I speak more from my understanding of how the U.S. partners with Nigeria. I can't speak to how Canada partners with Nigeria.
In terms of the U.S.'s engagement with Nigeria, a lot of support has gone into counterterrorism efforts. Even as those supports have gone into counterterrorism efforts, over time the threats have only increased. As of 2025, the global terrorism index actually ranked Nigeria in the top 10 of countries that were most impacted by terror. This number has only gone up since when Nigeria was indicated in the ratings for the global terrorism index. It basically signifies that this is more of a systemic problem. It's an institutional challenge.
When we think about security in Nigeria, we have to think about Nigeria's entire security architecture. That's one of the things that I point out to folks because sometimes people do not understand the way Nigeria's security architecture is structured. You have central police. There are no state police or community police in Nigeria. A lot of these conflicts happen at the local level. When they happen at the local level, because Nigeria's policing system is so centralized, you have to make a call to the capital city, Abuja, before you even get police officers out to the community level. Very often, the police officers who might be stationed in that state may be stationed in the capital of the state, and a lot of these conflicts are happening in local, rural communities. Early warning systems are important because communities are able to quickly alert.
Nigeria has gone through different processes of police reform, but none of them have really been effective. It's really about trying to focus and work with Nigeria on strengthening its local policing system. So much support has focused on hardware—buying big machinery—but really trying to focus on the local policing systems and on intelligence are areas that I would propose.