The Conflict Research Network, CORN West Africa, in partnership with The Africa Disruptions Lab, will convene a second policy dialogue on Wednesday, January 21, 2026, to examine Nigeria’s security architecture following the United States Christmas Day airstrikes in Northwest Nigeria.
The virtual dialogue, scheduled to commence at 3:00 PM West Africa Time via Zoom, is themed “The Christmas Day Reckoning: Tracking Justice and Change Since the US Airstrikes in Nigeria.”
According to a statement signed by Bankole Shakirudeen Adeshina, Communications Consultant for CORN West Africa, the dialogue is designed to examine what has followed the airstrikes in matters of accountability, institutional response, security doctrine, international partnerships, and the protection of civilians.
The statement explained that the parley would focus not on revisiting outrage alone, but on assessing whether Nigeria’s security institutions and political leadership have demonstrated learning, reform, and transparency, or whether the country is drifting back into familiar patterns of silence and impunity.
The panelists include Professor Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome, Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, and Ms. Abiodun Baiyewu, each bringing distinct perspectives from scholarship, human rights practice, and civic engagement.
“Rather than treating the Christmas Day United States led military action as a closed chapter, the ongoing CORN West Africa and Africa Disruptions Lab dialogue series views it as part of an unfolding national test,” the statement reads.
The organizers said at stake are unresolved questions around accountability, civilian protection, and the conditions under which force is exercised within Nigeria’s borders.
These questions, the organizers insisted, would continue to challenge the credibility of Nigeria’s security institutions, the judgment of its political leadership, and the terms of its international partnerships.
The dialogue will examine whether the responses so far suggest genuine reform and openness or a quiet return to business as usual, helping to understand what this critical moment may mean for Nigeria’s security governance and democratic future.
This is the second time CORN West Africa and TADLab are convening a policy dialogue on the U.S. Christmas Day military operation in Nigeria.
The first dialogue, held on December 30, 2025, attracted over 200 participants from Nigeria, North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and other parts of Africa.
The inaugural episode featured Dr. Fatima Akilu, Prof. Oluwafunmilayo Para-Mallam, and Mr. Dele Farotimi, and was moderated by Dr. Gbemisola Abiola.
Dr. Akilu warned during her presentation that sovereignty is fundamentally weakened when citizens learn of military actions affecting their country from foreign sources rather than their own government.
She observed that when citizens are neither informed nor protected by their state, sovereignty becomes hollow, and cautioned against framing Nigeria’s violence purely in religious terms, noting that such narratives obscure the full range of victims and the complex drivers of violence.
Prof. Para-Mallam underscored the intimate link between insecurity and state failure, arguing that when a state cannot secure its territory or protect its people, sovereignty has already been compromised.
She drew attention to the human costs of unchecked militarization, stressing that the true cost of security failures goes far beyond budgetary figures and is ultimately measured in lost lives and devastated communities.
Mr. Farotimi, a lawyer and human rights activist, offered a more uncompromising critique, insisting that Nigeria’s security crisis is not accidental.
According to him, the deepest insult is not foreign intervention itself, but the elite failure that created the conditions under which such intervention became possible.
Scholars, policy experts, and civil society leaders have continued to argue that the U.S. Christmas Day airstrikes represent not only an isolated military episode but a defining moment that exposes longstanding weaknesses in Nigeria’s security governance and democratic accountability.