many standard digital-surveillance tools ineffective in detecting, locating, or attributing these criminals, especially when they purposely seek anonymity.
In short: according to the government, seeing a bandit on TikTok does not automatically translate into “we can locate and arrest them.”
Why Social Media — Though Helpful — Is Not a Magic Bullet
The rise of social media has transformed how Nigerians communicate. But for security operations, these same tools come with unintended consequences.
- Anonymity and Evasion: Researchers studying social media use in Nigeria highlight that anonymity is often achieved using VPNs, fake profiles, and apps that mask identity or spoof location — making it nearly impossible to link a social-media profile back to a real person in real time.
- Legal & Institutional Gaps: There is no single, empowered regulatory agency or unified legal framework that systematically monitors social-media content for national-security threats or compels data sharing with law enforcement. This institutional diffusion undermines coordinated tracking efforts.
- Digital Evidence Limitations: Social media content — videos, posts, livestreams — may serve as propaganda or intimidation tools, but using them for prosecution or physical tracking is complicated. Evidence authenticity, metadata tampering, and chain-of-custody issues often frustrate legal or operational follow-through.
- The Dual-Use Problem: While social media helps spread awareness and community reporting of crimes, the same open platforms are exploited for disinformation, terror propaganda, and recruitment — which ironically might help criminal networks recruit, coordinate, or influence more easily.
Thus, while social media can amplify visibility, it does not guarantee accountability or actionable intelligence.
Structural and Operational Weaknesses that Exacerbate the Challenge
Beyond social-media dynamics, deeper systemic gaps make tracing harder:
- Tracking Technologies Lapse & Under-Resourcing: Investigations show that mobile-device tracking systems previously used by security agencies had become inactive due to failure to renew subscriptions and lack of maintenance. As a result, call-tracking and GSM-based surveillance tools have lost reliability.
- Weak Inter-Agency Coordination: Efforts to track criminals often require collaboration among police, intelligence agencies, telecom regulators, and media oversight bodies. But institutional fragmentation and poor synergy hamper effective response.
- Privacy, Legal & Data Limitations: Constitutional protections — such as the right to privacy — complicate wholesale data harvesting or indiscriminate social-media monitoring. Without clear legal mandate or insurgency-specific cyber-laws tailored for modern threats, tracking becomes more challenging.
- Resource & Capacity Constraints: Nigeria’s security and law-enforcement institutions often lack adequate technical staff, digital-forensics capabilities, or funds required for sophisticated investigations — especially across remote and rural areas.
These structural weaknesses make it difficult not only to trace digital footprints — but to turn them into intelligence that leads to arrests or disruption of criminal networks.
The Broader Risks: Why Bandit Social-Media Presence Matters
Some may wonder: if you cannot catch them, does public posting even matter? The answer is yes — and for multiple reasons.
- Propaganda, Intimidation & Recruitment Tool: By posting videos flaunting arms, ransom money or successful kidnappings, bandits exploit social-media virality to intimidate communities and recruit sympathetic or susceptible youths.
- Normalization of Violence: Over time, repeated exposure to such content may desensitize viewers, normalizing armed violence and criminality in certain regions — especially among disenfranchised youths.
- Distrust & Public Anxiety: Widespread fear, uncertainty and a sense of impunity can emerge when citizens see armed criminals freely posting online without consequences — eroding public confidence in security agencies.
- Difficulty in Counter-Narrative: Lack of robust governmental/media strategy to counter extremist or criminal propaganda on social media gives undue advantage to criminal networks. Media institutions themselves may lack capacity to fact-check or rapidly counter false or incitement content.
In short: social-media presence of bandits is more than a public relations problem — it’s a strategic threat to national security and social cohesion.
What Needs to Change: Towards a More Effective Strategy
Given the complexity of the challenge, a different, adaptive strategy may be needed — combining technology, policy reform, community involvement, and institutional strengthening. Some recommended components:
- Revamp Digital Tracking Infrastructure — re-subscribe and maintain mobile-device tracking systems; deploy updated telecom-forensic tools; integrate modern geo-location and IP-tracking technologies that can cope with VPNs and device-switching.
- Establish Clear Legal & Regulatory Oversight — create or update cybersecurity and social-media laws tailored to Nigeria’s security context, with frameworks for data sharing, digital evidence preservation, and cross-agency collaboration.
- Strengthen Institutional Coordination — ensure agencies (police, intelligence services, telecom regulators, media oversight bodies) have a unified operational protocol when dealing with online terror or banditry content — from detection to takedown to prosecution.
- Invest in Digital Forensics & Human-Intelligence Capacity — supplement tech tools with well-trained forensic analysts, operators familiar with darknet and social-media investigations — combine with grassroots intelligence and community reporting.
- Use Social Media for Counter-Narratives & Public Awareness — enlist credible media houses, civil society and influencers to counter criminal propaganda; promote awareness of dangers, encourage reporting, and build trust between communities and security agencies.
- Safeguard Privacy While Enforcing Security — any increased surveillance should balance constitutional rights to privacy with national security interests — through transparent oversight, judicial or legislative checks, and safeguards against abuse.
